#153 - Kayaking Dominica's Waitukubuli Sea Trail with Wes Moses

WEBVTT

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Welcome to Paddling the Blue. With each episode, we talk with guests from the

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Great Lakes and around the globe who are doing cool things related to sea kayaking.

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I'm your host, my name is John Chase, and let's get started paddling the blue.

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Welcome to today's episode of the Paddling the Blue podcast.

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Wes Moses operates the Soufrère Outdoor Center in Dominica.

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Wes joins the show today to talk about the Waitukabule Sea Trail and the island of Dominica.

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And if you're interested in paddling a Caribbean blue sea with warm water,

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rugged mountains spilling to the coast, sea arches, and unique foods,

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this might be the place for you.

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Before we get to today's conversation with Wes, James Stevenson and Simon Osborne

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at OnlineSeaKhiking.com continue to produce great content to help you evolve

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And in previous episodes, I've shared a trip that I'm leading to Alaska's Prince

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William Sound in July of 2026.

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Well, I wanted to let you know that that trip is full. So thank you for the

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interest and congratulations to those of you who will be enjoying this fantastic

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small group experience in Alaska.

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Enjoy today's interview with Wes Moses. Hi, Wes. Welcome to Peddling the Blue.

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Thanks, John. It's great to be here with you. Yeah, I appreciate the opportunity.

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We were introduced by a friend in the industry, Caleb and Nolan from Track Kayaks.

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That's right. They're good partners of mine over there in Vancouver.

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I was out, I saw them last year. That's cool. Their owner's gathering.

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Yeah, so Vancouver's a long way from Dominica, where you're located.

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So tell us a little bit about, well, Dominica first.

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Sure. Dominica is the hidden gem of the Caribbean, by all means.

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Most people, when I tell them I'm in Dominica, they're like,

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oh, the Dominican Republic.

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No, the Commonwealth of Dominica.

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It's in the Eastern Caribbean, and it lives up to its nickname of Nature Island.

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It only has 60,000 people, no stoplights, and it's a rugged mountain,

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mountainous country with, believe it or not, 10 active volcanoes. Really?

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What's the size of the island?

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Size of the island, well, I know it from kayaking, is probably about 60 kilometers long.

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And width is, I think, around the widest part is maybe around 20 kilometers.

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So it's an oblong shape running north to south.

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The east coast has the Atlantic, and then the west coast has the Caribbean Sea. Okay.

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So that's a fairly small space for 60,000 people and 10 active volcanoes with

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a lot of nature in between.

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It is. It's a rugged country, though. The one thing my friend here said,

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he doesn't worry about man taking over this island because it's far too rugged

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for man to take over completely. Yeah.

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That's very cool. Now, what brought you to Dominica? Dominica.

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Well, I've been living in the Caribbean 27 years now. I started off in Jamaica.

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I was volunteering there, and that grew into contract work doing international development.

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I was an outdoor enthusiast in the States before I came to the Caribbean.

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A lot of winter sports, river rafting in the summer, mountain biking,

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and I was looking for something to do in the Caribbean, so I picked up sea kayaking.

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And eventually I got transferred to St.

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Lucia but was covering Dominica and I was actually vacationing here after Hurricane

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Maria and decided to retire early and invest here and move here.

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That's very cool. So now you're operating the Soufrère Outdoor Center.

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That's correct. I have the Soufrère Outdoor Center and the Soufrère Guest House.

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So it's always been a dream of mine to retire early and start a a kayaking business

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of my own and i combined it with a guest house as well which probably was a good idea for sure.

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So now tell us about about kayaking

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on dominica is it relatively new

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there i guess well kayaking has actually

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been around for a long time one of the

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most interesting things about dominica beyond

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its you know beauty natural beauty and the volcanoes and the coastlines is that

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it's home to the kalanago people the indigenous people of the region it's the

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only island in the caribbean that has an indigenous population while you may

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have descendants on the other islands it's the only Island.

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So the Kalanago have been canoeing for thousands of years.

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I've met with them and they've told me how their ancestors used to battle north to Guadalupe at night.

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20 strong men in a big long canoe.

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Paddling north. But in modern day terms, sea touring kayaking is pretty new here.

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There have been a lot of sit-on-top kayak races and traditional canoe races

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and those types of things, but we're bringing in the super outdoor centers,

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definitely bringing in the sea touring boats to the island.

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So what is it that took so long for sea paddling to come to Dominica?

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I'm not quite sure. Maybe it's the remoteness of the island.

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This doesn't have the white sand beaches so there's it's

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not the honeymoon destination like saint lucia is

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that has lots of water sports antiga is

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the home of sailing grenada as well

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so i think i think the the hidden gem of the caribbean maybe it's taken longer

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to these types of water sports to reach here than the rest of the caribbean

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it's not an easy place to get to but it's it's worthwhile once you get here

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yeah so tell us a little bit more about the island.

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La dominica is it's a beautiful place a

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lot of the culture here outside of the talanago culture is called

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creole culture so it went between the french and the

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english for many years back in

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the day and a french creole developed here so there's a strong french french

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influence here and they have their own music bouillon music and they play a

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lot of zouk and complete music as well so there's a big carnival every year.

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That's really a homegrown, nice, organic carnival as it may come to commercialize

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like the carnivals you see in Trinidad and Brazil.

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There's the World Creole Festival, which brings in Creole music from around

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the world, three days festival here.

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So along with the natural beauty and everything, Dominique is a fun place to party as well.

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Now tell us a little bit about the Kalanago.

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The Kalanago have a territory, as it's called, on the Atlantic coast.

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They still maintain their religion, their traditional practices.

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They have a chief, an elected chief, and they haven't retained all of their

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language, but a lot of the language used in the modern Creole,

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some of the words and definitely some of the places link back to the Kalanago there.

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And what's the size of the Kalanago community?

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Oh, the Kalanago community, population-wise, to tell you the truth, I'm not exactly sure.

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Geographically, I would say maybe it represents one-eighth, one-tenth of the

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country. It's hard for me to judge.

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They have a beautiful coastline. I've had their coastline. It's absolutely gorgeous.

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Oh, yeah? They still have a pretty solid impact, a pretty strong impact on the island?

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Yes, they do. Their presence is really felt everywhere with the culture.

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They have a distinct look.

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They're in all aspects of society. Many people commute quite far to the capitals

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and work in the capital every day.

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And then back to the island itself. So what's the outdoor culture like there? Yeah.

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Well, there's a lot of hiking on the island. Hiking is probably the most popular

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of all the outdoor activities.

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And Dominica is home to the Waitukabule National Trail, which is the only through

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hiking trail in the Caribbean.

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It runs from the south of Dominica in Scottsdale all the way to the most northern coast.

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It's broken into 14 segments and takes 14 days.

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Because most people can only do one segment per day. We have a lot of tour hikers

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who show up here, and they think they're going to crank it out in 7, 10 days.

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But due to the ruggedness of this country, the heat, the rain,

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because we're lush in tropicals, so there's lots of rain that gets mud,

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and the majority of them are in for a bit of a shock when they get here.

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So how long is a section? Any section, I think a bit more in hours in length. Okay.

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Some of the sections can take you three, four hours to hike.

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Other you're looking at all day.

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And the reason why I don't look at like too much is because of the ruggedness

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of it. You can have a short,

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8-kilometer section to hike here, and it could take you a really long time because

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you're going up, down, up, down, up, down, up, down.

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What kind of tourist population do you have? How large is the tourist population?

