Man vs Wild: How to survive falling out of a kayak

Date: June 6th, 2016
Location: Bahia Honda State Park

Today the Tropical Ospreys adventured out into the ocean, but this time not to scuba dive or snorkel but to kayak! We went to Bahia Honda State Park and after a short plant scavenger hunt we went off to get lunch from the concession stands (where they call hoagies a submarine....) and then we were off to go kayaking. Everyone was excited to go out for the adventure even the people who's first time it was. Today was also Cailin's first time kayaking, so I interviewed her to see how it went and this is what she had to say about her adventure...

1.) Getting into a kayak is hard enough, but staying in one is even harder. One small motion too far left or right, or even an unexpected wave and you can find yourself underwater in seconds. Cailin sadly had this happen to her today, but she got right back up and kept on going, determined to try out this new adventure with her fellow Tropical Ospreys. 

2.) If you dont have upper body strength, just dont go kayaking. It's hard enough to drag the kayak into the water from the top of the beach but to paddle the entire time is too much work. After 5 minutes out there you're ready to turn around because your arms are tired but if you stop paddling you wont go anywhere, unless you drift out to sea, and no one needs that. 

3.) It's very uncomfortable. The kayaks arent very big, especially the two person ones, and if your tall, forget it. Your legs start to hurt because they are cramped up inside of this tiny ocean vessel and theres not a real seat to rest in. You try to lean back and realize if you go too far you'll be laying down because theres no back support, so then your back starts to hurt and every position you try and sit in seems to be even more uncomfortable then the last. 

4.) The wind, currents, and the boats. Getting to learn how to kayak for the first time is hard enough but when you have to deal with changing currents, wind directions and boats speeding by it becomes a hassle. You finally get into the groove of how to kayak and all of a sudden your kayak is turning sideways and you dont know why and you try for 5 minutes to correct the wrong direction youre going in but nothing works. When you're on the brink of giving up, you FINALLY get the kayak going in the right direction again. Then the process all starts over agian.

5.) A plus side to kayaking is seeing wildlife. We parked our kayaks on a little sandbar and we looked at all of the different algaes we learned about in class and found ones we didnt learn about. As we were kayaking back Cailin noticed a pod of dolphins were right n front of her! We were all able to see them and follow them down the beach and we were kayaking. The whole group was excited to see all of the animals up close and personal today without having to dive underwater to look at them.

Even with some setbacks and sore body parts Cailin made it through the day and had a (sorta) fun time doing it! Who knows if she will ever try and kayak again but at least she can say that she tried and succeeded at her first time kayaking! We all knew you could do it. Stay tuned for the last and final installment of man vs wild, this one will be the best one yet...

To find out more about Bahia Honda State park click here.
To learn how to kayak click here.