Some in Wichita start the year with a river cleanse (+video)

Randy Jason, 56, is normally a cyclist, so he was looking forward to the peace and quiet of a peaceful float down the river Friday afternoon, with the sound of cars muffled.

Although he was wearing a neon green wig — “they told us to dress brightly,” he said — he was mostly looking forward to the unusual views of downtown he would pass by in his boat, and maybe even a few ducks.

Not Jay Martin.

As Martin, 27, slid his kayak into the Arkansas River, he cranked up the speakers in his kayak, a brief bit of what sounded like death metal. He’d had coffee, so the hangover from the previous night’s New Year’s parties and Cards Against Humanity had worn off.

Martin and Jason were two of about 30 people, ranging in age from 4 to 82, who took kayaks and a couple of canoes about two miles down the Arkansas River on Friday. They traveled from the Old Cowtown Museum to the place right before the river falls off at the Lincoln Street dam and bridge.

It was the eighth annual New Year’s Day trip for the Arkansas River Coalition, which organizes monthly kayaking trips from Wichita.

The smaller boats are more nimble, according to Martin, but longer kayaks are faster. Martin’s boat was long and red.

This New Year’s Day was much warmer than last, the first time Martin took the trip. The water was higher this year, as well, and moving faster.

He should know. Martin took a kayak out on his own just a couple of weeks ago, even though he knows he really should do it in a group. The river water was high and fast then as well. The wind was frosty and sharp.

Near 21st and West Street, on the Arkansas River, he got sucked 10 feet under water, while his kayak, which he’d been thrown out of, bobbed on top.

“The water, it’s cold, and once you go in you stop breathing; for a good minute you go into shock,” Martin said.

But he managed to push off the bottom of the dam and swim to safety, though not before someone saw him go under and called paramedics, he said. “Most people aren’t so lucky.”

Martin has been kayaking for years, in Wichita, on the Buffalo River in Arkansas, and even in Missoula, Montana, where he works for half the year fighting forest fires.

Unlike on the river, the water in Montana is always his friend, Martin said, and fire isn’t the biggest danger: He had a few close calls last year from trees, which fell unexpectedly. “I’m kind of a pyro,” he said, so fighting fires is his dream job.

The forest fire season is late April to early November, so he has six months off to explore the outdoors from Wichita, where he grew up and which he calls home. The kayaking season is perfect for his breaks because the bugs tend to come out in summer, when the fires are starting to kindle.

Although it’s not common, a few kayakers have fallen in on these trips, according to Wally Seibel, a board member for the Arkansas River Coalition, which has an e-mail list of over 800 people, he said. That’s why everyone has to sign a waiver and he tells everyone who comes to pack an extra pair of clothes. You have to act quickly, he said, and strip your clothes off, so you don’t get hypothermia.

But the trips are more about leisure and nature, not speed, Seibel said, so many first-time kayakers have come along. Seibel, 82, has always been a hiker and backpacker, he said, but he started kayaking about 20 years ago, “because when you get 60 or 70, those mountain trails get a lot steeper.”

Most people overdressed Friday, he said, because they didn’t take into account the heat they would generate from rowing on the water.

As Seibel and others strapped down their kayaks into the backs of their trucks and trailers and turned back safely toward home, a murder of crows flew overhead.

“In Kansas, anything can happen. You schedule your float; if it’s two weeks away, you don’t know if it’s going to be a blizzard or a day like this,” Seibel said. “This is a good one. It’s a beautiful day.”

This story was originally published January 1, 2016 at 8:12 PM with the headline "Some in Wichita start the year with a river cleanse (+video)."