White Out

I stayed with Justine & Barry for a week. While they are heavy into the final preparations for their Tierra del Fuego trip starting January, I had some NDK business to attend. Some of the weekend plans got changed because of the wintery weather that moved into the UK.

I barely made it back to the house on Friday afternoon in the worst road conditions I ever encountered with my car. Lots of trucks stranded along the A55 and abandoned cars on the smaller roads. I was lucky I guess with my snow tires that made all the difference.

Paddling plans changed into a mountain walk through knee deep snow with Justine through the slate hills with views of the Menai Straits, Puffin Island and overlooking Llanberis. Today driving to the Hull ferry to be back for Christmas with the family.

Filter Feed

In the Netherlands kayaking is rarely picked-up by the media. And when it does, it is usually because of an incident, like ours on June 13. In the days following, a lot of us were frantically checking the news sites for any coverage.

I thought of what would now be a modern variant of the gathering of newspaper clippings. How to weed through massive amounts of news agency RSS-feeds for kayaking related articles?

By coincidence I stumbled upon on Yahoo Pipes. It allows one to unite an unlimited number of RSS-feeds, throw away all duplicates, filter the remaining stream by using selection criteria and sort the results. I could never foresee that it would be that simple!

Well, the only 'problem' I have is that what I mentioned at the start of this post. My kayak keywords rarely get a hit. Today, one to be precise. And that one is from the RNLI. Just look at the NEWS HEADLINES box in the left pane.

Maybe if I would add 'all' the RSS news feeds of the world I would get some more hits, but I think I keep it to the Netherlands and the UK for now. I think we got hit enough this year.

Let's face it again

Earlier this year Blogger ended support for the ftp-hosting of my blog on my own server, forcing me to use the hosting on Blogger. Apart from that change, I never got around to actually use the new Blogger functionality. Up until now that is.

Unfortunately after a backup/restore process it turned-out that Blogger adds random numbers after the post filenames making all my posts 'not found' through search engines. And worse, all links to my blog posts on other sites are also not valid anymore. Even with my original backup this re-naming issue seems irrecoverable.

I think that's 'just life' on the internet. Sometimes the internet has the memory of an Elephant and sometimes it suffers from instant and total amnesia. Remembering what is no longer there...

Until the search engines have fully indexed my blog (again) I have added a custom Blog & Site Search (top left panel) that does a combined search in all my blog entries AND all the articles in my pre-Blogger Logbook.

I also added the page for my vaarWEER widget. It combines all the weather and tide information that I find useful for planning trips in the Netherlands based on the ports where there is tidal information available. It is amazing how much information is available as 'widgets' that can be contained in other 'widgets' that can be contained in other 'widgets'.

I am also back on facebook. From a totally empty friends list I renewed my first facebook friendship. I tried to get my profile and privacy settings so that the newsfeed notifications are now hopefully bearable. You can help me (stay on facebook) by not tagging me in pictures, video's, likes, yikes, quizzes and such.

I close my eyes,
only for a moment, and the moment's gone
All my dreams,
pass before my eyes with curiosity

Dust in the wind,
all they are is dust in the wind.

(Dust in the Wind - Kansas)

Timeless Skies

Ginni, Gabe, Jen, Phil and I set off from Rattlesnake Beach late evening of Saturday 30 October. In the moonless sky I can finally easily distinguish my favorite constellation Delphinus. All courses finished that afternoon. With 'all hands' cleaned-up and stored the kayaks and equipment of Sea Kayak Baja Mexico. The 1st Loreto Sea Kayak Symposium and BCU Week in Baja California Sur has ended.

Lightly packing our boats with the bare essentials: therm-a-rest, sleeping bag, drinking water and breakfast. In total darkness we paddle the four miles to the south end of Isla Danzante. Stars are reflected from the glassy sea only broken by streaks of light from our paddles that stir the bioluminescent dynoflagilates. And some wild outcries when one of us gets hit by a startled fish.

