Blog

  • Magic Paddle

    Our lunch breaks have started to get a lot shorter as the nip of Winter seeps into our drysuits, but I love this time of year for paddling. The sea is still warm & the light is beautiful on the clear, crisp days. There isn’t as much daylight but that makes me get out and appreciate what there is.

    Today, Baz and I went to the Skerries and enjoyed a bouncy ride from Cemlyn into the wind. I smiled as waves bounced off my kayak and splashed me in my face. I love a lively sea.

    At the island, lots of seals swam around looking at us curiously. Two of them started fighting just behind Barry – not realising I was behind them. I got an ‘almost great’ photo of it!

    As we pulled our kayaks onto the beach, the sun disappeared and it started raining. We took shelter in one of the buildings on the island, and as soon as our sandwiches were gone, we headed back down to the boats.

    The journey back was much calmer with the wind and tide – although typically the wind had also dropped now it was almost behind us! We took a detour to the Victoria Bank buoy before ferry gliding back to Cemlyn.

  • “Tierra del Fuego” at Kendal


    Britain’s premiere Mountain ( & adventure) film festival hits Kendal in the Lake District in a few weeks from 15th – 18th November. It’s a great chance to see the latest and greatest climbing, mountaineering, kayaking & other adventure films, hear some inspirational talks, & catch up with friends. I’m delighted that my film about kayaking around Tierra del Fuego is a finalist in the competition & is showing as part of the ‘wild water’ programme. This is the film’s world premiere & one of the only chances to see it before it’s officially released as part of ‘This is the Sea 5″ next March.You can catch it 3 times over the weekend.

    Friday 16th, 1pm
    Sat 17th, 5pm
    Sunday 18th, 4.30pm

    I’ll be there to introduce it on Saturday and Sunday.

    Jim Krawiecki’s film about sea kayaking in Greenland also premieres at Kendal & I’m looking forward to seeing Jim following in the paddle strokes of Gino Watkins.

    Amongst the inspirational speakers is Karen Darke – who I imagine will be talking more about her Para-olympics silver medal than her equally impressive kayaking exploits.

    For those people wanting a pure paddling fix there is a ‘Wild Water’ evening on Friday, featuring paddling films & a talk from Adrian Durrant.

    More info on the Kendal Mountain Film Festival here.

  • Cards for Seakayakers



    Would you buy a card with a great sea kayaking photo on it?

    Cackle TV are teaming up with Carol Lang from Gael8, & Pete Baars from ‘Summit to Sea‘ to make some greeting cards with a sea kayaking theme. We’ll start with one design & if it’s popular then we’ll develop more of a range.

    They would be A6 size on recycled card, and would be blank inside. We’d try to keep the cost down & would sell them for about £1 each.

    If you like the idea, please let us know if you like any of these photos enough? Which are your favourites?

    In the future, we may even ask people to submit their own photos — but one step at a time!

    If you hover over the photo – a name comes up. Please let us know what you think.

     

  • Special offers on DVDs

     The nights are drawing in and the down jackets are coming out in the Northern Hemishpere. Some people are starting to look for Christmas presents for the paddlers in their lives. As usual, we have a large selection of DVDs for sale – as well as books & designer wrapping paper.

    The good news is that we’ve just dropped the price of some of our DVDs so you can treat yourself – or someone special’s without breaking the bank. Our popular “This is the Sea” boxset is now just £40 / US $60 – a reduction of £10 / $15 – and half the price of buying the individual DVDs. The 4 award-winning DVDs contain over 8 hours of inspiring sea kayaking films in dream destinations, featuring great stories and interesting characters. We think these are the best value sea kayaking DVDs out there.

    You can also save 25 % off Bryan Smiths’ award winning DVDs, ‘Pacific Horizons’ & ‘Eastern Horizons’, or buy one and get one free. The DVDs contain beautifully filmed sea kayaking action from the Pacific & Atlantic coasts of North America. Get them both for just £19.99 / US $29.95. Paul Caffyn’s book about his circumnavigation of New Zealand is reduced – and there are great deals if you buy more than 1 canoeing DVD.

    For those of you going to the Scottish Canoe Show in Perth this weekend – Karitek will have some great exclusive deals on our DVDs so make sure you visit their stand! And the lovely Carol from Gael-8 will be selling our unique designer wrapping paper alongside her beautiful t-shirts.

    Check out the US/ Canada/ Japan store here.

    Or the UK/ Europe / Australasia store here.

    And have a great weekend whatever you do!