by Emily Wrenn
It was a hot and sunny afternoon in August. First year students at a small, liberal arts college, called Sweet Briar College, were running around campus trying to get to their various orientation week activities.
Emily Wrenn, a first-year student, eager to get her canoe certification from the Outdoor program, arrived at the old and rustic boathouse at the lower lake of Sweet Briar College, located in a little town called Amherst,Virginia. As she was walking toward the boathouse, she noticed that right outside the boathouse entrance, a group of girls from her class were putting sunscreen on and signing paperwork. A junior, named Bailey Goebel, was giving various pages of paperwork to sign to the students who wanted to participate. “This paperwork allows us to have your emergency contacts.” Goebel said.
Wearing a one-piece green swimsuit and chevron-patterned Tommy Hilfiger flip flops, Wrenn notices a small group of girls who are already there. Some are wearing one-piece swimsuits and some are wearing two-piece swimsuits. A few of the girls had life jackets on as well. The last two girls who finished the paperwork before Wrenn had brightly-colored one-piece swimsuits on. They were both lathering sunscreen on their shoulders to get ready to go in the water. “I hope I don’t burn!” The girl with very short and green hair said.
“We might! You and I both are pale as ghosts!” her friend with long blonde hair exclaims.
Once Wrenn had finished signing her paperwork, she looked around and saw that there was a total of ten people in the group. After everyone finished signing paperwork, Goebel called out to everyone, “if you do not have water shoes, come and find your shoe size over here!”
After signing the paperwork and struggling to get her tight water shoes on, she walked over and sat down with the small group of girls on the side of the dock. The first part of the lesson was to learn how to do the basic paddle strokes when canoeing. Another junior, named Emma Zak, showed the girls how to paddle while sitting on the side of the dock. As Wrenn’s group is shown the most simple paddle strokes possible, such as the forward stroke, Zak tells everyone ,“I know guys, this is just so difficult!”
The small group of students then laugh and proceed to sarcastically complain of how difficult it is. “I don’t know if I can do this!” Wrenn exclaimed.
After the group is shown the paddle strokes and learn how to get on a canoe correctly, they pair off into partners and get into their canoes. A sophomore named Rachel Smith asks Wrenn if she wants to be partners with her. “Sure!” Wrenn says.
“Which side of the canoe do you want to be in?” Smith asked.
“Doesn’t matter,” Emily said.
Emily was so excited to canoe that she really didn’t really care about which end of the canoe she was sitting on. She eagerly climbed into the front of her canoe with her partner sitting in the back and away they went.
As they are canoeing, Sweet Briar students soak in the warm sunlight and take in the beauty of the scenery around them. Wrenn’s partner was very quiet, so she starts to make conversation with her canoeing partner. “Have you ever gone canoeing before?” Wrenn asked.
“No, but I have been kayaking before.” Smith says.
“Me too!” Said Emily.
The students paddle around the lake for 10 minutes. Finally, Zak blows her whistle to signal that she wants everyone to paddle back to the dock. The teacher demonstrates the final requirement in canoe certification: flipping the canoe over and getting it right side up again! The teacher and her partner made flipping the canoe over and getting it back up seem very easy. This step is certainly not easy. When it came to be Wrenn and her partner’s turn to flip the canoe over, they both looked at each other slightly nervous, but ready to take on the challenge. Despite some students thinking that it seemed easy, flipping the canoe and getting it back up again was in fact, not easy.
Wrenn and her partner prepared to flip their canoe by rocking it. “One, two, three!” Splash! Under the water they went.
When Wrenn tries to come up for air, she has a moment of slight panic and realizes that she is still under the canoe. She takes another breath and promptly swims down and to the outside of the canoe. “Are you ok?” The teacher calls out as Wrenn chokes on lake water. “I’m good! Just got caught under the canoe for a minute!”
Wrenn and her partner swim with their canoe over to the shallow part of the lake, close to the dock, so they can stand on something while flipping the canoe over. After Wrenn and her partner finally successfully lifted the canoe out of the water, they needed to sway it side to side to pour out the excess water. For the final step, the two had to get themselves back into their canoe. They each have to stretch over the canoe and pull themselves on, one at a time. After a few minutes of attempts, Wrenn and her partner successfully pulled themselves back onto the canoe. This is the final requirement in their certification and at that point, become certified to use the canoes and paddle boards at any time.
After they were finished, Wrenn and some of the other girls got paddle boards out and paddled around as they pleased.