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.

Out of Place

Sea kayaking in Netherlands is not known for it's tide-races. Having said that, occasionally one can find standing waves over (shifting) sand bars. Today we could play at the T2 buoy off Texel. Continuing around Noorderhaaks (with a Peddelpraat club trip) with more sand bars and wide surf zones. Three capsizes, one roll, two swim's, one re-entry-and-roll and one T-rescue. Hey! I did not flip once! And a good work-out against the wind on the way back. Last week's sore back muscle still there this morning: gone! Start of Summer.

Dutch Sea Kayakers around Ireland

Good friends of mine, Paul de Haas and Marian Makelaar (center two in below picture) have started on their circumnavigation of Ireland. You can check their progress on their website.

In 2007 they paddled around the Faroe Island and wrote about that trip in "Op Pad" Magazine.

Pictures a NKB week in Anglesey

Pictures of the Dutch Canoe Union (NKB) Anglesey week (25 April through 1 May) are now on-line. Click on a picture to view the slide-show.

Stavoren

Almost every season the crossing of the IJsselmeer lake from Oude Zeug to Stavoren is on the Peddelpraat club paddling calendar. It is a 17 km crossing to Stavoren and the same distance back.

Only just before Stavoren the wind picked-up to the forecasted northeasterly 4-5 Beaufort. This is a holiday weekend and the IJsselmeer is crowded with sailing boats.

We arrived around noon in Stavoren. We had lunch and I dozed in the sunshine on the grass sheltered from the wind. The coast guard by now reported a solid force 5 from the northeast. Unfortunately that meant the waves were side-on on our return journey, so no surfing a following sea. The best was saved for last. We had aimed a little bit high and could surf for the last half hour back to the put-in, 'flying'.

At 16:30 we were back at the Oude Zeug harbour. Some very tired. Indeed it is an 'advanced' trip, that more than once participants underestimate, including me, but that was many years ago.

Verdamp lang her

A few months ago I slowly started to transfer my music CD's to MP3 format for use on my mobile 'everything/everywhere' gadget. Along came one of my all-time favorite bands, BAP, that I have not listened to for ten years or so. And they are hardly ever played on the radio, at least not anywhere other than in their home country. It now plays at max volume over my car stereo. It is probably strongly encoded in my genes that I did not find it too hard then to learn to understand the local Cologne/German dialect they sing their lyrics in.

It is interesting what time does to dreams. Would I have ever imagined then where I am today? It has been a long time ago... The best things I did find have not been the things I was looking for. Stop dreaming, stop searching?

Words, as powerful as ever, in any language or even personal dialect.

Verdamp lang her, dat ich fast alles ähnz nohm.
Verdamp lang her, dat ich ahn jet jejläuv
...
Ich weiβ noch, wie ich nur dovun gedräump hann,
wovunn ich nit woss, wie ich et sööke sollt,
vüür lauter Söökerei et Finge jlatt versäump hann
un övverhaup, wat ich wo finge wollt.
Ne Kopp voll nix, nur die paar instinktive Tricks.
Et duhrt lang, besste dich durchblicks.

(BAP - Verdamp lang her)

Anniversary

This year marks my tenth year attending the Anglesey Sea Kayak Symposium. It was in May 2000 that I visited for the first time to check out a feature that I had only heard talking about: tide-races and overfalls.

Anglesey, as I know now, is blessed with a great many of them. And they run 'around the clock'. How 'good' they run is very difficult to predict. A highly variable blend of current (springs/neaps), wind (strength/direction), waves and swell (height/direction) account for very varied conditions.

Today was one of those days when all variables combined to create a magical Penrhyn Mawr tide-race. For your information, it was a neap tide... Somehow races look less intimidating when the sun shines. For the first time I looped in a tide-race. PM was still running and highly playable when we returned to the beach. Ten years ago I would plan my route to avoid tide-races, now I am playing in them at heart's content.

Planning to play in tide-races, the necessary personal skills and leadership issues involved should not be underestimated. The Anglesey Sea Kayak Symposium (or specialist courses) are a great (and safe) way to get introduced/advance into these tidal phenomena. I feel very fortunate to have been introduced to them by the local experts.

Ten years might have gone-by but I am as thrilled as my first paddling strokes catching and surfing the tidal waves.

Many happy returns!

For a slide-show click on one of the above pictures.

Hans Brinker

When I am abroad I often get questions how sea kayaking is in the Netherlands. And what the difference is between the Netherlands and Holland.

