Intro to our Blog!

Welcome to the first official Damp Rat Life blog post! If you don’t know who we are, we are a group of sprint kayakers (stick around if you don’t know what that means yet!)! We have a very strong passion for our sport and last summer we decided that we wanted to share that passion with an audience! It started small: A 20 minute podcast episode. Our original goal was to find something to fill our days with! Since then, we have made a full podcast season (you should go check it out!), we have grown fun and interactive social media platforms, and now, we have this website! Our current goal is to teach others about our sport and grow our community!

What is Sprint Kayaking?

Sprint kayaking is a type of kayaking where the boats are made of carbon fiber and it goes at a much higher speed than recreational kayaking. Sprint kayaking is not to be confused with rowing! Stay tuned for a blog post that will give you all the info on the differences!

Our Story!

Our sprint kayaking journey started 7 years ago when Chloe and Reagan joined the team. If you don’t know who we are you can check out the Hosts Page on our website! Chloe and Reagan were on the team for a couple of months before Grace started. They all became close during winter training of 2014. Paige joined the following summer, and that was the real start of the group, because that was when THE TEAM began. We began to train together and with that, we became close friends. Since then, Charlotte, Emylie, and Shelby started paddling and we have traveled all over the country training together. We are so grateful to be in a sport that is not only fun and rewarding, but we also get to do it with our best friends!

A Day in the Life of a Damp Rat

During the summer time we train about 7-9 times a week. During this time we are together at our boathouse for hours with each other. We usually spend this time going on walks, white water rafting, and playing cards! Having this time together is the reason we are so close today, and I believe it is the reason we work so well together. Most of our days during the summer look the same; hot, tired, and extremely crazy. I think the craziness is actually driven by tiredness, and hotness. But I don’t think any of us would trade it for anything. We may be tired, hot, and sore, but we countdown the days until we get to spend summer with the people we love, doing the thing we love!

THE TEAM

Earlier I mentioned that the real start of our group really started with THE TEAM… well maybe I should explain what the team actually is! The original K4 boat (A four person kayak) was Chloe, Reagan, Grace, and Paige. That teamboat has won many medals and is currently the reigning champion of that bantam age group! We trained in that boat several times a week and it has, by far, been one of the greatest bonding experiences of our kayaking careers. We came up with the name during one summer practice. Most other names we thought of weren’t good enough, so we decided that there wasn’t a name that fully fit what we wanted. That is, until Grace decided on the name THE TEAM. Which basically just means the dream team. So, there you go. That is the story of THE TEAM. There will be many more blog posts about our adventures, but if you just can’t wait, I recommend checking out our podcast. It’s liked on our website!

What’s Coming?

In the near future we plan to launch a new season of our podcast, we will be doing fun social media challenges, and putting more content on our website! If any of that interests you, check out our Facebook and Instagram for reminders and updates!

Thank you so much for checking out our first blog post! We look forward to many more!

-The Damp Rats