Paddling with
Giants By Aya Kristina Engel
There’s nothing in life I love more than paddling to a remote island, harvesting seafood from the area and cooking it over a campfire, then sleeping on the beach. This is my happy place. So this summer, my friends and I decided to go to the northern tip of Vancouver Island to a place called the Broughton Archipelago. We launched from Telegraph Cove, a remote fishing village known for whale tours, big salmon runs and whales gal-ore!
We loaded our inflatable stand-up paddle board with everything needed for a week (including water). Camping gear, food, whiskey, hot chocolate; all the goods, and set off for adventure. Day 1 and 2 we sought out whales. We tuned our radios to channel 7 (the whale watching station) and paddled in the direction of humpback activity. We heard spouts and paddled closer, soon we were surrounded. For about three hours we had several pods of humpbacks circling us! We kept trying to get closer while still paddling cautiously, because you never really know where they are or what they’ll do next. And they are SO GIANT! It is intimidating. Standing on our boards, we could hear them moan, and sing! Then all of a sudden, a humpback did a FULL BREACH (a full jump) out from the water, in front of mine and Ariane Tasca’s boards! We froze in shock of the enormity of this ancient giant creature being playful with us. Imagine a whale, the size of a semi-truck, jumping out of the water, while you are on a vulnerable inflatable paddle board. We had to react quickly because the breach caused waves in the water that could have easily knocked us over. I felt so small.
I’ll remember that moment for the rest of my life. Day 3 we paddled east when Valtteri Rantala spotted a large black bear on the beach. We paddled right up and found him turning rocks, feasting on crabs. The bear couldn’t care less about our presence and was clearly focused on lunch. Fun Fact: There is a narrow window of time when the eating is good for bears on the beach at very low tide, when the marine life is more exposed. We left the bear breakfast scene, which felt like something right out of National Geographic, then 15 minutes later we spotted our first pod of dolphins! We paddled hard to get closer, and then THEY changed direction and came toward us! All of a sudden they were right beside our boards! But they were fast, and it all happened so quickly, then they were off again.
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