Working on a Kayak Roll with Cast Member in Silverthorne
+ First Visit to Breckenridge Whitewater Park

	Persistence pays off for Jeremy with his kayak roll.	Quick look at my kayak roll on Paddle Day 31.

I headed out to the Silverthorne lake north of town to work with Jeremy Voge on his roll.
He is relying on upper body muscles more than proper technique which I think is common for everyone in the beginning. But he is succeeding with many of his kayak rolls and with a few more days of practice, I am sure they will all smooth out for him.

I asked Jeremy to shoot my kayak roll also, to document what it looks like after 30 days of paddling.
Click on Jeremy's link above to see several of his valiant efforts edited together. On one of his attempts shown in the video, Jeremy muscles it over so powerfully that he comes up vertical and then unintentionally continues to flip upside down again on the other side from the momentum of his power roll.

Since I was mostly watching and teaching at the Silverthorne lake, I was eager to get in some more paddling today. Jeremy was worn out from all his kayak roll repetitions, so I drove a few minutes over to Breckenridge to try out the Breckenridge Whitewater Park by myself.

	Breckenridge Whitewater Park	Playing in the final hole at Breck's park.

It was pretty quiet at the whitewater park. I decide to take a single run down by myself. Even though it is a semi-public place, paddling down alone was not the wisest thing to do. Fortunately after my first run, I met some guys who let me tag along with them on a second run. They show me the best waves and play features in the park.

Unlike the Salida Whitewater Park on the Arkansas River, which has 2 large river wide waves to practice surfing in, the Breckenridge Whitewater Park is on a narrow portion of the Blue River that has been carefully manipulated to create several small river running features. This whitewater park section on the Blue River is right behind the Breckenridge Recreation Center and adjacent to Highway 9, the main road funneling people to the Breckenridge resort.

I'm glad I finally checked out the Breck park. It is very close to my house and I should come here to practice more often. But it doesn't hold the excitement of kayaking on a big water natural river run. I would rather drive an hour or two to kayak on a big river than drive 10 minutes to play here. But I'm sure I will be back. I bet the Breck park is more exciting in the early season with bigger water.
-Dan

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