Sea kayaking to float your boat
In protected nooks near Peggy’s Cove, visitors have a swell time on the Atlantic
LOWER PROSPECT, N.S. — East Coast Outfitters guide Morgan Bettens figures there are three types of fun in this world.
Type 1 is “like when you go to the fair and don’t remember it that much because it was easy fun.”
Type 2 is “fun that you would look back on because it freaks you out a little bit but you gained something from it.”
Type 3 fun “is probably not fun at all and you suffer too much.”
Sea kayaking in early October with Bettens and crew on the Atlantic Ocean near Peggy’s Cove is definitely Type 2 fun.
It’s a gorgeous 15 C day with a blazing sun to keep us warm and a northwest wind of 10 to 15 knots that’s expected to climb to 20 to 25 knots.
I know nothing of knots, so gamely get “geared up” with a life-jacket and paddle and listen to Bettens explain how to paddle. I grew up canoeing and it looks like the dozen or so times I’ve kayaked, I’ve used the wrong technique. No matter. Our group launches double kayaks and sets off for a two-hour exploration of the area with the crew from East Coast Outfitters — Bettens, fellow guide Colin Smith and operations manager/guide Adam Zita, who handed out two-page waivers “mostly for EMS if things go completely sideways.”
Bettens calls out helpful advice on the water like “don’t paddle like a T-Rex” and “don’t paddle like Air Canada Jazz.” (I don’t actually know what that airline reference means.)
“As soon as you have control of the wind,” Bettens advises, “you have a better day kayaking.”
We alternate between paddling “into the wind” and “with the wind,” and take lots of breaks. Zita points out that this area has been a popular paddling spot since the-1970s and the company has been in business since 2001.
“It’s very protected,” he says of the area. “We’re on the Atlantic, but the open ocean is around the corner. You can spend the whole day behind the islands and not touch a swell.”
Smith, in a smaller “Greenland” kayak, shows off his Greenland-style rolling techniques — literally doing full rolls in both directions in his boat — and we paddle to Lower Prospect village to learn about the dangerous life of lobster fishermen.
It upsets me that fishermen apparently consider life jackets bad luck and drown if they fall overboard. We are snug in ours.
It’s gusty on the way back and I’m in the front of our double kayak, the spot that Bettens aptly describes as “making you feel like the mermaid on the front of a boat because you get the spray and the waves.”
The guides hedge when I ask if we “touched a swell.” The answer is yes, but they were less than a metre. A swell is a swell, I figure, and it turns out the other trips for the day have been cancelled because it’s too windy, so that gives us extra bragging rights.
“Today was a lot of Type 2 fun,” Bettens declares back on land, “and you all came out better people for it. You all went out in 25-knot wind and survived.” “Twenty knots,” Zita interjects. “Twenty-five with gusts,” Bettens shoots back.
Later, down the road at Peggy’s Cove, looking at the lighthouse that is Nova Scotia’s top tourist attraction, I am stressed by the number of people openly defying the fierce warning sign that says: “Danger: Sudden high waves. Drowning hazard. Keep off black rocks.”
Taking a second sign to heart — the one that says “Warning: Injury and death have rewarded careless sightseers here. The ocean and rocks are treacherous. Savour the sea from a distance” — I sit on a bench on a rock back by the road and calm myself with the Sou’Wester restaurant’s warm gingerbread cake with real whipped cream and lemon sauce.
It’s Type 1 fun, to be sure, but I’m good with that.
Jennifer Bain was hosted by Tourism Nova Scotia, Go Media and its partners, which did not review or approve this story.