Ginni knows this route by heart. She can easily distinguish a beach from a rocky outcrop by the sound of the waves lapping on them. We hit her favorite beach on Danzante spot on. On my clock it is just after midnight. I roll out my ground sheet, therm-a-rest and sleeping bag on the gravel beach, a few feet away from the water. I fall asleep under Orion and Pleiades to name a few. Taurus and Gemini are just above the horizon.

Sunrise is red and warm, as ever. Breakfast is simple, delicious and hot, as ever. We paddle north along the east coast of Danzante. The wind is picking up, as forecasted, and we have a choppy ride to the turquoise waters of Honeymoon Cove on the Danzante's west side for lunch. Ginni is cruising with the sailing rig on her Explorer; her sail finally catching a strong breeze. A rough crossing via Punta Coyote back to camp. A day later we find out that time, as we know it, has changed. Summer-time, Winter-time, Baja-time..

Next day Ginni went with Jen and Phil to San Diego to run a BCU 4* assessment for Aqua Adventures Kayak Centre. While Gabe and I drove to Cabo San Lucas on the southern tip of the Baja Peninsula to deliver a BCU 1* and a BCU Foundation Safety & Rescue Training for Cabo Expeditions.

Pictures:
- 1st Loreto Sea Kayak Symposium
- BCU Week
- Danzante trip
- Canyon Hike

In a far and foreign land
The new day breaks out
Opening up it's hand
And the sun has the moon in it's eyes
As he wanders the timeless skies

(Timeless Skies - Al Stewart)

The Incident Revisited

The report on the Noorderhaaks incident is now available in English.
"Read and Shudder!"

In the meantime I had an enjoyable "Peddelpraat Sea Camp" first week early August. At which the Den Helder KNRM (Royal Netherlands Lifeboat Institution, the guys that came out to our rescue) gave a Sunday evening presentation on hypothermia and the use of flares.

Then before we knew it, we were invited to be on their Wednesday evening training session at which six of us practiced with the Lifeboat crew on how to get paddlers in/out their kayaks on-board. Watched by the forty of us from the dock.

For the lifeboat crew it is standard practice to get 'swimmers' on board, but a person in a sea kayak poses some challenges as you might also get a glimpse of from our incident report. For us how to deal with hydro-jets...

All this (and more) because of the incident on 13 June. It took quite a bit of time to get the (English) report out and now even more work to be done to add safety stuff to our sea kayak syllabuses? New chapters!

More to be said? Better let you read the Incident Report first!

I'm swimming into deep water
Would you help me one more time?
I'm tryin' all my best to keep live goin'

I'm swimming into deep water
Would you help me one more time?
I'm drowning but I'd like to stay around
'round for awhile

(Swimming into deep water - Don Rosenbaum)

The Incident

Many years ago my role model Dutch sea kayaking coach, achieved expedition paddler and friend gave me his copy of Sea Kayaker's Deep Trouble. He had read it and passed the book along to me with the remark: "lots of stupid paddlers!".

Reading about sea kayaking incidents allow us to learn from the mistakes of others, so that we can be more informed and safer paddlers and not make those mistakes ourselves.

An incident rarely occurs 'out of the blue' Most of the time it is a chain of events that lead to an incident. Sometimes we are 'lucky': an incident could have happened, but did not.

On Sunday June 13 2010 I was part of group that was involved in a sea kayaking incident that required a major rescue operation by the KNRM lifeboats out of Den Helder.

A few days ago the group published its comprehensive report of the incident. I hope we can shortly make available an English version of the report. Until then I give you the English translation of the short announcement to the Dutch sea kayaking community the day after the incident.

------------

Kayakers in trouble near 'Razende Bol'

On Sunday June 13 a group of nine (very) experienced trip leaders of the Coastal Kayaking Committee of the national kayaking organisation Peddelpraat (Paddle Talk) planned a trip around Noorderhaaks sand spit.
The goal of the day was a social paddle with the Peddelpraat sea kayaking trip leaders.

