Andhra Pradesh

Water sports enters Vizag in a big way

Children canoeing the boats at the recently concluded camp at Mudasarlova Reservoir in Visakhapatnam

VISAKHAPATNAM: Kayaking and Canoeing are the two water sports that are quite admired across the world, but hardly ever been heard of in the City of Destiny, bestowed with vast water bodies like Bay of Bengal and reservoirs, Mudasaralova, Meghadrigedda and Kanithi. With a view to popularise these two water sports here, the Kayaking and Canoeing Association of Visakhapatnam (KCAV) recently conducted the first Kayaking and Canoeing camp at Mudasarlova reservoir, free of cost.

Among the 50 children, above 10 years, who took part in the camp, 14 were girls. Though the camp gave preference to swimmers, but quite a few children who did not know swimming had also participated. The INS Circars provided the boats.

Initially, balancing of boat without the use of a pedal was taught.

After they learnt balancing and pedalling the boat with the hand, they were given the pedals followed by speeding exercise. Kayaking and Canoeing are very similar to each other, but in canoeing one has to kneel and row the boat, which is little difficult.

Many children can easily learn Kakaying, but only a few can learn canoeing well in the first time itself. A student of Bullaya College A.S. Mahalakshmi who took part in the camp said, “It was a wonderful experience.

Initially I was scared as balancing the boat was a little difficult task but once I was in water, I enjoyed Kakaying thoroughly.

I look forward to attending more such camps.”

KCAV plans to organise more such camps every month and train Vizagites for national and international water sport competitions. The founder and secretary of the KCAV D.S. Reddy says, “I have been conducting the classes in both the sports on Sundays since 2005 for sea cadets.”

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