(upbeat music) - I'm Ken Whiting, and this week on "Facing Waves," I'm in Dominica and we are exploring the Waitukubuli Sea Trail with Soufriere Outdoor Centre.

Often referred to as the nature island, Dominica is considered one of the best kept secrets in the Caribbean, which I can't argue with because I knew almost nothing about Dominica before my trip.

What I learned is that Dominica is one of the most rugged, dramatic, friendly, and untouched places in the world.

The mountainous countryside is covered with lush rainforest, spectacular waterfalls, and peaks as high as 4700 feet.

And even though the island nation is only 29 miles long and 16 miles wide, it's home to over 300 miles of hiking trails and 365 flowing rivers.

The coastline is equally impressive and dramatic, and it boasts world-class scuba diving, snorkeling, and fishing.

But that's not why I came to Dominica.

I came to experience the Caribbean's first sea kayaking trail, the Waitukubuli Sea Trail.

What I discovered was one of the most breathtaking places in the world.

(energetic music) My name's Ken Whiting.

And for over 30 years, my life has been guided by the paddle in my hand.

This is my search for the world's most spectacular paddling destinations.

This is "Facing Waves."

Funding for facing waves is provided by Discover the World.

Collette offers small group explorations, tours, destinations and local experiences designed especially for small groups.

Explorations by Collette Guided travel since 1918 Postum Instant warm beverage made with wheat, grain and molasses.

It's non-GMO and caffeine free.

Since 1895, all three flavors are available online at Postum.com and by these additional sponsors.

♪♪♪ (upbeat music) I am in the small town of Soufriere in the southwestern corner of Dominica.

and I'm about to hook up with Wes and Kerry from Soufriere Outdoor Center, who really spearheaded the whole Waitukubuli Sea Trail with the Dominican Ministry of Tourism.

And we're about to explore a section of the sea trail.

I can't wait.

And it's time to hook up with them.

(relaxed reggae music) Hello, Wes.

- Hey.

Morning, Ken.

- Good to finally meet you.

- Yeah, great to meet you too.

Welcome to Soufriere Bay.

- Wow, look at this.

- Yeah, it's lovely, huh?

That's Scotts Head in the distance, And we're on the Caribbean Sea right now.

- We're gonna launch from here today.

- Yep, we're gonna do segment 2 of the Waitukubuli Sea Trail.

We're headed that way, but let's go check out the map over at the kayak center.

- Sounds good.

- Alright.

- Here's the kayak center.

We'll be going right up this coast in Soufriere Bay on the Caribbean seaside.

We'll pass La Sorciere, L'Abym, pass Pointe Guignard to Champagne Reef.

That's where we have the geothermal activity, and the volcano is venting so you have sulfur bubbles coming up.

So you'll be snorkeling through the champagne bubbles.

afterwards we'll circle back for a nice Dominican cookout with roast fish, roast red fruit, roast planting.

Yeah, I hope you can paddle back after all that food.

- Yeah (laughs).

(light music) This thing blows me away every time I do it: from a golf bag to a 16-foot sea kayak in 15 minutes.

I mean, how cool is that?

And on top of that, I don't have to go do a warmup 'cause I am warmed up already.

But that's okay, 'cause we're going to hit the water right now.

(light music continues) Well, we've got some interesting conditions.

We got cloud, then sun, and then we got rain.

We've got a whole mix.

The wind's blowing a bit, but we're pretty sheltered here by the mountains of the island.

It's gonna be a mixed bag today, but it doesn't really matter.

This is my first time, well, paddling in Dominica, but also doing this section.

And anytime you do a section for the first time, it's the most magical experience.

I can't wait to see what's around that corner.

(soft music) - Soufriere Outdoor Centre was really conceptualized by myself and Kerry Alleyne, my business partner.

- I was told that there was an individual that was very, very fascinated by kayaks and kayaking, and I was like, "That sounds like me."

So I met with Wes, and he had this big idea that we could circumnavigate Dominica.

At first I thought it was crazy, but then I'm thinking, "Man, I've been looking for this moment for my entire life."

- Every time we went out and we said wouldn't this be a great tour, this just gives us fitness, it gives us peace of mind, well-being.

We wanted to share it with others.

