*I’ve had to do some re-numbering with my Florida Discoveries posts, so instead of re-numbering everything, I just stuck a “0.5” in there.
How many of you remember this video from Sesame Street?
For years and years and years this was my perception of kayaking. Being sealed into this fiberglass tube-thingy as if you have no legs and navigating river rapids. And of course being able to flip around like this guy (allegedly Jim Henson) does at the end.
Last week as a surprise for my sister and nephews, we borrowed a 2+ man ocean kayak from our friend/neighbor/former commander Mike D. This is different than the traditional, competition kayak that I was more familiar with (but had never done).
I’d been canoeing many times — Girl Scouting, in college, in Louisiana on the Sabine River — but kayaking is somewhat different, and in many cases it was easier.
The first day we took the kayak out to Navarre Beach, we were mortified at how tall the waves were in the Gulf (it was chilly and windy), so we packed everything up and ran about 500′ across the parking lot to the Santa Rosa Sound side where things were much calmer! We all took turns taking short trips out.
After my sister’s family left last weekend, we took a trip to the beach again, this time so Dave and the kids could try out the kayak. The gulf side was nice and calm, and we all got a chance to paddle out towards the dolphins!
Here are pictures from our two kayaking trips.
 |
| I believe it was a 130″ long kayak (just under 11′). So here’s how it looked packed into our suddenly-small-looking SUV. Luckily we were only transporting it about 5 miles, or 10 minutes drive. |
|