People in the US are always keen to tell me that they heard of the famous kid (Hans Brinker) that stopped flooding in the Netherlands by putting his finger in a hole in the dike. In turn, I have to confess that I have never learned about this amazing feat in my early school days. It is only because of my travels that I learned about it. Getting this story fed back to me on my last visit to Anglesey by a Brit (or to be more PC, a Cornish guy) had me looking it up on the Internet...

"Hans Brinker or the Silver Skates" is a book written by Mary Mapes Dodge in 1865. The writer implied that her story is based on fact, while in reality she wrote a book on the Netherlands, a country that she never ever visited. That explains a lot!

If this is the case, then how about all that other Dutch folklore like windmills, wooden shoes, tulips and dikes? They are all 'true' and the Dutch tourist board is keen to reinforce the images that are already embedded in the minds of prospective visitors.

So how about paddling in the Netherlands? We have lots of water; sea, lakes and inland canals. What better independent and fresh view then from a sea kayaker that has just recently moved to the Netherlands and is logging her trips. Rhian has started her blog with the first trip in her new sea kayak.

Holland is technically the two western coastal provinces of the Netherlands. The historic significance of Holland (with Amsterdam) lies in the our golden age during the 1700's with it's Dutch East India Company (VOC) and it's infamous 'tulip rally'. This tulip 'mania' is considered to be the first recorded speculative bubble. There are many, many similarities to modern-day (pyramid-scheme) events like the internet bubble, banking 'crisis' and housing market 'crisis': Greed feeding an unsustainable 'growth'.

Does my mind wander off too much trying to point to a modern day "Hans Brinker"? Is it our "finance ministers" trying to put the finger in the financial dikes? Sure I would say that they try to plug the hole from the wrong side. And committed like this there is no way to look over the dike to actually see what the real problem is. So forget about Hans Brinker; a metaphor for incompetence.

The picture of Hans Brinker is from the "Madurodam" theme park in the Hague; a miniature version (scale 1:25) of the Netherlands on one square kilometer. Visit the whole of the Netherlands in only a day.

Waves of reflection

A northwesterly storm force 8 is raging. I went on a coastal hike from Holyhead to Porthdafarch. From Soldiers' Point I had great views of massive breaking waves reflected off the Holyhead breakwater. My hike continued towards North Stack. From there I went up Holyhead Mountain and down towards South Stack, continuing towards Portdafarch. Walking back along the road past Anglesey Outdoors Centre. Familiar scenes seen from a different perspective.

Here, there and everywhere

I arrived in Anglesey on Thursday in Spring time weather for NDK business. Justine and Barry are around and they invited me to come over for a Sunday paddle. Unfortunately Barry had work to do, so Justine and I headed down the Llynn Peninsula for Aberdaron to paddle to Bardsey Island. It was way back in September 2002 that I last visited Bardsey. Justine is trying-out her new Sanoodi mobile phone GPS tracking software, so our route is well documented (Bardsey & Bardsey Return).

On Bardsey, after moving our kayaks higher twice (just in case), we headed for the farm house. It is lambing season and the farmer family have a busy time of checking all of the 300 ewes that can give birth anytime. A sure sign of Spring. Holding a day-old lamb feels as soft and warm as my woolen hat. After three hours on the Island we found our kayaks still safe. It would not be the first time that somebody looses their kayak to the tide while visiting this wonderful Island. Heading back looked easy. The wind had dropped and the sea flattened. Halfway across we enjoyed some surfing, that could now only mean that we paddled against the current coming out of Aberdaron Bay. It is around neaps, but the tidal current increased coming closer to the headland and showing multiple eddy-lines and boils. I separated quite a bit from Justine being just in a different current line. It turned-out to be quite a work-out on the last bit. Using surges to 'wash' around headlands against the current. Back at the house, next to a fire pre-lit by Barry, I quickly fell asleep on the sofa, counted three cuddly lambs, feeling woolly warm.

P.S. I have been working late today Monday and only now found the time to upload this post. To reduce some carbon footprint you can look on Justine's blog for more pictures and her account of the day. It is now very windy and chilly in Anglesey, waves crashing over the Holyhead breakwater. My thoughts are with those new born lambs on Bardsey.

Invasion of "Paard van Marken"

Saturday 52! paddlers gathered at the dike to Marken for the trip to the "Paard van Marken" and Volendam; a Peddelpraat club trip tradition of some decades.

Although this enormous group size (an all-time record) is an outright nightmare for group control, it has become a social gathering of some magnitude, that the organizers try to facilitate as best they can. Marianne, today's overall trip leader, assigned tasks for buddy-ed-up front, back, left and right boundary paddlers.

The whole flotilla moved surprisingly compact towards Marken in quartering force 3/4 winds, every now and then surfing. The 'trick' with the boundary paddlers paying off. And being a social gathering nobody seems to see this trip as a work-out.