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The tourist population is pretty big.

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The cruise ships bring in a lot of people. They get out into the nature.

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They have a certain stereotype around cruise ship passengers,

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but we get quite a few sea kayaking with us.

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They get out hiking, they get out to the waterfalls, and they do some of the

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shorter hikes, but they're definitely out there in nature.

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Our stayovers, our numbers are

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a bit smaller than our cruise ship numbers primarily because of access.

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We do have a couple of ferries that run from St. Lucia to Martinique to Dominique to Guadeloupe.

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So we have quite an international crowd from that because what you find is a

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lot of people from Europe, they fly into the French territories.

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They catch the ferry to Dominica, and then they catch the ferry to the next

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French territory, and they fly out.

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But we also do get a lot of people from North America, the States, and Canada.

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So you mentioned earlier the hiking trail.

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What is the Waitukabule Paddling Trail? Okay, the Waitukabule Sea Trail,

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that started with me and my business partner, Carrie.

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We did circumnavigation about five years ago of Dominica.

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We took three attempts. We finally made it on our third attempt.

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And it was just spectacular. We took five and a half days.

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It was just an incredible experience. And when we were done,

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we realized not everybody could just come down here and just navigate the island.

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But could we create something that would not only share the natural beauty,

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but give that sense of accomplishment that we also experienced with the circle navigation.

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So we came up with the Wide Scrooge Sea Trail because it's quite an accomplishment

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to paddle the length of the island.

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We have it clocked at about 66 kilometers, a little bit longer than the technical

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length of the island because we hug the coastline.

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And you get to experience all of the colorful fishing villages,

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the rivers, the cliffs. This is a beautiful arch that you can paddle under.

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And so we thought that this would be a good way for the average kayaker to come

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experience Dominica, but leave with a great sense of accomplishment.

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And when we battled with people, we bought them the touristic towel of Dominica

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that has the map on there.

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And they're all quite proud that they can point where they started and where

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they ended on that towel. That's cool.

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So you said 66 kilometers long, so it's not a full circumnavigation,

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it's just a point-to-point trail?

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That's correct. We start in the south and we head north. There's a predominant

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current that runs south to north throughout the Caribbean.

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Okay. And we're able to catch that for most of the way. We are looking at phase

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two of the Waisapabule Sea Trail to develop a guidebook for those kayakers who

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have the skills to actually start to navigate the island.

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So we'll be putting together a team, and we're just in the beginning process

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now looking at different guidebooks, what information is out there.

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But it will be a very community-based model on the Atlantic side because a lot

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of those communities, or they call villages here, are quite remote.

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So we'll have to get information for where can they camp, where can they camp

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safely, who can they network to get water, get food, things like that.

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So that's the plan is for phase one to be the Caribbean side and phase two to

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be the circumnavigation.

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Okay. So when somebody decides they want to do the Waitukabule Trail,

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what can someone expect?

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So kind of walk us through the experience that someone would have on the trail. Yeah.

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We like to call it just that, an experience, because you experience the kayaking,

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but you get a lot of the culture.

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Especially through the food and the people that you meet. So we start in the South.

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We involve a little hiking in it. So we start in the South.

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The first day is really, we recommend people just to do segment one.

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The way you can expect are changing conditions. You know, one day may be calm.

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We've got the trade winds coming off the Atlantic.

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Someone is going to experience a nice, strong crosswind with gusts in some of these bays.

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You've got these beautiful mountains that rise over 4,000 feet in the center of the island.

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Some massive valleys, and the wind just gets funneled down those valleys.

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So there's a few bays that we've passed where people can experience a lot of gusts.

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We don't have the white sand beaches, so we have a lot of brown and black sand

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beaches, and we have quite a few pebbly and rocky beaches as well.

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More than likely, there's going to be a few small surf landings and surf launches.

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You can expect to battle some really calm days, get tucked away under some really nice cliffs.

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You can expect some brilliantly clear waters to take a look at the reefs below you.

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There's two sections where we even have sulfuric bubbles that rise from the

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seafloor anybody who goes we tell them to bring their stalking gear because

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we can point out all the great stalking sites along the way,

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you said sulfuric bubbles?

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You can either expect to be tucked away against a lovely coast or crossing a

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bay and just looking at some grandiose mountains you said sulfuric bubbles?

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Yes so in the area of Soufraire where I'm located, the Souffre Outdoor Center.

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Souffre, I've been told, means sulfur in the air in French.

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So we have a few areas that are called sulfur deposits, and if you go up there,

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the smell of sulfur is very strong.

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And we have two streams. One is a hot water sulfur stream, so it looks a bit

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silty, but you can take a nice hot warm bath from some of the pools there,

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and we have a cool sulfur stream,

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which the water is clear, but if you put water to your mouth,

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you can taste the sulfur.

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But now what happens is at the beach, that volcanic activity is still persistent

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underneath the seafloor,

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and the volcano is venting, and there's just all these bubbles around.

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So one beach is appropriately called a bubble beach and the other one is called

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Champagne Beach because the bubbles will remind you of Champagne when you're swimming.

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And that's volcanic activity? That's all volcanic activity. Oh, wow.

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So we'll talk about the volcanoes later. I'm really interested in that with

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10 active volcanoes as well.

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You mentioned that you were talking a little bit about the trail And you mentioned food.

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So tell us a little bit about the food. Yeah, the food. So bakes are a mainstay for breakfast.

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Imagine a nice fried dough that rises quickly and is quite light.

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It's a bit round and puffy looking. You cut it in half and then you can stuff

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it with seasoned codfish, what they call saltfish, cheese, tuna, mackerel.

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I'm sure there's been a few other creative bakes as well.

00:17:33.108 --> 00:17:37.728
Again, bakes, they have Creole chicken and Creole fish. So that's cooked down

00:17:37.728 --> 00:17:39.288
in like a tomato sauce as well.

00:17:39.668 --> 00:17:44.768
It's quite a few other good local dishes. The stewed goat is absolutely phenomenal.

00:17:44.928 --> 00:17:45.768
It's one of my favorites.

00:17:46.568 --> 00:17:50.308
There's another one. I'm trying to remember the name. It's a traditional dish.

00:17:50.468 --> 00:17:54.988
It's a cook down of salt fish and vegetables and coconut milk, but...

00:17:55.576 --> 00:17:58.856
I can't remember the name. My friend who prepares it for me,

00:17:58.856 --> 00:18:00.676
she's going to kill me when she hears this podcast.

00:18:01.956 --> 00:18:05.196
When we pull up to these little fishing villages, we know all the good little

00:18:05.196 --> 00:18:08.976
places to get bakes and snacks and good local food.

00:18:09.296 --> 00:18:13.256
They have something called okra, which is a fried dough.

00:18:14.056 --> 00:18:18.296
And that usually has codfish in it, but sometimes they put titiwi in it.

00:18:18.436 --> 00:18:24.336
Now, titiwi is a small little river fish, the length of your pinky fingernail.

00:18:24.336 --> 00:18:29.396
And it's just a sliver of a fish but they taste quite good when they're stuffed

00:18:29.396 --> 00:18:32.776
in some fried dough and acra is made.

00:18:33.976 --> 00:18:35.376
How do you debone that?

00:18:36.876 --> 00:18:42.296
You just crunch them up when you eat. So that's pretty small.

00:18:43.096 --> 00:18:48.796
Yes, very small. So tell us about some of those villages and some of your favorite experiences.

