by Darlene Archer

I vividly remember running Tallulah Gorge for the first time. I went with a couple of guy friends who had taken me under their wings and introduced me to quite a few amazing new rivers. As we paddled up to one of Tallulah’s most daunting rapids, a 65-foot rockslide called Oceana, I felt my heart drop into my stomach.

We eddied out above it. “Why don’t you go, then hike back up here, so I can watch you run it first?” I asked one of my friends.

He rolled his eyes, while I climbed out of my boat to scout the rapid. From a rocky outcropping beside the river, I watched my friends and other heroic paddlers careen down the massive drop. I wasn’t sure if my legs were shaking from the 600 steps I walked down to get to Tallulah’s put-in or because I was so nervous.

“What do you think?” came a voice suddenly. I hadn’t noticed a woman standing on the ledge beside me. “I usually run the left line,” she said. “What about you? Do you see your line?”

“I see everyone else’s line, but I don’t know about my line,” I replied.

She laughed, and then asked, “Can you see yourself running one of those lines?”

That’s exactly what I was doing-visualizing myself, running the endless rockslide, raging in front of me-although my vision included a painful tumble and a vicious thrashing. But this woman standing beside me inspired me to re-shape my vision, without the fear of failure overshadowing it.

“One of the biggest challenges for female paddlers is fear,” explains world-class paddler Anna Levesque. Fear can be a limiting factor on whitewater. It can hold you back from progressing and having fun. Emotions can easily limit your whitewater experience-unless you recognize them as just emotions. By acknowledging fear as just another emotion, you can more easily overcome it. Levesque recommends using fear as fuel by facing it head on and transforming it into a challenge.

Levesque, a member of the Canadian National Freestyle Team for the last five years, recently produced, “Girls at Play,” the first whitewater instructional video for women. In the video, Levesque shares insights she has gleaned from the river. One of her central messages is that women can become stronger physically, personally, and emotionally by overcoming fear and believing in themselves-and not just on the water. The confidence women gain from paddling can help them everywhere in life.

A striking highlight of the video is not just watching women paddling but seeing women throwing down all over the world. They are kicking ass and having fun doing it. For many women, “Seeing is believing.” To actually see women achieving success before our very eyes makes a big difference. Visualization is key, and the female paddlers in “Girls at Play” provide us with inspiring visual paddling performances that others can use as models. Seeing females landing big moves successfully gives me the confidence and reassurance I can do it too. The video also delivers memorable snapshots of serious whitewater action.

Anna Levesque and other female paddlers have come a long way in filling the paddlesports gender gap. They have inspired me a countless other women to believe in themselves and transcend their limits. Women are no longer sitting in the eddies; they are plunging bravely into unchartered waters. Back at Oceana on the Tallulah River, I watched the female paddler slide into her kayak and slowly paddle toward the edge of the drop. She angled her boat slightly to the left and nailed the line with ease. As she paddled away, she turned and waved. Instead of a fearful thrashing, I suddenly found myself with a new vision-a successful run.

Darlene Archer is a kayak instructor with the Nantahala Outdoor Center. She paddles creeks and rivers throughout the southern Appalachians.