Qs from kayaking JONG

[joshbu]

Um, so I f-ed up my knee and I'm looking at a pretty long recovery time. I don't even think I can get on my mountain bike and running is straight out. Can I (whitewater) kayak? Is there generally a lot of hiking involved? How do I start?

I need some way of getting the adrenilin fix sans my legs...

[Foggy_Goggles]

The amount of hiking varies from run to run. The thing I'd me more concerned about is the torque on the knee from sitting in the boat and paddling. Much of your boat control comes from gripping the thighhooks with your inner legs. After a long play session, one of my knees is often pretty sore.

[Urbankayaker]

Along with the torque, your leg is sitting in an unatural position which I would imagine would be bad for your knee, but I guess it depends on how you hurt your knee. You gotta just sit in one and see how it feels.
Also check out some higher volume boats, they may have more room for your legs, but the knees will still be pressed against the sides.

[HotRutteredBum]

I tend to agree a hard shell might be a little rough on you but you could consider starting out in an inflatable or a sit on top. I don’t have any experience on a sit on top but the duckies are a blast. You don’t get the same performanceas a hard shell, but it’s a good place to start. Not to mention you’ll get really comfortable with swimming in the RIO

[FreakofSnow]

My main concern would be if you had to swim, which is very likely while learning. Swims can be pretty taxing on all parts of the body.

But don't let any of this scare you away, kayaking for me is right there with my love for skiing.

[Ak_pride]

Is there a lot of good rivers in bozeman?

[Urbankayaker]

Hey Ak Pride, you go to MSU?

[G]

You might be able to take a bum knee out kayaking if you already knew what you were doing, but I think it would be a pretty bad idea to try to learn a new and dangerous sport while disabled.

open water kayaking would be a good go, but riding anything that would actually give a good adrenaline rush would just have too much potential to fuckup.

[Arnold Babar]

O.K. I'm in the same boat (ha) as joshbu, and am considering the same thing. So let's figure this out. How about open water, lake, sea, river kayaking or just sticking to mellow stuff. I live in CT nothing major around here, but I gotta do SOMETHIN'. What kind of boat is best? I know...JONG!