On the northern coast and towards the west of Noorderhaaks the group encountered 2-3 meter high breaking and increasingly dumping waves over sandbars. After two x-rescues of one paddler the decision was made for an escape route towards Texel in the east. During the execution of the escape route contact was lost with three paddlers.

Two of the missing paddlers ended-up swimming and rescued each other with one solo re-entry followed by an assisted re-entry. One of the two paddlers got seriously nauseated and had the beginnings of hypothermia. One thus incapable of paddling, the two rafted-up and called-out to the coast guard on VHF-radio for help.

The third missing paddler informed the coast guard on VHF that he landed safely on the east side of Noorderhaaks. He had lost sight of the group after a solo re-entry and had continued and brought himself to safety.

In the meantime, the raft of two had drifted with the tide and wind more than a mile to the north where they where the lifeboat took them aboard. The fully conscious hypothermic paddler was taken to hospital for check-up.

The group of six that had landed safely on Texel communicated with the coast guard and, after all were accounted for, picked-up the one paddler that landed on Noorderhaaks and returned to Den Helder as a group of seven.

All paddlers are safe and well. Now is not the right time to write an extensive report of the course of events and evaluation. More time is needed for that. Through knowledge and training, all have made it back to safety. However, there have definitively been shortcomings from which we must learn. The incident received national press coverage. We find it important to give you this early first report with more information to follow.

------------

Upcoming first week of August I am again at our annual Peddelpraat club sea kayaking week. It was Peddelpraat that introduced safe sea kayaking in the Netherlands back in the seventies by inviting BCU coaches from the UK to set up the Dutch sea kayaking scheme that continues to closely follow that of the BCU through the Dutch Canoe Union (NKB).

Four, consecutive, organizers of this instruction week were part of the group on the day of the incident. Among the four of us there was an unbroken 30+ years of heading-up coaching safe sea kayaking and sea leadership. All nine are coaching during the upcoming week...

Have we lost all our reputation and credibility? We were stupid, definitively! I am glad we are allowed to learn from it. And maybe when others read about our incident they won't make the same mistakes or recognize some aspects and will appreciate that many of us sometimes are indeed 'lucky'.

I hope we can shortly make available a full English version of the report that does a much better job than the horribly bad Google translation of it.

Sea, Land & Iceland Air

At least the first part of my trip to Iceland is familiar and predictable; a ferry crossing from Rotterdam to Hull. Normally I would drive from there to Anglesey. But not this time.

My flight to Keflavik (near Reykjavik) has been re-routed to Akureyri (on the North Coast) out of Glasgow and a connecting flight from London Heathrow. I could never have made Heathrow in time, but I could make it to Glasgow for the 17:45 flight. Because of the light Sunday traffic I was at Glasgow airport well in time, only to learn that my flight has a 2 hour delay... In a perfect world I could have made Heathrow in time if that flight had had the same delay.

Akureyri is a 4 hour 'courtesy' bus ride to Reykjavik where I will be met by Magnús. He kept me constantly updated on the developments. This will be a long day and I hope to catch some sleep before tomorrow's Coastal Navigation & Tidal Planning course. At least the same planning rules apply. Be prepared for the unexpected.

When I return from Iceland, my Anglesey symposium will now start with a long car drive out of Glasgow. That is, I first have to make it to Iceland in the first place and back again (preferably to Glasgow). It is all in the air.

Update 26-04:
The Glasgow flight got an "indefinite delay", then was rush-boarded in half an hour, then it did not take off for another hour until 10 PM. Now it is 6 AM and I have finally arrived in Reykjavik after a 5 hour bus drive. Icelandic adventures.

Ice & Fire

This afternoon Dutch airspace closed because of the eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano on Iceland. A volcanic ash cloud spreads with the northerly wind over most of Northern Europe and grounds all airplanes precautionary. Does this eruption prevent me from traveling to Iceland for running a BCU course in ten days ?

After my sea kayaking trip in the Faroe Islands in 2004 I thought Iceland to be an obvious choice for my next trip; 'working' my way up north, to ever more scenic and exposed shores. But then coaching 'got in the way'; never knowing then that 'working' could also be taken literally.

