 "Photo: Matt Moffatt")
When Alex Ewers, a freshman civil engineering major from Tomball, talks about a cartwheel, it has nothing to do with gymnastics. Ewers is a frequent attendee of the Outdoor Pursuits Center’s free, weekly kayaking in the Exercise and Sport Sciences Pool.
As a part of the OPC, the class is filled with people who love the outdoors. Ewers has been kayaking since he was 8 years old, he said.
“It’s fun hanging out with outdoorsy people,” Ewers said, “There are cool people, and it’s a really laid-back environment.”
Ewers heard about the kayak pool sessions from some friends in his dorm, he said. Most of the attendees hear about it through their jobs at the OPC, and create a core group of regular attendees.
“Usually, it’s the same people,” said Jordan Barham, a sophomore English major from Burleson. “There’s a lot of staff.”
The weekly practices are for people of all skill levels. Barham works at the OPC and is an instructor at the weekly practices. Many of the regular attendees have been coming for a long time, though they weren’t necessarily better than those who hadn’t been coming as long, Barham said. The regular attendees who work for the OPC help others.
Bryan Wakefield, a senior chemistry major from Flower Mound, went for the first time last Thursday because he is thinking about going on the OPC-sponsored kayaking trip in March. While he has worked at a summer camp before, he had never been kayaking.
Barham said the point of the weekly sessions was to instruct and agreed it was great for people like Wakefield.
“It’s a lot of fun,” Barham said, “and it’s a great way to get your feet wet.”
For those like Barham who already have gotten their feet wet, Ewers said, the time is spent improving on the basics and trying tricks like the cartwheel — a trick where the kayak transitions from tip to tip, while the kayaker stays horizontal, parallel with the water.
All of this is done 7 p.m. Thursday nights in Exercise Sports Science Pool starting when 12 to 15 kayaks arrive from the Robert H. Ewalt Student Recreation Center, Barham said. The kayaks are brought inside and the kayakers gear up to practice their skills. These skills, like paddling strokes, self-rescue techniques and the kayak roll help to prepare kayakers for other related endeavors, like the OPC’s many off campus kayaking trips, or monthly games of kayak polo, according to the Web site.
The next OPC kayaking trip will be an introduction to white-water kayaking March 5 through March 7 in San Marcos. To be eligible for the trip, the prerequisite is four of the Thursday night pool sessions beginning Feb. 23. The next kayak polo event will begin 10 a.m. Feb. 27 in the Robert H. Ewalt Student Recreation Center indoor pool.
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