What: Sea Kayaking Island Trip

When: June 5th-8th

Where: Paradisbukta-Ny Hellesund

This is our final trip for my time here studying Outdoor Education in Norway.  I am so glad were able to have one last trip together, even if its a small one…and only half the class. It started on Tuesday instead of Monday. We were meantt to all meet up near the river at Kristiansand Row Club by 9:15am. I didn’t get out of bed til 9, threw on my swim suit, met up with Zoe and biked down to the river somehow making it in time. Evan, our instructor for kayaking started off by showing us the basics of sea kayaking and the differences between that and white water kayaking. The previous week was the first time I’ve ever been sea kayaking and it was defienelty easier than i thought it would be. Anywho- after about an hour of talking the basics such as kayak size, how to adjust foot pedals, paddles and what to do if you fall in, we got on our life jackets and headed down the river. It was a bit “colder” being only 18* C than the nice 30* we’ve been used to all weekend. It was also very windy which really makes a lot tougher to paddle. We learned how to sweep stroke which is when you use your paddle from the tip of your kayak around to the back enabling you to make a large turn. Another technique we learned was edging where you turn your hip on either side of the kayak in order to make it easier and conserve your energy. The last thing we did was capsize and learn how to t-rescue. Capsizing is when you flip your kayak completely over and are upside down under water. The easiest way to recover after this is implementing the Eskimo roll which is essentially to turn the paddle and grab the water until you flip back over. If you cant do the Eskimo roll(as its pretty tricky) you can just use the t-rescue which involves two other kayakers that flip yours back over and help you enter your boat. I involuntarily was the first to capsize as Aaron jokingly flipped my kayak. It wasn’t that cold until being in it for 20+ minutes being the demonstrator for t-rescues and how ~not~ to do them. But basically you swing your legs over the back and straddle your kayak then hop back inside.

The following day on Wednesday the weather was marvelous. A nice 22* Celsius even though it was a bit cloudy. We started right on the water and down the sea to Odderoya and visited some other islands as well. We practiced more turns but ultimately we just toured around. We stoped for lunch around noon on a little beach and just laid out for an hour relaxing in the nice sun. We got back around 3 in the afternoon and others just practiced their Eskimo rolls over and over again.

Thursday morning we all met up at 10am about 25 minutes from Kristiansand in Friluftsparken, which was perfect for our last trip as it means Free Air Park. The goal for this day was to kayak about 15kilometers around the open sea stopping at different islands. I woke up feeling sick and when i arrived at the meeting point i felt even worse as a cold had come on. I hadn’t gotten sick once these past 6 months even with living in snow holes for days. Grandpa Sveine (one of our professors) saved the day by selflessly driving to the pharmacy to get me medicine right before we got on the water. God Bless that sweet man. We got on the water around 11am. It was a windy day which isn’t the best but we worked with what we had. We took turns navigating in pairs from island to island. This was the quietest I’ve been in the last 6 months due to feeling like absolute sh*t. But there could be worse things than spending a sick day sea kayaking in the middle of the ocean with your best mates. We stopped around noon for lunch and some cliff jumping on a gorgeous island about halfway to our destination. I took a quick nap at the top hoping that plus lunch and heaps of water would cure me. Unfortunately I was completely exhausted until we got to our destination which was called Paradisbutak or Paradise Island…the name was very fitting. It was a breathtaking, large island. There were about 3 beaches, high cliffs to hike up and flat grassy areas as well. It was Zoes birthday and we showed up to a note leading to candles, brownies and wine. Somehow four others made their way to the island to surprise us all! They ended up staying the night. We climbed up to one of the rocks where chatted and listened to music for hours before bivvying by the beach all together. Woke up to gorgeous sunrise and hot weather around 8am. We all got out of our sleeping bags, dove in the amazing water and laid back down to get one more hour of sleep. What a way to start the day. By 10am we packed our kayaks and were back on the water. We wanted to get back fairly early as we leave Norway in 4 days and have a lot to do before then. We got back right around one and were all very exhausted and hungry as we didn’t take rests and the wind had picked up and there were large waves making it difficult to kayak in a straight line. It was all around an amazing last day and an awesome way to end our final week together. Not ready for this to end.