00:18:49.336 --> 00:18:53.936
Well, there's one that we particularly love and And we call it the halfway mark

00:18:53.936 --> 00:18:55.396
of the Wai Tungbuli Sea Trail.

00:18:56.216 --> 00:19:00.916
And it's called Layu. So Layu is well known for boat building.

00:19:01.416 --> 00:19:06.976
But the Layu River is one of the largest rivers that empties out into the sea.

00:19:07.776 --> 00:19:14.156
So we know that we're in for a nice cool river bath, as they call it. And we can relax.

00:19:14.556 --> 00:19:19.896
And it's also the home of Boyd's Bakes. And Boyd has some of the best bakes

00:19:19.896 --> 00:19:23.756
on the island. I've been told that even the Prime Minister will make sure to

00:19:23.756 --> 00:19:26.996
stop by Boyd Bates when he's on the road.

00:19:27.976 --> 00:19:32.616
So it's an absolutely beautiful valley. When you look up the valley,

00:19:32.696 --> 00:19:37.096
it looks like it's been carved out by a glacier, but we know it was just a river

00:19:37.096 --> 00:19:40.916
over thousands and thousands of years that carved this valley.

00:19:42.234 --> 00:19:48.854
This valley out as the valley was rising. And it's a nice celebratory stop too

00:19:48.854 --> 00:19:51.654
because we've reached the halfway of the White Coopolis Sea Trail.

00:19:51.974 --> 00:19:53.874
So that's one of our favorites.

00:19:54.774 --> 00:19:58.494
Of course, living in Sioux Frere, I have to give a shout out to the village

00:19:58.494 --> 00:19:59.894
of Sioux Frere that I live in.

00:20:00.354 --> 00:20:04.074
It's just a picturesque bay.

00:20:04.474 --> 00:20:10.314
It's probably, I would say, about a third of all the photos that are used to

00:20:10.314 --> 00:20:14.074
promote Dominica are taken in Sufrere Bay.

00:20:14.314 --> 00:20:16.894
We have a unique peninsula called Scotch Head.

00:20:17.174 --> 00:20:23.534
We have the Witch's Point, or La Soissier, as it's called.

00:20:24.094 --> 00:20:32.114
We have a cliff that goes straight down into the sea, about over 1,000 feet.

00:20:32.334 --> 00:20:36.474
It's called La Bim, which is Creole for the abyss, because the entire bay itself

00:20:36.474 --> 00:20:39.274
is an old volcano crater.

00:20:39.814 --> 00:20:42.794
So it's probably just 50, 60 meters offshore. It just drops.

00:20:43.254 --> 00:20:48.294
And the depth of the bay, the deepest point, is over 200 meters deep.

00:20:48.634 --> 00:20:53.914
So it gives you an incredibly rich blue look to it.

00:20:54.054 --> 00:20:56.974
And then the interesting thing about the peninsula of Scottsdale on the most

00:20:56.974 --> 00:21:03.954
southern end is that on one side of that peninsula you have the Atlantic pouring

00:21:03.954 --> 00:21:07.074
into the Caribbean Sea through the Martinique Channel.

00:21:07.454 --> 00:21:10.414
So you just have this current and these waves flowing down.

00:21:10.674 --> 00:21:15.494
And then on the other side of the peninsula, you have the calm blue Caribbean Sea.

00:21:16.294 --> 00:21:19.574
So it's a fascinating place. That sounds it.

00:21:20.174 --> 00:21:24.354
It certainly does. Now, what kind of water features might you experience along the way?

00:21:25.274 --> 00:21:27.214
Along the way, we...

00:21:29.297 --> 00:21:34.157
They're not too deep of a cave, but there's a few caves that you can poke your

00:21:34.157 --> 00:21:36.077
kayak in and take a look around.

00:21:36.277 --> 00:21:41.917
There's a beautiful arch by a beach called Secret Bay. That's absolutely lovely.

00:21:42.417 --> 00:21:45.117
There's quite a few snorkeling sites all along the way.

00:21:45.957 --> 00:21:50.757
The snorkeling at Scotts Head is very good. Further north, where there's a set

00:21:50.757 --> 00:21:56.077
of cliffs, there is an area where there's just not a lot of rivers.

00:21:56.077 --> 00:21:59.197
So the visibility is always crystal clear there.

00:21:59.737 --> 00:22:04.357
Now, there is one rock feature that is only accessible by boat,

00:22:05.157 --> 00:22:11.097
and that one is called Elephant's Rear End, and I said that for the show.

00:22:12.897 --> 00:22:16.717
No, there's something else locally, but once you see that one,

00:22:16.817 --> 00:22:19.737
you absolutely know what it is. All right.

00:22:21.177 --> 00:22:23.437
We keep it G-rated. There's quite

00:22:23.437 --> 00:22:28.697
a few secluded beaches that you can only get to by boat along the way.

00:22:28.937 --> 00:22:32.917
And they're just absolutely gorgeous to stop at, take a sea bath,

00:22:33.637 --> 00:22:37.097
put your mask and snow on, explore a little bit, and then keep going.

00:22:38.017 --> 00:22:42.797
Now, what kind of tides do you have? The tidal difference isn't that great here.

00:22:42.897 --> 00:22:45.757
So we're only looking at maybe 18 inches max.

00:22:46.057 --> 00:22:48.457
Oh, okay. You know, we're pretty close to the equator.

00:22:49.097 --> 00:22:52.657
Even being, you know, the Atlantic on one side and the Caribbean on the other.

00:22:53.197 --> 00:22:55.517
We just don't have a lot of tidal differences.

00:22:56.117 --> 00:23:02.617
And we think that this is, among a few other reasons, is why we think the circumnavigation

00:23:02.617 --> 00:23:07.097
will really catch on for the right level sea kayaker.

00:23:07.577 --> 00:23:10.957
There's not a lot of tidal planning that needs to be done.

00:23:11.437 --> 00:23:15.557
It's warm water, so you're not worried about cold water exposure if you have

00:23:15.557 --> 00:23:17.797
a cap size or something like that.

00:23:18.784 --> 00:23:25.304
And it can be done relatively fast. The main catch is that on the Atlantic side,

00:23:25.524 --> 00:23:28.584
there's just not a lot of safe harbors to land your kayak in.

00:23:29.104 --> 00:23:34.364
So it does require quite a bit of stamina going up the Atlantic coast.

00:23:34.704 --> 00:23:39.104
You're pretty committed when you go some areas, and then you would have to have

00:23:39.104 --> 00:23:44.264
knowledge of surf landings on some of the beaches if you did have to pull out

00:23:44.264 --> 00:23:48.384
before your next stop, or some small cliff landings as well.

00:23:48.384 --> 00:23:51.244
So that's the technicality of the Atlantic coast.

00:23:51.424 --> 00:23:53.704
Otherwise, it's just beautiful.

00:23:53.944 --> 00:23:58.984
You really get a sense of the name Waitakabuli, which is tall as her body.

00:23:59.504 --> 00:24:01.804
That is the indigenous name for Dominica.

00:24:02.684 --> 00:24:11.144
And being seafaring people, the Kalanago, I just wonder if it wasn't in a small

00:24:11.144 --> 00:24:15.624
vessel that they looked up at these beautiful mountains that came up with that name.

00:24:16.524 --> 00:24:19.144
The two sides, the Caribbean side and the Atlantic side. So it sounds like the

00:24:19.144 --> 00:24:22.924
Atlantic is more advanced or more technical. Is that right?

