Ben Kvanli calls Rio Vista Falls the biggest wave in Texas -- and he's seen a few.

"I just got back this week from representing the U.S. in Greece, in Munich and in Barcelona, Spain," Kvanli said.

Kvanli just competed in the Kayak World Cup. In 1996 he paddled the Olympics and he's training to do the same in 2008. He doesn't have to go far to train, just upstream from his backyard.

"Even on the eddies on the side, the water is shooting back up. That kind of power, that's what you've got to have to train at an Olympic level," Kvanli said.

The new Rio Vista Falls in San Marcos is what Kvanli calls his whitewater playground.

"Doing upstreams, swinging into Merano turns, doing pivots, all those things happen a lot faster when the eddy is moving, as well as the current," he said.

Along with competing, Kvanli loves getting others in the water.

But before you paddle, you've got to get a life vest. This Essentials of River Safety class gets you ready for what the water might do with you.

"You learn some safety and rescue skills while you're learning to paddle. But you can't focus the whole time on those because you're trying to paddle. This class is just on the safety and rescue skills you would need," Gordon Black of Gordon Black Paddle Sports said.

Learning to get the kayak under your control is empowering.

"Kayaking isn't just paddling down the river ... You can climb in a surf boat and ride the waves. You get up on a mound of water and, even though in a river, the current is ripping past you, you're flying down the wave. You can do cutbacks, everything you could do in the ocean, only the wave never goes away. You can surf all day long," Kvanli said.

You can learn to kayak and take other water safety classes from the Olympic Outdoor Center in San Marcos, a nonprofit that helps raise money for athletes to go to national and world competitions. Call (512) 203-0093.