I've met some remarkable kayakers, but the woman I heard inteviewed on CBC Radio this afternoon tops them all. Audrey Sutherland is 81, and goes for long kayak tours all by her lonesome. (This woman's no fool: read about her pre-trip preparation.) Here's a bit about how she got started on these solo adventures:
Raised in California, Audrey moved to Hawaii in 1952, and has lived there ever since. When her husband decided to return to the mainland, Audrey stayed on in her adopted home. She found a job as an educational counselor and raised her four children there. One day, on a flight from one island to the next, Audrey became intrigued by the folded-up coastline of the island of Molokai. She wanted to explore it all, but the cliffs were accessible only by boat (which she didn't have) or chopper (which she couldn't afford). So, in 1962, she decided to tour the coast by swimming along it, towing an inflatable raft with supplies. She has since refined her mode of travel, and now uses an inflatable kayak because it is transportable, light enough for her to handle comfortably, and relatively inexpensive.
This summer Audrey's paddling in Alaska, and then of course she'll write a book about kayaking solo in Alaska. Of course.
So. What are you doing on your summer vacation?
More on Audrey
An excerpt from The Perfect Boat and the "If Only..." Trap:
At an age when most of us would regard wrestling with the TV remote to be a pretty good work-out, Audrey Sutherland was paddling her 9 1/2-foot Tahiti Sport inflatable kayak along the west coast of Chichagof Island in southeast Alaska. Off hand, I'd be hard-pressed to think of a less-suitable craft for such a venture, but that didn't bother Audrey. It was the boat she had. Moreover, she'd already used it to explore the northern coast of Molokai in the Hawaiian Islands. It had just worked fine there, thanks, and it was working just fine in Alaska. End of story.
And here's the start of A kayak, a free spirit and decades of discovering The power of one:
Wind and driving rain were beating against the Alaska Discovery kayak tour Ken Leghorn was leading on the outer coast when he spotted a lone kayaker ahead.
The inflatable kayak had no spray skirt and was being half-paddled, half-blown toward them. The paddler, a white-haired woman, was singing.
"She looked like a total free spirit, completely at home in her environment," Leghorn said of the 1981 meeting. "There was water below her boat, water in her boat and she was completely happy, with a great big aloha smile."
The lone kayaker was Audrey Sutherland, the Grandma Moses of paddling. In 1978 her first book, "Paddling My Own Canoe," opened the way for kayakers to explore Hawaii's wild and woolly coast. Sutherland was in her late 50s then and had been paddling for 10 years. [continue]
Books by Audrey Sutherland:
Paddling My Own Canoe
Paddling Hawaii
About the radio show:
Audrey was interviewed on the July 21st edition of the Richardson's Roundup show.
Update
I get lots of email asking me for Audrey's contact details. I don't have them. I haven't a clue where Audrey is, whether she has email, or where her daughter is. If you're still tempted to write and ask me for details about Audrey, please read this.