This volcano has a reputation. The last eruption was in 1783 (and that was a massive one) and lasted for 8 months. Cross my fingers that the volcano settles down a bit, probably best for everyone. It will be my first visit to Iceland and I am looking forward to it.

Iceland = Fire
Greenland = Ice
What part in the world is named 'Fireland' and is probably Green ?

Wiped off the Face (book) of the Earth

I sort of 'killed' myself on Facebook today.

I was not using it that often and when I did, like today, I was strongly frustrated by the flood of all irrelevant notifications that are shared with the rest of the world and no way to shut that notifying down. Totally swamping any friend's posts that I am interested in. Not to mention all the privacy settings that Facebook chooses to change frequently and some are still not user-selectable (or not anymore) and all the related privacy issues.

I can inform you that this 'suicide' was completely painless.

Axel on Facebook
R.I.P.
14-10-2009 - 11-04-2010

So I am back with my Blog only, for now... And I am not lost to all my real-life friends. So if Facebook told you that I am no longer your friend, please do not feel offended, my friend.

Through early morning fog I see
visions of the things to be
(Suicide is Painless - Johnny Mandel)

Seal Launch

Today was all about launching. We started our trip to Texel and Noorderhaaks from a more-rocky-than-expected corner in the Ferry breakwater in Den Helder. Where has al the sand gone... More than one participant complains about wet feet...

It is a beautiful sunny day, albeit somewhat chilly with the Northerly force 3 wind. We have lunch in the shelter of the beach pavilion at "Paal 9" on the Island of Texel. Just when we are about to launch (again) a truck drives onto the beach and unloads two blue cases. Ecomare chose this day, time and location to launch two nursery seals back into the sea. A chance encounter for us to observe a real seal launch.

At first, the two seals were not too keen to head to the open sea. Maybe they are a bit spoiled with their 5* accommodation and feeding at the Ecomare seal and bird nursery. But with some 'encouragement' from the keepers the two seals head out to sea. The keepers explained that normally the seals are set free out at sea from aboard a vessel. But for a national newspaper journalist and photographer they made an exception. They might have to encourage these two seals off the Texel beaches again for the next days or so.

Many of the ex-nursery seals end-up at the Noorderhaaks sand spit off Texel. And that is our next destination, after we ourselves (seal) launched from the beach.

On the Noorderhaaks sand-spit I have to delicately choose between two contradicting options. Staying clear of the restricted area (set aside for the seals), or land on the spot that is not restricted, but that usually has all the resting seals. Maybe the seals themselves have taken notice of the restricted area and stay out of that... Arggg... How strong is my case when a patrol wants to fine me because I am deliberately in the restricted area to not to disturb resting seals. Maybe if the police man also is a biologist, I should be fine... Bio-Logic.

But today I have the easy choice just at the corner of the restricted area. Today the seals are resting out of the wind (and out of sight) on the south-east side of the sand-spit. While we have a short (chilly) break on Noorderhaaks more and more heads are poking out of the water; Noorderhaaks seals are checking us out. We launch again back to our put-in where the water level has covered all of the rocky beach, making it now a very easy seal landing on the breakwater, with wet feet again. But now I hear no complaints...

Freya Hoffmeister Presents...

My first native language post (almost)... Freya will visit the Netherlands on 27 April for a lecture on her Race Around Australia. Komt dat zien, komt dat zien!

Lezing „Race Around Australia“

Een 332 dagen durende kajak tocht langs één van de meest afgelegen kusten ter wereld - gegarneerd met haaien, krokodillen en giftige zeeslangen, solo en zonder ondersteuning: Freya Hoffmeister (45) uit het Duitse Husum is geslaagd in iets wat vóór haar slechts éénmaal iemand eerder gelukt is: door een man met een begeleidingsteam, 27 jaar geleden.

