Welcome to my Sea Kayaking (b)log
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...
Penrhyn Mawr and South Stack with Phil Clegg, Andy, Krista and Annette. Krista was from Canada and Annette from Sweden. Phil asked Andy and I if we would join him to make the numbers up. We set off from Porth Dafarch and headed to Penrhyn Mawr. I practiced my roll in the outer race,...
Once again a visit to Penrhyn Mawr, this time with Tani and Seda. Both are doing their 4 star with me next weekend. We did lots of skills - rescues self rescues rolls in the flow, on a fairly lumpy Penrhyn Mawr as swell was coming across the waves. On the way back we...
The start of my four day weekend saw me doing a chilled out solo paddle from Rhoscolyn down to the Airfield for a bit of surfing, then back up to the Beacon. The weather was excellent with light winds and a clear blue sky. Near to the Cymyran straits there were some fairly reasonable...
Although it was neaps, Penrhyn Mawr outer race was rather pleasant with some good surfs to be had. Middle wasn’t that good for surfing, but good for skills etc. Managed a Reentry roll in the outer flow along with some rolls. My first roll was incredibly slow and I had to pull the boat around...
After a quick flurry of messages on Facebook late on Friday afternoon , I arranged to meet Gareth and Sarah the next morning. Gareth also brought along Dave who I sort of knew a little of from the Paddlers Bar at Anglesey Outdoors. The more the merrier! After a quick conflab at <ahem> Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch...
On holiday in North Devon for a week, but unfortunately the weather was not playing ball. About the only option for a paddle was the Taw and Torridge rivers. So putting in at Barnstaple about an hour before high tide, I paddled up and through Long Bridge before returning downstream. and under Taw Bridge....
There was quite a swell forecast for 5th June coming from the North. Consequently South Landing was fairly quiet in terms of the car park and sea state. Setting off Stu (VE Paddles) and I immediately bumped into a group of kayakers who had been out to Flamborough Head, who told us it was...
Sunday saw HW Liverpool being at 12:59, so we decided to paddle out to Puffin Island. This paddle works well for getting home at a reasonable time, as it is err... "sort of" on the way home! From studying the guide books, Cruising Anglesey and Welsh Sea kayaking we could see that leaving from...
It was a big spring tide weekend, but with HW around midday it was not the best time-wise for getting on the water at 10:30am. I paddled with PL and Abo. Due to the prevailing weather conditions, everyone with a sea kayak on Anglesey seemed to have the same idea. The car park at...
