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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 29 April 2011

4 Star Training...

On Wednesday the 27th of April I headed back up to Anglesey for two days of 4 star sea leader training with Adventure Elements .
The first day we started working on leadership, rescues & towing as well as being shown how & why the sea flows & creates eddy currents in the way it does & how these affect the water around headlands.
The Other Students, Simone, Graham & Kayak Steve were great company & made both days enjoyable & a good laugh.
On the first day our instructor was James who thankfully explained things really well & gave me plenty of things to think about & work on not to mention a great explanation of why the tides run for longer than the standard 6 hours.
I did take my camera but forgot to pop the freshly charged batteries in it (LOL).
We paddled from Bull Bay on the North of the Island & followed the coast east on the ebbing tide to Porth Wen, returning on the flood. 
It was I fab day but I was bloody freezing after the rescues we did in a tidal race...
Day 2 & we were in Cemaes Bay, again in the North, under the watchful gaze of Wylfa nuclear power station...
 A quick debrief with Dave leading today & we were off...



It was lovely & calm to start with but as soon as we pushed around the headland the sea really picked up as the powerful back eddy we were in felt the tide & wind. The conditions were just above the remit for the 4 star leader & made ideal if slightly twitchy practice...
After  a while we turned towards middle mouse, just as a bearing to get into the main flow, you can really sea the difference having the wind with the tide makes & my sphincter was able to stop crushing walnuts :)
After surfing a few swells on the way back we head into a quiet part of the bay for another debrief & explanation on the flows & eddy currents that we just paddled through as well as a look down from the cliff-tops to really enlighten us. There was a lot of emphasis on flows & eddies currents & I felt I learnt a lot.

 Time for some rock-hopping...
After a few rescues amongst the rocks we make our way back & try to remember all that I've learnt. A final debrief & a talk on equipment & we were done.
A fab couple of days & really helps set me up for my Wales challenge, after which I hope to do the 4 star assessment though I'll probably do some more training first...

1 comment:

  1. Bad timing! You could have done with that tow-training last week! Lol!
    Rescues amongst the rocks sound exciting.
    Have you stayed on the Island for this weekends Symposium?

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