FEATURE: Sea Kayaking in Nova Scotia

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Don’t catch a wave
Like a fish out of water, a veteran surfer picks up a paddle and ventures onto Nova Scotia’s kayak coast
By Lesley Choyce with photography by Dan Doucette

I’VE BEEN SURFING THE COAST of Nova Scotia’s Eastern Shore for more than 30 years, but on this bright, late-summer morning, I’m embarking on my first sea kayaking adventure: a day-long guided excursion around a coastal inlet 30 minutes from my house. And strangely enough, for all the water time I’ve logged, I’m feeling uncertain, unsteady and downright nervous.

The nerves may be due to the fact that a number of years ago, I had a friend try to teach me how to do an Eskimo roll in a river kayak. It was March and the lake water was frigid. I was excellent at the first half of the roll, but failed to execute the more important half that would bring me back up for a breath. My friend had to reach down and yank me back to the surface. This frightening memory remains lodged in my head.

Lou Costanzo, my guide today, assures me that there will be no need for any Eskimo rolls. It is a perfectly grand day here at Grand Desert, N.S., about 40 kilometres east of Halifax near the mouth of Chezzetcook Inlet. My feet crunch over clamshells as I slip the sleek hull of a five-metre Wilderness Systems Cape Horne sea kayak into the muddy shallows of the inlet.

Click map to enlarge

Once settled into the narrow craft, I take a couple of shallow strokes into deeper water and immediately sense that magical feeling of gliding effortlessly with the sound of marsh grass skidding beneath the hull. The grin on my face says it all.

Costanzo has prompted me on the appropriate stroke to use and I try to keep up as he forges ahead. I was expecting a leisurely pace, but he will have none of it. “We’re going to have to head straight out to sea first, then back up the inlet on the other side,” he says. “We’ve gotta keep an eye on the tide.”

We journey to the south and east across the tricky channel that empties Chezzetcook Inlet into the open sea. Since the tide is dropping, it appears we have a tight schedule. If our timing is bad, we may end up with a long, mud-slogging trudge through the shallows. A surfer understands the importance of tides, of course.

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