2015 Sea Kayaking Course's with Coastal Spirt - Update

Currently there are places on the following Coastal Spirit and British Canoe Union (BCU) courses. The summer courses are already beginning to fill up:

Advanced Sea Kayaking

For those who hold the 4 star leader award or similar skills and ability: 

28/2-1/3 - 1 place at £160 and ratio 1:4

6/7th June - 2 places at £160 and ratio 1:4

InterMediate Plus 

For independent 3 star paddlers or those who have completed the 4 star Leader Training or similar skill and ability 

28/29th March -  1 place at £160 ratio 1:5

For more information of any of the above courses, have a look here

BCU Leader Training Courses

Open Water Navigation and Tidal Planning Theory -

 6th March - 4 places left at £90

5 Star Leader Sea Training - 

7/8th March - 2 places, £160 or £230 for the 3 days - ratio of 1:4

4 Star Leader Training and Coastal Navigation & Tidal Planning combined - 

8-11th June at £290, with 4 places left, ratio 1:6

3 Star Training and Assessment course- 

15-18th June at £290 and a ratio of 1:5

For any information on the BCU courses have a look here 

NEW Course - Coaching the Mind a Theoretical and Practical Sea Kayaking Weekend

This weekend allows the paddler to see beyond the obvious physical and technical challenges into the all important mental skills. From arousal management and mental rehearsal to tactical performance, you'll learn how to focus your mind better and adapt your coaching/leadership to suit individual psychological and motivational needs.

18/19th July - £180 and a ratio of 2:4 and only 4 places left

For any further information or to provisional book a place, contact Roger at info@coastalspirit.com

Roger

www.coastalspirit.com

Winter Sunshine and InterMediate Sea Kayaking

North coast and Cemais Bay, with some super Winter sunshine was the start of this weekends InterMediate sea kayaking course which was made up of - Leif, Keith, Noel, Graham and Mandy.

Out side and inside edged turns, down wind runs, contact tows and some surfing .... 

Mandy having caught a nice wave in ... ;)

And then a journey across the bay and into some bigger swell.  Towing, in-line, rafted and assisted tows
...

Sunday and a gloomier, wintry forecast and the Straits form Moel y Don to Menai Bridge and back.  There was a super push of the tide as we surged under Britannia Bridge!

Loads of eddy turns and ferry glides and as the flow slowed, working on really getting that body working and emphasising the turn ... some eyes closed work too!  Lunch and then a return journey with wind against tide and a super run.  Closer to the end we pulled over and got some fair rides and surfs back up the flow ...

Leif below looking for that wave ...

And now Noel and Leif heading for Moel Y Don ...

Congratulations to Graham for passing the 3 star performance award.

The next InterMediate sea kayaking course, which currently has places on is the 27/28th June.

Have fun out there ...

Roger

roger chandler
www.coastalspirit.com

Winter Sea Kayaking Anglesey - InterMediate Plus

It was a mixed weekend of weather with blue skies and sunshine, hail and strong winds ...  The InterMediate Plus sea kayaking course is aimed at those who have either the 3 star award or good 3 star skills, either way each person needs to paddling independently already.  As the aim is working in a moderate environment its also suitable for those who have completed the 4 star leader award.  This allows a good breath of experience.

Leif, Jon, David, Gordon, Tracy and Gary assisting made up the weekends team.  Sat forecast was a F5/6 dropping Westerly wind, which was more like a F4/3 when we actually got on and paddled out of Cemais bay on the North Coast.  There was a good 1.5-2mt swell running and as the tide was in the last hour of the ebb there was some good wind against tide, action .... and super sunshine!

On the main Northerly headland the sea was far more confused and a broad 3mt or so swell was pushing through which clearly focused each persons actions.  The team did really well, working with their buddies and we headed on to the Brickworks for lunch  ...

Sunday was one of those tricky forecasts ... suggesting it was ramping up to a F6/7 by 1200, but with a really light wind and blue sky start!  The Swellies and eddy turns, ferry glides (reverse ones too) and then some towing later was the plan ....

The wind just started to pick up around lunch time, we got some hail and we lost the sunshine ... yeah, it was cold.

We worked through inline rafted and assisted tows, and then when closer to the brides contact tows, on bow or stern ...

As we got closer to Meani Bridge  we had some wind against tide and few strong gusts, funnelling down the Straits ... Time to play some more ...

Im very pleased the sun shone and it was super good to see each person managing them selves well in Saturdays bigger seas.  A great start to the year ....

The next available course's are form May, so contact me if you need more information and want to increase your confidence and progress your skills.


Roger

info@coastalspirit.com
+44 7873 13299

www.coastalspirit.com

Winter in Sardinia - by Sarah & Anita

The Blog below is from Sarah and Anita, who are part of the team attempting to paddle around the 'Roof of Britain', from mid April-mid May.  A journey of 400nm and part of Coastal Spirit's Rapid Development eXpeditions - RDX 2015.  Sarah runs a sea kayaking company from one of the lakes in Switzerland, have a look here.

Anita and Sarah made use of the free time around New Year to get some sea time in Sardinia. They were joined by Peter, Sarah’s husband.

5 hours’ drive in the car and an overnight ferry is the straightforward journey for Swiss paddlers to get to Sardinia – right into the middle of a paradise for sea kayaking! We had rented a little bungalow right on beach of La Cinta – on the East coast, about 30 kms south of Olbia – the perfect base for winter paddling.
Water temperatures in the mediterranian sea are around 15 degrees Celcius in the winter, and air temperatures usually around 10-15 degrees in December.

The weather forecast which had been very stable the week before our arrival, started dancing around on our arrival. It produced variety in wind force and direction, the first often getting stronger than expected – mostly around 4-5 BF. This was great practice for our trip planning in a region we didn’t yet know – we had to make many short notice decisions and stay flexible on where we could paddle. This year was “special” in that a Sibirian storm front came across Sardinia 2 days into our holiday, providing air temperatures of 6 degrees for about 3 days and snow on the hills, along with force 6-8 winds.

The NE swell brought us surf on the beautiful sandy beach right outside our back door – the water coming (very) close to our veranda in the peak of the storm.  This surf zone in “our garden” gave some good rolling, surf-landing as well as swimming practice.  We were grateful for the warm shower close by!

One day we drove across to Alghero, for a trip out to Capo Caccia in the North West to paddle – in the relativ shelter of the strong NE Wind.
The swell remained on the East coast after the wind had turned to W towards the end of our stay – providing us with some beautiful big swell on our trips around the island of Tavolara and in the Golf of Orosei.

All in all: We got plenty of time on the water, good opportunities to practice paddle skills, rolls and rescues in rough and windy conditions as well as in swell. Inbetween  all that we drank lots of cappuccinos – one of the few things the Sards do not close up for the winter season is their coffee shops!

Sarah and Anita - Switzerland

More information on the 'Roof of Britain' can be found here