back on the water..

back on the water after an enforced layoff of 5 weeks… I felt very out of tune with my boat and I’m still not fully recovered but it was so good to be afloat again. Some pictures follow from the last couple of days. Very little swell running but with the perigee moon we have at the moment the tides were flowing very strongly around Lands End and out around the brooding  Longships Reef.. so great for some play, rescues, rolling and re-entry practice in difficult water and so on, things that I wouldn’t normally have the opportunity to practice in such an environment without a safety of net of equally  competent paddlers, plus of course coaching from friend and level 5 coach Richard of Paddlecrest Coaching, which was the whole point really, so an extremely valuable and fun couple of days on the water, although I’m completely shagged again now with a bunch of sore joints and muscles  :-| Aside from that sea kayaking is such a terrific social sport and I’m sure I’ll be back on full form at some point soon provided I’m careful to take things easy for a while.

I was struck in particular by the clarity of the water around Lands End.. it’s something I always appreciate but not so much from below the surface, I spend nearly all my inverted/rolling time in the surf, in my surf boat, where the water is all churned up and murky and one cannot see a thing.. I’d forgotten quite how crystal clear the sea is from below around here once well away from any surf zones. Fantastic.

Rick gives it some, the wind was howling through this gap

a somewhat rough lunch stop..

one thing you won’t appreciate from this pic is that Rick has only one leg, he lost it from above the knee while serving in the military a number of years ago. The system he has worked out for managing his kayak with a prosthetic leg is simply fantastic.

April Fools Afloat..

I’ve been neglecting my sea kayak over the past month or so… all my paddling time has been in my surf boat. I put that right today however with a few friends for a perfect sea kayak day out along the west coast of the Lizard peninsula. I spend a lot of time paddling in that area, it’s always stunning but today was pretty special. The west coast there is fully exposed to the Atlantic so it is very rare for there to be almost no swell at all. It’s an exciting paddle when it’s rough but today was a very different  experience – very mellow with the possibility to get properly up close and personal with the numerous caves that perforate the dark serpentine cliffs. This is a picture heavy post so without further ado…….

a trio of "Tideracii".. amongst my friends I count 6 owners of Tiderace Xcites.. they're excellent kayaks and popular down here thanks to Drew in Porthleven..

it's a good thing they didn't all come along today though, that would have been just weird... like when you see couples walking down the street wearing matching sweaters... creepy even.

John brought his big ski which was a good thing for diluting the weirdness of otherwise identical kayaks. With his wing paddles he flies on this thing, but it's not much of a rockhopping tool. Looks wicked on the water.

copious quantities of pre-launch coffee necessitated an early (very early) pee stop at Mullion. The folk on the quay are no doubt commenting on weirdness...

A nice bit of cave action. The particular variant of serpentine rock that occurs here is known, somewhat predictably, as Lizardite. My geologist friend tells me that it is typical of rocks found in the oceanic crust or upper mantle... the geology of the Lizard peninsula is very different to the rest of Cornwall, it is in fact a 'splinter' of serpentine rock formed by an ancient subduction zone.

must remember to bring a flashlight next time...

stunning clarity of the water

we did have the usual seal escorts for part of the day.. but they wouldn't be photographed... leaving nothing but a tell-tale eddy on the surface the moment a camera appears.

the dark cliffs manage to be a little threatening even on a bright sunny day

a fabulous place to stop for a bite to eat. I've never been able to get in here before, if there is much swell running it gets funnelled in and dumps in a heavy wave.. manageable elsewhere perhaps but it's very narrow between the rocks and doesn't give much room for manoeuvre.

there's a small stream here, it would be a terrific bivy spot

more caves ahoy..

some caves are big.. really big

the wind was a blustery and cold easterly. Nice clear light on the water as a result

the approach to Kynance Cove is always magical

we stopped on the sandbar for a brew.. simply because we could. The tide was high enough that the numbers of land-based visitors couldn't reach the sandbar. Always a good thing :-)

