Welcome to my Sea Kayaking (b)log
When I started Sea Kayaking and taking courses, I soon realised that I was going to need to resurrect my old BCU log, to log all my trips etc. So I started this (B)log instead. Not only does it work as a log, but gives me somewhere to post all my photographs taken whilst kayaking. Also, I get to share with my kayaking and non kayaking friends my sea kayaking adventures. I guess it is what it is and if you like any of it then great if not, then too bad!
This years 2015 Oban Sea Kayak Race was a bit of a classic, with very rough conditions. For the first 10km, it was into the wind and ever increasing swell. At the south end of Kerrera, conditions became very poor. Nine people abandoned here and a couple ended up on the rocks! Personally, I...
With my regular kayaking buddy away in Canada, I decided I needed a paddle and ideally a "long paddle". I contacted the kayaking email group to see who was up for it. With it being Father's day on Sunday 21st June, Saturday was deemed to be the best day for those allowed out. So...
Sunday 24th May This recent bank holiday weekend saw me driving over to Anglesey (again) on Sunday to meet up with my paddle buddy. The original plan was to go out to the Skerries, but the wind from the NW had other ideas. So we settled on meeting at Borth Wen, Rhoscolyn at the...
The 2015 Anglesey Sea kayak Symposium has been running for around 30 years, hosted at the Anglesey Outdoors Centre, just outside Holyhead. I had heard about this event many times over the years and thought it sounded like a good idea to get my self along to it. So on the first May bank...
Saturday 18th April Once again after a very early start I arrived at Anglesey Outdoors for 9:00am on a Saturday morning. This weekend, organised by Sabina Neall, saw twelve "East Coast Sea kayakers" meeting together at Anglesey Outdoors for a coaching weekend with Olly Sanders. It was a big tide weekend and we were...
An early start for me saw me driving to meet my paddle buddy at Borthwen, Rhoscolyn for 9:00am. The roads were fairly quiet and despite passing through various fog patches on the way, I made it with five minutes to spare. At Borthwen, the coastal fog was so bad it was a job to...
On the drive up to Filey, early on Sunday morning the weather looked really promising. The sunrise was spectacular, lighting up the scenery to the point that if you had taken a photograph, people would say it was photo-shopped, the contrast and strength of the light was so strong. What also made for a...
I did my 3 star Sea Kayak Assessment on Friday 20th February 2015 and I passed! The track above is from my GPS. As you may be able to see we had a really good surfing session just off Valley Airfield (all that scribble on the right of the picture). According to my GPS,...
After a very early start (I left home at 05:40) I arrived at Anglesey, just in time to see Rob emerging from his car at 08:30, parked at Porth Dafarch. Rob had traveled over the night/morning before, from Lincoln and spent what was left of the night sleeping in his car under two duvets....
Unfortunately my paddling buddy wasn't feeling very well on Tuesday and decided not to paddle. This was a difficult decision for him as we had planned and discussed the trip to the Skerries the night before. But he said there was no point in him trying to paddle, only to have a problem whilst...
Monday morning saw my paddle buddy and myself meeting with Phil Clegg (of Sea Kayaking Anglesey) at Anglesey Outdoors and deciding where to paddle. After lots of discussion and referencing of tide tables, guidebooks, weather forecasts, surf/swell forecasts etc, a good mug of tea and using Phil's expert knowledge of these races, we decided...
I contacted my paddle buddy earlier this week asking if he fancied a paddle on Thursday. I expected him to yes and lets meet up and have a play at Newark Weir. But instead he came back with why don't we do something on the North East coast. Well that sounded like a good...
The 2014 Oban Sea Kayak Race took place on Saturday 23rd August 2014, with more than 70 paddlers taking part. Covering a distance of 20km, the race circumnavigates the beautiful and rugged Island of Kerrera, beginning and ending in Oban on Scotland's beautiful west coast. For best viewing crank up the Quality to 1080...
Having not Sea kayaked since May due to illness, I decided there was only one way to find out if I was now fit enough to return to sea kayaking... Meeting up with my paddle buddy at Four Mile Bridge and leaving a car behind, we set off to Porth Dafarch. The plan was...
Having had an email from Mike Robson forwarded to me by Sabina Neall, about a forthcoming paddle from Whitby to Robin Hood's Bay and back this coming Sunday, I was all set to travel up to Whitby. The only trouble was as I looked out of my window on the Saturday evening, it...
Day three started with me packing up my tent and meeting with my paddle buddy at the usual spot for 10:00 am. Consulting the tide tables and the excellent Welsh Sea Kayaking guidebook, we realised that by the time we had run the shuttle, we could paddle From Puffin Island to Benllech. For the...
Day two started with us meeting at 10:00 am to decide where to paddle. The tides and wind combination were not once again ideal, with us ending up once again paddling into the wind, but with a little tidal assistance. We carried on from where we left off at Porth Eilian and paddled down...
Having met my paddling buddy at 10:00 am, we consulted with the excellent Welsh Sea Kayaking guide book, checked the weather and the tides, and decided to paddle from Cemlyn Bay to Porth Eilian. This did mean we would be battling into the wind, but at least the tidal flow should help cancel the...
Having spent much of December and the start of the New Year working in Indianapolis, I was desperate for a paddle. In the States everything was frozen solid with record minus temperatures and back in the UK everything was flooded. So with a window in the weather looking promising for the weekend, I posted...
Following a quick chat with Gareth Jones on Facebook, we decided to meet up at Bangor Services for 9:00am. The forecast looked ok, with N/NE winds forecast, so we decided to do Moelfre to Puffin Island. Having met Gareth in the services and watched him devour a full English, we set off to run...