So we conceptualized having the outdoor center in Soufriere that could make money off the tours, but also be accessible to the the locals as well.

Dominica is uniquely positioned.

We have the calm Caribbean side for beginners and we have the Atlantic side for the intermediate and advanced paddlers.

So we really have something to offer for all of the paddlers.

(soft music continues) (light music) - So does this section have a name?

- It is called La Sorciere.

This means the Witches Point.

It's also one of the dive sites in the Marine Reserve.

La Sorciere is definitely one of the highlights in this segment.

It's one of the most beautiful dive sites as well.

If you're scuba diving or snorkeling, you could definitely do that there.

- And I think you're saying here it drops.

- It definitely does.

The continuation from L'Abym is still the edge of that crater that goes all the way to Champagne.

- I spearheaded the development of the Waitukubuli Sea Trail for several reasons.

I love kayaking and I love expeditions, but I also prefer staying in accommodations over camping.

And so when I saw the coast of Dominica, I said this is ideal.

This is perfect.

You can kayak the whole way.

You can stay in accommodations.

You can do beautiful land excursions.

And I thought this is something I would travel and go do.

Dominica has the only true hiking trail, the Waitukubuli National Trail, which is 14 segments.

And I said wouldn't it be amazing to establish the first marine trail with 14 segments as well?

The sea trail starts in the south of Dominica in the Martinique Channel, and it goes all the way north to the Guadalupe Channel.

I originally approached the Discover Dominica Authority and Ministry of Tourism with the idea, and they immediately bought into it.

(light music continues) - We are gonna be snorkeling right there.

This is where we find the champagne bubbles, geothermal activity where there are sulfur gas coming from vents, giving you the appearance that we snorkeling in a giant glass of champagne.

- Sweet.

- Don't drink the bubblies.

- Don't drink the bubbles.

- That's it.

Are you ready?

- Let's do it.

- All right.

(light music continues) - Combining paddling and swimming, for me as a whitewater paddler, is something that I generally don't do, because it usually means you've done something wrong.

But in this case, I was dying to get outta the boat and go for a swim.

(light music continues) (light music continues) Well, that was pretty awesome.

But the mission is not complete yet.

We still, well, we have to reenergize.

We only have a short paddle back to one of the beaches we passed where we're gonna have a little cookout and put some energy back in the system.

'Cause it's been a busy day, but we're not done.

(foreboding music) One thing I've learned in the short amount of time I've been here in Dominica is that the weather can change like that.

And so you have to be prepared for a quick change.

Going around the corner, it was like a switch got flipped and the wind and rain machines were turned on.

Because all of a sudden, it was like we were getting pins and needles in the face.

The wind and rain was coming at us so hard, and it was literally on the verge of not being worth paddling because you weren't making any headway.

When you're in conditions with strong winds and hard rain and choppy waves, you have to make a decision whether it's worthwhile moving forward, or do you find shelter and wait it out.

Fortunately, we didn't have to go too far before we got to the place where we were having our cookout.

And turns out the cookout spot was a perfect place to wait out the storm.

(foreboding music continues) Woo.

(gentle music) (fire crackling) - Hey Brady.

- Here you go.

- Awesome, thank you (laughs).

Wow, we made it to the cookout spot.

And lucky for us, a bunch of the guys from Soufriere Outdoor Centre came here early, cooked up all the food, and it's ready and waiting for us.

How nice is that?

Perfect.

Perfect timing too 'cause the weather just rolled in.

It's blowing really hard now and raining.

But if there's one thing I've learned in the 36 hours I've spent in Dominica, it's that wait 10 or 15 minutes and the weather is likely gonna change.

So we're gonna hunker down in this beautiful spot and wait a little bit before we make the paddle back home.

(gentle music continues) (upbeat music) Well, the weather really came in yesterday, and it looked pretty threatening this morning.

So we hunkered down at where we were staying, the Jungle Bay Resort, which was an amazing place to have to spend some time, and hopefully the weather cleared up.

It has.

We don't have that much time left though.

It's already the afternoon and so we're making a mission.

We're gonna go to Scotts Head.

It's only a couple of miles away, and get a better look at this whole Soufriere area.

(upbeat music continues) - Soufriere Outdoor Centre is a ecotourism business, and we specialize in sea kayaking and snorkeling.

