I recently completed my silver practice journey for Duke of Edinburgh. My past D of E was hiking; very straightforward, not much training needed in terms of athleticism and skill and went smoothly. However, this trip was sea kayaking, something I have only ever done once as a leisurely activity on calm waters. Sri Lanka decided to put my quick thinking skills to the test as this trip was filled with storms on the horizon, rescue skills needed and a true test of arm strength.

OSC is always the first to show up to any trip borderlands offers, whether or not the place has been finished yet. So to help out, we put up some tables in the kitchen and made the living area a bit nicer for meal times. I also swept the floor to get rid of any dust from the construction.

For the days I was on this trip I made reflections in a journal, about my learning, what I enjoyed doing that day and any other notions that entered my mind.

Figures 2,3,4,5,6,7; journal entries from the trip (Photo Credit: Eloise Golding)

A funny moment of this trip that I remember with great joy is when Mr Antoney asked me a rhetorical question about what I learnt, in his words “that we don’t always win.”
“But I did win!” I replied with great joy, “twice!”

LEARNINGS

COOKING

On this trip we had to cook our own breakfast and dinner. This took a lot more brain power than one would think because not only were we cooking for ourselves, we were also cooking for all the crew including our teachers. So it would be best if our food didn’t poison anyone. We also had to ensure we had enough food and considering teenagers eat quite a lot, we added more of everything. We also had to account for the fact that we would be extra hungry after all the time on the water so again we had to double the portions.

In addition to making both dinner and breakfast, we also learned how to make banik bread. It’s a sweet bread made from flour, sugar, cinnamon and water that one then wraps around a stick and cooks over a camp fire. I found it to be delicious but learnt that I should make the piece thinner when applying it to the stick so it cooks faster and more evenly, as many people resorted to placing the bread directly in the fire to get it to hurry up.

 

 

 

CAMP SKILLS

As part of our camp skills, we learn to set up tents and make fires. Our group struggled a bit with creating a fire because it had rained prior to us taking on this challenge. However, we found that placing down some dry sticks on the ground to form a base for the fire to start on helped enormously. It took a lot of patience as the wood chips had to transfer the fire onto the bigger sticks and then onto the logs. Through team work, and by that I mean many people sheltering the fire from the wind and rain, we were able to get the fire strong enough to cook our banik.

KAYAKING COMPONENTS

What many people overlook when it comes to kayaking is just how much arm and core strength you need to keep the kayak from drifting off into the currents. It’s also very difficult to take a rest when you’re on the water as the waves push you further from your goal, taking back any progress made. I found that to propel myself further forward, I had to sink in the paddle deeper into the water. One thing I excelled at however was turning. To turn you need to push all your weight onto the opposite side of the kayak in relation to where you want to turn, this is known as edging. This comes with risks as you could easily flip the kayak and strand yourself in the water. I was complimented on this by Patrick, a trained professional in these excursions.

We spent our time learning about the different parts of a kayak, the equipment and how to use them.

Figure 13; our group rafting up together (Photo Credit: Ms Francoise)

Figure 14; my group in the kayaks (Photo Credit: Ms Francoise)

We also learnt to map read. As we will be spending most of our time on water, its harder for us to navigate, so we relate ourselves to the shore. We learnt that with good weather conditions and the wind behind you, you can travel as far as 30km per day. With lesser normal conditions it would be 20km and in the case of bad weather you wouldn’t be able to kayak at all.

Figure 15; map reading (Photo Credit: Ms Kamila)

T RESCUES

The most important skill in sea kayaking is how to perform a rescue. Countless lives have been lost because people went kayaking without prior knowledge of rescue techniques, leaving all these deaths preventable. The rescue maneuver we learnt is called the t-rescue because you create a T shape with the kayaks. When someone’s kayak flips this is what needs to be done:

1. Someone goes over to the person and communicates that they are there.
2. Person in the water gives their paddle to the person in the kayak.
3. Grab the tip of the kayak and lift it onto your own, the person in the water should push their weight onto the stern of the kayak.
4. From here you can flip the kayak back.
5. Hold the kayak flat next to you, and press weight onto the middle of the 2 kayaks.
6. Person in the water pulls themselves into the kayak.
7. Once stable, help put the skirt back on and return the paddle.

 

Figures 16, 17; rescuing Aryaa, and practicing being rescued (Photo Credit: Ms Francoise)

KAYAK STORING

It’s essential that in order to be able to continue using equipment, you must take care of it. Not only does this mean; not sitting on the kayaks or stepping on the paddles, it also means rinsing away all the sand in them and cleaning them out before storage. This makes it more comfortable for the next group using them as they don’t have to deal with sandy and salty equipment.

Figures 18, 19, 20; Rinsing off the equipment with fresh water and storing it (Photo Credit: (18, 19) Ms Francoise, (20) Ms Kamila)

RELAY RACES

To practice all the skills we learned we performed 2 relay races as illustrated in my journal entries. My first partner was Olau since we had to select based off of similar heights so that we wouldn’t need to adjust the peddles inside the kayaks and that was a race we won my listening to the instructions as many people seemed to fail in this section. Because some groups lost badly they wanted a rematch which made me nervous. But when we teamed up with Avin and Sam, we won by a landslide. To me it truly shows the importance of team work.

Figures 21, 22, 23; My team pushing me into the water, getting ready for the races, and me listening to instructions (Photo Credit: (21, 22) Ms Kamila, (23) Ms Francoise)

Featured Image Credit: Borderlands Team