Welcome To Go Sea Kayak

Welcome To The Go Sea Kayak Blog...
This Blog is A Record Of My Personal Adventures And Wonderful Kayaking Lifestyle. It Is Also A Taster Of What You Can Expect If You're Adventurous Enough To Tag Along. Why Not Get In Touch And Join One Of Go Sea Kayaks Guided Trips On The Beautiful Mediterranean Island Of Sardinia, You Won't Regret it!

Friday, 30 December 2011

Glam Boaters New Year Splash...

With so much holiday time for everyone at this time of year it seemed an idea to try & get everyone out on the sea. I put some calls out & got together a mix from novice, intermediate to experienced paddlers.I picked a calm day so we could do some exploring but the focus was gonna be mainly skills development.
All together we had Carol, Stuart, Laura, Anthony, Peter, Jules & Gareth in his new green Delphin.
I had hoped to teach ferry-gliding as we crossed to Sully Island but there was very little current running.
At Sully Island on the West side there was some surf for the more adventurous.
And a chicken run for the more sensible. Not sure how Stuart & Jules got in this shot as they were playing in the surf, probably didn't want to miss a posing opportunity.
Me, Stuart & Jules were enjoying some rockhopping in the swell though I couldn't entice the others over, they kept a sensible safe distance.

I nearly got caught out by here, a big wave appeared from the depths which was amusing as I was very close to the rocks & paddling hard to avoid being swept in. Stuart missed the shot (LOL).
 Peters paddling technique is coming along nicely.
Carol working on her stern rudder, looking good, just a little more rotation to get the left arm back.
We all practiced in St Mary's bay for ages as it was lovely & calm but it soon got lumpy as we paddled a short distance from the shore. The reason being the St Mary's sandbar that we were floating over. Good practice conditions.
 A quick break on Sully Island before we head back.
Not before Jules initiates some rolling practice with me & Gareth both getting ice cream heads too. Stuart had conveniently pulled his boat ashore by this point (LOL).
It was lovely & peaceful on the water today despite the rain & we all would have stayed out longer if the rapidly ebbing tide wasn't uncovering mud!

Great to get so many from the club out on the water, & looking forward to the next one :D

Tuesday, 27 December 2011

The Knap to Llantwit Major....

Today I was hoping to get some of the club members, (Glam Boaters) out onto the sea but trying to get a day when everyone is free is quite tricky.
In the end it was me, Stuart & Noel.
Bumped into this old git too, sorry Pete ;D
Pete had already been on the water a few hours & was heading back in so we said our goodbyes & made our way West.
It was quite a lovely day but I was finding the conditions disappointingly calm & longing for some action.
Evan Aberthaw tower was unlikely to be playful in these conditions.
Passing Aberthaw the boy's went right & I went left looking for some flow around the tower. we all met up in the lee of the tower & played in the spinning water that had just got squeezed around the tower, playful but a little too gentle.
From Aberthaw to Llantwit I hugged the shore (literally) trying to spice things up by paddling side on to the waves breaking on shore. A couple nearly caught me out, in fact one was surprisingly big & got my heart pumping. It reared up & dumped before I had time to turn into it so I slammed the paddle into the water using the power of the wave to lever the boat back out to sea. Only just got away with it :D
Arriving at Llantwit we found some pretty decent surf, all swell & no wind action so they had plenty of power in them. The problem was they were dumping onto corral covered rocks, not ideal.
Stuart & Noel were debating how to get ashore with their glass boats. I on the other hand could be less than gentle with my plastic Nordkapp so I caught a wave into shore.
I purposely chose a modest size wave as I was surfing towards rocks & I was rewarded with a lovely smooth ride to shore.
I managed a quick pee & a leg stretch whilst Stuart & Noel stayed on the water. Cant blame them really as I landed on Corral & got away with a light scrape or two.
Heading East again & the light is starting to fade. We paddle out to the tower hoping for a play, luckily its a little bit rougher at the tower so I was happy :)
I caught a lovely wave back onto shore at the Knap, certainly not big at all but I held a straight course & was pushed all the way onto the beach, magic :)

Would have been a bit of a boring paddle today but luckily I had good company. A fab day out...

