The Song

Just like the other blogs I have a few songs to for you to listen to. This time, I want you to plug in:

Water by Bicep, Clara La San

The Kayak and Waves

This goes back to when I was travelling in Australia. It’s an experience that I found amazing and was one of the highlights of my trips.

As part of a group tour travelling the east coast, we could pay for add on activities, one of them being a dolphin Kayak trip.

As said in other blogs, I went to Australia to experience something new and I didn’t want to go home regretting not doing something, so I booked the Kayak activity.

It was a beautiful sunny day, boiling hot but became quite cloudy as we came to the kayak area.

It was a run down looking trailer that we came up to, I can’t remember the company name but there were two young lads and the owner.

They did the safety brief, explained what we would be doing and how we would be trying to get dolphins swimming with us. The owner said that the dolphins like it best when the kayaks are grouped together like a pack and told us to keep that in mind.

The stretch of water we kayaked in was notorious for dolphins, big waves and one of the most famous animals in Australia, sharks.

So, after the brief we then dragged the kayak and oars all the way to the sea (which was a fair distance as it was low tide). I was paired with one of the young lads who worked there so he went off to help everyone set off into the sea whilst I held the kayak in the water.

It then started to rain which wasn’t awful as I was already in my swimming trunks and it was very hot still.

As people were paddling away, I looked out at this huge bay.

Bright green trees outlined the landscape, with a deep grey cloudy sky and beautiful clear water as far as the eye could see.

It’s a place I would love to go back to.

Anyway, I see the guy walk back to where I was stood, we were last out. We waded into the water, pushing through the waves until we jumped into the kayak and started paddling over the remaining waves till we joined the group about 100m from the shore. We got to the group and started paddling along the coast.

As we went, the owner gave us information about the sea, dolphins, the coast etc and told us we needed to make high pitched dolphin noises to get them to come (he was joking). After 20 minutes, we reached an area at the end of the headland where the surfers were. 20 metres in front was where huge waves were breaking and the surfers were catching them which was quite impressive.

We paddled around the waves further out to sea to try and find the dolphins. We had seen a couple on the way but they were a fair way out and no where near a close distance to us.

We stopped at the far end of the bay, the huge waves behind us and he said we were going to have to turn around but to not worry as we still had time to see dolphins and, there was a very fun part coming up.

Behind the huge waves was where we needed to be but the waves were still building up where we were. Every 10-20 seconds you would be lifted high and then dropped as a wave passed beneath you.

The owner explained that if we started paddling in the same direction as an upcoming wave, you could potentially catch it before it broke and ride it back along the coast, like you would do with body surfing except the wave doesn't break. Just for reference, these unbroken waves were still a good 10 feet high.

So, the rest of the group started paddling along but we held back as we had to make sure everyone was ok.

Finally once everyone was a fair distance away, myself and the Aussy were waiting for a decent wave. We lined it up as we saw a huge couple of waves behind us. As it approached I felt myself itching to start paddling but I waited for the Australian to tell me when.

The wave was about 10 metres away, and the guy shouted for me to start paddling.

We both paddled as hard as we could, and as we did I felt the kayak lift up higher and higher and get faster and faster. We then caught the wave and were genuinely going at like 30mph which on a kayak feels pretty fast.

We were flying towards our group, it felt like a rollercoaster as we glided along with this wave. It was amazing and extremely satisfying.

We did this a few more times until it was time to catch the last wave. Again, we paddled hard and caught it.

This one was huge, I felt like I was at least 15ft above water and then right in front of my eyes I realise that the owners kayak was in our path.

30 metres.

20 metres.

10 metres.

We were still going rapid as we approached the owner. Were we going to slow down in time I thought?

Luckily, somehow the speed just died from under us and we stopped maybe 3 metres from him.

Feeling completely buzzing from all of that, we got the group to come together and we waited for a bit to see if any dolphins would come near. He said we should get in the water and try to listen for their clicks from under the water.

Some people said they could hear it, I couldn’t.

I’m not going to lie, whilst I was in the water, I couldn’t stop thinking that there could be a shark hiding under me in this deep blue water.

After 10 minutes and no luck, we got back in the kayak and started paddling again.

As we are paddling I turn around and see this dark grey fin poking out of the water behind us.

I shout “shark!” like an idiot. Turned out it was a dolphin!

They all appeared out of no where all of a sudden, swimming under our kayaks and we paddled with them.

It was truly amazing to see them right next to me in the water.

After a good few minutes of paddling with them, we moved back into shore and the day was done.

Moral of the story 

If any of you are near the sea and fancy trying something new, a kayak can be so much more than just paddling around.

For me it unlocked seeing dolphins, catching waves and primarily allowing me to be on the water without fear of a shark eating me.

Moral of the story, don't be afraid to try something new. You never know when something as simple as kayaking can surprise you.