Kayaking and Boatbuilding Adventure (on hiatus until 2013)
This 16-day adventure travel course offers teenagers from diverse
backgrounds the opportunity to explore our coastal waterways, learn primitive camping skills, build a traditional Inuit kayak (called an iqyak), and embrace the 10,000 year old tradition of kayaking!
This journey begins on San Francisco Bay where participants fine-tune the foundations of sea kayaking. Learning to work as a team, the group travels to Angel Island to live in a Civil War era building and learn about the human and natural history of the Bay. Next, the team travels to a beautiful private ranch in Mendocino to embrace their creative side and tune into nature. They build a wood-frame kayak and learn primitive camping skills. Once their kayak is complete, participants take it on a maiden voyage into the magical waters of Tomales Bay. On this expedition trip, the team learns to embrace the wisdom of the elders and consider how to move into the future as wiser stewards of the earth.
Itinerary
- Day 1 Participants meet in San Francisco and begin the day with icebreaker games and goal setting. We will travel by van to Sausalito where we are introduced to essential kayaking skills and rescues. In the evening we hold our first nightly council circle, divide into teams and establish leadership roles.
- Days 2-4 We put our new skills into action as we kayak on beautiful San Francisco Bay to Angel Island, our new home for two nights. We will explore this unique island by foot and by boat. Much of what we learn comes from each other, and we will continue to grow as a team as we develop our communication skills, our kayaking skills, and explore the history of kayaking in San Francisco Bay.
- Days 5-11 We pack up and travel north to a private ranch in the Mendocino wilderness. This is where we begin to embrace the ancient tradition of the first kayakers. As we learn to live simply and close to nature, we will spend our nights sleeping outdoors and our days learning primitive skills while building a traditional kayak called an Iqyak. Building an Iqyak is a fun and creative process! As a team, we learn to cut and sand wood, and how to heat it to bend into shape. We will learn many knots to use thousands of them to tie the pieces of our boat into position. We will eventually give it a "skin" and sew the shell of our boat into place. Our project is complete by making our boat waterproof. Then it will be time to see if our creation floats!
- Days 12-15 The last leg of our trip takes us to Point Reyes National Sea Shore and Tomales Bay. We will pack a fleet of kayaks full of everything we need to spend the next three nights. Then we launch our newly built Iqyak and join its maiden voyage as we travel to our new home on the beaches of Tomales Bay. We will take time to connect to the nature around us and reflect on our relationships with each other and the earth.
- Day 16 Graduation Day! This is a potluck gathering in San Francisco. We invite our friends and family to watch a slideshow of our adventure, and share with them the highlights of our journey and the lessons we have learned.
“Here’s seven strangers from much different cities and backgrounds who at the end of the trip have become family. At ETC, respect for others is a daily requirement. But respect for myself, before ETC, was pretty hard. I didn’t really know how to say no to my old group of ‘friends’ when they asked me to go party or to go smoke, because of the fact that I wanted to be ‘cool.’ ETC is a place where you don’t need to be wearing your so-called ‘cool cap’ at all. Everyone can be themselves..”
Carlos Medrano, Youth LEAD Graduate