Gemiddeld bracht ze 11 uur per dag op zee door en legde in die tijd zo'n 60 km af. Deze „extreme“ sportvrouw stak de Golf van Carpentaria over in slechts 8 dagen; een afstand van 576 km, waarbij ze op open zee in haar kajak sliep. Ze peddelde langs drie 180 km lange rotskusten, ook 's-nachts, zonder mogelijkheden tot aanlanden. Eén haai beet in het achterschip van haar kajak en liet daar behalve een tand ook een groot gat achter. Het doel dat ze wilde bereiken verdween echter nooit uit het zicht: Australië rondvaren, een heel continent. Twee „kleinere“ eilanden dienden als „opwarmertje“: IJsland en Nieuw-Zeeland (Zuidereiland), welke ze beide in recordtijd rond voer.

Freya zal op 27 April om 20.00 (locatie wordt nog bekend gemaakt) in een levendige en boeiende lezing verslag doen van haar spannende avonturen.

Reserveringen bij kanoshop.nl, Tel.: 010-5214333
Meer informatie op Freya's website: qajaqunderground.com/events

Windmills of our Time

Intimidated by the ever-widening A4 highway to Amsterdam. The Zelden Van Passe windmill of 1642 is marginalized even more since the building of wind turbines next to it in 2005. Driving by this morning...

Windmills trigger the Don Quixote metaphor of fighting unwinnable battles. A phrase not seldom used or implied to marginalize and ridicule concerned 'opponents' of 'the way forward'. Where political spin doctor surgery (law making) joins industry lobbying only to be exposed by meticulous investigative journalism. In politics 'not telling the truth' cannot be proven to be the same as 'lying'.

I think the traditional windmill stands a better chance to survive this century than it's turbine variants. I am not against windmills nor wind turbines; serving only as a metaphor. It is just that I do not trust every wind. Those who sow a wind will harvest a storm.

My first multi-day kayaking trip in 1994 involved paddling under this (then much narrower) highway and past the windmill towards the Kaag.

Like the circles that you find
In the windmills of your mind
(Windmills of your mind - M. Legrand / A & M Bergman)

Somewhere over the Rainbow

Well... Returning to base-camp on February 2nd 2010 for re-supply it started to rain... Very untypical in Baja during Winter. A very rare few drops OK, but this was pouring.

Ginni made the opening picture the next morning; a truly magic double rainbow with blue sky and moon above.

We continued our trip towards La Paz in 'forever' blue skies, more typical for Baja winters.

Somewhere over the rainbow
Skies are blue...
(Somewhere over the rainbow - Judy Garland)

Amsterdam Canals

Paddling all over the world and today I am paddling for the first time in the canals of Amsterdam.

The season opening trip on the Markermeer was canceled because of the forecasted strong winds in combination with lots of rain... Marianne offered an alternative.

As a child I did a sightseeing trip on a canal barge with my parents. Much later in life I worked near the Amstel river and had my lunch breaks along it.

Apart from the tour boats we had the canals for ourselves. In Summer this must be much different... No one-way streets, no narrow street traffic jams, no parking meters... Would we have been fined for 'parking' our kayaks on a parking lot next to the canal? Amsterdam, a nightmare by car, but today a wonderful place to start the Peddelpraat club paddling season.

Winter End !

I am still there ;-)) Winter is holding on for another few days I think. But today I have come out of my internet presence hibernation. Spending a wonderful and rewarding Christmas with the family extended all the way into January.

Then I spent three weeks in Baja Mexico with a group of Dutch paddlers. Using the logistics and sea kayaks from Ginni Callahan's Sea Kayak Baja Mexico we paddled around Isla Carmen and continued towards La Paz.

Should I say what we've seen and experienced? Or should I keep it quiet? For now at least. Upcoming Wednesday I give a lecture for the local kayak club and do not want to give away too much here now :-)) Still pondering what to do with a most untypical February Baja photo... All part of the Magic of Baja..

Below picture is of the group carrying my kayak towards the end of the trip. They are smiling while my kayak was the only one not to loose weight because it carried all the cooking hardware and all of it's original 26 liters of drinking water.

