Welcome to my Sea Kayaking (b)log
The day after the four star training with Roger Chandler, I met up with Plum Loaf for a paddle. We decided on paddling to North Stack as the tides worked well for this trip. The tides were Mean Neap tides. Before setting off, I did some more fiddling with my boats outfitting. Penrhyn Mawr when...
Day 1 As pre course homework Roger asked us to plan a suitable journey as a four star leader - I used Phil Clegg's Journey planner (see downloads) and planned from Porth Darfarch to Trearddur Bay and back, which was well within remit. In the end we paddled from Rhoscolyn out to the tidal...
Paddled with Plum Loaf and three ex-marines, so plenty of banter!! We ran a car shuttle, leaving one car at the start and two cars at Bull Bay. One of the marines was fairly new to sea kayaking, so we needed to ensure he was ok with the trip. Setting off from Cemlyn Bay...
For a first sea paddle of the year what better place for it to be than Rhoscolyn. And for once I didn't do the driving over to Anglesey, thanks to Dusty and his monster truck. So having met the gang, had the usual faff, we set off. Despite it being a cold, it was...
Having come home early from Scotland earlier in the week, my paddling buddy and I decided to do a paddle on the Humber. Originally our plan had been to paddle to the Humber Bridge and back, but with high water at 11:40 we would be pushing our luck. As it was, we didn't get...
The day after the Oban Sea Kayak Race I headed to Arisaig with the hope of being able to get out to the islands. The weather looked like the wind would be easing for a couple of days at least, before picking up again mid week. Soon after setting off I realised that a...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
The day after the Oban Sea Kayak Race, I headed north to Arisaig. Rob and his family were off to Gigha for the week, but as I was short of time and the weather forecast for the next couple of days looked excellent, I decided to drive to Arisaig and paddle out to Eigg,...
1st April 2013 saw a good days coaching with Roger Chandler of Coastal Spirit. Also it was my first day on the sea in my new "podless" Valley Etain 17-7I met Roger for a coffee and a chat about what I needed help on and then we decided where to go. The weather was a...
The 2011 Wet West Paddle Fest (WWPF) was a bit of a turning point for me. Whilst I was happy paddling the Etive and other rivers in Scotland, the River Moriston had been playing on my mind for some time. This was due to all of the epic's I had experienced on this river...