00:24:23.704 --> 00:24:27.884
Definitely. The Atlantic is more advanced and more technical.

00:24:28.364 --> 00:24:32.604
The nice things that we don't have to worry about are cold water exposure.

00:24:32.864 --> 00:24:37.644
We took a group of three Canadians on the Atlantic one time.

00:24:38.184 --> 00:24:45.704
And there is a particular spot called Mournde Fou, which is a cliff that juts

00:24:45.704 --> 00:24:50.844
out in many directions and stirs up the sea quite a bit in front of it.

00:24:50.964 --> 00:24:52.524
And the seas were pretty big.

00:24:53.144 --> 00:24:57.364
And in discussion with them afterwards, we realized how blessed we are to be

00:24:57.364 --> 00:25:00.964
able to play in seas like that and not have to worry about cold water exposure

00:25:00.964 --> 00:25:02.824
like they have to and can't. Yeah.

00:25:03.884 --> 00:25:07.404
Now, what kind of sea conditions might you normally expect?

00:25:08.084 --> 00:25:14.324
The sea conditions are normally, on the Caribbean side, they're pretty calm.

00:25:14.704 --> 00:25:17.644
And then we do get, you know, those trade winds off the Atlantic,

00:25:17.644 --> 00:25:19.944
they do get kind of strong and warm.

00:25:20.918 --> 00:25:28.138
Battling from south to north, we're always contending with a crosswind and a

00:25:28.138 --> 00:25:31.298
little bit of a headwind as well, because when you go through these bays,

00:25:31.558 --> 00:25:33.278
the wind sort of wraps around.

00:25:33.738 --> 00:25:40.298
So you're usually looking at, you know, anywhere from a 10 to 15 knot crosswind.

00:25:40.758 --> 00:25:48.198
Some days are incredibly calm, no wind, and then other days have quite a bit of wind with gusts.

00:25:48.958 --> 00:25:53.798
The sea state itself, because it's on the Caribbean side, it doesn't have a lot of swell.

00:25:54.598 --> 00:25:56.478
We do get the chop from the wind.

00:25:57.838 --> 00:26:03.198
Depending on what's happening north or south of us, there's a big system to the south of us.

00:26:03.718 --> 00:26:10.238
We don't get as much surf on the shores, but if there's something to the north of us, we definitely do.

00:26:10.898 --> 00:26:14.358
So we kind of know what to look for and what to expect, depending on what's

00:26:14.358 --> 00:26:15.658
happening in the region. Okay.

00:26:16.438 --> 00:26:19.638
And do you get a fair amount of surf there? Definitely a beginner and an intermediate

00:26:19.638 --> 00:26:22.578
battle on the Caribbean side.

00:26:22.978 --> 00:26:26.178
All right. And do you get a fair amount of surf there that people can play with?

00:26:26.838 --> 00:26:30.198
We do. There's a few spots. You know, surf is always hit and missed.

00:26:30.398 --> 00:26:33.998
And they know what Mother Nature is dishing out at that time.

00:26:34.478 --> 00:26:38.758
But Nairu River, I mentioned, was one of my favorite villages to stop at.

00:26:38.758 --> 00:26:43.278
But I forgot to mention that it usually has some pretty decent waves for kayak

00:26:43.278 --> 00:26:45.578
surfing and nothing too rowdy.

00:26:45.958 --> 00:26:50.238
You know, some things you can catch a little ride on and then peel out and try again.

00:26:50.618 --> 00:26:56.418
It's right at the mouth of the river, so it's a typical river mouth break, so to speak.

00:26:56.978 --> 00:27:02.518
Very cool. And you said nice warm water, so you don't have to deal with dry suits and all that.

00:27:02.958 --> 00:27:06.578
No dry suits. You're really just protecting yourself against the sun.

00:27:06.578 --> 00:27:12.738
You know, long sleeves, the neck gaiters, the hats, the electrolytes every day, the sunscreen.

00:27:13.498 --> 00:27:16.998
That's really your biggest concern is not getting sunburned and staying hydrated.

00:27:17.658 --> 00:27:22.538
All right. That sounds like a good place to be. I think so.

00:27:23.498 --> 00:27:27.018
So what would you say the best time of year is to come down to Dominica for

00:27:27.018 --> 00:27:31.038
paddling? Oh, the best time of year is November through the end of May.

00:27:31.638 --> 00:27:35.758
That's outside of hurricane season, number one, but it's also the cooler months

00:27:35.758 --> 00:27:37.838
as well. People always ask me.

00:27:38.958 --> 00:27:42.198
What's the temperature down there? We don't really pay attention to temperature.

00:27:42.418 --> 00:27:46.738
We don't drive down the road and have some bank with the temperature up there for us.

00:27:47.398 --> 00:27:53.758
We're not getting the temperature on the readout on the radios all the time.

00:27:53.938 --> 00:27:57.818
It's not like that with my North American clients.

00:27:58.258 --> 00:28:03.418
It's either hot, comfortable, hot, too hot, or really hot.

00:28:03.738 --> 00:28:06.838
Summer can get really hot here. having said

00:28:06.838 --> 00:28:10.098
that we do like to plan our circle navigations

00:28:10.098 --> 00:28:15.018
in august september october because

00:28:15.018 --> 00:28:18.638
we get the homeless seas during that time and so

00:28:18.638 --> 00:28:22.758
what we do is we just leave super early in the morning we get up in the dark

00:28:22.758 --> 00:28:28.058
eat breakfast and we're on the sea right right as the sun is rising or a little

00:28:28.058 --> 00:28:33.298
bit earlier than that but during november december january february march april

00:28:33.298 --> 00:28:36.718
we don't have that type of heat to combat.

00:28:37.238 --> 00:28:43.698
So we can easily have a normal rising breakfast and then hit the sea by nine,

00:28:43.858 --> 00:28:47.238
sometimes as late as 10 o'clock and keep going.

00:28:48.578 --> 00:28:54.598
So the trail itself is 66 kilometers. So how long does it take someone to normally

00:28:54.598 --> 00:28:56.698
do the trip? We've seen everything.

00:28:57.578 --> 00:29:01.818
Myself, I've done it in two days. I don't recommend that. But normally we do

00:29:01.818 --> 00:29:07.078
it as six days, But we've had a few people see if they can do it shorter.

00:29:07.278 --> 00:29:10.478
So we had a group from St. Martin, the St. Martin Kayaking Club,

00:29:10.658 --> 00:29:12.358
and they wanted to do it in five days.

00:29:13.158 --> 00:29:17.758
It sounds like there's an awful lot to see and a beautiful trail and why you'd

00:29:17.758 --> 00:29:21.698
want to power through it with such speed, I'm not sure. But I suppose everybody's different, right?

00:29:22.656 --> 00:29:27.496
Yeah, I think some of it had to do with time constraints. And then the St.

00:29:27.616 --> 00:29:32.296
Martin paddlers, they paddle those surf ski style kayaks.

00:29:32.496 --> 00:29:35.356
So they were fast paddlers. I had trouble keeping up with them the whole time.

00:29:35.476 --> 00:29:38.136
I kept on happy to remind them, hey, slow down, take it easy.

00:29:40.256 --> 00:29:43.076
But a six-stage, I think, is the perfect amount of time.

00:29:43.076 --> 00:29:50.896
And it allows you to really slow down, make several stops,

00:29:52.596 --> 00:29:58.556
fit in a few hikes, a trip to a sulfur spring, get the good snorkeling spots,

00:29:58.596 --> 00:30:02.776
and really take in the coastline.

