Year 8 Camp: The Kayaking Controversy
By Ella Wong
Kayaking was a highlight of many year groups’ EOTC weeks, including Year 8. A fun and challenging activity, it develops student’s physical endurance as well as their collaboration skills.
But this year, the water sport has raised concern amongst Y8 students, mainly due to the strong winds and low temperatures (dropping to 17 degrees Celsius) that day.
For an anonymous Y8 student, “kayaking was fun but terrifying at the same time. I just feel it is quite dangerous to do water sports when there is strong wind.”
Her friend said the weather was “very cold and windy” on the days they kayaked and that she and her partner “almost went into the open sea because of the strong wind”.
The wind pushed kayaks off course, caused choppy waves, and created less-than-favourable weather conditions for water activities. This could have potentially been very dangerous, as students could have been pulled far from shore by the current, had their kayak tipped over by the wind, or been blown into rocks close to shore. Fortunately, no one was severely injured, and everyone safely returned to shore.
“Kayaking was a fun activity overall, but I feel like they [the camp instructors] could have handled the weather conditions differently,” says an anonymous Year 8 student.
Of these concerns, Giuliana Colarossi, Head of Year 8, says she does not think “students were ever unsafe at camp. We would never encourage students to participate in an activity where we ever felt they would be unsafe.” Students were allowed to make their own choices regarding whether or not they wanted to kayak.
She adds that “students were chaperoned by multiple staff members who were trained to manage the conditions present at the camp.”
Of the entire camp experience, she says, “it was an absolute pleasure and delight to see our students push themselves out of their comfort zones to grow and develop in ways that are not possible in the classroom.”
That being said, there are safety precautions the camp could incorporate next time.
For example, students could be taught how to safely climb back into their kayak in the unlikely case it capsizes or how to help classmates nearby if anyone falls overboard. These techniques can easily be found online: for more information, click here. Though admittedly, they are easier said than done and best practised beforehand, they could still be helpful if any accidents happen.
It could also be made more transparent where exactly students are kayaking to, as many students got confused and paddled in the wrong direction or to the wrong section of beach.
In the end, kayaking has been a valuable learning experience, where students learned to be independent and furthered their communication and collaboration skills with each other, much as the rest of camp has helped them develop.
Though there is certainly room for improvement, it was a fun and engaging challenge for all who participated.