Blog

Swell, sunshine & smiling faces helped make the first Essential Sea Kayak Festival a great success over the last 3 days. I was very happy to be involved, both on the water & by giving a talk one evening. It was good to work with some of North Wales most experienced paddlers & coaches & to hang out with them – and the participants – in the evenings. Aside from all the learning opportunities – it was FUN! And I reckon that’s pretty important.

Light winds & mild temperatures combined to provide more of a summer than the summer did! Although a cheeky swell made sure there was  enough excitement to be had for those wanting to improve their skills, or spend some quality time in the tidal races & surf zones.

I worked with Jim Krawiecki on Saturday,

taking a group of people from Rhoscolyn out to the exciting waters surrounding the Beacon & then along some of the beautiful cliffs & caves that adorn the coastline to the north. I collected a few pieces of litter from the sea – including a rather large orange hat that was quite hard to transport back!

On Sunday I assisted Olly Sanders with a group in the tidal races. A larger than expected swell created some conditions at Penrhyn Mawr that people variously described as – exciting – intimidating –  fun – scary. Sometimes all of those at once. I think everyone improved their skills & gained confidence & I got to practice my rescue skills a few times which is always good ( for me anyway)! We finished the day with a paddle around the beautiful coastline of the ‘Stacks’ & had a play in North Stack before heading home.

On Saturday night I talked about Barry and my adventures in Tierra del Fuego & showed some clips from the upcoming film – which will be released as part of ‘This is the Sea 5’ in March 2013. On Sunday Marcus Demuth regaled us with some funny & sometimes harrowing tales of adventure and mis-adventure on the high seas. Have you ever looked into a mirror to see if you were still alive? No – me neither!

On Monday, I took an experienced group to the Skerries, which is always a wonderful destination. The paddle there from Church Bay was very pleasant with a slight following sea.  We arrived at the south end &  paddled around the island past hundreds of seals (and a few fat seal pups) before having lunch and a look around the lighthouse. From the top of the island, the sea to the east and north of the Skerries looked totally different from the sea we’d arrived on!

Force 3 wind against the tide & some shallow spots combined to provide some ‘exciting’ conditions on the way back. We avoided some areas where the sea looked particularly white and weaved our way through some 2 metre wave trains. The roller coaster ride looked pretty wild & felt exhilerating, but the waves weren’t breaking very often or for long. Most people had smiles on their faces during the crossing – and everyone did by the time we safely reached the Anglesey shore without any mishaps!

Thanks to Nick, Matt, Ulrika, Ali & Katy for a well organised, rewarding & fun event. Please invite me back next year!

 

There was seaweed on all over the road to the Sea Zoo this morning – a tell-tale sign that the tides are pretty large at the moment. When Marcus Demuth and I launched from the slipway, the tide was quite far out but rising… The prediction is 9.8 metres HW at Liverpool – we’d need to be back before high tide or my car might not be there!

John Willacy created the ‘Menai Challenge‘ last year – a time trail on the Menai Straits between the Sea Zoo & Gallows Point (close to Beaumaris). A big tide means a fast flow and fast time, but there’s an optional ‘loop of the bridges’ which spices it up a bit since you have to paddle against the tide for about a mile and a half. By the Sea Zoo, the wind was brisk enough to pick my empty Rapier up and bounce it along the beach for a few metres while I was helping Marcus get his Epic ski off the roof. Unfortunately, there is a bit of damage to the gel coat on the top & a lot of new scratches, but she’s still seaworthy.

We set off at a good pace – although the GPS / speed track shows we didn’t move out into the faster current for about 4.5 minutes. It was good to have Marcus there as it spurred me on to try just a bit harder if I was feeling tired. Marcus decided against a loop of the bridges, so I was on my own as I backtracked from Menai Bridge back up to Britannia Bridge. It was hard work going upstream as there wasn’t an eddy very often. The heartrate monitor shows how I had to work extra hard to make it around Britannia Bridge pillar before the fast tide swept me past on the wrong side! A group of people in a RIB in the eddy beside the Pillar saw my face at it’s reddest!

From here on I was tired and had to motivate myself to keep working hard. The heart rate monitor & GPS helped as I could see when my heart rate and/ or speed dropped. That distracted me from the pain & pushed me to dig deeper.

In the end my time was 1 hour, 31minutes,35 seconds – a whopping 8.2 minutes quicker than my fastest time last year – so I’m pleased with that!  John Willacy – who had been playing on the Swellies wave in his C1 – came to see us at Gallows Point. By the time we’d finished chatting, the tide was creeping up & my car got a good splashing from the waves before we finished the shuttle and headed home!

You can see the 2012 Menai Challenge times here. There’s still plenty of time & a few big tides before the end of the year if you fancy a go!

I finally got to wear shorts to kayak this year –  although I needed to go to Italy for the privilege! Last week, Barry and I attended the  San Vito Climbing Festival near the NW tip of Sicily. This is the 6th year of the festival and for the first year it also included sea kayaking and a few other outdoor sports.

I was showing the “Islands of Fire” film one evening at the best venue I’ve ever spoken at. The talks were given in the open air in the main square of San Vito besides an old church. People can sit and watch, or just stop to have a look as they wander through town.

We’ve been to Sicily twice before to the Vulcano symposium on the beautiful volcanic Aeolian islands. The NW corner of Sicily is equally impressive with incredible limestone cliffs, crystal-clear water, white sandy beaches & a few caves and arches. You can paddle along wild cliffs for a few miles, then land in a village for some fine food. Unexpectedly there were lots of people at the event who we’d already met & it was great to catch up with folks & get to know a few more people.  It was good to meet Guido Grugnola who was talking & showing a film about his circumnavigation of Italy & Sicily by kayak. Giacomo Della Gatta was showing a film about his kayak trip down the Niger river. Tatiana was over frommainland Italy and teaching rolling most days. Vincenzo did a good job organising the daily sea kayaking trips. Our friends Francesco and Gianfranco drove over from Catania to see us & brought us kayaks and paddles to use. Big thanks to them. They also made us eat lots of fine food & helped make sure we had ice cream every day.

With the warm weather and beautiful clear water, it felt like a bit of a holiday & we had a great time! 

Thanks to Gianfranco & Guido for the jumping pics.There are lots more photos of the festival on Facebook (Italian sea kayakers seem to LOVE facebook!). Tatiana’s blog about the festival is here.

An 11 second waves period is pretty good for Anglesey! Combine that with a 3 foot swell, a slight offshore wind & sunshine and it’s no surprise that myself and Axel joined Phil, James & Gaz at Rhosneigr for a few hours of great fun surf today. There is something about surf that is just magical & puts such a big smile on everyone’s face! Thanks to Axel for the photos of me.

Barry and I are heading to Sicily tomorrow for the San Vito Climbing film festival. I’m presenting the ‘Islands of Fire’ film on the Friday night & we are looking forward to catching up with friends Francesco Petralia, Gianfranco Liotta, Tatiana and others. Although it’s called a ‘climbing festival’ there is also a lot of sea kayaking going on. And since it’s Sicily, I expect there will be quite a bit of eating and drinking too! Yeah! Can’t wait!