00:30:02.776 --> 00:30:07.056
Really, I hope your coastline, you don't necessarily have to just do a straight shot across a bay.

00:30:07.276 --> 00:30:12.396
You can go in, experience the coastline, look at the wildlife,

00:30:12.576 --> 00:30:17.316
the birds on the coastline, and check out all the reef and everything in the shallow waters.

00:30:17.676 --> 00:30:20.936
So six days, six to seven days is the recommended.

00:30:21.476 --> 00:30:27.396
I remember hearing a story about a prize for the slowest circumnavigation of Vancouver.

00:30:27.636 --> 00:30:31.636
Yeah. And I kind of like that idea. I would like to give someone a prize for

00:30:31.636 --> 00:30:33.856
the slowest circumnavigation of Dominica.

00:30:34.176 --> 00:30:38.516
All right. The one who soaked in the most of the experience, I guess.

00:30:39.076 --> 00:30:43.896
That's right. As opposed to this concept of who's going to do it the fastest. Yeah.

00:30:44.656 --> 00:30:51.736
So at six days to do your 66K, so your 10K a day, you really have a lot of opportunity

00:30:51.736 --> 00:30:56.296
to then to truly soak in the culture and really experience the place. Yeah.

00:30:56.756 --> 00:31:02.136
You do. You meet, eat at different restaurants, explore different villages.

00:31:02.136 --> 00:31:07.676
We also encourage people to go up the Indian River, which is a historic river

00:31:07.676 --> 00:31:09.936
that is kind of brackish.

00:31:10.296 --> 00:31:14.576
So for a while, it's at sea level and the sea goes in there.

00:31:14.696 --> 00:31:20.716
You've got fascinating wildlife. We almost always see iguanas when we're up there in the trees.

00:31:21.316 --> 00:31:23.996
We see the fish that only exist in the river.

00:31:24.616 --> 00:31:28.216
And if your pirates are the caribbean fan that's where

00:31:28.216 --> 00:31:31.396
calypso's hut is still still there

00:31:31.396 --> 00:31:34.396
you can see it oh that's cool that's part

00:31:34.396 --> 00:31:38.916
of the part of the trail that is and at the very end there's a rum bushfire

00:31:38.916 --> 00:31:44.996
dominica is well known for bush rums and you probably wonder what are bush rums

00:31:44.996 --> 00:31:52.656
i am Bush rums are like a white rum that is infused with local medicinal bushes.

00:31:53.036 --> 00:31:56.816
So some of the ones you might be more familiar with, they have a ginger rum.

00:31:56.996 --> 00:31:58.196
Actually, I have a garlic rum.

00:31:58.636 --> 00:32:03.376
I've had a coffee rum. Then there's quite a few in Creole that I'm sure I would

00:32:03.376 --> 00:32:07.456
mispronounce, but local herbs that they infuse the rums with,

00:32:07.456 --> 00:32:12.176
and they're all good for one thing or another. Very interesting.

00:32:13.816 --> 00:32:16.336
Wildlife. You talked a little bit about wildlife. Tell us about some of the

00:32:16.336 --> 00:32:18.376
wildlife people could expect to see on the trail.

00:32:18.916 --> 00:32:23.756
Right. There's lots of birds along the coast. We occasionally see dolphins.

00:32:23.756 --> 00:32:27.196
We see hawksbill turtles as well.

00:32:27.636 --> 00:32:31.816
And then we don't go far enough out to see the whales.

00:32:32.096 --> 00:32:36.456
I've only seen a whale twice in all of my eight years of paddling here.

00:32:36.736 --> 00:32:41.976
But we are home to the only sperm whale reserve in the world.

00:32:42.396 --> 00:32:44.256
So we have resident sperm whales.

00:32:45.736 --> 00:32:50.636
And taking the time to go on a tour is well worth it in Dominica.

00:32:51.553 --> 00:32:56.973
Your guides will tell you a lot of fascinating stories about some of the research being done.

00:32:57.293 --> 00:33:02.433
So there's actually a group here that, for several years, has been researching the language of whales.

00:33:02.953 --> 00:33:10.173
They've been able to identify different dialects, and they've actually identified vowels now.

00:33:11.393 --> 00:33:15.273
They have a multidisciplinary team from around the world.

00:33:15.273 --> 00:33:20.553
Some of the top professors, academics and researchers on this team and now they're

00:33:20.553 --> 00:33:26.673
incorporating AI into it so the future is very interesting if they will be able

00:33:26.673 --> 00:33:31.733
to communicate with whales and these sperm whales live in pods,

00:33:32.353 --> 00:33:38.713
and the guides who have been doing this for years know them they can tell by

00:33:38.713 --> 00:33:43.813
their tail the different marks and that type of thing they'll recognize the

00:33:43.813 --> 00:33:45.153
whales and there's a whole booklet

00:33:45.273 --> 00:33:49.913
you can see who is who of the whales in Dominica, one of the most popular ones.

00:33:50.033 --> 00:33:52.853
I think his name is a can opener, or her name maybe.

00:33:53.393 --> 00:33:57.293
But you've only seen them, what did you say, once or twice? I've only seen them

00:33:57.293 --> 00:33:58.873
twice while sea kayaking.

00:33:59.193 --> 00:34:03.353
Okay. I was on the Atlantic side doing a solo paddle around the southern end

00:34:03.353 --> 00:34:06.893
of the island, and I think it was the same whale twice. It was going one direction,

00:34:06.893 --> 00:34:10.313
scared me, and then coming back the other way scared me.

00:34:10.553 --> 00:34:13.773
But it was a beautiful sight. It was absolutely spectacular.

00:34:13.773 --> 00:34:16.693
Interesting for a for a place that has that much

00:34:16.693 --> 00:34:19.913
whale research that you just don't see them very often yeah the

00:34:19.913 --> 00:34:24.333
thing is they're quite uh far offshore okay they they're the world's best free

00:34:24.333 --> 00:34:30.293
divers they they dive extremely deep for a large split is what they feed on

00:34:30.293 --> 00:34:36.113
and probably again going back to that nickname of the hidden gem of the caribbean

00:34:36.113 --> 00:34:39.413
not a lot of boat traffic not a lot of yachts.

00:34:40.313 --> 00:34:45.353
And then the extreme depth right off the coast is,

00:34:46.134 --> 00:34:49.534
probably all contributing factors to why we have residents from Wales here.

00:34:50.174 --> 00:34:54.834
So when was the Waitukabule Sea Paddling Trail? When was it kind of formed?

00:34:55.214 --> 00:34:58.154
It was started in about, I believe, 2021.

00:34:59.374 --> 00:35:04.894
So Kerry and I would have done the circumnavigation and then come up with the idea.

00:35:05.634 --> 00:35:10.874
And I kept pitching it to the Ministry of Tourism and their marketing arm,

00:35:11.134 --> 00:35:13.574
which is called the Discover Dominica Authority.

00:35:14.536 --> 00:35:21.216
They all thought it was a great idea, but then I found it wasn't really going past being a great idea.

00:35:21.756 --> 00:35:24.796
So I told them I was starting the inaugural trip.

00:35:25.136 --> 00:35:29.756
I had a woman, a Bayesian woman by the name of Melanie Grant.

00:35:30.416 --> 00:35:38.316
She was visiting when I say Bayesian from Barbados and she was training with me, sea kayaking.

00:35:38.516 --> 00:35:41.356
It's always been a dream of hers to paddle between two islands.

