This week’s trip was the sea and coastline tip to the island of Randoya. This trip was the final big trip of the semester and was combined with the Norwegian students. For this trip we were split into groups, with a mix of both Norwegian and international students. This was a five day trip with a mix of activities from fishing with nets to navigation and deep water biology. As this was an island we had to transport all kit and students via boat from the main land. The area in which we were staying used to be a military base, and we were staying in the old barracks, one interesting part of the trip was learning about the history of the base and how it was first a German installation during world war two and then how it was a base during the cold war, also during the lecture we had on the base on the first night we went into the underground bunker which was designed to withstand all kinds of attacks, this was really good to go see as all the equipment was left inside as a museum and it was really interesting to see what it was used for and how it was built.

The activities on this trip were split in to two and a half hour blocks with two sessions on each activity, and two sessions each day. For each activity some members of the group were tasked with helping to teach certain aspects of it. On arrival the first activity that we were on was sea kayaking, this was split into two sessions, the first being a skills session which me and two other international students were tasked with teaching. In this session we practiced the basic skills of sea kayaking such as, moving forwards, backwards, sideways and turning. After these basics we then practiced some more complex manoeuvres such as sculling for support, deep water recovery and bow rudders. During this activity we also had a refresher on how to rescue someone who has come out of their kayak as we had two people roll during the session. After practicing these manoeuvres and strokes we went on a short tour to put them into practice, this was good as it gave me a chance to practice edging which is one of the skills that I felt I had to practice more than the others as I have done the majority of my paddling on rivers so was a bit rusty at edging in a sea kayak. During this short tour we also played some games for fun such as the seat swap game and tag. During this session it was my task to teach the bow rudder to the group, to do this I gave a demonstration and talked about how to do it with the group, I then let them practice and paddled around the group giving pointers when they were needed to the students practicing, as time went on I added on points such as increasing the strength of the stroke on the opposite side of the one which the bow rudder is being applied on and also about edging on the side which you want to turn, however I had missed this at first and Len had to remind me of it, so this opportunity to teach the stroke gave me a good chance to practice coaching it once more and also reminded me of the finer points of the bow rudder that I did without thinking about them, which made me pay more attention to them in the attempt to get correct technique. The second session of sea kayaking was a tour around the area around Randoya and some of the other islands. This was run by another international student, but we took it in turns to lead sections of the kayak. This was good as it allowed us to practice our navigation on the water. During the last hour of the kayak the wind really picked up and the sea became very choppy, this meant when crossing the open water from Heroya to Randoya we hoped from island to island to give people a rest after the stretches of open water, this would be a good technique to use with novices and young people who are not used to kayaking on rough water or who can tire easily. One highlight of the kayaking was paddling round into a bay and seeing some dear grazing near the shoreline.  

The second activity we were on was the biology of the waters around Norway. This was split into two separate areas, deep water and shallow water biology. The first session we were on was shallow water biology, this was based on a sand bar that went out from the island of Randoya. During this session we went out on to the sand bar to collect anything  we could find to put in the observation boxes, to do this we were given waders and fishing nets. Once we had been collecting for an hour we tried to identify what we had found, which was rather a lot, such as, star fish, crabs, mussels, oysters and shrimp, however we had also collected somethings that I had heard about but never seen as they are difficult to find such as the sandworm that was collected, also we had some things that I did not know what they were such as the sea sack that was found. It was really interesting to learn about what we had found and to see the large variety of life that was in the water around the island. Also during this session we looked at the other life around the island such as the ants nests, which we tasted the acid from, further to this we looked at the edible plant life around the coast, such as sea cabbage, grass onion and European angelica, the sea cabbage and grass onion tasted quite nice however the European angelica tasted a little like soap. The second session of the biology was deep water biology, for this were given wetsuits and snorkelling equipment. During this session we spent 40 minutes in the water collecting different animal and plant species to look at once out of the water. Once we had finished snorkelling we did the same as we did the previous day with the finds and identified and talked about them, the majority of the stuff we found was similar to the species we had found during shallow water however we were lucky to find a different species of star fish that is only usually found at depths of ten metres or more. What I took from this activity is that the marine life is very similar to that found around the UK so it was very interesting to learn more about the different species, the one major difference that I found however was the sheer amount of marine life that was around as when snorkelling in the UK you would not usually find half of what we did.

The third task we were on was island survival and fishing nets, the purpose of this task was to get a feel for what it would like to get stuck on an island overnight during  kayaking trip for example if the weather got too bad to move any wear. For this trip we were not allowed any sleeping bags or any other sleeping gear only extra clothes we would take on a normal day trip. In addition to this we were given a tarp, storm kitchen and basic food. On the way out to the island we set the nets to be left over night and collected in the morning. Once we got to the island the team worked well as we split into 3 separate groups, shelter, fire and food. Once these groups had been decided we then went about our tasks, I was on the food team so we spent the majority of the time fishing. Once we had caught enough fish we then went back to the rest of the group to prepare the food. This was good as it allowed for the group to talk, which was a little difficult on some of the other activities and I believe this really increased the social cohesion of the group. For the rest of the night we cooked and then just before bed we had to redo the shelter that was built as the wind direction had changed. Overnight it was quite cold but the shelter was relatively warm. The second part of this activity was collecting the nets in the morning, cleaning them and preparing the catch. Once we had laid out the nets to dry and cleaned away all the seaweed we then learnt how to prepare the fish properly, it was good to learn how to do this properly as up to this point when catching fish we had just done what we thought was correct, this was also good as I am hoping to teach my brothers this skill once getting home to England. The rest of the morning was spent preparing the fish we had caught and cooking.

The next activity we were on was powered boats, this task involved learning how to drive a powered boat and how to navigate at sea. At the beginning of this session we stayed at the dock and learnt about the features of a sea map, however we had already done this in lecture so this was more of a recap, but once we had done this small lecture we went out onto the water in the large powered boat and this gave us a chance to put into practice what we had learnt such as using the coastal features and lighthouses to determine where we were on the map and also how to use the different markers going in and out of harbour areas. Also on this activity we practiced Knots however this was also more of just a recap.

The final activity that we were on was row boats. This was rather difficult at first as I had never rowed before however after a time it became easier, one thing however that did make it difficult was the fact that one of the paddles was broken and so I had to use two small paddles which made it quite hard. However on this trip we learnt how to properly secure a boat when at a dock on different types of mooring poles, such as rings and poles. I was in a boat with one of the Norwegian students and after a while we began to communicate more about the rhythm and direction when paddling, once we began to do this we became much faster and more efficient at moving through the water.

Overall this was a really good trip, during the time on Randoya I learnt a lot about quite few aspects of water activities such as laying out nets and steering powered boats, and it also provided me with a much needed refresher on some activities such as sea kayaking. There was not much in the way of group development during this trip as due to all the Monday trips we had undertaken we all knew each other, however at first there was a dip in social cohesion but as the week went on, especially after the island survival night, the social cohesion and the level of communication in the group increased a lot. One other thing that I did notice about the Norwegian students was the lack of enthusiasm that was sometimes shown when undertaking activities.