Monday 1 September 2014

Advanced Sea Kayaking Course, Anglesey, North Wales.

Advanced sea kayaking Anglesey and a F4/5 SW, with 2 mt swell forecasted, is happy days.  Rob had mentioned he had a 3 piece sea kayak (the 2nd one Ive seen now in 3 weeks), but what was fantastic my friend Francesco had brought it across form Sicily when he had attended a 4 star leader assessment 3 years ago.  Francesco passed and went on to do the 5 star leader training.  He sold his kayak, rather than fly home with it and Rob bought it!



Rob, Tracy, Simon and Gareth were on the course and we started with working in the wind, down wind circuits and rolling.  This was while being shadowed by a buddy who's job was to pick up the pieces if a roll failed.  Each person was encouraged to have two goes at a roll as what I've experienced and noticed is if knocked over by a wave, the first roll can be rushed and unsuccessful, partly due to the surprise.  The 2nd go tends to be more meaningful and errors, amended ...





We headed out of the bay to pick up on the chunky swell and rescues in open water ...


The group were then given the task of planning a Stacks trip or the Skerries.  The Stacks was chosen and after a short discussion an A-B was planned.  We headed out from Porth Dafach towards Castle rock and a narrow channel which accelerates the flow, was working well.  Penrhyn Mawr looked huge ...  It was decided to work the channel, by surfing back up and then running down, with capsize and rolling now drilled in.  And a couple of rescues, before a last run down with decks off and legs out.  Yep, some fun and balance in flow, to further emphasis all was OK and the more relaxed we are the more we achieve ...






After a lunch time chat it was clear that with 1.5 hours before slack water, we would do a run down into Penrhyn Mawr and then return to Port Dafach at the end of the day.  The races, 1 hour before slack were puuuurfect ... ;)





It had been another great weekend, toped off with an ice cream ... fantastic

The next advanced course that currently has places is the 10/11th January and part of the Winter sea kayaking programme.  The course before this one is an InterMediate Plus and currently there is a a couple of places left on the 29/30 November, also as part of the Winter sea kayaking programme which aims to keep you active and developing in the colder months.

Thanks,
Roger

sea kayaking north wales
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rough water handling

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