00:35:41.816 --> 00:35:47.436
And so I was teaching her that, from the start as a beginner,

00:35:47.816 --> 00:35:50.836
kayaking, to hopefully push her in that direction.

00:35:51.276 --> 00:35:54.036
And she happened to be a young filmmaker also.

00:35:54.696 --> 00:35:58.416
So we just did a trade. I said, I'll take you on the sea trail,

00:35:58.596 --> 00:36:02.676
take care of everything, and you come up with some promotional material for me.

00:36:03.176 --> 00:36:08.876
And so said, so done. We notified the Ministry of Tourism that the inaugural

00:36:08.876 --> 00:36:11.016
trip was happening in a few weeks.

00:36:11.416 --> 00:36:14.096
They jumped on board. a few

00:36:14.096 --> 00:36:17.176
of the hotels they were pretty excited about the

00:36:17.176 --> 00:36:20.096
something new reaching the island they jumped on board

00:36:20.096 --> 00:36:23.736
and we did it over six days and

00:36:23.736 --> 00:36:26.536
just had a fabulous time due to the availability of room

00:36:26.536 --> 00:36:29.656
so we did it from the north to the south now traditionally

00:36:29.656 --> 00:36:33.016
we go south to north because of that predominant

00:36:33.016 --> 00:36:36.216
current but it was it was absolutely spectacular

00:36:36.216 --> 00:36:39.156
it's a really fun trip especially to

00:36:39.156 --> 00:36:41.916
see it through her eyes having been the first

00:36:41.916 --> 00:36:46.076
time i had done many parts of the coast before i've done it before with carrie

00:36:46.076 --> 00:36:53.696
so to see the the awe in her eyes every day told me that this was going to be

00:36:53.696 --> 00:36:58.176
something good how has word of the trail spread and what kind of traffic are

00:36:58.176 --> 00:36:59.516
you seeing from the world because of it,

00:37:00.322 --> 00:37:06.002
Well, initially, word spread. It was quite interesting to see it go from an

00:37:06.002 --> 00:37:11.622
idea and a letter to the Ministry of Tourism to being featured in Time magazine

00:37:11.622 --> 00:37:16.842
in the number one slot for something like Greatest Places in the World one year,

00:37:17.062 --> 00:37:18.422
with my name being mentioned.

00:37:20.762 --> 00:37:28.722
So that was a big surprise and quite an honor to be recognized in a publication like that.

00:37:28.722 --> 00:37:33.482
But it's also gone on to Condé Nast, Travel and Leisure, a VP,

00:37:33.682 --> 00:37:36.222
came out for several days on a trip with me.

00:37:36.382 --> 00:37:40.462
Time Magazine, of course, I took the journalist out for a few days on the sea trail.

00:37:41.302 --> 00:37:47.982
And it has just grown, you know, Nat Geo, Cool List, I believe BBC,

00:37:48.602 --> 00:37:51.242
one of their media houses covered it.

00:37:51.242 --> 00:37:55.542
And then if you're familiar with Ken Whitting and Paddle TV,

00:37:56.002 --> 00:38:01.262
he and his team came down and did four episodes, which won some Teletube Awards.

00:38:01.482 --> 00:38:08.162
They do a fantastic job of storytelling and really told the story of the White's

00:38:08.162 --> 00:38:11.882
Completely Sea Trail, its origins and our visions quite well.

00:38:12.462 --> 00:38:16.842
I will say all of that was nerve wracking because we had not sold one tour yet.

00:38:16.842 --> 00:38:22.762
So to have all this international media about a sea trail and tours being offered

00:38:22.762 --> 00:38:30.542
and not selling a tour as a young kayak outfitter, it was nerve wracking.

00:38:30.862 --> 00:38:36.782
But I partnered with Track Kayaks and then started direct marketing my own.

00:38:37.382 --> 00:38:44.542
And we are seeing anywhere from three, four to five groups per year doing a

00:38:44.542 --> 00:38:48.122
sea trail. And we've seen some people paddle it on their own as well.

00:38:49.186 --> 00:38:52.986
Intermediate paddlers who have the right credentials. We're getting a lot of

00:38:52.986 --> 00:38:55.486
interest from them. A few Canadians have done it.

00:38:55.906 --> 00:38:58.266
A Canadian student, she did it at Sono.

00:38:59.026 --> 00:39:05.186
Laura, that was fantastic. We're getting more interest for many sea trail tours,

00:39:05.366 --> 00:39:08.046
so people who can't do the whole thing or don't want to do the whole thing.

00:39:08.186 --> 00:39:12.306
We've done several three- and four-day trips for people as well.

00:39:13.046 --> 00:39:16.266
We hope to get more locals out. We ran summer camps this summer.

00:39:16.746 --> 00:39:21.866
And we got three groups of teenagers doing the southern sections and the northern sections,

00:39:22.466 --> 00:39:25.686
and we would love to see more dominicans getting

00:39:25.686 --> 00:39:28.566
out we would love to see over the course

00:39:28.566 --> 00:39:31.226
of next summer we're doing a few

00:39:31.226 --> 00:39:33.986
segments every weekend so that over the course of the summer

00:39:33.986 --> 00:39:37.486
somebody could say they'd battle the sea trail sounds good

00:39:37.486 --> 00:39:40.246
now getting gear so you mentioned you got

00:39:40.246 --> 00:39:43.026
other you got groups private groups that are coming out and doing it on

00:39:43.026 --> 00:39:45.706
their own but gear is kind of hard to come by it sounds like so how

00:39:45.706 --> 00:39:48.686
do people get gear it is real hard to come by

00:39:48.686 --> 00:39:51.786
and i know that the hard way i've shipped

00:39:51.786 --> 00:39:54.586
down all of my kayaks so i have a small

00:39:54.586 --> 00:39:59.486
fleet of track kayaks affordable kayaks really nice performance kayaks and then

00:39:59.486 --> 00:40:04.626
i have a larger fleet of nigel dennis design kayaks with sea kayaking uk kayaks

00:40:04.626 --> 00:40:09.246
i also have a few kayaks with rudders because i know that's a preference among

00:40:09.246 --> 00:40:13.066
some paddlers and a few tandems as well.

00:40:13.346 --> 00:40:18.626
We like to think of ourselves as the biggest kayak outfitter in the Eastern Caribbean.

00:40:19.506 --> 00:40:25.926
I've got a large selection of boats and we're ready to outfit anybody who comes

00:40:25.926 --> 00:40:27.786
down here, whether independently or independently.

00:40:28.186 --> 00:40:30.906
All right. So we've had a chance to talk to Nigel Dennis before.

00:40:31.106 --> 00:40:37.646
And like I mentioned, I had an introduction to you from the folks at TRAC. But why TRAC kayaks?

00:40:38.735 --> 00:40:42.495
Truck kayaks caught my interest without even having paddled one.

00:40:42.935 --> 00:40:46.315
People would reach out to me for a long time on my Instagram,

00:40:46.675 --> 00:40:52.875
even before I opened a kayak outfitter, which is, I give a shout out to my Instagram, Mr. West Kayak.

00:40:53.555 --> 00:40:57.895
And they saw me as one of the main paddlers in the Caribbean,

00:40:57.895 --> 00:40:59.515
and they would ask for advice.

00:41:00.095 --> 00:41:05.635
So having owned a feather craft in the past, I bought a feather craft with the hopes of.