I enjoyed it as well. Thus I can already spread the word that I secured my slot for another trip in February 2011. Not quite Winter hibernation. More Baja Magic !

Seems it never rains in Southern California
Seems I've often heard that kind of talk before

(Seems it never rains in Southern California - Albert Hammond)

Winter Guests

It has been snowing now for hours on end, resulting in four inches of snow. Winter arrived. The annual arrival of Red Robin is a sure sign of imminent freezing temperatures. Why, I do not know, but generally a day or two after I first sight Red Robin in the garden it allways starts to freeze...

New this year (for me) is the Ring-necked Parakeet. First I thought it was an escaped cage bird (which in fact it is...). But seeing them in groups of 10-15 and looking-up about them I know these exotic birds are here to stay.

Not becoming too policital about it... Should we round them up and deport them back to the country they came from? But the saying says it all... Free as a bird. And they do add colour.

Another 'free bird' is my good old Tweety. My yellow Explorer, now burried under four inches of snow. I Taw a Putty Tat...

Freya did it !

Logo designed by Domingo Benitez

Freya Hoffmeister completed her circumnavigation of Australia.

Awesome and 'amazing' !

I met a strange lady, she made me nervous
She took me in and gave me breakfast
(Men at Work - Down Under)

Serious Request

Albert-Jan, A friend of mine, executed 15 rolls within two minutes for charity and thus collected 1763,40 euro.

The biggest challenge for him would not be the rolling itself, but the current near-freezing water (and air!) temperatures...

Albert-Jan opened my eyes (wide) some years ago when he hand-rolled in a tide-race in the week of his Advanced Sea Proficiency assessment. That was before all the Greenland-style rolling 'arrived' in the Netherlands.

Check-out his website for more information and footage and news items on this challenge.

The Serious Request challenge is national radio charity week.

Kayak Coaching Workshop Part 3

Today was the last day of a coach workshops that the Dutch Canoe Union (NKB) organised for (aspirant) kayak coaches. The focus of this three-day course was on the needs, wants and fears of students; when it becomes coaching instead of just 'instruction'.

Surfing at Whitesand's

We drove down to Pembrokeshire for a weekend of surfing. I brought over my Mega Neutron surf kayak to try out in 'proper surf'. Barry is trying-out his recent acquisition, a wave ski. Justine has a Valley Storm to try. Phil is boarding. So a lot of toys for in the surf. Sunday turned-out to be a gorgeous sunny day at Whitesands Bay. An almost off-shore wind and a nice rip-current along the rocks to paddle out almost effortless. I had some great (very fast!) long rides, some major thrashings and one long swim (after being catapulted out of my kayak...). I am amazed how much can be done with a low brace in these (for me) massive waves. And Phil showed what can be done in my kayak with the right skills...

Running the Lligwy

It's Justine's birthday today and off we (Justine, Barry, Tara. Hugh and me) went to the Lligwy river. Surf-lines kindly lend me a Dagger river kayak. I paddled once before on the Lligwy. But now water levels are very high. Because of the heavy rains over the last days other potential rivers are out of the question. Hugh is the most experienced river paddler and I listen carefully to his advice. Today I learned to 'look ahead'. We played by getting into as much eddies and stoppers as possible. But every time I missed one, and drifted backwards down the river, I thought "What's behind me" when I scraped overhanging branches...

Help for Heroes

A little over a month ago I was contacted by Sam Stuthridge, who lives in Germany. Sam and Colin Appleby were planning a charity challenge to sea kayak, unsupported, from Nijmegen (Holland) along the Waal River to Rotterdam, along the coast of Holland, Belgium and France before crossing the Channel at Calais/Dover and finally making their way up the Thames estuary to finish at the Tower of London.

Sam was in need of a suitable sea kayak for this expedition and had arranged with Nigel Dennis that he could borrow an Explorer. Only how to get a sea kayak from Anglesey at this short notice? Yes, the challenge was planned for mid October!

The equipment solution was simple, I would lend-out my Explorer.

