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I excitedly picked up the very first 3-piece Etain kayak yesterday. After it was discovered that it would be extremely expensive to ship a single kayak out to Russia for my forthcoming paddle to Japan with Sarah Outen, I called Valley kayaks up at pretty short notice and asked if there was any chance that they could make a 3-piece kayak for me to use on the trip. Jason called back the next day to say they could make me a 17.5 Etain.

Valley dropped it off at Surflines yesterday, with a delivery of kayaks. Barry took our one piece Etain and we braved the torrential rain to have a play around with them in Llyn Padarn. As you can see from the photo above, it’s been raining quite a lot this last week, and water levels are high!

I was really pleased with the kayak. It’s very pretty, which of course is very important! I like the red colour, and the joins between the 3parts are very neat and barely noticeable. After playing around practicing various rolls for about an hour the hatches were all still bone dry which was a great relief. The kayak is obviously heavier than a regular Etain because it has 2 bulk heads & 4 bolts at each join, but it didn’t feel any heavier than other 3-piece kayaks I have used in the past.

The skeg control is in the stern piece of the kayak & I was worried that it would be hard to reach, but actually it was fine (on flat water anyway!).

By the time we got off the water it was 7.30pm and we were VERY happy to get changed and drive a few hundred yards for a ‘pizza and a pint’ with some friends. This included Marcus Demuth who has a similar skeg on his 3-piece Nordkapp and assured me it’s easy to use in rougher seas. He warned me that the biggest problem would be that when I get back and try to adjust the skeg on a different kayak by reaching behind me!

I’m also using new paddles from Mitchell blades (fantastic high quality paddles which are made locally to me in Chester). For the last 2 years I’ve been using the ‘Atlantis’ blades (comparable to Lendals’ Archipelago blades), but I recently got some ‘Bombora’ blades (comparable to Lendals’ Kinetic Touring blades). Both are a lovely shade of blue! I really like the new paddle so now I have to decide which one will be my spare paddle & which will power me to Japan!? I think I”ll start with the Bombora!

On Sunday I fly to Russia with my shiny new 3-piece Valley Etain and a whole bunch of kayaking, cycling and filming equipment. I’ll be joining Sarah Outen again as she travels by kayak and bike from Russia to Japan, via the Russian island of Sakhalin.

Sarah’s logistics manager, Tim Moss, is also flying out to Russia and together we will pick up Nelson, Sarah’s trusty Rockpool kayak, and drive with him for 2 days up to Lazarev which is the closest point on the Russian Mainland to Sakhalin. We’ll meet Sarah here, who has spent the last 5 months cycling East from France! Sarah and I will make the 4 mile crossing to Sakhalin & kayak south down the remote Sakhalin coast for about 100miles. It will probably take 4 or 5 days before we reach the road and the town of Aleksandrov.

Meanwhile Tim will be getting himself, Sarah’s bike Hercules, and the rest of our kit to Alekandrov ready to meet us. Some local kayakers have been really helpful and they will also meet us in Aleksandrov and will help transport us and our kayaks further south to Korsakov. Sarah will of course cycle all the way. My job is to film her journey and edit short clips to go onto her website so sometimes I’ll join her on a bike and other times I’ll be in a vehicle.

From Korsakov we get back in the kayaks again and paddle about 90 miles down the Sakhalin coast to the SW tip of the island. It’s then a 20- 25 mile open crossing to Hokkaido island in Japan across La Perouse Strait. This will be a challenging paddle as there are strong tides and an even stronger East-going Soya current in La Perouse Strait but not very much information about whether this affects the whole strait or whether we will find eddies or counter currents. We have been given very helpful advice from local paddlers, especially Greg Beliakov, & we have a predictions for the ‘tide’ for 1 point in the Strait, but it’s hard to know how helpful that information is for the whole crossing.  There has been mention of some tidal races in places, but again not very detailed.

The upshot is that it’s very hard to know how far we will be pushed by currents and in what direction. We may end up working very hard to reach land if our predictions are wrong. I don’t know of anyone in modern times who has kayaked across this Strait but if anyone reading this has any  more information then we’d be very grateful to hear it! We’ll certainly be asking the locals in Sakhalin! We are required to have a safety boat for the crossing.

Once on Hokkaido, Sarah continues cycling south all the way down the island. We both then kayak approx. 10 miles to Honshu island across the very tidal Tsugaru strait. Thanks to Jeff Allen for information about this crossing, which he made with Hadas Feldman on their circumnavigation of Japan a few years ago. (you can see film of their journey on ‘This is the Sea 2′, or buy the digital download for just £1.99). But again, please get in touch if you have experience of kayaking in this area.

After the 3rd crossing, Sarah cycles on to Tokyo where she will spend the winter getting ready to row across the Pacific in Spring 2012. I come home.. hopefully in time for the UK storm gathering on Anglesey!

I enjoy reading kayaking magazines and a few of them arrive through my letterbox every month or so. It’s fun to hear what other people are up to, see the latest bits of kit and read interviews with colourful characters. Imagine my surprise while flicking through the last-but-one edition of ‘Canoe & Kayak UK‘ magazine to see myself peering out from the pages of their ‘2011 awards’ issue (issue 126).

Unbeknown to me, I was ‘highly commended’ in ‘the Chris Wheeler Adventure Paddler of the Year Award’. This is the first time that the magazine has issued awards & it seems this particular accolade is for someone who not only goes on some good adventures, but also shares them with other people by films, magazine articles etc.  So thanks to the team at CKUK for thinking of me. Fittingly, I am off to Russia at the end of the week, to join Sarah Outen in kayaking from there to Japan – more on that in another blog before I go.

On a completely separate note, my sister Holly has just entered a new adventure! She got married to her longterm partner on Saturday! Congratulations to her and Al and I hope they are having a lovely honeymoon in Africa. My dad did comment in his speech that he doesn’t often see his daughters in dresses! I may post some photos…

It’s good to be back in Wales and I’ve been enjoying paddling with Barry in some of my favourite places. It’s always great to paddle around ‘the Stacks’ when you’ve been away and have a play in the tidal races. On Monday the waves weren’t that bit, but it was fun to have a surf none-the-less.

Barry has recently got a Valley Rapier kayak and we took that out for a day, along with a Rockpool Tarran that we borrowed. We took it in turns to try each one and really liked both kayaks. It was fun to be moving quicker than usual and both kayaks felt surprisingly stable, especially the Tarran. The Rapier felt a little faster but I’d be more nervous in that in a big sea. We had a lap in Rhoscolyn race, which was dying off but was still quite exciting in a new sort of kayak. I’m looking forwards to trying both kayaks again sometime. On our way home, we stopped off to cheer on some other paddlers on ‘the Menai Challenge’, seeing how quickly they can paddle a 21km stretch of the Straits. Barry took a few photos from the bridge. 

Yesterday we paddled around Holy island on Holyhead, despite an exciting sea brought on by a westerly swell and wind which was in battle against the ebb tide! The waves were breaking over Holyhead Harbour wall and occasionally over us! We stayed in very close at North Stack to avoid the bigger waves, and also stayed out of the main wave train between the Stacks. This meant we were out of the favourable tide and had to work harder against the eddy and the wind. When we finally got back to Rhoscolyn, 5 hours after we set off, we were both exhausted!

The tides are getting very big this week and tonight saw a quick visit to the Swellies wave. It probably won’t be the only visit…