I love the outdoors and particularly love sea kayaking, as you will no doubt see from my B(log).
Having lived near Nottingham for most of my working life, I've recently retired (Retirement no2) and have moved to Scotland, not far from a lovely town - Helensburgh.
There were some benefits to living in the middle of England - even for a sea kayaker, as it meant I could get to any coast to paddle fairly easily. The sea being about three hours away in any direction ie. The South Coast, the East Coast (Flamborough and up) or even the South/Southwest Coast. This is also why Nottingham is home to two top sea kayak manufacturers: Valley and P&H.
Although, much of my sea Kayaking has taken place in North Wales, on Anglesey, which is a fabulous sea kayaking location.
Whilst living in Nottingham I did a lot of playboating at the National Water Sports Centre. England’s national centre for water sports. One of the downsides to paddling the "Concrete Ditch" is that it is an off shoot from the River Trent and consequently the water quality is not always the best. Trent Belly is not uncommon for newbies paddling the Trent.
I unfortunately picked up Leptospirosis/Wiels disease in 2014 from paddling the WW course and then had sepsis in November 2018. Following the advice of the medics, I gave up playboating in the Trent for health reasons.
I started kayaking when I was about 9 years old at the Riverside Centre in Oxford. The Riverside Centre being not far from where I grew up. At 15, I went to Scotland with my family for a holiday and took a bad swim at Grandtully, kayaking on the River Tay. It was a bit of a green room experience, being sucked under by a stopper, only to bob back up and get sucked down again. Apart from a brief stint kayaking at college, I didn't kayak regularly again until I was in my early forties.
The reason I started kayaking again, was due to suffering a scuba diving accident in the Caribbean. I unfortunately ruptured the round window of my middle ear, during a dive on a sunken cruise ship - The Bianca C. The result of this little incident was I was now completely deaf in my left ear.
On returning to the UK, 10 days after the accident, I was rushed into surgery to repair my round window. But it was too late to save my hearing in my left ear. The consultant told me if they had been able to operate within 5 days of the rupture, there would have been an 80% chance of me regaining my hearing. After 5 to 14 days, the odds went down to 20%. After 14 days the chances were pretty much nil.
However, after about three months following surgery, I did start to regain some hearing in my left ear, but to this day it is mostly bass!
You would think I would have stopped scuba diving after this, but no - I loved scuba diving. It was only when my one good right ear popped on me one night, in much the same way my left ear had done in the Caribbean, I momentarily thought I was totally deaf. It wasn't until I calmed down heard the reassuring bubbles escaping from my regulator, that I realised I could still hear!
A few days later after dwelling on this little incident, I decided I couldn't take the risk of losing both ears and quit scuba diving for good.
Not being able to dive and be in the water anymore, I needed to find another "wet" water sport. Kayaking was the answer, besides which, I had the perfect facilities on my doorstep, the White-Water course in Nottingham.
Around this time, I also did do a bit of long-distance cycling. Having been a fan of the Tour de France, I was always curious as to how far I could ride a bike. In 2002 I gained the Audax (Long distance cycling association) Super Randonneur award. To become a Super Randonneur, you must complete rides of 200km, 300km, 400km and 600km, in the same season at Randonneur pace. Not only did I complete multiple rides of these distances in 2002, I also was always in the top six riders coming home. Mind you, I was cycling to work 20 miles a day and running 4 miles most lunchtimes, which did tend to help a bit.
I now have paddled many white-water rivers here in the UK and abroad in both playboats and creek boats.
It was the Wet West Paddle Fest's river Morriston which got me into sea kayaking in 2011! Every year we would head up to Scotland for the fest, which generally always finishes with a kayak down a hard river, the River Morriston on the last day. The River Morriston is not an easy river to paddle down. When you are paddling well, it would be fantastic, and you'd come away grinning from ear to ear. When paddling not quite so well and perhaps making very small mistakes here and there, the Morriston would punish you well and truly.
In 2011, having on previous trips to the Morriston, dented a new boat, dislocated a finger and lost a paddle, I started to feel a little trepidation (or let's say impending doom) long before driving up to the river. In fact, the fear of impending doom started in early 2011! Way, way too early! So much so, the night before we were due to paddle the river Morriston, I bottled out and booked a day’s sea kayaking instead with Sea Freedom Kayaking in Oban. By the end of the day’s sea kayaking, it didn't matter all the stick I got from my mates for not paddling the river, I was well and truly hooked on Sea Kayaking. What a great day I had too! Within five minutes of setting off, I'd seen two otters, a first for me; we were then followed around by a large male seal, who was obviously very interested in what we were doing; and on the return downwind leg, with the swell behind us, we surfed our way back.
In 2004 I competed in the Peak UK challenge series and managed to get 18th place overall.
2014 saw me winning the Oban Sea Kayak Race in the senior touring class with a time of 2:32:12. but considering the conditions on the day it was not too bad. There was much carnage at the bottom end of Kerrara that day.
In 2018 I circumnavigated Anglesey in a day on neap tides, albeit with a kip overnight on Llanddwyn Island. My actual paddling time was 15:43 which wasn't too bad for a first attempt especially on neap tides.
2022 saw me circumnavigating the Isle of Wight in 9 hours and 22 minutes. I also manage a sub 2 hour circumnavigation of Kerrera in the Oban Sea Kayak Race (1 hr 58 min).
Well, that's a bit about me
As mentioned above I am now based in Scotland with fantastic coastlines to explore. If you are up this way and fancy meeting up for a paddle, then please let me know.
