Old Man in a Boat

I took my dad down to Up & Under for a demo evening. Being an avid mountaineer and a lover of the great outdoors I wanted to try an get him into the 'new mountaineering'. He has dragged me up mountains all these years so now it's my turn.

The last time he paddled was about 15 years ago so we popped him in a slightly smaller Venture Flex 11. I mean while was a bit gutted the only sea kayak I wanted to demo, P&H Scorpio, had recently been sold. I jumped in a Dagger Alchemy which is classed as a tourer like my Easky. I was really surprised with it's handling. It turned with ease and was really stable. Its only 14ft so it lost a bit in speed.

Like riding a bike my dad seemed to build up his confidence and got the hang of things. I tried getting him in a longer boat but he wasn't having any of it. More interested in talking to a fellow kayaker/walker about climbing in Skye. I'll get him out at sea one day!