- Wes and Kerry didn't just see an opportunity to set up an outfitter business to provide experiences for tourists to see one of the most dramatic and fantastic places in the world, they really are doing this as well to involve the local community, to grow the local community, to help the community.

- We named the Soufriere Outdoor Center after Soufriere, because we really wanted to represent the community and involve the community.

And to that end, we've tried to make it accessible.

We didn't want this to be another ecotourism business or tourism business that was primarily for the tourists.

- I love the fact that Wes and Kerry are getting the local kids involved with paddling and teaching them to be the next generation of kayak guides here.

And right outta the gate, I could feel their energy, their love of not just the water, but their discovery of kayaks as this vehicle to experience their backyard.

(upbeat music continues) Sea kayaks are different than sit-on-top kayaks, but they're not designed to be super stable and hard to flip.

They're designed for performance.

but the trade-off is that sea kayaks aren't that stable, and if you're not paying attention, you can find yourself upside down.

Uh-oh.

I'm not sure what Freddy was doing.

The water wasn't that rough.

But that is the thing about sea kayaking.

If you take your eye off the ball, it doesn't take too much to flip a sea kayak.

- Hold onto my boat.

Yeah.

- Freddy swimming was actually a great thing to happen with everyone around, because all those young paddlers got to see how Wes was gonna deal with this, how Wes and Freddy were gonna deal with this situation.

And that's an important part of paddling in the sea, is you have to know what to do in those types of situations, because inevitably they are going to happen.

- You wanna do it that way?

- All right.

- You good?

- Yeah.

(upbeat music) (light music) - The really neat thing about Scotts Head is it's like this wall.

And on our side of that wall is the Caribbean Sea.

It's very sheltered.

On the other side of that wall or that peninsula is the Atlantic.

And so when you come around that corner, boom, all of a sudden you're in the Atlantic: the wind picks up, the waves pick up, everything picks up.

(light music continues) Coming around Scotts Head into the rougher Atlantic environment, It was interesting to see Freddy leading the charge right after he had just swam.

For me, that was valuable insight into the kind of person Freddy is: he's game.

He loves the water.

He's comfortable in the water.

And he just wants to play out there.

(relaxed music) (upbeat music) Paddling in the unprotected waters around Scotts Head was really a cool experience for the young guys.

For most of them, this is the biggest water they've ever seen.

And experiencing that, that's not something you can safely do very often.

But doing that with Wes, Kerry, and myself, having that experience there with them, it gave them the confidence to push themselves a little bit.

And you could see it on their face.

They were nervous, they were excited, they were just lapping it all up.

(upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) You know, one of the coolest things about sea kayaking is the perspectives you get from the water.

And we were paddling close to that shoreline yesterday, and I really didn't fully appreciate how stunning it is.

I mean, now I can really see it.

And I'll bet you, the view from up top is gonna be even cooler.

So that's where we're going.

(light music) I'll tell you what, Kerry, one of the things I'm loving so far is everything seems just pretty pure, pretty raw.

Even here, it's not like a highly developed tourism destination by any means.

- No, because we always pride ourselves in making sure the island's natural aspect is still kept.

And one of the ways that we can do that, and I have seen that we are doing this, is actually taking our time gradually.

In terms of development, you don't want to rush things, because when you do that and it's not done properly, you end up having- - All sorts of other problems.

- All sorts of other problems.

That's true.

We focus mainly on nature.

We focus on culture.

These are the foundations for having a very sustainable way to develop tourism on the island.

(soft music) (soft music continues) - Wow, what an afternoon mini adventure.

Incredible paddle, incredible view.

That's a kind of adventure I love: an unexpected mini adventure.

But the adventure is far from done, because we're only halfway.

We still have to hike back down and paddle back.

And the sun's dropping, so we better get to it.

(soft music continues) (light music) (light music continues) Funding for facing waves is provided by Discover the World.

Collette offers small group explorations, tours, destinations and local experiences designed especially for small groups.

Explorations by Collette Guided travel since 1918 Postum Instant warm beverage made with wheat, grain and molasses.

It's non-GMO and caffeine free.

Since 1895, all three flavors are available online at Postum.com and by these additional sponsors.

♪♪♪