00:41:06.415 --> 00:41:09.795
Traveling the Caribbean islands with that unfortunately at

00:41:09.795 --> 00:41:13.435
the time my project management job got in the way of that and

00:41:13.435 --> 00:41:17.055
then for fun I had an Orhu kayak as well which actually

00:41:17.055 --> 00:41:20.275
took to Grenada once and paddled around and was

00:41:20.275 --> 00:41:24.495
at a splendid time with that so I

00:41:24.495 --> 00:41:27.835
always get asked you know I want to get into kayaking what

00:41:27.835 --> 00:41:30.555
type of kayak should I buy when I've seen the

00:41:30.555 --> 00:41:33.375
track kayaks and i could

00:41:33.375 --> 00:41:36.235
just tell that they're performance kayakers from

00:41:36.235 --> 00:41:39.555
the people paddling them and how they handled in the videos i saw and then when

00:41:39.555 --> 00:41:45.695
i saw how quickly they were assembled and put apart in comparison to the feather

00:41:45.695 --> 00:41:51.435
craft i had i knew that track was on to something and i contact them right away

00:41:51.435 --> 00:41:55.295
about being a rep and told them that i had been recommending their,

00:41:55.935 --> 00:42:00.495
kayaks already if they wanted to partner officially and then it just grew into

00:42:00.495 --> 00:42:07.355
getting six of their kayaks and being a track outfitter and leading track trips for them.

00:42:07.555 --> 00:42:11.095
It's really been a beautiful organic partnership between us.

00:42:12.007 --> 00:42:16.387
Cool. So it really sounds like it's growing well for you. So congratulations on that.

00:42:16.707 --> 00:42:20.507
Thank you. Yeah. I want to just ask one other question. I'm going to go back

00:42:20.507 --> 00:42:23.747
to the landscape. And I'd mentioned this earlier that we would come back to this.

00:42:24.367 --> 00:42:27.847
Volcanoes, 10 active volcanoes. How active are we talking here?

00:42:28.587 --> 00:42:33.527
Okay, 10 active volcanoes. It sounds like a lot, right? It sounds like something

00:42:33.527 --> 00:42:36.347
out of an adventure movie. Yeah.

00:42:37.107 --> 00:42:43.547
I'm just picturing a smoldering mess. We don't have lava spewing out, anything like that.

00:42:43.887 --> 00:42:51.407
These are actives, but we don't have any volcanic, big volcanic peaks where

00:42:51.407 --> 00:42:53.687
you can look in and actively see lava.

00:42:53.707 --> 00:42:57.427
What we have is we have the world's second largest boiling lake.

00:42:58.342 --> 00:43:03.862
It's in one area. So we have a lot of volcanic activity that may not be that

00:43:03.862 --> 00:43:07.862
traditional Hollywood erupting volcano.

00:43:08.302 --> 00:43:12.962
We have sulfur deposits where when you hike up there, it smells a lot like sulfur,

00:43:13.222 --> 00:43:17.082
which some people say smells like rotten eggs. I don't mind it personally.

00:43:17.582 --> 00:43:23.542
But I have a lot of sulfur deposits. You have a lot of sulfuric hot springs

00:43:23.542 --> 00:43:26.482
around the island that you can absolutely enjoy.

00:43:26.482 --> 00:43:33.082
I highly recommend anybody who's visiting to go to Trafalgar Falls and scramble

00:43:33.082 --> 00:43:36.542
to the base of those falls because you'll think you're in Jurassic Park and

00:43:36.542 --> 00:43:41.622
you'll be soaking in a hot bath at the base of about a 100-foot waterfall.

00:43:41.922 --> 00:43:43.022
It's absolutely incredible.

00:43:43.822 --> 00:43:48.882
There's another village called Watt and Waven that has probably about 10 different

00:43:48.882 --> 00:43:52.082
commercial hot baths that you can go soak in.

00:43:52.302 --> 00:43:58.422
Just where they've diverted the water into some pools that you can just take

00:43:58.422 --> 00:44:00.482
a nice natural sulfur bath in.

00:44:00.782 --> 00:44:03.822
And I do want to add that sulfur is very good for the skin.

00:44:04.902 --> 00:44:10.582
And if you give yourself a little sulfur rub, exfoliate the skin,

00:44:10.802 --> 00:44:14.622
you'll wake up feeling like you have baby skin in the morning.

00:44:15.442 --> 00:44:19.242
And are many of those attractions or locations accessible to the trail?

00:44:19.922 --> 00:44:24.982
Yes. Down in Soufrière, we stay at the Soufrière guest house and we have some

00:44:24.982 --> 00:44:27.002
directly behind the guest house.

00:44:27.342 --> 00:44:33.822
We make a point of visiting some others along the way And we definitely stop

00:44:33.822 --> 00:44:36.802
at most of the places where we can see bubbles rising from the seabed.

00:44:37.482 --> 00:44:42.042
So tell us about the Soufair Outdoor Center and the Guest House. Okay.

00:44:43.162 --> 00:44:47.482
The Soufair Guest House, we started that, opened that in 2018.

00:44:47.882 --> 00:44:51.122
The idea was to really promote community tourism.

00:44:51.482 --> 00:44:55.922
So to that end, we took a big piece of flyboard, we put it in our living room.

00:44:56.659 --> 00:45:00.299
We projected Google Maps on it, and we traced out the map of the village,

00:45:00.419 --> 00:45:04.139
and we put where everybody can get food, go to bars, this, that, and the other.

00:45:04.579 --> 00:45:07.699
When people arrive, we encourage them to go into the village.

00:45:08.359 --> 00:45:12.159
We have to do a little cross-cultural training sometimes because when you walk

00:45:12.159 --> 00:45:14.159
into a shop here, you need to say good morning.

00:45:14.519 --> 00:45:19.299
When you walk past people on the road, you tell them good morning, good afternoon.

00:45:19.859 --> 00:45:22.619
And at nighttime, you greet them by saying good night.

00:45:23.219 --> 00:45:27.139
While that's usually a farewell in the States, it's actually a greeting here in the Caribbean.

00:45:27.599 --> 00:45:31.499
So we really have encouraged our guests to spend time in the community,

00:45:31.799 --> 00:45:35.019
go into the bars. You're welcome there. Don't be intimidated.

00:45:35.459 --> 00:45:42.159
You know, go in, meet the locals. And the community has been very receptive. It's been a big hit.

00:45:42.439 --> 00:45:46.659
People appreciate people coming in, spending their money, supporting them,

00:45:46.759 --> 00:45:49.639
getting to know them. Quite a few friendships have developed over the years.

00:45:50.179 --> 00:45:53.979
So that's the guest house. So we took a very similar approach with the outdoor center.

00:45:54.239 --> 00:45:59.359
The outdoor center is located right on the beach in Soufraire, on Soufraire Bay.

00:45:59.579 --> 00:46:02.839
We have a small property that we make the best of it.

00:46:03.279 --> 00:46:08.379
A few of our fishermen, sorry, a few of our guides grew up as fishermen.

00:46:08.719 --> 00:46:13.099
So they know all of the fish by names when you go surfing with them,

00:46:13.219 --> 00:46:14.979
their Creole name and their English name.

00:46:15.739 --> 00:46:22.619
And we try and do a lot of outreach in the community. and with a local population.

00:46:22.619 --> 00:46:24.979
We have special local rates that we give them.

00:46:25.139 --> 00:46:28.199
We've done kayak races. We've had fun days.

00:46:28.659 --> 00:46:34.859
We've provided free kayaking to both the teenage girls and the teenage boys in the summertime.

