A 16-year-old Okotoks athlete has been training hard to make sure he won’t be up the creek without a paddle next week.
In fact, when Ryan Kilik heads down the Oldman River next week for the 15-17 boys wild-river race at the Alberta Summer Games on July 26-29 he will have a firm grip on his paddle and traveling quickly downstream.
Kilik qualified for the kayak competition and hopes to improve on his bronze medal in the wild-river race at the 2010 Games in Peace River.
“It’s pretty much like going from Point A to Point B as fast as you can down a river,” said the Grade 11 student at Foothills Composite High School. “I enjoy it because you can go through it nice and clean without having to struggle too much with eddies and having the risk of flipping over and having to flip back.”
Although Kilik will have his paddle spinning like an egg-beater set at liquefy, that doesn’t mean he is doing so without any rhyme or reason.
He also has to keep up on current events.
“You have to watch the current for eddies, boils and holes in the river,” Kilik said. “A boil is when undercurrent of the river hits a rock and it creates a really sticky part of the river. It tends to sink your boat a little bit which totally kills your speed.”
He won’t have much time to study the Oldman River course.
“We will maybe have one or two practice runs in Lethbridge and that will be it," Kilik said.
He is also entered in the slalom event, which has the kayaker going through slalom gates like a skier. However, skiers don't ever have to turn around and go uphill to the next gate.
Kilik estimates he will have to negotiate his way through 18 gates in Lethbridge.
"It will take me around a minute," Kilik said. "Sometimes you do have to paddle upstream to get to next gates, but they usually put those in the eddies so it's not so difficult. If they aren't in an eddy (a pool of slow water) those gates are really a lot of work because you have to fight the current. You really use your arms and your abs."
He trained on the slalom course near the weir in Calgary last week.
“The water was really rough,” Kilik said. “It was really high so there were a lot of boils and the eddy lines weren't very clean and they were hard to see. I actually flipped my kayak today (July 18) and they helped me get back up... It was a little bit scary but I knew someone would be there to help me if I had any problems.”
Being able to keep your cool when rolling your kayak in a cold river is one of the keys to success at the sport.
"You have to be pretty calm and comfortable with the water,” Kilik said. "You have to be aware of everything and just practice your skills."
He's always training to become a better and safer kayaker. Kilik recently took a kayak course for beginners at the Okotoks pool, despite being in the sport for three years.
While he was obviously at the top of the class, he still learned a thing or two.
“I wanted to get more pool time and practice with the boat,” Kilik said. “(Okotoks instructor Jim Hiscock) he helped me with my rolls quite a bit.”
His goal in Lethbridge is to better his 2010 bronze medal race in the wild river race. He would like to be a medal contender in the slalom.
Kilik will also compete in the Zone 3 kayak-polo team, which has three players on a team. It is similar to water polo, except the players are in a kayak rather than swimming. He didn't speculate as to how well the team will do.
Kilik is competing for Zone 3 (Calgary) rather than his home-town Zone 2 because of travel commitment.
"In 2010, the practices were in Canmore, so it was a lot easier to go to Zone 3 and practice in Calgary," he said.
Kilik is eligible for Zone 3 because he is a member of a Calgary kayak club.
