As the year begins, so begins the process of normalizing fear. So many times I have talked to mentors and discussed the ebb and flow of confidence and perception of ability over time. They always say that kayaking is a process of building and destroying. You keep pushing your limits, building confidence in little ways. Maybe today you take a bigger piece of the hole, maybe you take the harder line.
One day you pass the limit, a casual line pushes you into the depths of a churning hydraulic, a scrape of a rock flips you as you crest a boof, crushing you back into a state of fear and building. Recently I got crushed in a hole. I had become a little complacent with a run that is IV+ and was on the high side. I took a more risky line above a big hole and didn’t give due diligence. I didn’t scout, and didn’t really ask any questions, I just followed a little to the left of where I should have been.
So it goes.