Arriving at the "Paard of Marken", a historic lighthouse landmark, for a coffee break probably looked like an invasion by the lighthouse keepers. The lighthouse keeper is planting flowers and we are welcomed.

What do sea kayakers do first when they land? They go for a pee. It has already surprised me often what paddlers think of the best place to pee when there is water all around... Today the favorite spot seems to be the reeds. Not that it provides more privacy. It triggers a strong angry response from the lighthouse keeper, ouch! She tells us that she has to deal with many visitors. Specially for them last year the council established a visitor toilet. She complains about the smell from the reeds she has to cope with. Apparently it is the favorite spot to pee. Only a week before another large flotilla of kayaks invaded their property and did their thing...

So everybody who visits "Paard van Marken", please use the available toilet unit! The picture from above is taken by the lighthouse keeper. Visit their website for more information, stories and beautiful pictures of living at "Paard van Marken" historic landmark.

P.S. The toilet-unit is just out of sight of the Lighthouse keepers, behind the green shed, and it's clean and free!

Kayak Pro

The Watersport Council invited me to give a lecture on sea kayaking at the HISWA Amsterdam Boat Show. Lacking any kayak/canoe specific show, the Dutch canoe union (NKB) this year linked-up with the Watersport Council stand at the HISWA. The watersport council had lots of activities going-on. Long lines of youths signing-up for the many water basin activities, including kayaking, waterskiing and wind-turbine dingy-sailing. A smoothly organized operation with lots of volunteers. The slogan "ikwilwatersporten.nl" seems a catching phrase, at least with the youngsters. The cold unheated pool water did not deter any of them.

Prominently at the NKB stand the KayakPro Speedstroke kayak trainer/ergometer. Again lots of attention from youngsters for a simulated race projected in front of them. When I first heard of the KayakPro, I joked that next would be racing with others on the internet in simulated environments. Well so far for my joke as this kind of simulation is already reality, or at least in beta. You never have to leave your home again for kayaking... The same could be said of Justine's This is the Sea DVD's, snippets from #1 playing at the lecture arena in-between lectures. Maybe something for future versions of KayakPro add-on software? Paddling in Penrhyn Mawr, Skooks, Baja, circumnavigating Tasmania, never having to leave home to kayak... And everyone can paddle with Justine. I Wonder if one could roll with a Kayak Pro.

New Year Sunrise

Paddling through a Milky Way of shooting stars. Bioluminescence lightens-up the sea milky white where my paddle blades are pulled through the water. Our sea kayaks are infrequently hit by flying fish, startled by our early moving presence. Up above the last of the brightest stars fade-out into the new sunrise. The first sunrise of the New Year. Turning the eastern sky bright red and reflecting red-purple off the Sierras de la Giganta in the west. While the world turns and going in circles around the sun. Day in, year out. Never ending new beginnings. Here I am, at the south end of Danzante Island, the Dancer. Sharing the start of the new year's day with two of my very best friends. A happy New Year!

I look at the world and I notice it's turning
While my guitar gently weeps
With every mistake we must surely be learning
Still my guitar gently weeps

FiRST FSRT

An American sea kayaking guide travelling from southern Chile taking a BCU course in Baja California Sur with a Dutch BCU coach from the Netherlands...

As many of you might know already, Ginni Callahan migrates South every Winter to guide sea kayaking trips and organize (BCU) courses and guide training in the Parque Marino Nacional Bahia de Loreto for her company Sea Kayak Baja Mexico.

The new BCU courses Foundation Safety & Rescue Training, Navigation & Tidal Planning Training and the 4* Sea Leader Training ran for the first time in Mexico.

We had excellent conditions, even surf, for the 4* training.

For the FSRT, that requires various craft, Ginni arranged a double sea kayak, a single sea kayak with no bulkheads, a WW-kayak, an open canoe and an inflatable sit-on-top. I was greatly impressed with the selection. And naturally there were proper British design glass-fibre sea kayaks from Ginni's fleet. He!, I am biased!

The one thing we did NOT have was a lecture room with overhead and digital projector, as the syllabus states for the proper venue for the Navigation & Tidal Planning Training. The only thing projected 'overhead' was the Sun and stunning surroundings.

I am here for a few more weeks. Next week I join Ginni for a guided Christmas trip. I took loads and loads of pictures all during my stay. But because of 'Baja Midnight', which generally is around 7 PM, and very limited electricity at camp, I have a major 'backblog'. And this is just not the environment to voluntarily work behind the computer during daytime.

I wish everybody a great Christmas time!

