I had a fantastic 2 weeks back in Jersey, where I grew up and where I first started kayaking. The island is only 9 miles long and 5 miles wide so you are never far from a beautiful sea view or interesting coastline. It was great to catch up with friends from the Jersey canoe club and further afield, and meet new people. Plus Barry and I stayed with my mum who spoilt us rotten!
This was the tenth bi-annual Jersey seakayaking symposium where 100 or so kayakers home in on the island for
3 days of classes and paddles followed by 4 days of paddles on Jersey and to the surrounding reefs or other Channel islands. I first came to the symposium 12 years ago, a bit reluctantly. I was living on Jersey and had joined the canoe club 6 months before. A ‘symposium’ sounded really boring and I wasn’t sure I wanted to pay to go paddling for 3 days when I usually went for free with the club! However, I’m really glad I did join in as it opened my eyes to what was possible in a seakayak. A 12 mile crossing to the island of Sark, followed by paddling round the island, and eventually bivvying on the harbour wall really whetted my appetite for journeying in seakayaks. Although I would consider myself a professional kayaker, I found this great website how to store a kayak in the garage. It had some great tips on storing my kayak. on
This year was my 4th visit to the Jersey symposium and I always really enjoy it. I’d like to say a big thanks to Kevin Mansell for organising the symosium for the last 20 years and opening up new horizons to so many smiling people over that period. And thanks to everyone else who helped Kevin. This year I helped with a few
coaching sessions including surfing on the 5 mile St Ouens’ sandybeach. I enjoyed some paddles around the beautiful granite coastline & 2 paddles out to the really spacial Ecrehou reef. The tidal range in the Channel islands is 10 metres so the Ecrehou metamorphoses twice a day from a few rocks with tiny huts clinging precariously on top to several square kilometres of reefs and shingle beaches.
We also paddled to Sark again with a group of 11, braving a mean swell over the L’Etacq reef to reach the calmer waters of the open ocean for our 3 hour crossing. A lovely paddle around the beautiful rocky coastline and a meal in a local restaurant finished off the day nicely.
After the symposium, Barry and I joined German paddler Martin Rabung for a paddle to the sandy beaches of Herm island, where we planned to ‘get away from it all’ but found ourselves at the local pub on a Saturday night in amongst a wedding party, a 25th birthday party, a hen do and a stag do! Not quite what we’d expected but interesting all the same! the next day we made a visit to Guernsey before paddling back to Sark with the wind behind us, and finally back to Jersey on the 3rd day, via the Paternosters reef for lunch.
Kevin said he isn’t going to organise any more symposiums so this might be the last one but fortunately some other local paddlers have now expressed an interest in taking over so hopefully there might be another gathering in 2 years time. I hope so and I definitely won’t wait so long before coming back to the Channel islands again. Thanks a lot to Martin & Thomas for some of the photos.
It’s sometimes easy to get wrapped up in our own lives and problems. One of the things I like about spending a lot of time outside surrounded by nature is that it reminds us that there is a whole big world out there and helps put things in perspective. I didn’t have to go far today to bring a smile to my face. This woodpecker has a nest full of chicks in a tree in my garden!
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