First week of training

So I've been here at Echo for a week of training now. We have 22 people in our training class, only two of which are female. So any ideas of leaving the 8-to-1 ratio at Breck are pretty much done. Its a male dominated world in the rafting business. Anyway I'm not here for women, I'm here for the river. We've been down the gorge once and the rest of the time has been training on the Big Horn section in class 3 rapids. I'm starting to get the hang of moving around a raft with the oars but it just takes a lot of effort if you don't have everything planed well in advance. I got in a kayak yesterday and did a pretty good section of the river. The difference was amazing. I could get that kayak where I wanted with a few quick paddle strokes. I did pretty well and didn't even take a roll although I had to put in a few desparate high braces in one of the big wave trains. So I'm really happy with that because not having my own boat or car I was a bit afraid that I wasn't going to get on the river too much. As it turns out the company owner has a couple fo boats that he doesn't mind people borrowing so that solves one problem for now and as far as rides, there are a couple other guys who kayak and so I figure I'll be able to get on the river a good few times. Theres also a good climbing area nearby as well and a few guys who want to go. Its Shelf Road which is one of the best sport climbing areas in Colorado so we want to go check that out soon. I am surprised by how few of the guides climb and kayak. They all just seem to be into rafting, which makes it quite interesting because as a kayaker, when you first learn you're thrown in the river all the time and you end up swimming most rapids you get into. In rafting you can pretty much get away with all kinds of stuff with out going in the river so everybody is a bit fearful of swimming. I suppose there's no point in swimming rapids and bouncing offf rocks if you don't have to but it is pretty amusing. Anyway, we've got this afternoon off as well as tomorrow since the company is so busy from the holiday weekend then we're off to do a three day overnighter on the Colorado river next week. So it's more fun and games with the oar boats and then I think we start up on paddle boats. Thats when it gets really exciting and we start flipping them and doing all those sorts of senarios. Well I think I've said enough for now and the bar is open so I'll sign off and let you know how things are going in a few days.