"Paddles For Charity" is the name of the account which remains open to depositors at Scotiabank branches up to August 31st, in support of the herculean kayaking journey recently completed by two airline pilots around our twin islands.
The three charities which will benefit from the money raised are the Aids Foundation of Trinidad and Tobago, an anonymous cancer charity that provides hospice care for terminally ill, poor cancer patients, and the Happy Venture School for Slow Learners.
Five years apart in age, the lives of 54 year old Captain Wayne Crooks and 49 year old Captain Jean Talma have run along similar lines, just never at the same time in the same place until they joined BWIA West Indies Airways. Crooks in October 1973 and Talma in January 1954.
The two former students of St Peter's School at Pointe-a-Pierre where there fathers worked with Texaco, both completed their 'A' levels at Presentation College in San Fernando. They were both Victor Ludorum champions at St Peter's and Presentation; have both played Rugby in the distant past for Carib's Rugby Team; and unknown to each other at the time, learned to fly with Toronto Airways at Buttonville Airport. Both came back to fly with the national airline and eventually became Captains of the L-1011, and now the Boeing 737 aircraft. There the similarities end for the time being.
Talma, who is married to Philippa (nee Kenny) and has two sons, Jean Philippe (13) and Daniel Luc (12), was born in Dominica and came to Trinidad at age five or six. While Wayne, a born Trini, is married to the former Christine Decle, has a 26 year old son Sean, who now flies with BWIA as co-pilot on the B-737's with his father, and a daughter Jeanine, age 24.
"We knew of each other" chorused the happy pair. But really became firm friends and partners when they started kayaking, Crooks about six years ago and Talma about five years ago.
Crooks admits "my knees were killing me from jogging so I was looking for a low-impact sport which would still give me some form of exercise." While Talma, who suffered multiple facial and leg injuries in a near-fatal car accident on his way to Piarco Airport to operate an early morning Tobago flight, on October 16, 1977, says "I knew Wayne was kayaking and thought this would be good exercise for me as I can't run or jog."
The twosome who have now earned the admiration of the citizens of Trinidad and Tobago for this courageous, fund-raising 12-day journey circumnavigating both islands, in the face of strong currents and winds, waves, thunder and hotsun, says "it never crossed our minds, not even once, for the entire trip to give up." Even when they experienced what to them was the hardest part of the journey along the south coast of Trinidad.
Although they both agree that kayaking is a "self-taught kind of sport," they admit "that does not say you can't learn from people, we learned from everybody. In this narrow boat one has to develop a co- ordinated rhythm so it takes a little time to learn this co-ordination. In the early stages it is awkward as you are trying to maintain your balance and to paddle at the same time. And that's the key to it for as conditions become more difficult, it applies even more so. There are times it becomes reflex and you do not have the time to think about it."
It was at the end of an initial ten-day trip just paddling quietly around Trinidad two years ago, while looking at some footage of the journey, that Talma's wife said "you fellas did a really good job but the one thing is you should have done it for charity." Crooks didn't sleep that night and jokes "not for the next two years."
"I told Jean here's what we are going to do, we are going to go around Trinidad and Tobago for charity." Says Jean "It took two years because I had some personal stuff to attend to last year. But he waited on me. This idea is 100% Wayne, I literally followed him on this one."
And although both men generally maintain fairly active lifestyles and never let their bodies go so that it becomes a major project to get into good physical condition, Wayne upped his training intensity about six months before the proposed trip, adding extra weight and aerobic training and swimming. Jean, who suffers from arthritis, the after effects of his accident, which restricts him to mainly paddling, also did a fair amount of swimming. They both upped paddling exercises as stamina was an important factor if they were to be able to paddle all day for many days.
On the first part of the journey around Trinidad, up to Cumana in Toco, the pair had land support from Glen Wilkes whom Crooks calls Mr Kayak "He met us at proposed camps, pitched the tent, had food for us and toted all our equipment. He did an outstanding job. He has been in the sport for so long and can be said to be the first kayaker recorded to circumnavigate Trinidad. He actually paddled with us part of the way on our big trip two years ago and gave us plenty of moral support and encouragement. We wouldn't have done it without him so early in our careers two years ago and gratefully used his experience. We were dying to go around Trinidad again but not without Glen."
From Cumana to Tobago, Peter de la Rosa of Island Yacht Charters, took over the watch and followed the pair to Tobago around that island and crossing back to Grande Riviere.
The two kayakers always maintained a safe distance to each other. "We are each other's support and must be there to help each other out, so we never let ourselves get further apart than about 20 metres. It is easy as when we are paddling, mentally we imagine a safe zone around us and everything within that zone is taken into consideration, and we move accordingly in that zone. One of us may notice some rocks or turbulent waters and would say watch out."
"If you hear urgency in his voice with a command, you act immediately because we trust in each other, and discuss what it was about after" says Talma.
They are both agreed on the fact that neither would paddle with another man. And says Talma "we both have strong determination. One wouldn't ask the other to do something he is not comfortable doing, if I am comfortable with it, he will be able to do it as well. We have mutual respect for each others' capabilities so there is no stress worrying about the other guy being able to hold up his end and vice versa."
Both kayaks used on the trip were imported- Jean's "Blem" is "a shortened version of 'blemish' because a fellow paddler said it was full of blemishes that's why I got it for a good price." While Wayne's 18' 6" big white kayak is called "Great White."
And if you are thinking of taking up the sport, although kayaks are available locally, the foreign top-of-the-line ocean going, touring kayaks range from U.S.$1,200 to U.S. $4,000.