SKA Blog

Sea Kayak Adventures office staff member and first time kayaker Amber Crane recently returned from a tour in Baja (Oct 30-Nov 4, 2011).  She will chronicle her adventures in a new blog series:

Voyage of a Novice Kayaker

Part 4: Baja Bliss

The first few minutes of kayaking started, as with all new ventures, with adjustments.  It took time to figure out where to brace my knees, make the most of every stroke, and keep paddling while taking in the sights. However, even as we acclimated to kayaking, fortune smiled upon our group.  Within a few minutes and just a few hundred feet of our launch site, I spotted a sea turtle bobbing at the surface of the water, surveying us.  She lingered for a short time as we gasped, pointed, and fumbled for cameras, before deciding we were of little interest to turtles and diving out of sight.  “This group has good karma,” Alex remarked.

Just 15 minutes later, I stuttered and pointed again, trying to expel words faster than my brain could provide them.  A huge splash announced the leap of a flying mobula ray.  I was downright giddy with excitement at this point, as these strange creatures were at the top of my wildlife bucket list.  These rays often travel in large groups during the spring which are more easily spotted than single jumpers, so I feel quite privileged to have seen one leap in front of my eyes.

Sea Kayak Adventures office staff member and first time kayaker Amber Crane recently returned from a tour in Baja (Oct 30-Nov 4, 2011).  She will chronicle her adventures in a new blog series:

Voyage of a Novice Kayaker

Part 3: Isn't it time you talked about the actual trip?

My Baja kayak trip began with a 2:00am alarm to catch a 5:00am flight that would deposit me at LAX in time for the only flight to Loreto on Sunday, October 30, 2011.  Upon Sea Kayak Adventures’ recommendation, I took only a carry-on bag with my clothing and thus whisked through my connections without the concern of relinquishing my carefully-packed duffel to the vortex of lost airport luggage.

Red-eyed but energized, I plopped into my window seat for the LAX to LTO flight and watched, awestruck, as the scenery below blurred from chaotic Los Angeles to vivacious Tijuana to coarse desert.  Scrub and brush melted into flowing sand from which mountain peaks crawled to the sky, hues of red and tan bursting against the azure sea.  The deep turquoise of the ocean was interrupted where cream-colored sand flowed down from the mountain peaks to form a beach. In these picturesque places, the ocean appeared as a bright, shocking aqua, as if someone had poured a pool of blue highlighter fluid over the water. I could only marvel over nature’s surreal palette.

Sea Kayak Adventures office staff member and first time kayaker Amber Crane just returned from a tour in Baja (Oct 30-Nov 4, 2011).  She will chronicle her adventures in a new blog series:

Voyage of a Novice Kayaker

Part 2: Do as I say, not as I did – Trip Preparation

I didn’t do everything wrong on my Baja trip.  After all, I had the time of my life!  I just don’t recommend pinning the success of your tour on my misadventures. Consequently, I bestow this blog to fellow nervous-novices that you might glean from it the fruits of my foibles.

As mentioned in my last blog, took a proactive approach to my upcoming trip that worked quite well, initially. I familiarized myself with a sea kayak prior to my departure and increased my upper body strength.  I talked through my concerns and asked questions about anything of which I was unsure. (I must confess, I didn’t even know what a ‘dry bag’ was when I started working for Sea Kayak Adventures!)  I joined a trip that had motorboat-support, which was a luxurious addition and support to make up for my minimal camping and paddling experience.  I read through the pre-trip e-mail and thoroughly combed through every page of the trip guide with devotion and studious measure.

…Okay, okay, I actually just browsed through the first through pages, tore out the pack list, and then flipped through to look at all of the animal pictures.

Sea Kayak Adventures office staff member and first time kayaker Amber Crane just returned from a tour in Baja (Oct 30-Nov 4, 2011).  She will chronicle her adventures in a new blog series:

Voyage of a Novice Kayaker

Part 1: Wait, what do you mean by ‘sea kayak?’

Kayak? On the ocean?  Like, where the big fish live?

I confess, when I first joined the office staff at Sea Kayak Adventures this past August and received the generous opportunity to join a trip this fall to Baja, my first thoughts were not of starlit sand or diving dolphins. 26 years of media influence and land-locked living ensured I possessed a healthy caution of open waters and the untamed inhabitants therein.  Consequently, the thought of strapping myself into a sliver of fiberglass and hovering like a delectable hors d'oeuvre above hundreds of feet of water containing what I could only assume would be a swirling mass of “things-that-might-eat-me” seemed, quite simply, impractical.

That SKA owners Terry Prichard and Nancy Mertz have led kayak expeditions in the Sea of Cortez for over 25 years (and operated their business there with thousands of guests since 1993) without anyone swallowed by a whale (most of which, I later learned, are of the peaceful baleen variety) didn’t soothe the stirrings of my survival instinct. As much as I aimed for intellectual suppression of my irrational fears, I remained committed the administrative end of the Baja sunshine: from the safety of my computer screen with my feet firmly on solid ground.

And then I saw the pictures.