Kayak madness

I'm stiff as a board after my first Kayaking lesson. It started badly, with my boat turning out to be too small for my weight and creating serious buoyancy issues. I went in thinking that I was going to get wet, and so I guess I wasn't surprised when I went in when trying to get out of the boat!Anyway, things went better with the new boat. For a while anyway. We were warned about 2 things on the river: Swans and Rowers. Within seconds of starting we met a Swan swimming with her cygnets. Great position if you were looking for a photo op, but not if you wanted to stay safe. So we all pulled in. Once the 'danger' had passed, one of the University teams rowed by.. I suppose it was apt that we met them immediately after being warned. We paddled down to the left and then under one of the bridges, which turned out to be a dead end.Despite getting this far I still couldn't get the hang of paddling comfortably (except backways), and after one hard turn, managed to capsize! Too funny. Anyway, the instructor, Jamie, and my mate Chris did a standard rescue and I ended up back in the boat. It's all Chris' fault I was there so it was funny he had to do the rescue.Jamie did empty a lot of water our of the boat, but still left a fair amount in. I found it even harder to control with the water sloshing about. I struggled up the river and even with Chris encouraging me along, there was too much water in the boat to control it with my lack of experience. I finally managed to get back to dry land, empty the water and get back in again... much better.I paddled about for a bit, did my official capsize and hopped out of the water... Phew! I was glad to get out. In spite of it being a major fail mostly, I had a ball and am looking forward to Wednesday's lesson already. If the stiffness subsides :)