Imagine the scene; beautiful sunshine, a beautiful summer breeze floating through your hair as you drift down the Thames in an open canoe. This was NOT what I was going to experience!
As I checked the temperature (minus 4 degrees), I contemplated rescheduling my canoeing experience but iIcould hear the iDID Team AND the guys at the canoe club - ‘oh it’s only a bit of cold Suz, it won’t kill you’… really?!
I bit down on determination and wasn’t going to let something silly like freezing conditions get in my way!
After asking one of the club instructors what to wear, I was met with the reply ‘oh just wear your thermals and waterproofs and you’ll be fine’. Clearly he didn’t know me that well, thermals and waterproofs are not something that existed in my wardrobe (you know, ever prepared!). I did however get some guidelines of ‘no denim or cotton’. As I struggled to find anything in my wardrobe I decided that I’d just throw on LOADS of layers and some gym bottoms and it’d be fine!
I arrived at the canoe club to see the eyes scanning me up and down, followed by the words ‘Ok, so you need to get changed?’….. erm, yea well. The club kindly took pity on me and provided me with a thermal layer and a recreational canoeing cagoule. For anyone that has experienced one of these… it’s traumatic! A god send when it’s on, however getting it on and off takes a miracle! This item of clothing is ESSENTIAL to keep warm and I’m delighted to say that I was comfortably snug from that moment on. So, after getting my head stuck and sending my Cochlear Implant flying across the room, I was in my cagoule and ready to get paddling.
The team all kicked in and helped get the boats out of the shed; I just stood there feeling a bit useless as there was no way I could help without falling flat on my face… I struggle to walk putting one foot in front of the other, let alone introducing a boat into the equation! I opted to help carry the oars instead… cashback!
I can’t say I was as worried about canoeing as I have been about trying some of the other adventure sports for our research programme; HOWEVER, the thought of getting in and out of the canoe slightly worried me. I opted for the technique of sitting on the edge of the pavement and shifting slowly (whilst hanging on to whoever had the unfortunate luck of being near me) into the boat – eventually, I was in! I have to say a huge thanks to the guy who was chatting away to me and helped to alleviate any stupidity I had suffered up until that point! I feel awful that I can’t remember his name but lip-reading whilst slightly panicked, don’t really go hand in hand.
When I had entered the water, I came across a whole new set of issues… communication.
With the weakest paddler at the front (i.e. me) and the strongest at the back (instructor), we found a complication in communicating with one another. Neither of us had been in the situation before and so we opted to experiment and decided that if he needed my attention, he would hit the side of the canoe with his oar to get my attention. In theory, this worked well as I felt it very clearly, however; I felt every move that was made inside the boat and our clever theory resulted in me turning around every 5 seconds. Despite this, we appeared to be getting on ok and I learned about paddling the canoe sideways and more importantly, smashing through ice with an oar (one of which ended up broken!). I’m not even exaggerating here, the normal route into the marina was off limits as it was completely frozen solid!
The whole team were great and I was enjoying the lesson knowing I had the safety of my partner in the boat, until… ‘Suzi, you’re going to try handling the canoe on your own’. Ahem… what?!
This involved getting on one’s knees in the middle of the canoe and using paddle techniques to control the forward motion of the boat. Inevitably, I ended up just going round and round in circles and my balance couldn’t really hold me throwing power into paddling and keeping myself stable in the boat. I cannot fault the encouragement that I received from everyone at the club and I felt really good about my performance, despite the faults in it. I think this just highlights the importance of support in an environment and situation like this. It was my abilities and not my ‘dis’ abilities that were focused on, which was a breath of fresh air.
The lesson finished and again, I helped with a whole two oars. The girls in the club showed me the way to the changing room where yet again, decapitation was on the cards. I got changed into my warm clothes and set off to my warm car which transported me back to my warm house for warm tea and lots of other WARM things.
I thoroughly enjoyed my canoeing session (despite the temperature) and certainly learned about areas that need to be addressed, especially in clothing and in some respects, communication. Having said this, the club and all its members were extremely friendly and were open to trying out whatever worked for me. I am really looking forward to working with the club on accessible lessons and can’t wait to develop this together.
If you want any further information about the Reading Knights Canoe Club, please visit: http://www.rucc.co.uk/
Susanne is 26 and lives with Neurofibromatosis Type 2. This genetic condition causes tumours to grow throughout her central nervous system. She has had major surgery to her brain and spinal cord which has resulted in considerable balance problems and has left her completely deaf.
iDID 2012 - Year of No Fear.
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