On The Horizon For 2014

This winter has been a wild one, and it has given me a bit of time to dwell on the year ahead.  2013 brought a new challenge to my kayaking.  After the Irish Sea crossing early in the year I had the bug to challenge myself further.  That lead to the circumnavigation of Anglesey in one whole sweep in 13 hours.  After that the long nights and unsettled weather drew in.

Porthcawl Lighthouse 5th February 2014

The kayaking year so far has not been a successful one.  The conveyor of low pressure after low pressure bringing extreme strong winds and high seas has hindered any chance of getting on the water.  On top of that I have been firmly instructed to take it easy after having a collapsed lung, putting all methods of exercise on hold for a month or so.

So all being well this is my intended itinerary for the year ahead...

Irish Sea - after successfully crossing the southern St Georges Channel last summer we intend to cross the northern channel from Anglesey to Dublin this summer.  This is a longer crossing and could take up to 18 hours.

Lundy - A trip we wanted to get done last year.  The intention is to cross over from the Welsh coast, spend at least a day circumnavigating the island before returning.  A 3-5 overnight trip.

Isle of White - Another trip I have been meaning to do for many years.  The intention here is to circumnavigate the island within 24 hours.

Anglesy - Me an Elan intend to improve on our 13 hour circumnavigation last year.  I would also like to return for the odd weekend trip to explore the island in more detail.

Isle of Man - double crossing and circumnavigation each within 24 hours (3 days).

On the more casual side of things I'm sure there will be many trips along the Welsh coast and a return trip to Scotland later in the year.  The kids have really taken to the water at our local kayak club so there may well be some family trips in the near future.

Hope to see some of you out there, if you want to tag along to any trips join us at https://www.facebook.com/groups/SeaKayakCymru/  or get in touch via the blog.  Safe paddling.      

Child's Play

I've now got three boys, the eldest Connor whose now eleven, Zakk who is five and the new arrival Alfie who is three months.  I've been meaning to enlist Connor in the kayak club for some years now and never got around to it.  So last week I took him down to Glam Boaters, my old club, to get him started.

  Connor really enjoyed his first session and is picking it up straight away.  He's on his second session now where he's learning to capsize and exit the boat.  A trick to rid them of any fear of capsizing leading up to rolling.  Soon I was taking down a car full, my niece Mackenzie and his school friend Owen both fancied giving it a go.  I'm sure we'll see Connor out on the sea by the time summer arrives.

Zakk I was a little unsure about but when he saw the pictures of Connor he wanted me to take him down.  He's five years old but he's tiny.  I joined him in the water for the pool session.  He was dwarfed by the boat and paddle, I really didn't expect him to have the strength to do much.  After about 10 minutes however he was powering the boat around the pool.  "I'm really tired but I don't want to stop", I had trouble getting him out of the pool.  No fear what so ever.

It may be a bit soon however for this little one...