Kayaks,Canadians and Confidence

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Having spent the morning doing the sea plane thing (centurylong), we found another activity to do in Vancouver that afternoon. This was Kayaking, when i first saw that we could Kayak in the Pacific ocean i figured this would be a lot of fun, after all it was new (to me anyway), it was adventurous and this trip is all about things like that. I persuaded Elaine to also do it (it wouldn't be as much fun on your own) and we paid for Kayaks for two hours. (centurylong)

However when we actually went down to the jetty to get into the boats, i got really nervous, when i sat in the boat i felt so nervous it was like i just wanted to get out and forget about it (despite this whole thing having been my idea and me showing great enthusiasm initially). Elaine was fine and she kayaked away telling me it was fine that i clearly did not want to do it. I was still by the docking area and i told the guy that i would do it. He advised me to stay with Elaine and to come in if i found it too hard (typical Canadian - a really nice guy). However when i paddled out into the creek that led out to the Pacific (False Creek in case anyone reading this knows Vancouver), not only were there many huge boats out there (speedboats, cruisers, even cargo ships) the area in which i was was huge (well for a first timer it was anyway). Worse however was the fact that there was no sign of Elaine, so i was now out there, never having done it before, huge boats there and no sign of her. Needless to say i was a bit freaked out, especially given how nervous i was about the whole thing anyway. So i nervously turned myself around and went back to the docks. The guy who sent us out then offered to come out there with me to find her (and this was at no extra charge either). We went out there and he gave me a few more pointers and suddenly i started to do it really well. We found Elaine quickly (who had gone out quite far but quickly decided to come back when she found herself surrounded by so much (deep, cold) water. Anyway, now that we were together the guy in the boat wemt back and Elaine and i kayaked away. It was weird because i really felt my confidence start to grow as i continued to do it and whats more the views were brilliant, it was dusk adn the city was starting to get darker, and Vancouver at nightfall is stunning to look at (actually the whole city is really stunning anyway but at night its really good).

The best thing about all this though is that during the course of this experience i felt my own confidence grow, i know it was only something as simple as kayaking but to me this is cool because i felt as if i was gaining something that i wanted to gain on this trip and that is more confidence in myself. This little part of it will hopefully represent the end result of the trip as a whole and i will be a more confident person afterwards.

I was on a bit of a high after we left the kayaking place and felt really good. Elaine said that i looked so terrified when i first got in the kayak that she would have taken a great photo (if she had her camera) but afterwards i was just really keen to do the whole thing again.

Another great Vancouver experience.

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