by Stave Landers
A group of ten paddlers from Prairie Coast Paddlers (and CASKA) recently went to Tybee Island, Georgia for a week of paddling in the Atlantic and intercoastal waters. Along with was Christopher Lockyer, a 5-star coach from Halifax, Nova Scotia. Chris was able to fill in on short notice when Geneva Kayak's Ryan Rushton wasn't able to go, as originally planned. I guess he had someone who was supposed to run a snowshoe weekend for him cancel and he had to do that trip instead. Chris proved to be more than capable and fit in with the group quite easily. I'm sure we wouldn't hesitate working with him again.
Bill and Sarah did most of the legwork putting the trip together, arranging for lodging, carpooling, buying the groceries, getting money from everyone, and the countless other things that have to be done putting a trip like this together. Kudos to them for a job well done.
Also along were Dan Leigh, Marian Chase, Nate Strong (from Kalamazoo), Doug Thomas, Harriet Krup, John Gabris, Kristine and myself. Doug and Harriet paddled the week prior to Tybee down in alligator swampland, so they drove up from there. Nate drove with Sarah and they picked Chris up from the airport in Atlanta. Chris caught the only plane out of Nova Scotia that day because of snowstorms. He had similar luck on his return trip, having to stay an extended time in Toronto. Kristine and I drove together, staying in Nashville before and after the trip. We paddled Percy Priest Lake one day, it's sort of a typical reservoir, much like Lake Shelbyville, Carlyle, and Rend here in Illinois. The remainder of the group drove together in Bill's F-150. He also towed most of the boats using a trailer borrowed from Dave Kaknes. Dave and his wife were forced to cancel going because of illness in the family. He was nice enough to let Bill borrow the trailer.
The week at Tybee is pretty much a blur to me. We paddled every day, about equally in the backwater marsh and river areas, and on the ocean. I don't think total mileage for the week was over thirty miles. The longest trek of the trip was just under sixteen when we paddled from Savannah through a series of interconnecting rivers to the south side of Tybee Island, just blocks from the two story rental house where we were staying. On this particular day we worked on navigation, and everyone took turns leading the group....although a couple of us might have been off a ways ahead of the group some of the time. Guilty.
Everyday Chris put together a lesson, or lessons, to work on for the day. This surprised me. I had thought going there that it was going to be totally unstructured. It worked out for the best having a plan for the day and he was quite flexible about what we could work on. We were also encouraged to pick his brains on whatever we chose. He was totally flexible and accommodating. I think his instruction was very valuable and benefitted everyone. Throughout the week we worked on strokes, paddling in surf, navigation, forward paddling with video analysis, surfing, tidal cycles, and a myriad of other things. I think everyone had different things that they took out of the week, and different favorite days. I know that Kris and I differed in the days we each considered the best. My favorite day was Wednesday, Feb. 13, when we had a few hours to play in the surf. We had 4-5 foot waves for a few hours before they died off. There were quite a few surfers out that day as well.
Speaking of that day, I learned a valuable lesson, and I'm not sure many people other than Bill and I know what that was. We had eight of us surfing that morning, which included Chris. Waves, like I said were 4-5, the good ones anyway. The group was fairly spread out along the beach area, to the north of the pier on Christopher's recommendation that we avoid a rip tide area and another area where the ebbing tide would take us out to sea if we ventured too far south. The areas where the best waves were occurring was constantly shifting. Bill and I had paddled a little farther south, towards the pier, in an effort to catch better waves, which we were able to do.
Bill and I were together, waiting to catch a wave, sitting maybe a hundred yards or so offshore. These ocean waves were different than Lake Michigan waves, they were harder to catch for some reason. You had to not just sit and wait for a wave, but had to be paddling in and have some momentum, and then paddle like hell to catch the wave as a good one approached, not just sit there and immediately try to catch a wave. At least that was my experience with Big Red. As Bill and I waited, he took off and caught a good wave and surfed in. I caught the next wave, about 4-5 seconds behind his, and also was able to surf in. Towards the end of his ride Bill capsized, rolled, uprighted himself and began paddling -- opposite to the direction that we normally were breaking off the waves. He told me this afterwards, I was concentrating on my wave, staying upright and wasn't watching what was going on with him. (Hmmmm, maybe this is why he hasn't written a trip report yet, he wanted to see my confession in print).
Just as Bill had uprighted himself, along I came and T-boned his kayak, sliding up on his front deck, at least three-four feet from the front of my kayak, and only two feet from where he sat. I don't know who was more shocked. Judging by the look on his face I'd say Bill was. After some maneuvering we were able to disengage the kayaks and paddle off. Bill's boat has some new scratches on the front deck. Fortunately that was all that it had, it could have been a serious accident if I had speared him. What I should have done, and I know this because it's been taught to me, was to dump immediately when I saw Bill crossing in front of me. I know that if you hit someone coming in it's your fault no matter what. I can't explain why I didn't, it happened too fast, I wasn't keeping an eye out for him, I misjudged our paths...not sure. The most important thing was that I should've waited a longer interval before trying to catch a wave behind him.
The accommodations that we had on Tybee were quite nice. There were five bedrooms, three baths. Breakfasts and dinners, all but one, were cooked at the house. We ate well. Everyone took turns cooking, cleaning, helping out, making coffee, and the like. Harriet, who is a wonderful cook, was the kitchen manager for the week, assigning a cooking schedule and tasks for everyone. No one was hesitant in offering to help. Thursday night we ate at AJ's, which was just up the block from the house.
I think everyone had a really good time. The group got along very well together. I can't wait to do it again! Where are we going next year?