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
+
rough water handling

Advanced Sea Kayaking Course - Anglesey, UK.

It seemed that Anglesey escaped the weekends downpour, and with a forecast of light winds we on to the Stacks.  Work on Eddy turns, ferry glides, catching that wave and rescues made up the bulk of the day.  With the main emphasis on use of body.

Penrhyn Mawr remain fairly calm and as the main push passed we headed on for some lunch and then on to South Stack and some rock hoping and exploring.  Saw about 20 Puffins, the most ive seen in the area and then jumped on an eddy stream to assist us on the way back.  Penrhyn Mawr was still working fairly well and according to Phil of sea kayak anglesey, it had got bigger after lunch and the faster period.  Thats the sea for you!!

Katie, Amanda and Mark, made up the team with Zoe assisting in support/observation, for the day. 

David joined the team today and we headed out to Carmel Head on the Sunday, to be greeted with a bank of Fog.  This stretch for about 1km, so we did some limited visibility navigation and then it really closed in to 50-60 mt visibility, so we headed back to Carmel Head and worked on the race.  Self-rescue and incident management, was the theme for the day ...

The fog kindly lifted although briefly and provided us with a good sunny lunch break ...

The cafe at Church Bay, as we arrived just after 5pm kindly provided us with take aways so we sat in the sun reflecting on the day and weekend, ensuring clarity and any questions could be reflected upon and answered before heading back to Menai Bridge.   We had some good conditions, over the weekend, although gentler than expected.  This was made use of and can help to get skills tighter and more polished.  Well done all.

Roger
www.coastalspirit.com

rough water handling
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4 star leader refresher

Advanced Sea Kayaking - Anglesey, North Wales

This course is aimed at those paddlers who have completed the 4 star leader sea training and want coaching, the opportunity to work in rough conditions, with either specific performance skills, incident management and rescues and leadership scenarios.  

Each person came with a skill, incident management scenario, leadership task which we would address over the weekend and a plan where to paddle.  The course aims to assist and bridge the gap that some paddlers find if they don't belong to a club or have friends that are paddlers.  So it was great to see Gary, Andy, Tavi and Zoe again and catch up with the last few months paddling, over a coffee and create a plan.

Due to a strong SW winds forecast, the North coast was our discussed and chosen venue and the blue sky and sunshine eased the water exposure ... 

The edge of Borthwen Bay provide a great into and down wind area to work a number of tows and rescues.  Tavi leading Andy with a contact tow, and keeping it simple ..

Gary with Zoe and experimenting with the casualty up or down wind ... rolling, self rescues and tow line capsize and release were also worked through.  I also took some video to share the feedback latter, when off the water, of a couple of rolls.

Sunday and Trearddour Bay provided some swell, small surf and more incident management stuff ... Gary below catching a wave ..

Rocky landings and this exercise was swimming your boat in on your tow line ... Zoe below ...

Working in pairs both capsized and worked through an all in rescue ... then more self rescues, rolling, and an unconscious casualty, recovered with the scoop rescue ...

Then time to generate heat and warm up, with close quartering and moving in and out of the rocks and channels ...

This also provided a good opportunity to look at leadership positioning ...

It was a super weekends paddling and great seeing each person having progressed and hearing plans about when they will be meeting up next to paddle.  Happy days  ....

Roger

advanced sea  kayaking course
+
rough water handling