Justine’s Blog

I’ve been enjoying a good week of paddling on Anglesey, joining in on some days with the Dealers for Nigel Dennis Kayaks ( now SeaKayaking Uk)…. it was pretty windy at the start of the week!! Thanks a lot to Rowland Woollven for the photos! I’ll add a few more later today or tomorrow! Time to go to the Skerries….

OMER FROM ISRAEL

TREARDDUR BAY

JEFF ALLEN TRYING TO PUSH ME INTO THE ROCKS!
Thanks again to Rowland for all the great photos!

I’ve been busy enjoying life and all 3 of my still cameras have broken… those are my excuses for not writing an update for ages.

In summary, I’ve been walking in the Lake District, seakayaking in all my favourite places in North Wales, scrambling and jumping off ledges in a wetsuit by North Stack, reminding my body how to ride a bike and doing a few bits of work here and there! On Saturday, I paddled for 7 hours in the Anglesey tidal races — it just kept getting better and we couldn’t bring ourselves to leave! Ganets were feeding overhead and porpoises feeding in the waves beside us. Between us we had 5 unplanned rolls, one pop out and lots of fun! I caught one steep fast wave and was laughing heartily when another wave broke from the side, hit my bow and rebounded into my open mouth! We finally landed at 8pm, half an hour before the sun set!

I am finding a bit of time to work and have started editing footage from our Haida Gwaii expedition for my next DVD. I’m short of good original music so if anyone has any compositions they’d like me to consider then please get in touch. You can email me at the address on the website. I will be making a small payment for any music featured in my DVDs.

It’s nearly time for me to go home to Wales so i’ve been busy making the most of being in the Pacific Northwest. On Tuesday I joined Shawna & Leon on an overnight trip to Sucia island with 5 clients on a 5-day course. I arrived just as the sun set on a beautiful calm evening with a stunning sunset, just in time to help them eat dinner & chat over a fire! The next morning I left early to paddle to Victoria on Vancouver island to catch up with Alex Mathews and his wife Rochelle ( and I better not forget their cat Simon !) It was a gorgeous paddle in calm seas with a huge push from the ebb tide. I covered the first 13 nautical miles in less than 2 hours which was very exciting – i was flying along at an average speed of over 6 knots! Once I started to head south i had less tide and found myself saying ‘oh damn, I’m ONLY travelling at 5.5 knots” Of course I had to pinch myself and remember that 5.5 knots is still pretty good in a seakayak! Finally after 30 nautical miles in 5 hours 15mins I pulled in at Gordon Head – i’d been feeling really strong and fit the whole way across but as I got out of the flow and into an eddy, I began to feel tired. Typically, the coastline here consists of steep cliffs with lovely houses perched on top – each one with a thin steep set of steps leading up from the beach. There was no way I could carry my kayak up those and I paddled south for another mile or 2. Finally I came across a beach with loads of people on it. A very kind man helped me carry the kayak up the steep narrow steps and Alex came to pick me up.

I met Alex & Rochelle briefly at the West Coast seakayaking symposium a few years ago and Alex foolishly said ‘If you’re ever in Victoria, come and visit’! He writes lots of magazine articles, especially for Wavelength and Adventure Kayak magazines. He’s also recently written a book called ‘Rough water seakayaking’ ( publised by Heliconia press), so I was interested to chat to him. We had a lovely evening, ( which involved lots of nice food and taking Simon the cat for a walk along the seafront!). The next morning Alex and I went paddling to Baynes channel – a tidal race very near to Victoria. It was lots of fun with some good rides. Alex and I paddled around nearby Chatham and Discovery islands, then he paddled back home and I carried on back to Orcas island. I didn’t have quite so much tide with me on the way back, and I wasn’t feeling quite so mighty so it took me a bit longer – 24.5 miles in 4hours 45 minutes – still an average of almost 5 knots though and another beautiful day. coming through Cattle Pass at over 10knots was a highlight! I landed in Deer Harbour and Leon came and picked me up.

Tomorrow ( Saturday ) I’m giving a talk at Eco-Marine in Vancouver, then I fly home on Sunday. There will just be time tomorrow morning to squeeze in a final paddle at Deception Pass with Matt & Djuna from Body Boat Blade, and Michael Callahan from EcoMarine!

That a long title to this blog, but I’ve had a busy couple of days! I spent yesterday filming Dubside, Warren Williamson, Mathew and Tom Sharp ripping it up in Deception Pass with their seakayaks and greenland style blades. Warren has been paddling almost exclusively at Deception Pass for 7 years and it shows as he slides his boat effortlessly into frightening looking whirlpools and then does a roll on a turbulent eddy line, just for fun. His favourite trick seemed to be floating downstream through swirling whitewater with his boat upside down and only his face out of the water on one side. I’ve seen people in this position before, but only in moments of panic. In contrast, Warren could have been whistling his favourite song he looked so relaxed! Towards the end of the session he wasn’t wasting energy playing in the waves unless a boat sped past adding a bit more excitement with it’s wake! It’s only Dubside’s 3rd or 4th time at Deception Pass but he also looked great snaking up the eddylines and spinning in the whirlpools and he certainly wan’t afraid of being capsized as he could just call up one of his 30 or so different rolls.

I also filmed Dubside doing some of his rope tricks – there wasn’t time for me to have a go – luckily as I certainly couldn’t have pulled my body over the top of a high rope using only 2 fingers!

Today I tagged along with Dubside in Everett where he lives doing his favourite thing – Comando kayaking. Dressed all in black and pulling a small black troley containing his feathercraft folding kayak he surepticiously catches a bus across town. He blends in perfectly which is his aim, but if you look very closely you’ll see the black wetsuit boots and the zip of the farmer john wetsuit under his black jacket. If he’s careless you might spot an ankle length dreadlock poking out from the bottom of his trousers – although he refused to let me film this – “It’s not about the dreadlocks!”.

So we caught 2 busses then pulled our folding kayaks a few hundred meters to a river. Dubside put both kayaks together in less than 30mins and we were ready to go. Far from resenting the several hours taken to cath busses and put the kayaks together, Dubside loves the independance of not needing a car, and has a huge grin on his face as he tells me he can pull his kayak out the water wherever he wants, he doesn’t have to come back to the same place – provided there’s a bus stop nearby of course! And I have to admit I did find it a little exciting to be on this unusual sort of adventure ( although my bright red clothing didn’t quite fit in with the stealth approach!) It was kind of cool to be floating down a river with the current, seeing all the trucks and cars wizz past on bridges above us while watching ospreys interacting on pilings, having seals pop their heads up behind us and a blue heron fly in front of the kayaks. We were in the city but removed from it – observers.

Anyone interested in Dubside should check out his website by clicking here. YOu can also buy DVDs of him rolling or doing his rope tricks. Thanks to Tom Sharp for driving me around and making this filming happen!