A few kilometers off the Mediterranean coast of France, we listen to Arnaud direct us to paddle towards him and use forward sweep stokes and edging to turn sharply around his kayak. Next we are off paddling backwards downwind, trying to keep the boat straight without ruddering. The sky is brilliant blue, the craggy Pyrenees visible to the west, the Alps to the east. It feels so good to cleave the sea in a kayak again after a month away, no matter that I understand only a tenth of what my instructor says. How fortunate Ellen and I are to find a welcoming group of kayakers to get us on the water on a few days’ notice. Here’s how it happened.
After visiting the Palavas Kayak de Mer club Sunday and being invited to this class for Wednesday, we faced the problem of how to get our gear to the club, 9 miles away. At home, it seems so easy to throw a bin of gear in the car and drive off. But in Montpellier, our bikes must do the job. Clearly our panniers could not hold our dry suits, booties, warm clothing, and other accessories, not to mention our paddles. I spent Tuesday afternoon experimenting, loading everything we would use on the water in a travel pack with the shoulder straps tucked in a pocket and the waist belt fastened around the seat post of the bike. Bungees secure it to the rear bike rack, and the paddle shafts stick out waaayyy behind. The panniers are reserved for our dry stuff. Here’s what it looked like early Wednesday morning as we pedaled along the levee of the River Lez.
Ellen was not tempted to tailgate, given the size of my tail.
It worked pretty well, only sliding off to the side once on the way out, and not at all on the return. In less than 50 minutes, we reached Palavas Kayak de Mer. Here is the GPS track on a Google map if you want to explore the area yourself. (May take some time to load, but then you can zoom and scroll to explore, or click on the icon in the upper right to open a larger version. Ignore the elevation/distance profile, which is screwed up.)
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Located on bank of the River Lez just before the town of Palavas-les-Flots, the Palavas Kayak de Mer club has a fenced yard and large warehouse for gear, toilets, changing rooms, and hot showers (!). Upstairs is a heated clubhouse for socializing and eating, with tables, easy chairs, a bar, and kitchenette. Skylights and a window overlooking the river make it a bright and pleasant space.
Most of the kayaks are stored outside under a shed roof. Each kayak is numbered and is stored in a spot with that number on the rack.
Antoine directs paddlers to head for the dock for the afternoon class.
A floating dock makes launching easy. In the distance is Palava-les-Flots and the mouth of the river.
So how does this club work? It is managed by two paid staff, Arnaud and Antoine, who seem to have created a huge smoothly running operation. Every Saturday and Wednesday, they teach a sea kayaking class for experienced kayakers in the morning and a class for beginners in the afternoon. The club has lots (40 or more?) of plastic Necky kayaks of several models. PFDs, paddles, and spray skirts are provided, but many experienced paddlers have their own higher quality gear. Some paddlers also have their own private boats stored at the club. The club also features surf skis and Polynesian canoes, so it is more diverse than just sea kayaking. The cost is 200 Euros per year (about $270 US), including insurance, unlimited boat use, and the lessons mentioned above. There are currently about 300 active members, drawn from a metropolitan area of about 530,000 population. However there are other similar clubs in that area, including several river kayaking clubs and another sea kayaking club in nearby Sete. By comparison, our Bay Area Sea Kayakers (BASK) has 500 members drawn from a Bay Area population of over 7 million (and costs only $25/year). This membership at Palavas is really impressive, and I think it has a lot to do with making it easy for people to join who lack homes to store kayaks, cars to transport them, or the money to buy them. Lots of members arrive by bike or public transit. But the club seems similar to our local BASK club in one important way – it is very friendly, sociable, and interested in good food!
So in no time we were on the water with about a dozen experienced paddlers and our instructor, Arnaud. He led us downriver through downtown to the mouth and out into the Med. It was a very flat day, with a light northwest breeze and waves a foot or less. We practiced various maneuvers and had some discussion of compass headings, effects of different wind directions on sea conditions, and perhaps some topics I missed:-) We did get some translating help from a classmate, Francois. Arnaud gave us individual feedback on our strokes and was very competent and inspiring as a teacher. On the way back up river, we were surprised by the ebb current. This area has minimal lunar tides, but gets wind tides depending on wind strength and direction. The northwest wind we had pushes water out of the lagoons into the Med, and the river is one of the few connections so it gets a lot of the flow. But the wind was so light we didn’t expect much movement. We have a lot to learn about local conditions.
After our lesson, we eat lunch in the clubhouse.
Another view, with the bar/kitchenette on the left and window overlooking the river on the far wall
Back at the dock we quickly rinsed off gear and changed for lunch. A birthday was celebrated with wine and we shared some chocolate with the group. This class was the first opportunity Arnaud had to judge our skill level, and he seemed very pleased with our boat handling even though the conditions were quite benign. He and Antoine then explained that we are now free to use the boats independently as we wish, a big hurdle cleared. There wasn’t time to do all the paperwork, so we’ll handle that next time and get the code to the facility to allow us entry even when no one else is around. We received a quick orientation to paddling areas and restricted areas, but we really want to paddle with others until we have a better sense of the local terrain and conditions. From the club, one can paddle the sea, the canal, the river, the lagoons, and any combination of the above depending on conditions and interest. Very cool to have this opportunity. And they made it so easy!
As we packed our clean (but still wet) gear back on the bikes for the ride home, we watched the afternoon class launching at the dock. About five kids in small river kayaks (with a young adult) headed off to the canal, separate from the beginning sea kayak class. We haven’t learned yet what they were up to.
Our understanding of this club may be imperfect, much like the blind men describing an elephant, but we sure are impressed so far.