Welcome to my Sea Kayaking (b)log
The Skerries off Anglesey, is one of those magical places in our world. It's not easy to get to, especially from a kayakers perspective as it is surrounded by strong tidal streams. But it is well worth the effort. Especially when the Terns are nesting. I have to say, I have long admired Tern's...
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...
Sunday 20th March. My last day of paddling on my long weekend before heading back to the daily grind. I paddled this time with PL and Brian. Brian had a brand new boat to christen. We decided to paddle from Porth Eilean to play in tidal race as the tide would be ebbing. We...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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,...
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...
Having recently joined Liverpool Canoe Club, I replied to a message from Helen Bolister asking for any paddlers interested in free sea coaching! Helen needed paddlers to practice on as she had her coaching assessment coming up. An 6.00am early start saw me once again at Rhoscolyn for 8:30am, where I met Gareth Jones,...
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...
A days 1-2-1 coaching with Tony Hammock of Seafreedom kayak. Seafreedom are a mobile sea kayak resource based near Oban, on the West Coast of Scotland. They provide sea kayak instruction, coaching, guided day trips, tours and rental. They can also offer superb "paddler friendly" bed and breakfast accommodation near Oban We paddled from...
