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The "Pod Squad" of the Lowcountry Paddlers club makes their way under the Ben Sawyer Bridge on one of their "Show n' Go" paddling excursions from Sullivan's Island
On a sunny Thursday afternoon, we gather at Station 26 — the Sullivan’s Island boat ramp for non-motorized watercraft — and help each other unload our kayaks from atop our cars. We carry the boats down to the water’s edge, then slip into water shoes and stuff our dry bags with the day’s necessities: water bottles, sunscreen, rain jackets, sponges, snacks. We pull personal floatation devices over our heads and cinch them snug. And before we steady each other’s boats to slide into our cockpits, grip our paddles, and push off from shore, we listen to Lowcountry Paddlers President Dan Hoke explain the day’s route.
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We’ll be paddling out through these back creeks, he says, then entering the main channel of the Intracoastal Waterway and, if the wind is right, we’ll enter the Charleston Harbor past the Pitt Street Bridge, and circle around Fort Moultrie. The main thing is to stay together. To veer off into a side creek out here, after all, is to enter a marshy maze.
We’re here to take care of each other. No rush; no race. We just stay together.”
-Dan Hoke
Today it’s around a dozen members of the Lowcountry Paddlers who have signed up for this “Show N’ Go” paddling excursion – an unofficial club event sometimes referred to as “The Pod Squad.” The group also has 40 or so official, prescheduled paddles a year — but this is an informal, once-a-week, two-hour kayak trip in which you bring your own boat and paddle as a group. “We’re here as a group,” Hoke says, explaining the concept of club paddling. “We’re here to take care of each other. No rush; no race. We just stay together.”
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Some members of the group like to personalize their boats with their favorite marine mascot, like this dolphin that Susan Batla lashed to her bow.
The Best of Both Worlds
Paddling is all about balance, and perhaps the best thing about club paddling is that you can balance the best of two worlds. In a few strokes, you can paddle just off to the side in safe solitude. In a few more, you can paddle alongside fellow club members, drifting in and out of conversation as free-flowing as the creek water itself. On the water, you get to know people who all have their individual reasons for joining but whose explanations ring out in chorus: club paddling is communal eco-fitness good for all ages. “This is my therapy. It’s free, it’s fun, and you meet great people,” says Susan Batla, the day’s trip leader. “We come for the nature and exercise, and then we all go out for lunch and have a beer or two because you’re just starved.”
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Club president Dan Hoke says that he moved to Charleston largely because of the club and all the paddling opportunities in the area's many waterways, including the salt creeks of the Sullivan's Island marsh.
Chuck Elliott says, “My wife and I retired here three years ago. We just knew we wanted to kayak, so we took some lessons out at the park. We joined these guys and really enjoyed it. This is something we can do together.” There’s Michael Condon, one of the fastest paddlers in the group, in his 80s, who talks about his old family beach house on Sullivan’s Island and how he got into paddling because his wife is an artist, and they wanted a way to better sneak up on wildlife so she could paint. And Sandy Henbest, who says, “I’m 77 years old. You gotta do it while you can.”
This is my therapy. It’s free, it’s fun, and you meet great people.”
-Susan Batla
For his part, Hoke moved to Charleston from Virginia largely because of the Lowcountry Paddlers, which was launched in the late 1990s. “I had already been paddling down here,” says Hoke, who started kayaking in college nearly 50 years ago. “I knew the club was here, and I knew we had good paddling. So my first official trip to visit with the club was to do a day paddle and their oyster roast. It’s just sweet. These are the first people I knew when I first got here.”
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He’s about to say more when he notices how the group has started to make their wind-pushed way down the center of the Intracoastal, and he calls out, “Stay up against the shore if you can!” Although Hoke is not the official trip leader today — a role he defines as “ultimately feeling confident that you can get a group out on the water to where you’re going and back safely and to not lose anybody” – he’s performed the duties so often that today he helps Batla ensure the safe passage of everyone in the group.
All Together Now
You don’t have to be certified by the American Canoe Association to lead a group trip, but Lowcountry Paddlers is a “Paddle America Club” and part of the American Canoe Association, which means they have group insurance. However, with some surplus money in this year’s budget – what’s left over after three good parties (oyster roast, Christmas party, summer picnic) and the invitations of guest lecturers (authors, naturalists, paddlers) the club is sponsoring a handful of members to earn ACA certification.
We make our way under the Ben Sawyer Bridge, passing Tolers Cove, and head east northeast toward the Pitt Street Bridge, ornamented with pelicans and cormorants. Someone notices an American flag flapping hard on the opposite point, so we infer the wind is too strong today to paddle out into the harbor. We beach instead on a sandbar just beyond the bridge, eat our snacks, hang out, and hunt for shark’s teeth.
On the paddle back to the landing, with the tide coming in and the wind at our backs, I decide to break from the standards of journalist objectivity and become a club member. I realize that clubs are the best sources of collective paddling wisdom – the best tips on gear and technique, the best recommendations for local spots and travel trips – all for only $20 a year, or less than the two-hot dog lunch I eat on my way home.
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The great thing about club paddling is you can paddle off to the side in safe solitude or join with the group in free-flowing conversation
A few weeks later, on my second trip and my first official one as a club member, we meet at Bulow Landing in Ravenel. Today’s trip leader is none other than Ralph Earhart, a 23-year Lowcountry Paddlers member and author of the guidebook Paddling Charleston. Earhart, who used to be a motor-boater, explains his entrance into the sport thus: “My mechanic was at my house one day and said, ‘We need to do this and this and this.’ I said, ‘I’ll tell you what. I’m going to sign the boat and trailer over to you right now. I never want to see them again or you again.’ So I borrowed someone’s kayak and started kayaking. Once I started kayaking, I realized there was no good guide to paddle, so I spent about three years writing down lots of stuff. That’s when I wrote my book.”
Per standard trip leader practice, Earhart narrates the route before we disembark. Today we will paddle upstream, under the bridge, along old rice canals looping back to where we started. Roughly two hours and roughly five miles. His vision proves prophetic. We have a simple, beautiful paddle that is beautifully summed up by club member Beth Heywood: “I just love being close to the water and experiencing everything: the gators, the birds, the fish jumping. I feel like I’m a part of that.”
I just love being close to the water and experiencing everything: the gators, the birds, the fish jumping. I feel like I’m a part of that.”
-Beth Heywood
Afterward, we help each other load our kayaks back atop our cars, and we change into dry clothes before Hoke gives a report on future routes. Tonight is the annual oyster roast, he reminds us, and, after that, there will be many great paddling trips in the months ahead.
