Welcome to my Sea Kayaking (b)log
Ok, so this is not exactly a sea trip, but I am going to include it here as when you cannot get to the sea, it is the next best thing! Besides it isn't a million miles away in similarity from paddling the Menai Straits. As it was, the Trent was in full flow...
This video says it all really. Fun times... https://youtu.be/iBLo4rrDI4k...
When you've made plans for a weekends paddling in Anglesey and the weather turns really bad, what do you do? Well, there is always some messing about in tidal currents at Four Mile Bridge. This was about the only place on the island we could have found to paddle in the 50mph plus winds....
Setting off from Oban Harbour on pan flat seas, I decided to circumnavigate the island of Kerrera. I've circumnavigated Kerrera three times in the Oban Sea Kayak Race, but this time I would take my time and enjoy the sights. This day was the lull before the storm, with high winds forecast for the...
Setting off from Oban harbour, less than a hundred meters from our apartment, this 16.5 miles solo paddle proved to be a great days paddling despite the weather not being at its best. The wind dictated my direction as it was blowing F4-F5 from the South East. Also the tide, for once, was on...
After a few phone calls and a little organising I traveled to Lincoln, nice and early to pick up my paddle mate and friend of Sabina's. We then set off to meet up with Sabina in Filey for 10:00 am. Whilst everyone was getting ready I had a quick surf. The waves were pretty...
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...
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...
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...
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,...
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...
