Here at Lakewood we use asymetrical dihedral paddles. Some of these paddles have blades that are feathered between 65 and 90 degrees. We also have available unfeathered paddles for beginners or those less confident.
All of our kayaks are sit-in recreational kayaks. Lakewood Lodge uses this specific type of kayak as they are considered the best type for ponds, lakes, and flat-water rivers. We cater our kayak session to groups of up to 16, including the instructor and adult help, and sessions run for approximately 90 minutes. Our kayaking instructors are handpicked to install confidence into you or your kids while maintaining a safe environment. After each session, participants will know how to successfully control their kayak in the water, be able to keep balance while paddling around, and improve motor skills as well as maintaining good fitness. Some may step out of their comfort zone by going into water.
Kayaking on the Lodge’s manmade lake is our most popular option for school camps. For groups that are more confident or have had previous kayaking experience, there is the option to head out to the stream that runs along the edge of Lakewood Lodge, Whangape Stream, and explore Lake Whangape. While out on Lake Whangape you may get the chance to encounter some wild swans and geese. If you’re lucky, you may get the chance to see a small school of Koi-Carp in the Whangape Stream on your way up. Lakewood Lodge also offers the option of a half day kayaking session for the more competent kayakers which involves heading out for a 6 kilometre return trip to the island on Lake Whangape for a picnic lunch.
Before heading out on the water, our instructor will fit each individual with a buoyancy aid and run through a thorough safety briefing. This includes the correct way to hold your paddle, how to steer your kayak, and what will happen should you fall out or capsize your kayak. Once the entire group is in a kayak out on the water the instructor will ask the group to have a paddle around to assess the skill level. When everyone is confident in their kayak, the instructor will select a few games for the group to participate in.
We like to run the school camp sessions with games as this gets the students involved. When playing games in a kayak, often the students are engrossed in the game and subconsciously kayak around, meaning that even the students who have never kayaked before end up developing great paddling techniques without realising.
One person is selected to be the ‘zombie’. The job of the ‘zombie’ is to infect as many other people as possible by touching their kayak with his/her hand. Once someone has been infected, they too can then infect other players. The last person to become ‘infected’ is the winner.
Each group member is to line up next to one-another facing the same way and grab hold of the of the kayak next to them. Starting at either end, one person will exit their kayak and make their way along the front of the hull, crawling from kayak-to-kayak until they have made it to the end of the line and back into their kayak.
Each kayaker will start from the same location. The instructor will then determine some points around the lake in which the kayakers will need to kayak to. The first person back to the end point wins.
This is a nice little twist on the classic paper-scissors-rock game. Each player starts out as an ‘egg’, an egg will tap on their head yelling out, “egg, egg, egg”. Once they find another egg player they then verse each other at paper-scissors-rock. The winner evolves into a ‘chicken’. The chicken makes chicken noises while flapping their arms, and when met with another chicken they verse each other as paper-scissors-rock. The winner evolves into a ‘dinosaur’, who displays their T-rex arms and roars like a dinosaur. They then verse another dinosaur at paper-scissors-rock, the winner evolves into a ‘monkey’, kayaking around while calling out like a monkey. When they find another monkey, they verse each other at paper-scissors-rock to determine the winner. Whoever wins this round then evolves into a ‘human’. A human is the final stage of evolution. Whoever makes it to a human first, wins. The trick to this game, no matter your rank, is if you lose at paper-scissors-rock you automatically go back to being an egg.