CHESTERFIELD INLET - A group of students at Victor Sammurtok School in Chesterfield Inlet went on a three-day, two-night kayak adventure on the land and water near their community this past month.

Teacher Glen Brocklebank said the students practised self-exits for two days on Police Lake before the trip.

Aula Kukkiak of Victor Sammurtok School in Chesterfield Inlet is pumped for the kayak adventure near her community this past month. - photo courtesy of Glen Brocklebank

He said the training was held so he and the other instructors would be comfortable in the students' ability to handle the situation should their boat capsize.

"We took them to Deep Water Lake the next day, which is about eight-feet deep," said Brocklebank.

"They had to swim across the lake while wearing a life-jacket, capsize and right their kayak within 90 seconds, and paddle the distance of the lake and back.

"We then did two trips to the ocean, including one four-kilometre trip."

The students readied for their adventure by being in charge of meal planning and preparation for the land trip.

When the big day arrived, they were taken to base camp before heading out to paddle on three different lakes and then camping out for the night.

Brocklebank said the students paddled four lakes and did a bit of portaging the next day of the adventure.

"It was windy enough for six of us to actually try sailing - with a limited degree of success - by tying our kayaks together.

"We spent two nights on the land before returning to town on the third day and cleaning up.

"We had 15 boats on the water with 24 students taking part at different times.

"Every student didn't do it all because some weren't comfortable with being on the ocean and others didn't want to camp out."

Brocklebank said students in the lower classes, from Grade 6 to Grade 8, are straining at the leash to take part in the kayak program which begins in Grade 9.

He said the program has reached the point where the students need to start travelling longer distances on the ocean.

"These kids are natural born paddlers, but we're still working on getting everyone to have complete confidence in our program for it to reach its full potential.

"We had fewer boats tipped over by the new students this year than ever before.

"We finished seven more kayaks at the end of last year that are really fast and stable, which shows we've perfected kayak-making and have the boats to prove it.

"The students are gravitating towards the newer of our 22 kayaks because they're faster and have really good primary stability."