#crosscurrentskayak – THE WIDOW BADASS BLOG

Longtime readers may remember that I took a Basic Kayak Skills course almost a year ago. You can read about that, here. Even though I gained much in knowledge and confidence from that course I knew there was still much more I needed to learn, and further training was definitely going to be on the agenda.

After all, my aim as I am aging and adventuring is to “Be an inspiration, not a cautionary tale!” 😉 🤣

To that end it was a no-brainer to go back to Caroline Ross and her company CrossCurrents Kayak to grow my sea kayaking knowledge and skills.

Caroline Ross, owner of CrossCurrents Kayak – ready to school us in trip planning via a marine chart. Photo taken at Brickyard Beach Community Park in Nanoose.

After Basic, the next rung on the Paddle Canada ladder for skills certification is Sea Kayak Skills – Level 1. In this weekend-long course I practiced all the rescue skills and strokes learned in the first course plus I learned the basics on how to read a marine chart and navigation, where to find weather and tide information and what it means to paddlers, and even more rescue techniques and strokes (including the all-important self-rescue).

All photos from this point forward were taken by Caroline and generously shared to our group.

First day of practice and I am heading to my boat – At Westwood Lake in Nanaimo.

Our group rafting up, including someone you may know on the far left – Jude of the North aka Dr. Sock Writes Here. As you can see, the weather was not ideal (or was it, since we were going to be wet anyways? 🤔). Rain, rain and more rain. *Look at how comfortable Greg and Kirsten look in their matching drysuits…hmmmm*.

First of many planned capsizes of the day, while Jude looks on.

Practicing a self-rescue using a paddle float.

Beginning a heel hook re-entry. Thankfully Caroline stopped snapping at this point, leaving the graceless heaving of my carcass back onto my boat to your imagination 😉.

By close to the end of that day, I was a shivering, teeth-chattering mess. And I was starting to think that a dry-suit might not be that ~~fucking~~ ~~damn~~ ~~prohibitively~~ expensive after all.

Second day – Brickyard Beach, Nanoose Bay

Marine chart on deck for navigation, I am heading to Southey Island with our group, for a lunch stop. If I remind you of the Michelin Man, it is because I am wearing a merino t-shirt under a Farmer Jane wetsuit, topped with long-sleeve merino base layer and followed by a full wetsuit topped with a paddling jacket. I did not want a repeat of the previous day’s shivering!

Practicing a contact tow rescue maneuver with Jude.

Securing mine and Greg’s paddle before he practices using a “stirrup” to get back in his boat.

Securing Greg’s boat with my body while he works with stirrup (the yellow band) set up.

As you might have noticed, the weather was much more favourable on Day 2. Even though we were in the colder ocean, I stayed warmer due to all my layers and the rise in ambient temperature.

Once again, I gained a tremendous amount of knowledge and confidence in such a short period of time. I also learned that I’m going to stop at Level 1 Certification. Level 2 involves building skills for activities that I don’t anticipate ever doing – such as choosing to kayak in rougher waters than I’d ever be comfortable in. Level 1 was plenty hard enough on my body and I have the bruises to prove it!

Thanks to this course, on my shopping list ~~as if I didn’t already own enough gear~~ is:

a C-Tug kayak cart
a paddling stirrup
a few more dry bags
and, of course – a drysuit!

I can’t recommend Caroline and CrossCurrents Kayak enough. You can find her not only on her website, but also on Facebook and Instagram.

Rock on,

The WB

Kayak school, that is! Last Saturday I partook in Basic Kayak Skills – a Paddle Canada course taught by the talented and friendly instructor Caroline Ross of Crosscurrents Kayak. Although I’ve been using a kayak for almost a decade, I’ve never had formal instruction in how to use one properly. In my former life in Ontario kayaking only in the flat waters of lakes and the Speed River, I could get away with this. But now, with so much ocean coastline to explore (and a brand new sea kayak), I decided it was time to get serious about improving my skills ~~assuming I actually have any~~ and my safety.

We started the day with on-shore instruction about the kayak itself and then it was time to head into our boats to learn and practice basic kayak strokes.

Practicing my reverse stroke. This and all subsequent photos taken by Caroline.

Working on a pivot turn. *Notice the laser focus* 😁

After lunch came instruction on how to make a controlled wet exit. Caroline led us through each of the actions we’d have to perform upside down and under water in order to let our companions know we were fine and going to free ourselves from our boats using the controlled wet exit process. I declined the profferred goggles and nose plugs, figuring if I capsized one day I wouldn’t be wearing them at the time so best to experience what that would be like.

Practicing the steps I will need to complete underwater in order to exit my boat.

And wouldn’t you know it – I got water up my nose and came up sputtering and coughing, but hey! I came UP!

The next item on the day’s agenda was to learn and practice the Assisted T Rescue. Something strange happened to me while Caroline was teaching this part – I began to panic. All I could see in my mind was a flashback to the Broken Islands Lodge: watching 2 young staff struggling (and failing) to get back into their kayaks from deep water while they practiced. Never mind that they weren’t doing what we were going to attempt – my mind was racing with thoughts like: I’ll never be able to get back in the boat; if those young people couldn’t do it, how could I possible do it?; I’m going to hold up the whole class; how do I get out of this?!?!?! Those of you who know me know I don’t panic easily, if at all. I was free-falling (in my mind) and I didn’t know how to get out of this spiral of negative thinking.

Thankfully, both Caroline and my rescue partner were so supportive and encouraging that I didn’t head back to shore in ~~defeat~~ retreat like I desperately wanted to, and instead successfully completed both parts of the rescue TWICE!

Playing the part of the “swimmer”. Hanging onto Jane’s boat in *koala pose*, while she empties the water out of my boat.

Attempting (successfully I might add 😊) my first heel hook re-entry, while Jane braces my kayak. This was the part I was most ~~freaked out~~ worried about.

All the way in and getting ready to turn around and re-seat myself.

Putting the spray skirt back on. Jane continues to brace until I am ready to accept my paddle back. What a feeling of relief and empowerment! Woohoo, I DID IT!!!

My turn to rescue Byron. I approach his boat.

I ask Byron if he is OK and let him know I have his boat and can accept his paddle (after which he can flip the boat over for me).

Byron is in koala pose on my boat and I can now empty his boat by raising it over mine and turning it upside down.

Bracing his boat as Byron is using the heel hook to re-enter.

I’m so happy that I was able to successfully complete this course and can’t thank my instructor Caroline and the rest of the participants enough. The instruction and support I received made all the difference and helped me to get past my sudden-onset bout of panic.

Now I’m excited to go for my Paddle Canada Level 1 Certification in 2024!

Have you ever been overcome with panicked thoughts, like I was? What did you do to get past it?

Rock on,

The WB