Welcome to my Sea Kayaking (b)log
Posts from 2017
I was recently very fortunate to be lent a Valley Gemini SP, by Valley in Nottingham. As you can see from the pictures below it is a lovely looking boat with a blue glitter top and a funky white stripe. The Gemini SP is at the opposite end of the length scale to my...
After a very late night in the Paddlers Return for some and promises of being ready for an 08:30 meeting, I was somewhat surprised to see everyone looking fairly bright eyed and bushy tailed at 08:30!! Perhaps the hang-overs hadn’t kicked in yet! We then spent the next 20 minutes deciding to do Puffin...
With the wind being f3-f4 NW and a reasonable swell forecast, I led a group of three paddlers: Keith, Spencer and Paul. This day I was paddling a Valley Gemini SP, lent to me by Valley. It is a lovely looking boat in nice metallic Blue with a funky white stripe down the middle...
At this years NWSK end of season meet, Jimski suggested one possible trip would be to do the Stacks. Four of us decided to join him, along with his friend Ashleigh. The paddlers were Jimski, Ashleigh, Alan, Chris, Graham and moi. Everyone else decided to go to Rhoscolyn. Setting off from Porth Dafarch we...
After another good night in the Paddlers bar, with great food (as always), great atmosphere and excellent real ales, much talk had been about the likelihood of some reasonable surf conditions the next day. And so, it was decided to meet up open Sunday at the Roadking transport cafe for breakfast for 9:30. Despite...
As there were a few of us we split in to two groups initially. Then following a little exploratory trip out from the shelter of Borthwen, we became three groups. I paddled with Andy, Kris, Trevor. The wind was blowing a good F5/F6 and there was some big swell coming in. We paddled out...
Having set various alarms the night before, I found I didn’t need them. I had been awake since about 5 o’clock. My head was throbbing and I really wasn’t feeling good. I manage a small bowl of muesli for breakfast and headed up to the marquee for day 2 of Incident Management Training. To...
Much of Monday was spent in the “classroom” marquee going through and discussing Leadership, Leadership styles and Qualities. There was some great content to take onboard and to put into practice. For instance, BCU Sea kayak leaders all know about the pneumonic C.L.A.P, which stands for Communication, Line of Sight, Avoidance and Position. Well...
Ages ago I booked myself onto Sea Kayaking Cornwall’s incident management week, not realising this was part of the courses week following their symposium weekend. At the time of booking, I thought I can travel down on the Saturday, taking it nice and easy, stopping overnight in the van if I need to. And...
After another wet and windy night, I woke to the sound of the rain pitter-pattering on the roof of my van. Eating breakfast and drinking coffee in the warmth of my centrally heated van, I looked out of the windows at people scurrying about in the rain. Hellen Willetts was on the telly giving...
It was the final LCC Angelsey Weekend camping of the year and I thought I would go along. I arrived on Friday night in the pitch dark and drove onto the field. Uh-oh! I soon realised the field was extremely wet and my heavy van was wheel spinning just at tick-over on the grass....
I am often asked how I get my sea kayak on the roof of my van. Here is a video I’ve made on how it is done. Fitting the roof bars to the van was not easy. You will note I don’t have much room on the roof with the various skylights, vents, solar...
Mrs T told me that on her boat trip a couple of days earlier, they had gone down the coast to Ynys Lochtyn, where there was another pod of dolphins. So setting of from Cwmtydu, I headed to Ynys Lochtyn, sticking close to the cliff to admire the cliff rock formations. At Ynys Lochtyn...
Wondering around the quaint Welsh port of New Quay (Ceinewydd) my wife spotted a sign advertising two hour boat trips. “Why don’t I go on a boat trip whilst you go for a paddle” she said! Well I am not going to say no to that! An hour or so later I was setting off...
I put out an email to all the sea kayakers I know saying I was running this trip. In the end we had a nice group of Royanne, Bill, Keith, Simon B, Mick and Ron. I chose to do this trip as the tidal streams are weak in this area and with the tide...
I’ve had never paddled the Farnes before, but I remember years ago watching enviously a group of Sea Kayakers setting off from Bamburgh, when my kids were little and we were on holiday in that part of the world. Happy Days! Mike Robson put out an email saying he was running a trip on...
On a weeks road trip to Cornwall in our new (to us) Murvi Campervan, we found and excellent car park overlooking the sea at Trevone. What’s better still is that the owners allowed us to stay overnight, for a small fee. It was so good we stayed two nights before moving on. Consequently, I...
Paddling at Flamborough and along the Bempton Cliffs at this time of year make this trip a very special privilege. Many thanks to Mike Robson for organising. It was also a privilege to paddle once again with Ron Walker. Check out the photos below, which say it all really! To view in a light...
The start of the day saw us meeting around Simon Beasley’s caravan at Anglesey Outdoors looking at options for a paddle. The group of ten was going to be of mixed abilities and with a strong southerly wind blowing, our options were going to be limited. In the end it was decided to paddle...
Meeting with PDCC at 9:00am it was soon settled with the weather forecast and tides, a trip out to the Skerries was most definitely on. So off we went to meet again in the car park at Camaes Bay. It was only a couple of weeks ago Helen, Gordon and I paddled to the...