00:46:35.919 --> 00:46:41.759
And most recently, we've been partnering with the Dominica Olympic Committee

00:46:41.759 --> 00:46:47.079
on some grants for water safety and sea kayaking.

00:46:47.079 --> 00:46:49.259
So we really try and give back as

00:46:49.259 --> 00:46:52.659
much as possible and integrate into the communities as much as possible.

00:46:53.508 --> 00:46:57.208
That's great. Thank you for the work that you're doing to connect the community

00:46:57.208 --> 00:46:59.228
and to connect the community to water.

00:46:59.828 --> 00:47:05.248
Thank you. I think that's one of my favorite things of this super outdoor center.

00:47:05.768 --> 00:47:10.428
I thought it would be building a cohort of hardcore paddlers locally and going

00:47:10.428 --> 00:47:14.708
out into the channel, going out to the Atlantic, which has been fun to do.

00:47:14.708 --> 00:47:21.188
So my favorite thing is getting somebody who hasn't had access to swim lessons

00:47:21.188 --> 00:47:23.688
like in North America or the States or elsewhere,

00:47:23.968 --> 00:47:28.788
who grew up on an island, who may not be connected to the sea or connected to

00:47:28.788 --> 00:47:31.068
the water and may be actually afraid of it a bit.

00:47:31.228 --> 00:47:34.188
And their swimming abilities may not be the best.

00:47:34.408 --> 00:47:38.048
And I take them out on a kayak. I feel like the kayak is the perfect thing.

00:47:39.231 --> 00:47:42.191
Medium to get them out on the sea and connected

00:47:42.191 --> 00:47:45.051
with the sea you know you don't have to worry about

00:47:45.051 --> 00:47:47.991
drowning you have your life jacket on you're in there you

00:47:47.991 --> 00:47:51.771
know you know you're not worried about what's going to nibble on your feet not

00:47:51.771 --> 00:47:56.371
that we have those problems but you can really get out there it's non-motorized

00:47:56.371 --> 00:48:00.151
you're in control you can you know you can feel the motion of the ocean so to

00:48:00.151 --> 00:48:06.071
speak the undulations of the sea and experience the beauty in a safe way and connect with it.

00:48:07.271 --> 00:48:11.391
And that's the favorite part of my job. Sounds like a good time.

00:48:12.131 --> 00:48:14.871
Definitely. Excellent. So how can listeners connect with you, Wes?

00:48:15.271 --> 00:48:20.111
The best way to connect with me is through my website and I try to make it as

00:48:20.111 --> 00:48:21.751
easy to remember as possible.

00:48:21.971 --> 00:48:30.331
So of course, it's www.soc-dom.com.

00:48:30.911 --> 00:48:38.291
So that's soc-dom.com. you can find all of our contact information but if you

00:48:38.291 --> 00:48:40.671
message us through the website we get it right away as well,

00:48:41.711 --> 00:48:46.951
I would give you the Instagram handle but it's a mouthful it's Soufriere Outdoor Center,

00:48:48.731 --> 00:48:53.411
Instagram at Soufriere Outdoor Center but what's probably easier is at Mr.

00:48:53.531 --> 00:48:58.271
Wes Kayak that's me as well we'll make sure we put links to,

00:48:59.191 --> 00:49:04.271
all those socials out on our website in the show notes for this episode And

00:49:04.271 --> 00:49:07.671
I'd also love to see if we can get a copy or get a link to the video that you'd

00:49:07.671 --> 00:49:11.031
mentioned that kind of kicked the whole process off and really get an opportunity

00:49:11.031 --> 00:49:12.591
for folks to be able to see it in action.

00:49:12.791 --> 00:49:14.151
And then we've also had Ken Whiting

00:49:14.151 --> 00:49:17.171
as a guest on the show, and he made a mention of the trail as well.

00:49:17.191 --> 00:49:20.911
So I know he's done some videos about the beauty of the trail,

00:49:20.911 --> 00:49:22.511
so we can include those as well.

00:49:23.011 --> 00:49:26.311
And I get people familiar with not only the Super Air Outdoor Center,

00:49:26.471 --> 00:49:31.031
but the Waitukubule Sea Paddling Trail, and I get people out there.

00:49:31.751 --> 00:49:34.351
Great. We'd love that. The more people out on the sea, the better.

00:49:36.224 --> 00:49:39.504
One final question for you, Wes. I'd like to know who else would you like to

00:49:39.504 --> 00:49:41.384
hear as a future guest on Paddling the Blue?

00:49:41.744 --> 00:49:45.524
Well, somebody I would like to hear from is somebody I've actually never met,

00:49:45.744 --> 00:49:49.064
but we've been following each other on social media for years now.

00:49:49.804 --> 00:49:55.124
Wolf Albury of Wolf Kayaking Club has got a great setup in the Bahamas.

00:49:55.324 --> 00:49:57.884
We've been messaging for years, following each other.

00:49:58.224 --> 00:50:03.144
The Caribbean words, we've been bigging up each other, supporting each other's

00:50:03.144 --> 00:50:06.104
social media and had a few exchanges.

00:50:06.224 --> 00:50:10.284
We exchange good Caribbean jokes through Messenger.

00:50:10.584 --> 00:50:14.684
So I would love to hear more about him and his operations on here.

00:50:14.804 --> 00:50:16.144
I'll definitely tune in for that one.

00:50:16.564 --> 00:50:20.364
Well, super. Well, we'll work on connecting with Wolf here.

00:50:20.944 --> 00:50:24.084
And again, it's been great to have an opportunity to talk to you and to learn

00:50:24.084 --> 00:50:26.804
about Dominica and the beauty of the area.

00:50:27.144 --> 00:50:29.664
And we'll get some folks down there and check out the trail.

00:50:30.324 --> 00:50:35.124
Wonderful. Thanks, John. It's been a pleasure meeting you, and I really look

00:50:35.124 --> 00:50:38.364
forward to following your podcast in the future. Thanks. It's been a pleasure, Wes.

00:50:39.824 --> 00:50:43.644
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00:51:26.304 --> 00:51:30.244
Thanks to Wes for sharing Dominica with us. The Waitukabule Sea Trail sounds

00:51:30.244 --> 00:51:33.544
fantastic, and it certainly doesn't sound like a place you want to race around.

00:51:33.744 --> 00:51:36.544
I love his idea of a prize for the slowest paddle.

00:51:36.944 --> 00:51:40.164
If you want to learn more about Dominica, the Waitukabule Sea Trail,

00:51:40.344 --> 00:51:41.684
and the Soufrere Outdoor Center,

00:51:41.844 --> 00:51:46.824
visit the show notes for this episode at pedalingtheblue.com slash 153.

00:51:47.204 --> 00:51:51.344
If you're not already a subscriber to onlineseacayaking.com or onlinewhitewater.com,

00:51:51.464 --> 00:51:55.704
remember that you can visit either of those two sites, Use the coupon code PTB

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00:52:00.564 --> 00:52:05.224
Thanks again for listening and I look forward to bringing you the next episode of Paddling the Blue.

00:52:06.284 --> 00:52:09.824
Thank you for listening to Paddling the Blue. You can subscribe to Paddling

00:52:09.824 --> 00:52:15.124
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We truly appreciate the support. and you can find the show notes for this episode

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and other episodes along with replays of past episodes, contact information,

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and more at paddlingtheblue.com.

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Until next time, I hope you get out and paddle the blue.