We’re starting a series here on Canoe 52 to share some memorable “firsts” with you. On the first of the month, look for “The first time I…” posts. Hopefully you’ll find some helpful tips and maybe even laugh at the mistakes we made trying things for the first time. You never know what we’ll be sharing…
This month, I’d like to tell you about the first time I attempted to paddle a watercraft. My first attempt at paddling was not in a canoe; instead it was a tandem kayak. When Tony and I first graduated from college we decided to backpack Europe for an entire summer. Fifty six days, 10 countries, and we have no idea how many cities. Planning that trip was the beginning of our relationship, but that’s a whole other story!
Go Big or Go Home: Kayak the Mediterranean Sea
While we were in Europe we ate authentic food in small restaurants, visited all the historic sites, and slept in hostels with amazing people from around the globe. We traveled from country to country using the super-efficient EurRail system. About midway through our trip we arrived in the Cinque Terre; five fishing villages on the Italian Riviera. They are absolutely stunning. We stayed in a small bed and breakfast in Manarola and ate the best seafood we ever had in our lives. We traveled to the next village over, Riomaggiore, and decided to rent kayaks to explore the coast from the water.
Tony grew up canoeing so he had some experience paddling. I, on the other hand, had been in a row boat a few times on family vacations in Lake George, but it’d be hard to classify what I was doing as “helping.” A tandem kayak sounded like a great idea. Young love, working together, what could go wrong? We pushed off and started out pretty in sync as we paddled back towards Manarola. Feeling good about ourselves, we even attempted to navigate into a cave, spin around and come back out. We thought we were golden.
Tandem kayaking requires you to be in rhythm with your fellow paddler. Once you lose that rhythm you are heading down the path of either yelling or plotting how you will kick the other out of the kayak and into the Mediterranean. That’s the path we took. Paddles clanking together, moving backwards instead of forward, turning the wrong way and heading out to sea instead of towards the shore. We felt doom sinking in. It sunk in even more as the rain started coming down and we were drifting further away from the shore. We both summoned up some patience from somewhere deep inside and powered our way back to the dock; shouting out what side to paddle on as we went.
Lessons Learned: Know Your Role!
We obviously made it back and stuck together all this time so the outcome wasn’t so bad. We’ve just both agreed we will never tandem kayak again. One of the major problems that I can easily point out now is that we weren’t on the same page about who was supposed to take on what role. Experience has taught us that knowing what each person does is so important in a canoe, just as it would be in a kayak. Tony sits in the stern (back) so he is basically the captain. He steers the ship. I’m in the bow (front). My primary role is to provide power. I’m a tiny person, but my paddling helps us with speed. I also help navigate by calling out obstructions and directions for navigating currents and rapids. It’s a team effort, reliant on communication. Isn’t everything?
We also had no experience fighting the current. Going out was smooth paddling, coming back was against the tide. Since our trip, many moons ago, we’ve had plenty of successful and challenging paddles that involved fighting the tide, especially on the Connecticut River. More stories about that are yet to come!