John's ski is so feathery light despite its 20ft length that we had to wedge it between sea kayaks to stop the wind blowing it away..!

this is The End…. again

Lands End that is. Something of a Cornish classic paddling day out and my own favourite stretch of water. I never get bored of paddling around Lands End.. every time the character is different. It is magical on a glassy calm, sunny summers day when you can get in all the tiny little nooks, crannies and caves, and basking sharks are cruising close to the cliffs. It’s intimidating as hell when Atlantic swells as big as houses are rolling in with violent overfalls and spray shooting 100ft or more up the cliffs.. the rebound from those gets exciting.. and, as it was yesterday it can be wonderfully playful for a competent paddler with a couple of metres of swell cruising in and a big spring tide racing through.. provided you keep your wits about you. It is a good trip as a one-way from Sennen to Penzance but compared to the stretch from Sennen to Porthcurno the bit from Porthcurno to Penzance can be pretty dull.. so we rarely do that, instead preferring to lunch at Porthcurno, or Porthgwarra if the surf is dumping too heavily at Porthcurno, then turn around and paddle back. It is always different – the tide will be at a different state so opportunities to play are renewed, and the sea-state will often be different too… as it was yesterday with a rising tide and increasing swell which left us with the opportunity to do some surfing in fun shoulder-high waves on return to Sennen.

Interestingly the Romany that Ben and then Taran paddled belongs to a good friend of mine.. I’m looking after it by making sure it gets plenty of action.. or rather making sure ‘she’ gets plenty of action as apparently she is called Rosie.. a girl in other words. Perhaps this why Taran made the comment “she’s a playful little thing”.. hmm. My boat needs a name.. I could call it Colin perhaps, or Frank even…. but Bob might be more appropriate…

Enough of the words, having rectified the waterproof camera situation, hurrah, it’s time to wave some photos around… mine and a few from Taran at the end as well. A great day out with like-minded friends I am lucky to have.

see if you can spot the paddler... <hint - blade @ left>

a sheltered inlet @ low water

like threading a needle around all the rocks.

lovely bit of Cornish granite

Sam timing the swells...

it was quite violent on sets so timing was key

thinking about lunch

fabulous beach

lunch. It doesn't get much better, especially on a Wednesday. We're all professional work-shy layabouts it seems....

Taran & Ben swapped boats for the return trip.. this is Taran... no longer wearing yellow :-)

I like the 'frozen' waterdroplets in the foreground here

The next few are from Taran’s lens… more words & pictures over on his site.

this made me laugh... they're all watching the lamb go to slaughter as I paddle off to investigate a particularly interesting stretch of water..

the swells were rolling in..

& as I'd been lazy about my sunglasses strap I promptly lost them. Oh well, luckily I only buy cheap ones....

good tide flowing...

Ben awaiting his moment..

me & my Tiderace.. or should that be "my Tiderace & I".. or something

and again..

 

a quick kayaking the Lizard post

while I’m at it… <like Cornish buses these posts…> a few pictures from a fun day of sea kayaking with a couple friends on Tuesday. These are not my pictures, they were taken by another kayaking friend, Taran (more great pics and goings on over at his blog here). Conditions were quite lively so we enjoyed some spirited rock hopping under the brooding cliffs of the Lizard before returning to Poldu Cove for a couple of hours playing in about 5 feet or so of messy surf :-)

yours truly hiding behind cap & sunnies as usual, & regular paddle buddy Sam

Taran & his Nordkapp... funny how Rockpool kayaks decided to name a new kayak design after him, I think they should give him a Taran just for being cool...

that's Sam's head peeking above the waves..

pictures can never quite communicate how much fun and at times how exciting it was

but they're great pictures nevertheless, cheers Taran

I really need to bite the $$-shaped bullet and replace my broken waterproof camera

my red boat/red cag are definitely a good colour for this...

the sandbar at Kynance is a great stopping place, and inaccessible by regular foot folk except at low water. hurrah!

