Sea Kayaking

Monday, 7th of September. This morning we had our morning maths class, at 8:45 and it finished at 9:30 for us. We walked to the shed and met Phil from Adventure Kayaking SA. We loaded the kayaks onto the trailer and grabbed last minute warm clothes. We then got onto the bus and Paul drove us to the Point Turton jetty. When we arrived at the jetty we unloaded the trailer and started the introductory lesson. We learnt the different types of paddling, how to turn the kayak, how to go side ways, etc. we learnt how to make sure the kayak is sea worthy, as Phil said. We had to check the rudder, the hatch covers, the peddles, our seat and make sure everything was comfortable. Once we had done all of that we picked up the kayaks and carried then down to the ramp, ready to launch them. Phil showed us the training track tat we had to do, we had to paddle out straight, stop, turn right, go forward, sop, turn right, stop, turn right, go forward, stop. We had to do this 3 or so times. The we started paddling towards the campsite, past a boiler from an old ship and kept on going. We kayaked for about a kilometre or so. Then we stoped and talked for a bit and then turned around and paddled back to the ramp, but we continued and kayaked under the jetty and did an obstacle course through rocks. This was really run trying to avoid all of the rocks. The we paddled back to the ramp and carried them back up to the car park ready for the next group.

Wednesday the 9th of September. Today was our second day of sea kayaking. We already knew how to check our kayak and make sure it was sea worthy. Then we carried the kayaks down to the ramp and launched them into the water. We started kayaking out of the launching area and turned left today, we kayaked under the jetty. But kept on going. Phil said that today we were kayaking about 6 km's today. Once we passed the jetty we continued on paddling along the cliffs, past all of the funny looking birds that could swim underwater, until we reached these bars that looked like a swimming pools stairs. Phil showed us the different skills that the Eskimos did, like resting on your partners kayak, resting on the water by yourself, an Eskimo roll and sitting and standing on the kayak. It was really fun. The we started the adventure back to the jetty. Blake attempted an Eskimo roll but ended up capsizing, it was funny. The once we reached the jetty, we went under it and paddled passed the place where the boats are launched and then Phil gave us a challenge that we had to have one foot in our partners boat and have a race. When Blake and I finished we got out but Blake fell in and pulled me in with him. I wasn’t happy. But it was fun we pulled the kayaks up through the sea weed. Overall the kayaking was fun.