But planning this kind of trip in October is a challenge in itself. Moreover Autumn solidly kicked-in early October with unrelenting strong winds.

They made it! Although it meant some adjustments to the planned route, they didn't give up. And they never lost focus on their charity for what it was all about in the first place.

Kayak Coaching Workshop

The new Dutch kayak coaching scheme has no formal pre-requisites how the aspirants learn about coaching. That there is a big demand for those courses showed itself when Arie and Han Kreuk organized coaching workshop days. Last year's course was solidly overbooked. Today 30-some (aspirant) kayak coaches listened to dynamic lectures and participated in workshops by Watze de Vries and Pieter de Haas. Other coaches where assigned to each work group. Two more days to come.

The picture of Pieter in front of all the paper sheets might look 'boring'. Let me tell you that it was a very active and motivating session. And there was also a lot 'between the lines' that could be picked-up by the more experienced coaches. For the on-the-water part I choose to be in a canoe (maybe a picture later), only to find out that the rest of my group used sea kayaks... Another work-out, but we did not go far fortunately.

October Surfing

Above is the first picture of my surf kayak; trying to get off the beach with fins takes a bit more effort or very much appreciated help.

I went out surfing with the Uitgeest kayak club at Castricum aan Zee. They have a very active surf group and Anoushka and Wieger invited me to join them today.

My kayak felt more stable than ever. I am apparently getting used to it. That it takes time to get used to, showed itself when others were trying out my kayak. Everybody quickly swam after trying to roll... Rolling has to be custom learned in this kayak. Although it was windy and the surf very soupy, I am starting to get some rides in.

I exchanged boats with Anoushka (she took above picture of Rene) for a while. With her 'long-old-style-ww-kayak' I managed to punch through beyond the breakers. I did not dare to catch anything in before I had regained my breath. I needed that breath when a big breaker munched me whole. I broadsided quickly and bongo-slided in various positions/angles through the break line. There are different ways of playing with the surf, or better: various ways the surf plays with me. And different boats give the surf different ways to play with.

The picture of me is taken by Hans (see picture below) who has written-up his account of the day on his blog.

Welcome back my friends...

This week I was re-united with a long (thought forever) lost friend. I found the good old Lady back on the internet. Stronger than ever, world-wide via internet radio stream and satellite.

My first memories of listening to music radio stations go back to 1973. I was eleven years old. Then it was Radio Veronica and Radio North Sea International. When they died in 1974, because of anti "Pirate Radio" laws, Radio Caroline continued... And how! Against almost insurmountable odds. Until the Ross Revenge ran a-ground in a November 1991 gale. All through my school years and beyond, this is what I listened to. Great Rock (album) music.

Of all the radio stations I listened to after that, none could hold my interest for longer than a few months, because of the 'regurgitating play list formats'. Just this year I started to transfer all my music to MP3 format, because of that. And now I have all my music in MP3 ?

Radio Caroline plays again through the speakers. Songs (and sounds) that in a split-second time-warp me back 20+ years. Songs that I have not heard on any other station again all that time. And great new music too!

Maybe finally a reason to activate G3-internet on my mobile phone...

My first kayak, in 1994, was a Kirton Meridian. It was faded-red, my Ross Revenge. And true to the Lady, she is also very much alive!

Running, Laughing, Skipping through the streaming fields of time
On my way back home
Sky is shining time is flying bird is on the wing
On my way back home
Flying to the sun sweet Caroline

(New Riders of the Purple Sage)

Surfing at Katwijk

I went surfing with Jan this afternoon. I took my surf kayak out for the first time. I should have checked the wind strength AND the current. If I had, I would also have taken my sea kayak. Now I found myself fighting a hell of an along-shore rip current against a force 5/6 south-westerly wind (along shore). I was going backwards. No way to position myself for a run. But Jan was kind enough to lend me his Explorer a few times and that was fun. Also today for the first time, I used my short WW/Surf Lendal Kinetic paddle. I should have used a shorter paddle for surfing years ago... Even in the sea kayak I was quicker to react with it to the waves and for take-off. Late afternoon the (rip-) current slackened a bit and I could try the Mega Neutron again. Still hard work with the wind, but at least I could get a bit used to my new craft.

