In the past three weeks, students in the SJSU Beginning Kayaking class have seen an assortment of birds including blue and black-crowned night herons, egrets, curlews, and a pair of bald eagles nesting, and an otter, all while paddling their own kayaks in class.  Previous classes have seen a beaver, coyotes, a seal haul out with over 50 seals, and have had a huge flock of plovers fly right though our group about 2′ off the water.  The sound of thousands of wings was amazing! In addition, they are studying the effects of wind, tide and currents on kayaking, so that they are appropriately confident to go out on their own after the course is completed.  Paddling starts on fresh water (at places such as Calero, Anderson, Lexington, and Stevens Creek) and then goes to various sloughs in the bay at Alviso, Newark, Palo Alto, and ends with a 9 mile paddle at Redwood City.

Students help each other unload kayaks and get ready to paddle each week, but start off by assisting each other in the pool when they have their swim test, capsize and re-entry test.  In this way, very strong bonds are built up and the students get to know each other really well by the end of the course.  Learning about sea level rise, and seeing what may be the likely effect very close to home is an important part of the class, as is a trash pick up day (almost always, the most numerous items picked up are bottles, and soccer, softball, basketball, volleyball, and tennis balls).  At Alviso, they see the still-active shrimp boat fleet and learn about the old port of Alviso and the steamers that used to be the most reliable way to get from the south bay to San Francisco.

For most students, even lifetime residents, this is their first time out on San Francisco Bay and some take a little while to grasp that this is, in fact, the ocean!  Yes, it is salty and yes it does have tides!!  When you’re out under the old Dumbarton Rail Bridge, and you see that all the buildings seem to be right at sea level, it’s a sobering thought to realize what any sea level rise will do.

So in addition to the friends made, the fitness gains achieved over 15 weeks through strenuous paddling, and the huge stress relief that three hours of being “apart” from the frenzied world of Silicon Valley brings, these students learn about local history and wildlife, almost by osmosis!

by Dr. Shirley Reekie.