An acquired affinity for kayaking gained through summer camps and paddling rivers far and wide with friends and family is taking Helen Dillard on a big adventure this coming school year.
Dillard, a student at Roaring Fork High School entering her sophomore year, was selected to attend the prestigious World Class Kayak Academy (WCKA).
Based in Washington state, the traveling high school offers a year-long program providing students with opportunities to sharpen their paddling skills and explore unique cultures around the world, while also completing their academic studies.
Dillard will join 15 other students later this month at the academy. They’ll spend the first quarter along the Ottawa River in eastern Canada, the second quarter in New Zealand, the third in Chile and the fourth traveling around Europe.
Her parents, Scott and Vida Dillard of Carbondale, are avid kayakers, and in fact met through kayaking while in college. They introduced Helen and her younger sister, Morgan, to paddling at a young age.
“I started paddling in little duckies, probably when I was around 8, and then I got my first kayak roll when I was 10, and then I really started kayaking around 12,” Helen said.
She admits it took her a while to embrace the sport and think about it as more than just a family activity.
A summer camp last year along the Salmon River in Idaho with her aunt and uncle, Tommy and Polly Hilleke, also of Carbondale, and several other Roaring Fork Valley youth, helped seal the deal. Tommy is Vida’s brother, and each year the Hillekes take a group of local youth to their kayaking camp.
“It was great, because I had some friends that were my age there, and that made it much more enjoyable for me,” Helen said.
This summer, she attended the month-long Keener Camp in Ottawa, Canada, considered one of the top youth kayaking development programs in the world.
“We would paddle every single day, all day,” Helen said. “It was really focused on making us better kayakers, and also making us better people.”
She and the only other girl in the camp stayed in a cabin where it was their responsibility to make their own breakfast and keep the place tidy — life skills she’ll need when she’s away for a whole academic year.
Her WCKA application got a thumbs up from several personal references, including accomplished kayaker Buffy Burge.
There’s something about being on the water with friends, and the camaraderie that comes with that, she said. “You feel really connected to the water and just, like, where you are and the people you’re with.”
The Keener camp helped tighten that tight bond in preparation for the year ahead. “It’s just nice to be screens-free and in the moment. Everybody who’s part of that really connects, especially when it’s days on end,” she said. “I feel like there’s definitely a connection between people that’s super special.”
Her parents weren’t certain she was ready to take her kayaking to another level until last summer, with plenty of safety support from fellow kayakers, they observed her navigate some Class IV rapids on the Gauley River in West Virginia.
“It does have some places you don’t want to be, like undercuts, so you have to really know what you’re doing to be on that river,” Vida said. “We were like, ‘No, Helen, I don’t think you ready for it,’ but she was like, ‘I can do it!’”
Added Scott, “It was a huge step up for her. We were definitely stressed about it.”
This summer on the Ottawa, Helen showed them up a bit during their parent visit when she surfed a feature called Phil’s Hole that she and her camp mates had been practicing on. Helen got tumbled a couple of times, but surfed right out of it, while mom and dad got a bit pummeled.
“I finally came out and my helmet was stuck back behind me, which in kayaking we call our ‘beater meter,’” Scott said. “So, my beater meter was a 10.”
And Vida? Well, she ended up having to swim out of her kayak.
“That was the first time I’ve ever swam in front of one of my kids, so it was a humbling experience,” she said. “Helen and her friends were really sweet and helped gather all my stuff and empty the water out of my boat. I was like, ‘Wow, I’m raising a compassionate, good kid!’”
Helen said she looks forward to improving her kayaking skills even more, and will decide where to take it next after her academy experience. For now, she has her eye on studying in college to be a neonatologist, specializing in infant care.
Meanwhile, the Dillards have been part of a group of local kayaking enthusiasts who formed the Roaring Fork Kayak Club. One focus of the club is to work with business sponsors to make the sport accessible and affordable for both youth and adults who want to give it a try, Scott said. River safety and education is also a big focus of the club’s efforts, he added.