some annual kayak maintenance

Every year at the end of the paddling season I make the effort to give my boats a thorough check and take care of any maintenance work required – that’s in addition to any repairs as the season progresses. A little bit earlier than normal this year but while waiting for my paddle moulds to cure fully I thought I’d take a good look at my Tiderace. It’s in good shape but I pulled the seat out anyway just to check for any wear at the hull/seat interface and check for cracks etc. The Tiderace seat is really well designed, mine is adjustable fore and aft (not sure if that is true of newer boats) and it has strips of rubber added underneath to avoid abrasion between seat and hull as the boat and seat flex or move with respect to each other. I didn’t think I would find any problems but interestingly some larger pieces of grit had become embedded in the rubber and were beginning to wear through the hull laminate. It’s not serious enough to warrant a futher layer of cloth, rather I have just laid on an epoxy patch. I’m also replacing the rubber strips on the seat underside.

 

it's cold at the moment so a little extra heat to dry things out before adding epoxy

 

 

the underside of the seat

 

The seat/footplate rails in my Tiderace are made of aluminium alloy, powdercoated.. they’re starting to look pretty scruffy as the powdercoat is flaking off and the alloy shows some  inevitable corrosion. I think I’m going to make myself some replacements out of strips of polished stainless steel. Bit heavier but they’ll look nice :-)

Lizard etc

another picture post.. I haven’t been doing much constructive really except riding, surfing and kayaking.. could be worse, hehe. In the process of sorting out my flights back to the wilds of patagonia for the winter too.. stay tuned as that happens. In the meantime though…

Saturday morning paddling out of Poldhu Cove the Atlantic was eerily calm..

 

it so rarely looks like this..!

 

we were headed for a relaxed day out to Lizard Point for lunch, taking in the fabulous coastline along the way.

 

lots of caves to explore

 

 

reminiscent of the South China Sea, albeit a little cooler.. this is Kynance Cove (go to 49°58'27.76"N ; 5°13'58.57"W on Google Earth)

 

 

'Darth Kayak' rides again - that's the replacement Greenland.. looks tiny next to the Tideraces despite being same LOA

 

 

met Grizzly Adams (or a close relative :-) out sailing his home-built canoe yawl, looked very pretty under sail..

 

 

the wind got up in the afternoon, just enough of a chop to make rock-hopping fun

 

It’s only a 26km journey but it means lots of time for playing in and around the caves and rocky inlets of this part of the coast. My GPS recorded a top speed of 22.3 km/hr (12 knots) for the day… which can only have been surfing the waves back in to land at Poldhu under a beautiful late afternoon sun.

Back on two wheels this morning.. have been spending an awful lot of time on fixed this summer so pulled out my Storck for a change for a terrific blast down west towards Lands End. It takes me a while to adjust to gears again – particularly climbing.. it just feels weird. Disappointingly the carbon shell on the Specialized Toupe saddle cracked right across the middle… that’s the third specialized saddle I have had fail in this way over the last few years – all were replaced under warranty but given that I’m not exactly a heavyweight I can only presume the design is flawed. Won’t be buying another one.

 

slow? ... nope, don't think so. It's only a short descent but nice and twisty and a bicycle is very much the best tool for going down it quickly :-)

 

The roads of Cornwall are  relatively quiet again after the madness of the school summer holidays – the mummies and daddies in their huge 4x4s have gone home.. but instead have been replaced with a significant quantity of corpses creeping around in pristine Nissan Micras.. they sit at roundabouts and junctions for half an hour at a time while nothing goes past and then suddenly pull out in front of an approaching cyclist.. still, they’re easy to overtake ;-)

