Ok, to be honest, let's start from the beginning! What do you get, when you will sit in the kayak for first time? The kayak is not totally stable and you can't go even 4 m straight, because can't control the direction! And you are closed in the kayak with your sprayskirt... But after a small practice, you will manage and after a couple of days you will kayak!
Our whitewater kayak lessons are structured into two parts of a progressive lesson.
On the whitewater kayak lessons we are focusing to have the basic boat handling skills, safe practice and a lot of fun, regarding for equipment and the natural environment.
It is important for us to know if you have a medical condition when you participate on our whitewater rafting, canyoning, whitewater kayak tour. In this case we can take better care of you and avoid accidents, if any problem happens, our guides are more prepared and can faster solve the problem. All of our guides are certified whitewater rescuer, they renew their licence every 2-3 years and have a wide variety of experience.
Unfortunately you can not participate on any of our whitewater program if you are
You might be able to join to our whitewater tours
Please consult us about your medical condition if you :
Please let us know if you need any medicine during the tour, you can take it with you to the river or to the canyon. Our guides have a waterproof box for First aid kit, they can put your medicine into it. And last but not least Please inform your guide about your medical condition! .
Some basic knowledge you have to know before running any whitewater rapids:
Let's take your flat water skills to the whitewater on the second part of the whitewater kayak lessons. Small obstacles like waves will be encountered. For practicing we choose easy whitewater section of the Soca.
We give an overview of river features and hazards and offer practice swimming in whitewater. Safety is one of the most important thing during the whitewater kayak courses. It is never enough to talk about.
We think, a gradual development is the statute of whitewater kayaking education. Although people are different, there is always a chance to get scared in a rapid, if it is too big for our technical knowledge, preparedness. It is a big mistake to take away the incentive of an enthusiastic kayaker.
So, one of the statutes of our whitewater kayak education is to give you gradually more and more difficult exercises and paddle more and more difficulty rapids. It does not matter if you are advanced, or a beginner, the system is the same.
We do not like to mix the beginner and the advanced kayakers on our whitewater kayak course. We start the beginner whitewater kayak coaching with 2-5 people. This is the group size, which is safe and can be controlled by the kayak instructor.
We always practice the basic technics with beginner kayakers on flat water, after we practice more on easy whitewater (Class 2). With advanced kayakers we first practice on easy water, after we can run Class 2-4 rapids.
To swim and flip sometimes is part of the game. Everybody is swimming or flipping sometimes. You do not have to be afraid of it, it is possible to swim safely between to rocks of the rivers. It is possible to learn and after a while it is necessary to learn, of course. It is possible to turn back upside up, with a flipped kayak as well, and it is not super difficult, everybody can learn. To learn it easily it is better to learn some stokes and stroke combinations.
After we will take a quick, 10 minutes drive to the put-in with the Soca Rider's jeep. We change next to Soca river (leave all dry clothes in the car), and after the safety talk nothing left, just to start your whitewater kayak course with us!
We finish our whitewater kayak course in the parking place, where the Soca Rider's jeep is waiting for us, so you can change immediately, and we have a short drive back to Bovec!
In our office we would be happy to give you some advise what to see in the Soca valley, natural wonders, good excursions, mountain trails! And you can check our small shop where you can find Soca Rider T-shirts
Soca Rider won the Certificate of Excellence in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019.
Whitewater kayak school
To become a passionate whitewater kayaker is the best if you start with basics. IN a 5 days whitewater kayak course you can learn a lot, and in the end of the course you can already paddle on easy whitewater by yourself.
2 days | 3 days | 4 days | 5 days | |
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Adults | 150 € | 220 € | 290 € | 350 € |
Students, Kids under 15 years | 150 € | 220 € | 290 € | 350 € |