Sunday, ESN Molde called for a kayaking-trip – and seven mostly fledgling, but adventurous participants accepted the challenge and dared to explore the Molde Fjord with the paddle.

By RAPHAELA OSSBERGER

The first (and probably biggest) challenge awaited us kayak-rookies just on land: squeezing us into the dry-suits that should save us from getting wet in case one of use falling in the 16°C cold water.

Challenge number two: how to get into the kayak WITHOUT overturning.

«Sit into the kayak, put your legs into and press your knees outwards», Anne Botslangen from Molde Kajakklubb explained. (Botslangen is also a HiMolde associate professor.) And that actually turned out to be far easier than putting on the dry-suit.

Having made everybody floating on the water, two instructors taught us how to hold the paddle right and what to do when rolling over.

Just after some minutes on open water, some more or less heavy waves intended to test our newly learned kayaking-abilities.

«You just have to face the wave and keep on paddling then it’s no problem! Just keep on paddling», Anne encouraged us not to get nervous.

Although a late-morning fog shrouded Molde, the sun set about fighting its way through and so we hoped this outstanding activity to be topped with beautiful late-summer weather – and we should be right…

After about one hour, we arrived at Seterøya, a small island just outside Molde. Over there, Anne whetted our appetite to let this trip not to be the last one.

See more photos on Molde Kajakklubb’s Facebook page.

«Everybody can join Molde Kajakklubb. It’s just 250 NOK per year and we do trips every Monday from May to September. You can rent the kayak, just bring your own dry-suits.»

Repowered by sandwiches everybody carried in the storage spaces within the kayak, we headed on encircling the whole island of Seterøya. And then, the fog truly happened to lift and enabled a great view to the city of Molde and its panorama.

«Remember to bring warm clothes with you!» That was the advice we had got before going on to the trip. And as all of us followed, we finally ended up sweating in our sealed dry-suits.

After one more break we kicked off our last stage to get back to the boat house we started four hours ago. There we still had to face the last challenge of the day: getting out of the dry-suit again.

But surely, for some of us this kayaking-trip was definitely not the last one.

P.S.: None of us got wet (at least apart from some unlucky tries to stand up in the kayak)