The Coolest Hike

We cannot go up any further. A waterfall blocks passage that Ginni has taken many times before, preventing us to go up even higher. Ginni, David and I have gone this far on one of the most amazing and rewarding hikes I have ever done. Hiking into la Sierra de Giganta near Loreto in Baja Mexico Sur. Up a narrow creek-bed canyon, big boulder strewn, rock clambering, jumping rocks, wiggling my body between the spaces left by jammed car-size boulders, up a body-tight tunnel, wading chest-high holding our day packs over our heads, reflective pools, waterfalls, palm trees, scenting flowers, toads doing 'their jumping thing' and every now and then saying their hello's to us. Butterflies in all colors and sizes. Dragonflies, hovering and the ones caught in the many sticky webs of the various spiders. Passing-by a Tarantula. Mostly hiking in the cool shade of the steep canyon walls. Vistas of the Sea of Cortez to the east.

A few weeks ago it had rained a lot here in the aftermath of a coastal hurricane. The result is a desert that is green and even more alive.

I cliff jump into a pool and cool off, followed by sunbathing on the flat garage size boulder next to the pool. Another cliff jump, another sunbathe. When the canyon wall casts it's shadow over me it is time to get going again. Reversing the way we came, down the tunnel, wading chest-high. Down the geological jungle. When the canyon wall widens we are continuously in the sun again, getting hot, desert-hot. Behind me, the coolest hike I ever did; a paradise, an oasis that waters the soul.

Islands in the sun

I am back in Bahia de Tortugas from a week of Magic Pacific Baja paddling with Ginni Callahan to Isla Cedros and Isla Natividad.

The information we had of this area was one, not so detailed, nautical chart and one general information page in a pilot. Depending on local knowledge, all we got was that there was ´curriente´. I could write pages and pages on this wonderful explorative trip. But I am typing this in the local Internet café so I keep it short. Meeting great people along the way, Ginni´s Spanish made all the difference. Sunny days, beautiful beaches, ocean wildlife, great aroyo hikes and good food.

I still have no good feeling for the Pacific swell. 11+ second swell sets from both the south and the north give some (for me) hair raising adrenaline-rich landings and launchings on dump-surf beaches. Lost my good old Lendal cap in one of those. Standing safe on the beach I am thinking ´is this all that I have been anxious about?´, noting special, until that big set arrives... Not that familiar and predictable North Sea wind-generated surf. After a few days we had worked-out the tides and our circumnavigation around Isla Natividad was completely done with a favourable current, or was it us just lucky by coincidence?

I cannot upload pictures yet, to be followed.

Read more about this trip on Ginni´s Blog.

Migration

Above picture of a lone Puffin was taken at Carmel Head in Anglesey at the end of September. Rather late for a Puffin to still be here. It's colorful outer part of it's beak almost shed. It's mates long migrated north to spend the winter at sea in the North Atlantic. Is it ill? Is it missing the genetically imprinted instinct to head north? Or does it just want to be there? Do birds have a choice or only act on instinct? Why is it not taking to it's wings?

I am typing this flying across the North Atlantic, heading west, then south. Taking jet-powered man-made wings of an airplane. Flying over the Winter habitat of the Atlantic Puffin. I am 'migrating' too. For the first time ever I will be spending some Winter months in a sunny and warm environment. Not to flee the cold Dutch Winter. Leaving friends and family behind for more than just a few weeks, emotional good bye's. No forwarding address, maybe some sporadic mobile phone coverage, and for sure, the internet access life line.

Iceberg Territory

We returned from two days of supervised coach practice on the West Coast of Scotland. The second day we where at the Falls of Lora tidal feature. This time I did not swim. Well, this time around I was coaching and although I did not 'capsize', there were some 'wobbly' moments, from the coaching perspective. A dynamic environment of flows, counter flows, whirlpools, boils and waves, rushing sounds, rapid moving scenery. Different learning styles, past experiences and comfort levels. Tense and smiling faces. Sunny, with some liquid spells.

Dreaming of one time being a certified BCU level 5 sea kayak coach? I enjoy and value the journey more so. Yesterday we, the trainees, wrote down our 'action plan'. Not a detailed road-map, maybe some hints towards signposts we want to be watching for. For sometimes we worry if we are heading in the 'right' direction. What is the 'right' direction anyway? Maybe it is 'just' the way forward.

One of the ways to describe the 'goal of coaching' that got me thinking was:
"To join someone on their map and, by providing experiences that challenge their perception of the territory, our students might redraw their map."

What if I would invert this description to: "Gaining experiences that challenges my perception of the territory, possibly redrawing my own map."