For this trip sea kayaking was on the program. On Monday, we met to practice in the river and get used to the kayaks. Tuesday and Wednesday, we had a trip and stayed overnight on an island.
Monday 22.05.17 practice in the river in Kristiansand
Monday morning, we all met next to the river in Kristiansand. Everybody got a paddle, a spraydeck, a life west and a kayak. There were different sizes of kayaks. I got a smaller and Conner for example a bigger one. Inside the kayak on the side are footholds, which we had to adjust. The position of the feet should be that the heels are together and the toes pointing outwards. The knees are on the inside under the entrance of the kayak. When you move your hips it, the kayak should move, that’s how you can hold the balance. After adjusting and getting a feeling how it is to sit in a kayak, we practiced some paddle technique on land. There are three holes to click the paddle together. One is that the blades of the paddle are equal, or you can have it a little twisted either left or right. Because I am right handed I twisted it to the right. To see if it’s correct you can hold your paddle vertical, the blade on the ground towards you and the blade on the top should point to the right. The longer side of the blade has to be up and then you hold it that the right hand stays always where it is and the blade looks towards you. To know how far apart the hands must be we balanced the paddle on our had and then just crabbed it. Like this you hold it naturally right. Paddling is a movement with the whole upper body. It’s a little like boxing. And to have both blades correctly in the water the wrists have to be twisted.
Something very important is, to know how to go out of a kayak after centering. We practiced out of the water how to put the spradeck (à like a skirt, which keeps the water out of the kayak) on. It has to go over the entrance from the back to the front and the strap in the front has to be outside. Len explained the progression. After flipping over you clap three times on the kayak with both hands, pull on the strip to open the entrance, pull yourself out while having both hands on the back of the entrance and lift yourself out and then it’s like a role to make and you are out. The paddle should always be hold and then you swim to the front of the kayak. We all practiced that, in case something happens on the way. In the end of the day we all had to try it in the water.
The practice outside of the water was very good for me, because I didn’t do it before. It gave me the feeling without worrying to lose balance in the water or have to concentrate on something else. I was a little afraid before the kayaking, because it looks so unstable and I had trouble canoeing.
Then we all were ready to go in to the water. We put the spraydeck on and the life wests. We helped each other to go in to the kayaks. It’s important to step in the middle of the kayak and hold with one hand in the middle of the entrance behind you. I was surprised, that I felt so comfortable in the kayak. I had soon control over it, not like in the canoe. First, we got used to the kayaks in the water and tried where our balance is. When you lose your balance a little, you can hit the water with the flat side of the paddle. We practiced that, as well as balancing on a side. I realized that I have a good feeling for balance. We paddled a little and stopped every now and then to practice something. We stopped while doing short and fast paddling backwards, we paddled straight and backwards, turned while doing wide strokes on one side forwards and on the other backwards. For steering we learned different possibilities. One is to just paddle on one side, then you can lift the knee on the side you want to go, and one is to put the paddle on the back with the flat side in the water and bring it with a wide stroke to the front. The last one is not always good. One reason not to do it is, that it breaks you and another is that you can easily lose balance.
For me it was a lot of new information on that day, but I felt comfortable, because we had enough time to practice. As far as I can tell, we had a good group and helped each other. I got good tips especially from Conner, who already has experience in instructing people in kayaking. What I also like about kayaking is, that you can talk with each other and enjoy. I already looked forward to the two days’ trip and was on the other hand glad to sleep at home that night. I was very tired when I came home and felt muscles I don’t use that much in other activities.
Tuesday 23.05.17 Heleviga to Ny-Helesund
In the morning, we took the bus to get to Heleviga, where we started our journey. We packed our equipment in to the kayaks. It’s important to have everything divided in bags, to put it in the tree different wholes. The storage space should be waterproof, but it’s better to have the stuff in waterproof bags as well. We had very good weather and the wind in the back. We were very fast und just enjoyed it. We could practice while going our way what we learned the day before. After short distances, we changed the person who is leading and navigating. When we were canoeing I found it hard to navigate on water, with the kayaks it was easier. The short distances made it possible to hold the group better together. After two we already arrived on the island where we stayed overnight. We spent some time together as a group, a little later a few of us kayaked again and Eva, Eli and I walked up a little hill and talked and had a little Yoga session. After dinner, we played some games and had a lot of fun. The atmosphere was very chilled and it seemed that we all felt comfortable. Eva, Eli and I had a nice shelter, even if it would have been possible to sleep without. On the second day, we had again the wind in our back. It allowed us to enjoy and had some brakes. In the end, we could practice the rescuing. Two of us volunteered to capsize and we tried to do rescue them as we had it in the theory. The first time it took us a little long, but than it was better.
