Welcome to my Sea Kayaking (b)log
Looking out to sea from my van parked at Porth Dafarch in the morning the sea state didn't look too bad, but every now and again I would notice some fairly hefty waves coming into the bay. I'd then look out a few minutes later and all would appear calm again. Hmmm.. interesting. I had...
Having arranged to paddle Harry Furlongs on Saturday, I headed to Cemlyn bay in my van, late on Friday night, arriving at around 11:30pm. Next morning the weather was lovely and sunny and the sea state smooth. No sooner had I taken my boat of the van and carried it to the beach, I...
Kris was already at our meeting point as we arrived at the Point Lynas roundabout. No more than a couple of minutes later, we were joined by Wendy with her Rockpool Isel demo boat. We quickly unloaded the boats, before moving the cars back up the hill to the carpark. As expected the north...
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...
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 to...
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....
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...
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...
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...
Day 5 of Five Star training saw us do an out and back from Soldiers Point around the Stacks, taking turns to do leadership, have a play in the race at South Stack and generally have some fun.This was followed with us returning to Anglesey Outdoors to sit out in the sunshine, summing up...
After another rough nights camping, day 2 saw us head off to Penrhyn Mawr from Porth Dafarch for some excellent paddling and coaching by James in good 5 * conditions. I think at the end of the day we were all pretty tired and we had all identified areas we needed to improve. For...
Having bumped into Abo in the Paddlers the night before, followed by a solid nights sleep (thanks to Abo showing me the delights of a Welsh Pale Ale which I cannot remember the name of, and err the green and yellow label was it?), I joined Abo and PL at Rhoscolyn. Both Abo and PL...
After a good night in the Paddler's Return with Gareth and Sarah, Sunday morning arrived all too soon. Sticking my head out of my tent, I met Becka and Jules who had arrived in the night and had pitched their tent close to mine. It was raining and by the time I'd been to...
"My last paddle of the season" (possibly). Well that's what I told my wife! Still it won't be long before I can use the excuse of it being the "first paddle of the season"! hehehe... Well I blame this trip all on Mick Hargreaves. Having already told Andy Sloan there is no way I...
On day 2 of the NWSK end of Season meet, I decided I fancied some more lumpy seas to play in so I paddled with Sue's group, which consisted of Graham Cooke, Alan Tonge, and Alan. We messed about in Penrhyn Mawr for a bit before setting off for lunch stop in Abraham's Bosom....
As this was a solo paddle I called up the coast guard on my new DSC VHF radio . This was the first time I had actually called the coast guard using dsc to provide trip details and having prepped all my responses, ready for the coast guard (ie. where departing from,...
Rhoscolyn towards Trearddur (Porth Diana) and back with Phil Clegg, Andy, Khrista and Annette. The wind was slightly NE, force 4 gusting F5. We went out to the Beacon and had a play in the tide race against the wind. A few surf waves were to be had downwind, but then required a huge...