Saturday, 24 December 2011

Xmas Eve Adventure...

For the second year in a row me & Stuart decided to head to Flat Holm on Xmas eve, this time joined by Jules in his new Delphin.
I had planned to paddle out to Flat Holm sitting on the back deck just for the plain stupidity of it but it looked a bit too rough & I fell in by the end of the pier at penarth trying to take a picture of Stuart (whist sat on the back deck) with a rainbow behind him. I got the shot but it was out of focus, GRRRR.

So I took this shot from the water instead :)
Image By Stuart...
Image By Stuart...
It got quite rough over some shallows midway & by the time it calmed down Stuart was obviously suffering from mental trauma.
Nearly there & despite the calm looking photo it was hard going with the wind, waves & also tide competing to push us off course.
The swell wasn't huge but was big enough to throw up some most welcome surfing opportunities. The F5-7 forecast with moderate becoming rough sea state didn't really materialize though it was bouncy enough.
Image By Stuart...
Nearly There :)
On the island we go for a stroll, last time Jules was here it was full of naked people but with there absence he decides to impresses us with his knowledge of sheep?

Image By Jules...
There's a rude joke in there somewhere, Answers in the comments box :)
Image By Stuart...
Utterly Frozen we head back to the boats to warm up with some paddling.
Its looking lively in the channel & promising an exciting paddle back.
Image By Jules...


Nearly there & its calmed down considerably as we approach the mainland.
An most excellent day out with good mates, wonder how next years paddle pans out...

Sunday, 18 December 2011

Unexpected play Time :D

With a gentle forecast I was expecting a gentle lazy paddle today, nothing too hardcore & certainly not breaking a sweat. Boy was I wrong, Turned out to be a day of plenty of unexpected action if you looked in the right places :D
With my lovely ride 'Myvanwy' feeling very under the weather with a broken timing belt :( I had to talk nicely to my Mum to pinch her Skoda.
Looks kinda cool with a sea kayak on the roof.
We all met up in Sully with the intention of paddling to Penarth. It was a chance For Peter & Gareth to get some time on the water & for Peter to get used to his new Scorpio. Stuart decided to tag along too which is fab as I can pinch some of his images for my blog post. This image was my last contribution to the day as my battery went dead, (Whoops).
 Fun, fun, fun, that's what I wanted & hoped for. A quick ferry glide across to Sully Island & straight into the race off the West side :)
Peter pops ashore to stretch his legs. He's still trying to figure out how to adjust his boat to avoid dead legs, an annoying problem I had for ages in my Orca.
In the meantime I go for a play off the headland at St Mary's Bay.
 Yeehaa!!!
 I could seriously stay here all day, Loving it :D
With Peter back on the water we head off, I catch a wave close to shore & look back to see Peter swimming, whoops. a wave caught him side on & tipped him out though to be fair he was trying my paddle at the time & had about 45 degrees less feather than he's used to.
I really struggled putting him back into his boat. His deck was arranged with his spare paddles mounted on top of his deck bag which made it bloody awkward to get hold of. I suggested afterwards that he push his blades under the deck bag, trial & error I guess.
We paddle back for another play at St Mary's Bay & Gareth comes & has a look too.
After this we headed to the South side of Sully Island Where there was now some decent waves in the race, hence no pictures as it was quite lively. We played & practiced our surfing here for a bit to the amusement of the fishermen on the island. I think we all had a bit of a YeeHaa! moment :)
Approaching the West side of the Island we spot some nice standing waves forming as the tide ebbed. I've only seen this once before as the causeway is usually quite slack on the ebb. My theory is that as the tide picks up speed it pushes further off shore from Lavernock & St Mary's Bay with the main flow missing the causeway. We arrived just after the tide turned, hence the waves but as the tide picked up speed the waves died off & the causeway went calm again.
Its something I'm going to look into as we had a great time surfing the waves while they lasted.
One last ride on the dyeing waves & a few rolls before packing up content & happy...

Thanks again to Stuart for sending me some images to use ;D