The Seal Launch

One skill I’ve learned during this class is how to do a seal launch. If you picture the way that a seal gets into the water, you will get a pretty good idea of what a seal launch is. But, instead of sliding down hill on our bellies, we slid down the hill inside our kayaks.

We did our first seal launch on Tuesday at the top of the hill at our put-in spot at Fontana Lake. The hill there descended about twenty feet at a 55 degree angle. We climbed into our kayaks at the top of the hill, secured our helmets and spray skirts, and inched our kayaks forward until gravity took over and sped us quickly toward the water. This launch was moderately terrifying, primarily because the hill was scattered with rocks that could flip us before ever reaching the water.

Today’s entry into the Nanny (the local name for the Nantahala River) took the seal launch a step further. Since we put in at a location where the bank steeply dropped off into the river, Laura told us, “We’re going to do a seal launch off that rock.” “That rock” was a large flat rock jutting out from the edge of the gorge. On top it was large enough to hold four kayaks and five or six people. It narrowed underneath as it got closer to the river so that the top of the rock was well over the middle of the river and about eight feet above the surface of the water. Basically doing a seal launch off that rock was the equivalent of jumping over the edge of a cliff--with a giant boat attached at your waist.

Although I was feeling like I would probably take the less daring route into the water (inching my boat step by step through the foliage at the least steep part of the bank), I decided to watch my classmates before making the decision.

“Just sit up straight, don’t lean back, and keep your paddle low and balanced across your lap,” said Laura as she modeled the process for us. She climbed into her boat, secured her spray skirt, and asked Payton to push her over the edge. I watched the bow of her kayak point straight down toward the water, and then I heard the splash below. She was still upright! Cam repeated the process, and Josh, and then Phil. All of them made it right side up.

I took one more look over the side of the rock, and then decided to give it a try before my courage failed me. I climbed into my kayak and repeated the instructions back to Laura. Before I had time to second guess myself and change my mind, Payton and Jim pushed me over the edge. Here’s what happened next:

Scrape. (The noise of the kayak on the rock.) Whoa! (The noise of my mind realizing that I was falling.) Gulp! (The noise of me breathing in on the way down.) Splash! (The noise of my boat touching down.)

The whole thing lasted only seconds. My boat rocked a few times on the water, and then I drifted toward shore to make room for the next student to jump.

Unfortunately, I have no pictures of either seal launch because I don't have a waterproof camera. However, here is a link to a picture of someone else doing a seal launch off the same rock, http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/1041285481037684491lozTVW
and here is a link to a video of a seal launch on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Xjdl7Uy6BM