Photos & Words by Owen Vincent
Our first excursion day on Ridgelines to Coastlines paddling cohort was an absolute blast. We met at Derby on a beautiful (and oddly warm) morning at 8:00 Am to sort out gear and introduce ourselves to the excursion leader.
Shortly after we were taken to Cadboro bay where-in we would spend the day learning some of the basic paddling skills necessary for our end-of-year 6 day paddling trip. We were taught everything as basic as a simple forward stroke, to much more complicated strokes, such as sculling. After a busy morning we came in to have lunch at around 12, giving us roughly 30 minutes to enjoy a beachside picnic.
Soon after we were back at it launching our boats again for the afternoon’s session. With the winds picking up slightly it made for some interesting attempts at forming rafts, while also forcing us to wear neoprene paddling caps, which may not be in fashion, but are incredibly cozy. We finished off the afternoon session by practicing wet exits and re-entrances in a sheltered corner of the bay. While I believe we all successfully completed both a wet exit and re-entrance, there were apparently some questionable techniques from the whole group, but it's all part of the learning experience.
To wrap up the day we were picked up from the peppers grocery store in Cadboro Bay (after grabbing a few snacks) at 2:45 to be brought back to derby for 3. We rinsed off all the gear and hung it up to dry, ensuring it would be ready to go for our next expedition day.
All in all the day as a whole was incredibly eventful and in my opinion a complete success, having learned new skills while enjoying the outdoors I personally can’t wait for the next outing.