2010 Day 1…

hey, Happy New Year everyone :-) I hope your 2010 kicked off as well as mine. Fabulous weather today for a paddle from Sennen, below the towering granite cliffs round Lands End past Porthcurno where the plan was to land below Treen cliff for a late lunch (we didn’t set off till midday…) but just enough of a dumping surf to make life awkward (and wet) saw us take the drier option (it is January after all..) and backtrack to the sheltered cove of Porth Gwarra… most fortuitously as it happened, there was a local family on the beach, BBQ and bonfire going and hot baked potatoes dripping with butter were being thrust into my hand almost before I’d released my spraydeck :-) They were a terrific bunch and happily allowed us to hijack their fire to keep warm.. the temperature once the sun dipped behind the cliffs was hovering around the 2-3degs mark. Our return to Sennen was timed perfectly just as the sun dipped below the horizon and the temperatures plummeted back to freezing point.   Best day paddling of the year so far, hehe :-)

those Tiderace Xcites (Xciti..?) again...

muggins.. again, I thought I was smiling, lol, if only that water spot was just an inch further to the left..

the ‘Tiderace twins…’?

late afternoon off Lands End

what’s left of the RMS Mulheim, wrecked in 2003… originally 90m long & 1600 tons gross!

2009 ended on a satisfactory note too… with a stiff 80km fixed gear ride yesterday afternoon in good company that I enjoyed out of all proportion to the weather (grey, icy cold, damp and very windy), and complete with a suitably chocolatey cafe stop at the Chocolate Factory in Mullion :-) Looking back 2009 was my shortest year on the bike for a long time, by a long way – just over 8100km, and I didn’t ride a single race….  but more than compensated for by a lot more free time for getting out on the water. This year looks to be a good one for riding with at least as much that being ridden in South America before June :-)

So that’s it really, I’m worn out, I wish you all the best for the next 364 days :-)

*It sank in this morning that it’s 10 years since I saw in the millennium in a snowstorm at -20 degs in Montreal…. a whole decade gone, scary.. :-| As I write it’s 8.55pm and some twit is letting off fireworks outside… mate you’re a bit late, I know this is Cornwall but really does five to nine in the evening on 1st January have any significance at all? Maybe he just learned to tie his own shoelaces.

A brace of Tideraci… :-)

Today’s plan was to launch at Lamorna Cove and paddle west to Lands End… the reality turned out to be quite different… a heavy dumping surf and incoming tide at Lamorna meant that landing again would have been impossible – at high water the surf breaks onto nothing but rocks. So we retreated to the harbour at Penzance for an easy launch into sheltered water and a paddle north-east up the coast. The southerly swell today was pretty big – very much akin to kayaking amongst mountains… not a problem when the waves aren’t breaking but Mounts Bay has a bunch of submerged reefs that gave us a “Poseidon Adventure” moment when a large swell piled up into something even larger …. All I can remember is looking at it in a sort of disbelief and wondering if we would get over it before it broke… we did of course, it’s rarely as bad as it looks but still exciting :-) We’d planned a stop for lunch but with large surf breaking all along the coast the only option was to return to the harbour at St Michael’s Mount for a leisurely munch on the sea wall.. so not quite as planned but still better than not getting out on the water at all, especially given I’m rapidly running out of kayak time this side of June :-)

a fine brace of Tideraces

“Tideraces” sounds clumsy, would a better plural not be “Tideraci”?

Something of a postscript.. I’m very lucky to have such a useful family, my father is a boat designer and I’ve just been over to the moulding yard to get some colour-matched gelcoat for my Tiderace, – it took a knock yesterday, nice to see the black of the carbon hull underneath though :-)

TideRace Xcite

Back in October when I picked up my new boat I promised to  give you my thoughts once I’d become well acquainted with it… a mini-review if you like. So.. as promised here are my thoughts: love it….

OK…. that’s not really very useful so a little more detail might be in order. I’ve had the chance now to use it in a variety of sea conditions, today was especially nice – a solid force 5 northerly with a few feet of choppy swell once clear of the land. Conditions like these are my favourite general paddling conditions – rough enough to have fun crashing over and through the waves and around the cliffs, but not so rough as too require too much mental energy manage the conditions… . Having said that though it is a very fun boat to paddle in really rough conditions – confidence inspiring with excellent secondary stability but without being dull if you see what I mean, and it really does surf very well.

