Posts in kayak adventures

Well, as of last Friday, we have finished our kayaking season. So it's time for some transitions for everyone.

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to bake bread with a novice baker, and I was surprised by how much it taught me about kayaking. In particular, it showed me how respecting imprecision can demonstrate mastery rather than uncertainty.

Today I led my first solo morning trip, and it was lovely. Wildlife was really out in force, including two humpback whale flukes plus lots of sea lions. On this trip, we had two launches and two landings. Most of those went well, but one went off the rails a bit. In the end it was fine, but it really drove home one point: rudders and communication need to go hand in hand.

Today I led my first solo full-day trip to Aialik Bay! It was a blast, and I'm fairly sure all my guests had a good time out there. It was my first experience with mixing groups in boats, and I think it worked out quite well. So I wanted to share a little about the reasoning behind my decision and how it worked out in the end.

I have exciting news: I'm now allowed to run trips on my own! I checked out over the past two days, so I can lead trips in both Resurrection and Aialik Bays. This evening was my first solo trip as a lead guide, and it was pretty interesting. In particular, we didn't end up seeing much wildlife, but people still had an awesome time. We chatted about the history of the area, exchanged stories of heroism (that serum run to Nome in 1925), and generally soaked up the scenery. It's so cool to have the flexibility to really make a trip fit the people going on it, rather than forcing everyone into the same mold. On the whole, it was a great first solo trip! I look forward to continuing to learn from every trip I lead.

I had the dubious pleasure today of ending a trip early. We talk a lot about safety during training, and it became pretty clear that I couldn't keep this group of clients safe in the long run if we stayed out on the water. So we ended the trip early and came back to shore. This was a fabulous learning experience for me. It also showed me how well-prepared I actually am to keep people safe out there. On the whole, I'm proud of my actions, though there's plenty I would do differently next time. Here's how the whole thing went down.

I was pretty unsatisfied with my first take on glaciers 101. Here's another attempt, after letting that stew for a while.

Glaciers 101

Glaciers are massive bodies of moving ice. Their scale is enormous, so it's easiest to understand them in comparison to more familiar topics.

Before I can start getting checked out as a guide, I need to pitch five tarps, practice my "beach speech" five times, and try out five glacier talks. I discussed these glacier talks a little while ago in the context of thematic interpretation. I need to be prepared to give two different "glacier talks." The first is an introduction to glaciers, and the second is elaborating on that to feed into a theme. Imagine that I'm delivering these out on the water, in nearby Aialik Bay.

On our training trip, we all learned a ton. Much of that learning came from our peers. Sometimes that meant someone "flipping their boat" (jumping out of it) because they were left unattended on a launch. Sometimes it meant our friends feeling cold because we'd forgotten hot water. But one learning experience stands out as entirely provided by mother nature. We had an unplanned lightning drill on our third day. It was a nerve-wracking experience, but it also showed us how well our training prepared us, and brought us closer together through a shared experience.

Our season started yesterday! I was lucky enough to shadow a trip with Erin and Tyler, another new guide. We were told in no uncertain terms to sit back and let Erin do her thing. It's important for us to learn packing strategies, interpretation outlines, and client interactions before we dive in and try it ourselves. I was pretty surprised, though, at how hard it was to sit back and absorb. We're both just so excited about sharing some of the many things we've learned recently!

A few things I got out of this first shadow:

Yesterday night we got back to Seward from our five-day training trip. It's hard to describe how amazing this trip was. I learned a ton, practiced important skills, and generally forged intellectual and emotional connections to these amazing fjords we call home. I'm planning several posts about it – there's no way it would all fit in one! For now, I just want to set the scene and give a glimpse of how awesome it was.

At Kayak Adventures, we are proud members of One Percent for the Planet. That means we donate 1% of our annual sales to environmental groups in our area. To be clear, that's sales, not profits, which is a pretty big deal. Regardless of whether we actually make money, we donate 1% of the money guests pay us to Alaskan foundations. We have three that guests can choose between, and today we were able to visit one of them: the Alaska Conservation Foundation (ACF).

I've mentioned a couple of times how the Hand of God rescue was coming up in training. This rescue is useful as a rescue for unconscious kayakers who have flipped over. It's tricky – the "swimmer" can't help you at all, so it requires excellent leverage and a good amount of force. Practicing it involves waiting upside-down in your boat until a rescuer grabs you and flips your boat over, like the hand of a god descending to save you. As you may recall, being upside-down in the water has really challenged me in the past. So to be frank, I'd been dreading the Hand of God rescue for days. It kept being delayed, building up the suspense and nerves. But today was the day. It was our last training drysuit session, so this was our last chance.

Our top priority as guides is always keeping our clients safe. One key way we do that is by understanding tides, weather patterns, wind, and waves. After slowly putting some of these things together, today we had a culminating lecture discussing wind, waves, and currents in our area. There's way too much to put in one post, but my favorite discussion had to do with coastal convergence.

A few days ago, we started to discuss purposeful interpretation. This is crucial to our job as kayak guides: interpretation is how we share this area with guests and shape their experience here.

Interpretation means different things to different people. One definition I really like is from the National Association for Interpretation: "interpretation is a mission-based communication process that forges emotional and intellectual connections between the interests of the audience and the meanings inherent in the resource." See, our job isn't about teaching. It's about creating connection, about leaving guests with an emotional response to this place. And just like with public speaking, there are techniques you can use to make that happen.

Today was our first "real" kayaking day trip during training. I mentioned it briefly previously, when we had to cancel because of weather. But today was the day! It dawned bright, clear, and early. The weather turned out to be perfect, a solitary clear day between giant storms. Tides were fairly small and fine for our plan. In summary, it was an ideal day for a kayaking day trip!

Here at KAW, our most popular trip is our Aialik (pronounced eye-Y'ALL-ick) Glacier day trip. On the trip, we paddle right up to the face of Aialik Glacier. Aialik is a tidewater glacier, which means it comes right up to the ocean and drops chunks of ice in it. Today we had the chance to learn more about tidewater glacier dynamics from Luke Rosier, which was lovely. My favorite portion was a discussion of the tidewater glacier cycle, which causes tidewater glaciers to advance and retreat cyclically over centuries.

Today, guides at KAW had the enormous pleasure of meeting Dan Olsen, who researches killer whales in Alaska. It was amazing to hear from someone so knowledgeable about such an incredible animal. A few fun facts I learned about the killer whale:

Today was something of a hodgepodge. Our original schedule sent us on a day trip today, but the weather (25 knot winds and high seas) sadly made that impossible. Two of my favorite activities for the day were reading surface maps and experiencing the Seward community through my first First Friday.

Training today included history, self-rescues, and remote communication. I particularly enjoyed learning about marine radio communications. As kayakers, we mainly use the radio to communicate with larger boats that might not see us. In our area, guides use some channels to discuss wildlife sightings as well.

Remember how yesterday I said I wanted to work on underwater composure? My wish was granted today, with a series of rescue exercises. My favorite, and the one I struggled with the most, was the bow rescue, also known as a T-rescue.

Today was our much-anticipated first drysuit session! Up here, the water is a balmy 41 degrees Fahrenheit, which can make practicing tricky. To let us learn and play without fear of hypothermia, we train in drysuits. Over the course of training, we'll do six total drysuit sessions. Today was session number one, and it included basic strokes, balance exercises, and assisted re-entry.

Out on the water, waves are kind of a big deal. And there's one type of wave that takes the cake in terms of consistency and impact: tides. The tidal cycle is the sloshing of water around the Earth caused by the combined gravitational attraction of the Moon (2/3 of the effect) and the Sun (1/3 of the effect).