Northern Virginia doesn't scream "distinctive" or "extreme" -- but it sometimes pro-duces students with an edge. Living just 25 minutes from the Potomac River, fourth-year College student Dave Hoffman developed a strong love for kayaking. While working at a local outdoors shop, he decided to purchase a boat and have his coworkers teach him how to kayak.
The sport came naturally for Hoffman, and he's been kayaking for about seven years. But it wasn't until about five years after he first started that he embarked upon a higher level of whitewater kayaking called "creek boating." Creek boating involves narrower, steeper and therefore more dangerous rivers. This rather extreme level of whitewater kayaking has become Hoffman's favorite pastime.
As a year-round kayaker, nothing seems to faze Hoffman, who primarily kayaks an hour south of Charlottesville in Nelson County. After suffering a stress fracture in his leg two summers ago, he was back on the river just a week later.
Kayaking is such a part of Hoffman's life that he said a casual day for him would run as follows: "Get out of class, get the kayak on the car, [drive] down [to Nelson County], go kayaking, come back. ... It just seems like a regular thing that I do," he said.
Yet whitewater kayaking is far from a "regular" activity. The sport requires not only a high level of skill, but also a great deal of bravery because while kayaking can be thrilling, there are still dangerous risks involved.
There are times when the injuries prove to be fatal, as Hoffman is well aware -- a mentor of his perished on the river a few years ago.
Although Hoffman himself has never suffered extremely severe injuries, he has had some unpleasant incidents.
"I have been in the midst of rapids ... thinking, 'This is it, I'm gonna die,'" Hoffman said.
On an excursion down the Apurimac River in Peru, Hoffman found himself thinking those frightening thoughts. Traveling too far ahead of the rest of his group, he was caught in a "hydraulic," one of the most dangerous threats for whitewater boaters. Hydraulics are areas where water curves over rocks, creating what Hoffman describes as a "washing-machine effect" which can trap boaters. While certain hydraulics enable you to perform tricks, ones as large as the one Hoffman experienced are extremely dangerous and often impossible to escape without leaving the safety of your kayak. Once Hoffman left his kayak, he was vulnerable to the rough waters and nearby rocks.
Luckily, he made it out of this situation unharmed, except that his breathing was constrained from fighting through the hydraulic in a 12,000-foot altitude region. Considering terrifying situations such as this one, Hoffman's mother asked him to tell her about these things after he does them, not before.
While Hoffman said he realized the risks of whitewater kayaking, he stressed that with proper training and safety knowledge, most people are not harmed beyond bruises or cuts.
For Hoffman, the rush and excitement of kayaking outweighs the potential perils. The sport has taken him all over the country and world, to places including West Virginia, Washington, D.C., California, Canada, Brazil, Peru and the Czech Republic.
The only gripe Hoffman has now is his college workload does not afford him ample time to pursue his hobby.
"I can't wait until I graduate so I can go kayaking" more often, he said.
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