Adding Slalom to Nantahala Kids Club
The Nantahala Kids Club is our twice/year six week club that gets young people from all over the 828 area into kayaks and out on the river. It is an opportunity to learn about kayaking, and each session, improve skills.
It is also a great opportunity to meet other young people in the community, and for parents to network as well. Our goal is to create lifelong paddlers here in the western North Carolina community.
The 2025 season will open up with our Spring Nantahala Kids Club, starting April Monday, April 21,2025.
We have such a strong group of Hellbenders – the advanced group, that we are going to offer a special slalom opportunity. For our Hellbenders, after the first two sessions of the 2025 Spring Session, you will be given the option of splitting off and work with the slalom coach, Michael Montagne.
Why Slalom – words of wisdom from Slalom Coach Michael. Montagne
Kayaking is a lifetime sport. That means you can paddle your whole life, from the time you’re a kid to well into your old age. The better you are, the more fun you will have in your boat. You can surf waves, boom enders, stern squirt eddy lines, kickflip waves and run challenging rivers with style and ease.
Training and racing slalom is one of the best ways to become a good paddler because it will allow you to utilize the river features to your advantage. Slalom will teach you precision. You will learn to put your boat exactly where you want to, whether you are trying to grease the line at Nantahala Falls, hit the wave in the right spot to throw a sweet kickflip or catch that last-chance eddy above the portage rapid. You will be a better boater if you train slalom.
The Need More Outdoors intro-to-slalom program will help you refine your stroke technique, boat edging and placement, build strength and hone in your own style. Slalom will help you develop life-skills: visualization, accountability, grit, goal building and critical thinking. You’ll develop into a better paddler.
Slalom also helps build your paddling community. I paddled slalom as a kid; to this day I still boat with a lot of the same people, and we shred! Having a good, strong crew to boat with makes paddling more fun.
Lastly, slalom can take you places: there are rivers and races all over the world, not to mention the boundless world class rivers right here in the southeast, and you can paddle them with your friends. Joining us for slalom will make you the best boater you can be. I encourage you to join the team because when we build our skills together, we create a community.