There are plenty of words about the philosophy behind the design of the Xcite over on the TideRace website so I won’t reproduce those here, instead I’ll just articulate my impressions as a user. On the water handling is superb, I think the most maneuverable kayak of it’s size (17ft) I’ve paddled. Turns on the proverbial sixpence and responds really well to edging. Secondary stability is good as mentioned above and as for rolling… well, it’s been winter and I like staying warm (wuss…), lol, so we haven’t done a lot of rolling but can’t imagine there’ll be any problems! (15 July – been meaning to update this for ages… it rolls fine despite the apparently boxy mid-hull section and good secondary stability) I feel I’m going to be rather stating the obvious when I say that the retractable skeg really helps with tracking downwind… at points off the wind by varying the skeg extension it’s very easy to ‘balance’ the boat which is especially nice when tired and the wind is fresh as when empty it does weathercock noticeably… no different to that you might expect. What else… umm, surfs really well… speed is OK, it’s not the fastest kayak I’ve ever paddled but is certainly on a par, and snobbery would like to think maybe a little quicker, than other boats in it’s class…. suffice to say it’s fast enough :o) I’m really happy, I haven’t got any niggles or faults with it … yet. It fits my kayaking ‘profile’ perfectly – i.e I share my leisure time between this and the bike so essentially I’m a weekend paddler – days messing about exploring the coast, messing about in white water, overnight weekenders and the occasional week long adventure  – it’s fine for all of that.

Right, that’s the paddling bit out of the way so what’s it like on dry land…?! Off the water handling is really easy for me when alone – it’s pretty light so shoulder-carrying and getting it on and off the car are no problem at all. Mine is the so-called “hardcore” (yeah!) version which means it has a high proportion of carbon and kevlar in the construction – makes it lighter (and stronger) but looking at the weights I don’t think you’d notice an extra couple of kilos for the standard boat. It is a very strong boat, it’s been picked up and tumbled down the beach by force 7-8 winds with nothing more than a few scratches, the same treatment on the same day cracked an NDK Romany pretty badly. The build quality on my example is top notch. I did read some rumblings on the web about construction niggles on some early examples but based on my boat those are history I think. Aside from the flawless gelcoat the hull seam is very neatly executed with a glass ‘rubbing strip’. The skeg installation too is very tidy and so far has been working faultlessly. There are two day-hatches, one in the usual location just aft of the cockpit and a smaller one directly in front of the cockpit. This second one I find really handy for a few energy bars, camera, knife etc etc. It does mean there is no room for a compass but as a generally coastal sort of a chap I’m not too bothred and I’m sure I can figure something out…

Instead of conventional footrests there is a foot-plate extending the width of the hull (I think on newer boats this has gone to be replaced by conventional foot pegs) naturally that is adjustable for position as is the seat (which my backside says is comfortable by the way)… the seat adjustability allows you to vary the trim  – I’ve not yet experimented with different positions in mine as to be honest I am not convinced that shifting my light frame a few cm each way in a boat of this length is going to make any perceptible difference whatsoever. I could be wrong however…..

So, that’s about it I think. Kayaks are a very personal thing so I’m not suggesting you should rush out and spend two and half grand on the strength of my words, I have noticed though that a fair few people come o my site as a result of searches on this kayak so if that’s you and you’re reading this now then hopefully I’ve given you something useful…. oh, almost forgot, and very important… it looks absolutely fab!

Now then, one last little bit of kit… for kayaking day trips my Alpkit Gourdon is brilliant – the 25 litre version I lugged all over Colombia and Ecuador on the back of my bike is now doing wet duty – as a backpack I can carry all my gear down to the beach in one go on my back with my kayak balanced on my shoulder and paddle in my left hand, and once at the water edge as a dry bag it fits easily in one of the main hatches. Recommended.