Adrian Tregoning

I had seen whitewater kayaking whilst rafting with my father on the Zambezi in December 1999 and knew deep down that that is exactly what I wanted to do. April 2004 I bought my first kayak, a Necky Blunt, with the money received from a third party accident claim because I had a car crash, compressing the third vertebrae in my neck. With a mate in the pool and a book lying precariously next to it, I taught myself the Eskimo roll. I lived three streets up from a lake and would go down and paddle the flat water as often as possible. Internet resources were limited using a dial up connection but I found a few small video clips of cartwheels and bow stalls. It took me 3 months of struggling to get the bow stall right but I was loving it. At a stage I stumbled onto Playak.com which is still the best kayaking resource on the net and somehow became friends with the owner, Jeroen Houttuin. My enthusiasm for kayaking was quite evident and I can’t even remember how it started but I must have posted more photos when Jeroen offered to create my own little space for me on the internet where I could post my photos and articles – this was the birth of adrian.playak.com.