The way forward...

I never would have thought that my first course on a river would be in a canoe! Phil Hadley, Jennifer Kleck, Karl Anderson, Ginni Callahan and I headed of for the Clackamas River in Oregon for two days of 4-star canoe leader training.

Click on below picture for a slide-show.

I definitely had some thoughts if my skills would be good enough to join them. I came prepared for lots of swimming practice...

It has been a long time when I actually felt the sensation of adrenaline rush: heading down a rapid into the unknown. It felt really good to feel the pressure on the blade and be 'in control', an amazing feeling. Having before only been on flat water with a canoe and appreciating the blade awareness bit. This is so much more, this is FUN!!

Only the poling (against and with the current) was very hard work. In the end determination overcame frustration. Phil tried to motivate me by saying that the poling bit was definitely 5*. In the end it just comes down to skill, I learned a lot...

We don't have swift running rivers in the Netherlands. I am looking forward to new opportunities to paddle rivers in a canoe. Blade awareness, boat control and feel of the water are so much more intense and fun in a canoe.

Whenever you go canoeing with Jen though, be very aware when she wants to change boats. It might be that she trades her very maneuverable and most-wanted canoe for a more straight tracking, but faster one. But only at a time when the rapids are over and it becomes flat water... On the positive side, I got to practice a lot on my J-stroke efficiency and speed...

Thanks Judy, Sue and Ken for insisting that Ginni and I should not be around for symposium clean-up! And that we should join Phil.

Click on below picture to follow Phil through a rapid.

I leave you with a phrase by Phil that could be misinterpreted for all those that have NOT been at LoCo.: "There is only one way..."

Making Waves at LoCo 2009

I very much enjoyed my third Lower Columbia River Kayak Round-Up. Great weather and excellent paddling conditions. Click on below picture (Ginni is creating wind waves for the Coastal Navigation & Tidal Planning course) to start a slide-show.

Some highlights... Working with Gene Totz on Performance Paddling; doing video analysis, I had a difficult time analyzing Gene's forward paddling. During the Foundation Safety & Rescue Training I learned new alternatives to the back-deck carry. During the 4* Sea Leader Training, Santiago showed some acrobatics, keeping up the ante. This year I came-in third in the Greenland rolling competition. I became better prepared than last year, unexpectedly that earned me a special rolling award (click above picture to start the slide-show). I almost nailed the brick-roll, if only I find a way to bring the brick on the deck out of balance brace position without capsizing again...

Within the BCU UKCC coaching scheme, canoeing is of much increased importance. Where blade-awareness is sometimes difficult to learn with a sea kayak paddle, it comes so natural with a canoe paddle. It is all about transference of skills.

And would I have ever thought that canoeing is so much fun!

Peddelpraat Sea Kayak Week 2009

This is the third year we are at the great location of the BKC soccer club in Anna Paulowna. In this part of the Netherlands there is water on three sides. The North Sea on the west coast, the IJsselmeer in the east and the Waddenzee in the North. Always options to paddle for everyone.

The last day we try to have one trip for all the participants. Generally we end-up on the IJsselmeer where there are less issues with group control and shipping. This year we chose to paddle from Den Helder to Oudeschild. Announcing one pod of 40 (!) kayakers to the coast guard had them double-check if they heard right...

In a tight formation we where out and back with no problems, thanks to the aspirant "Dutch 5-star" paddlers taking charge of the group and setting themselves up as "border collies".

This year I joined the tour group. That was about as much I could handle, being the overall organizer for the week, with a lot of help. Thank you all!

And again Ronald made us our T-shirts, which are truly collector's items. For the BBQ on the last evening Ronald drew this cartoon on the whiteboard. Truly temporary art, captured on camera and transformed into a line-art picture. I could not bring myself to "wiping-out" his artwork.