Regional Go Paddlin' Day

Wow, this is up to date - this was today!

Dave Bateman - the Local Coaching Organiser for Birmingham organised a gentle paddle from Arley to Bewdley, and invited all the paddlers in the region. It was basically open to anyone, so I took the family along.

Rozie hadn't been in a kayak for ten years - like riding a bike apparantly!

Here's my boat complete with blonde kids as crew.

Leoni was very impressed with her day out, although she thought Dowles Brook was a bit scary, perhaps I shouldn't have told her about the crocodiles!

Sunshine and Sealions

OK, so this was a while ago now, but I left my camera there and only just got it back.

So in mid June, I had a few frantic emails asking if I could go do some training for sit on top guides in La Jolla, San Diego. We threw ideas around and suddenly on the Saturday, they said they wanted me there the following Monday! I managed to cover all the work I had on and reschedule some stuff and I was off!

First Job was a recce. Here's Jen showing me the Sealions - there are stacks of them around the caves, they look cute, but they are very noisy and smelly - and they get a bit stroppy sometimes. They have big teeth!

I like sealions - as you can tell from soppy grin -

So my task was to look at the way the guides take the tours around these caves, it can get a bit choppy in there - this is the Pacific Ocean after all! The caves are pretty spectacular, one fell in the week before I was there, makes the risk assessment a bit tricky!

I found a couple of problems with Sit On Tops in San Diego sunshine - first no-where cool to stash your refreshments - I know what your thinking that we shouldn't be drinking and paddling, but this is an American Light beer, which makes it OK apparently - when in Rome!

The second problem is it plays havoc with your tan lines!