The other week I took a hang gliding lesson and thought, "Hey, this is pretty sick! I should stick with it." Unfortunately, to get the certification of Hang II, I'd have to spend close to $2000... and then I'd want to buy a glider for $2000-5000, and I'd need a place to store it, a means of transporting it, and then try to find a place to hang glide from in Northern Virginia. Just doesn't seem like a good fit for my current location.
So, I've thought about Kayaking. My house sits on a four-acre pond, so I have a training area in my back yard, and if I didn't want to paddle there, I could go to the number of lakes, rivers and creeks in the area. A kayak is way cheaper than a hang glider, I could easily stow it in the garage, transport it using either car, and take a fishing pole along for the ride to do some fishing. Just seems like a great fit for my life.
There is a place called
Potomac Paddlesports and they have a Flatwater Package for $395. You can click the link to see the details, but it comes out to five trips, 18 hours of instruction/supervision, equipment use and all that fun stuff. They also have a white water package for $600 which teaches you how to ride rapids, culminating with a trip through
this place.
Are any of you guys in Virginia, Maryland or within driving distance interested in signing up for some flat water lessons? I'm not sure when I'll be committing, but I'm trying to find some people to go with so I'm not trolling around by myself. Let me know if you have an interest and I'll let you know when I sign up.
For those who have kayaked... is it difficult to learn? How physically demanding is it? Did you enjoy it?