I realised yesterday that I have a great responsibility. We phoned our great friends Shawna & Leon of “Body Boat Blade” on Orcas island and Leon told me off for not updating my blog recently. Leon is a bit computer-phobic, much preferring kayaks to big screens but he told me that he does read my blog and it’s one of the few ways he has of seeing what other kayakers are doing out there! So Leon, this one’s for you! xx

I’ve been playing around with the Go Pro Hero camera on my seakayak and am pleased with the results so far. I’m getting used to the camera but think it has great potential and the quality of the video is fantastic ( when you can get the drops off the lens)! More about that in a future blog.

So here’s a round up of recent news and events….

I just received my copy of the new Pesda Press guide book to paddling in the Scottish Outer Hebrides. It’s a beautiful book with gorgeous photos and dozens of suggestions for paddles in the wild islands. I’ve been there twice and I’ll definitely go back as it’s a sparsely populated and beautiful area, with many islands making it perfect for seakayaking. And I still haven’t been to St Kilda, something which I’ll have to fix. You can buy the book here.

You can hear a podcast from the authors talking about the Outer Hebrides book on Simon Willis’ podcast website. My favourite line from the podcast  is ‘there are only 3 “Outer” places in the world – Outer Mongolia, Outer Hebrides and Outer Space, so it is ‘out there’!

There is also the first of 2 podcasts with Marcus Demuth talking about his recent circumnavigation of Britain.

Barry and I will be going to Sicily in October for the 2nd international Vulcano symposium. We went last year and had such a good time that we’ve accepted another invite to return. To be honest, although we were ‘working’ it felt like a holiday. The emphasis is more on recreation, relaxation and definitely on FOOD and wine. And the location is beautiful – warm turquoise waters, volcanic islands and the symposium is followed by a 4-day tour around some of the islands…. need I say more. If you fancy combining a fun, friendly holiday with some seakayaking then come along! Click here to find out more and see a video from last year.

Unfortunately the Sicily symposium is at the same time as the Welsh open canoe symposium so I won’t be able to go to that, but I’m sure it will be a fantastic event for those people who can make it. I had a great time at the Scottish canoe symposium last year. Details are here.

Canoe & Kayak magazine are holding their first readers choice awards this year. You can vote for the padder/ expedition/ boat  and FILM of the year. If you enjoyed “This is Canoeing” then please vote for it in the survey. The link is here.

So Leon, I hope you enjoyed your snippets of news! what… you’ve gone paddling for 5 days… how dare you?

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