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For a few months, I’ve been joining a group of paddlers for the ‘evening sessions’ on the Menai Straits. On Monday’s and Wednesday’s we race each other around the bridge pillars, the house on the island or various other features. We usually set off staggered so that the fastest paddlers go last & have to try to catch the ones in front. I was really nervous the first time I went – probably in part because I didn’t want to be beaten! But I soon slotted into my place within the group & have been working on improving my technique, speed & stamina ever since. It’s fun to push myself & concentrate on a different aspect of kayaking. I enjoy it being on the tidal waters of the Straits because there is always some current to take into account, so tactics come into play. I also found it was a great way to get over my nerves of crossing intimidating eddylines in my Rapier 18. When I started racing, I somehow forgot to be nervous as my competitive nature took over and I powered through them! Now I feel pretty confident in the Rapier in choppy or tidal conditions. And very occasionally I get to beat John Willacy & Aled Williams across the finish line (if I conveniently forget that they started after me)!

I’ve got into it sufficiently to want to try wing paddles & tonight was the virgin outing for my new Epic small mid wing. The different shape felt a bit strange to start with but after 90 minutes I was enjoying using it & Aled thinks I was faster. I’m looking forward to using it more & working on rotation! If anyone lives near the Straits & fancies joining it, then come along on at 6.30pm on Mondays or Wednesdays.

I am in Copenhagen ‘on my way home’ after my first kayaking trip to Sweden. The location was the pretty small island of Tjaro in Eastern Sweden. 250 people took a short ferry ride or kayaked  over to attend the 3rd Tjarofestivalen. The 3 day event was organised by Outside & Paddling magazines in Sweden with local & guest coaches including Gordon Brown, 12 times world champion surf ski racer Oscar Chalupsky & Jon Turk, who just won ‘Expedition of the Year’ at the Canoe & Kayak Awards in the USA for his epic first circumnavigation of Ellesmere Island.

The event was well organised with delicious food & a big tent where everyone could gather. Smaller tents littered the island, with some people camped inches from the water on bare granite rocks – a sight that always reminds me of Scandinavia – although I’d only seen it in photos until now. There isn’t much tidal range here so there are no worries of suddenly finding yourself sleeping in the sea!

Jon, Oscar & I gave talks in the evenings & a band played on the Saturday night.

Thanks to Nicolai for lending me one of his Arrow Kayaks for the event – I enjoyed paddling the Play LV. Thanks to Ulrika for running a ‘girls session’ with me – hopefully we shared a few skills & brought a few smiles! I also really enjoyed having a go on an Epic surf ski & got a few tips from Oscar. It looked like I had a long way to go to get great technique!

If you want to read more about the festival, or see more photos, then click on this link. At the bottom of this blog is a list of about 10 different blogs with photos and descriptions of the event.

Dave “Crocodile” Winky has reviewed “This is the Roll” for the KASK Newsletter (the Kiwi Association of Sea Kayakers). I apologise to the editor Paul Caffyn for stealing the review from the newsletter – but I call it revenge for him also publishing a comment about Barry and I when we paddled around New Zealand!

To give some background, Tara & Sim are currently kayaking around New Zealand’s South Island in Winter! They have had some tough challenges and their biggest epic involved losing each other for 5 days! Paul quoted Barry in the KASK newsletter as saying that Barry tried to lose me while paddling round the South island, but he only managed it for 20 minutes! Tara and Sim’s adventure makes good reading – check it out here.

Tara and Sim know the value of having a good roll! If you want to improve yours… maybe check out “This is the Roll”?

Meanwhile Dave Winkworth is spending 3 months on a solo trip in Northern Austraila. Good luck to him!

I am excited to be going to Sweden on Thursday. It’s the first time I’ve been to Sweden, except for a visit to the island of Gotland with the Jersey athletics team in the “Island Games” a long time ago!  It will be a chance for me to paddle in amongst the Swedish islands on the East coast & to meet some local paddlers. The festival is called Tjäröfestivalen & if you understand Swedish, you can see more information on their website. I don’t speak Swedish, but I think I understand enough of this Saturday evening activity to realise it will be fun; “Grillfest med levande musik”. My Swedish friend Ulrika is one of the local instructors & the two of us are running a ‘girls only session’ on one of the days. Girls can ask any questions they want, or we can just go for a fun paddle! I’m also running a session about making kayaking films & giving a talk about my ‘Tierra del Fuego’ trip.

Jon Turk is also attending so it will be good to catch up with him & hear about his Ellsemere island epic adventure. Gordon Brown will be there &  Oscar Chalupsky was also due to come.

P.S. I don’t have any photos of Sweden so this is Carmel Head on Anglesey last Saturday… it was a bit lumpy rounding it against the tide!