At 21, Jamie Conn is one of the youngest kayakers to explore the biggest rivers in the world. He speaks to Shrabasti Mallik about discovering the rivers in India, which he feels is the next kayaking destination
Humble, jovial and witty — that’s how one would describe Jamie Conn. But there is much more to him than these traits. He has kayaked some of the most difficult rivers in the world from Europe to Ethiopia and from Norway to India. last autumn he was on the All India Kayak Expedition, a river trip from the South West to the North East of India searching for white water kayaking destinations. We caught up with Jamie when he was here to share his experiences at Adventure Diaries held at the Taj Palace.
When 11-year-old Jamie held a kayak paddle for the first time, he never imagined himself kayaking steep and difficult rivers all over the world. “I joined the school kayak club and for the first few years I was on flat waters. Gradually I learnt water skills and after that I got into white water and rapids and then moved to waterfalls,” the British boy reminisced. The entire process of learning the tricks of kayaking took him six long years.
It has been 10 years that he has been kayaking now and he feels that India is one of the places which has an enormous potential of becoming the best places to kayak. “This place has so many rivers and some of them are suitable for kayaking,” he said. The expedition that he undertook, started in Kerala and ended in Arunachal Pradesh and took over six months to complete. “Normally my expeditions are not this long but this was a unique one where we wanted to cover India as much as we possibly could because there is so much to explore here. We needed that time to cover that distance. Moreover, it was not like finding one river in the stretch. We started in Kerala and did four to five rivers then we went to a new place and found another river. We have been planning the whole way to find individual rivers in each place and then riding between them,” Jamie explained.
The Meghalaya section that took three months was the most difficult. “I spent most of my trip in Meghalaya. The most difficult river was the Kripa which flows north in Meghalaya and into Assam in Guwahati. It was extremely steep,” he pointed out. Jamie feels that India lacks the availability of guide books. He said, “Most of the places are set up as destinations for kayaking so you have a guide book where rivers are marked. They tell you the difficult areas — where to go on and off.
In India, there is no such guide book although some rivers, which run in the Himalayas, are well documented. There is definitely a guidebook being written. The people who were part of the expedition with me are currently writing a kayaking guidebook for Meghalaya. It will be ready in two years and will be of immense help to others.” There was no kayaking research in Jharkhand and Chattisgarh, until this expedition. “So we are trying to find new rivers and ways to get to them. It is a really great adventure — you do not know how many days you will spend on the river and what you may find. It is so unexplored,” he said.
With a decade of kayaking experience under his belt Jamie feels that to be good kayaker one needs to be physically strong and know how to use the rope to climb and get off cliffs. He said, “One needs to be able to move around rapids very well and also climb boulders if needed. One also needs to work well with the team because with only a few people on the river, you tend to look out for each other. So it is important to get on with people. It is more fun with friends. We look out for each other and it is much safer. Moreover, they will be there to help you if anything goes wrong.”
Jamie has recently completed his graduation in mathematics and is currently taking a year off to travel. “Now I am working as a video editor for a journal. I will continue that for a few months before I go back to UK,” he concluded.