Phil Hadley

4 star Isle of Wight

2011-07-01T05:12:00.000-07:00

Off to the Isle of wight again for more 4 star sea action!
One important aspect of this award is knowing your buoyage, for example although this looks like a bucket on a stick, it's actually a Port Channel Marker

And this one, which looks very much like two plastic funnels, painted black is a North Cardinal

It's very civilised on the IoW - yep, that's ac ice cream boat! Here's Owen from IoW Sea Kayaking, And Kim Bull, with my friend Lindsey from NY stateThere's always loads of first aid to be administered on 4 star assessments!Someone is happy in his work!

Teme at Ludlow

2011-07-01T04:12:00.001-07:00

I got asked to go do some work with a couple of guys working towards their L2, we decided to go paddle on the Teme at Ludlow with their students.
On the way there I was reminded why I love living in England- I love travelling around the world but seeing this sight 20 minutes from my house is awsome! Puts me in a good mood for the rest of the day

I watched Steve and Alex coaching kayak and canoe over two days

This is Kari from the USA - she loves canoes and castles, cos there aint many castles in Oregon!Nice braces - we learn these to prevent a capsizeIt don't always work!

Kayaking in the Solent

2011-05-24T03:40:00.000-07:00

From the Isle of Man, to the Isle of Wight - well not quite, but very close! As soon as I got back from Man, I was heading south to Southampton to run a Coaching Processes course for these guys http://www.woodmill.co.uk/

Seems a shame to be so close to sea and not go for a paddle so the first evening a gang of us set off for a gentle paddle from Warsash, out of Southampton Water and round to Lee on the Solent

It was very bright and sunny when we set off
As we got into the Solent the wind was picking up the sea a little, we had great fun surfing a few waves

Those ferries, container ships and warships seem very close at times, they certainly make sure you keep your wits about you!

It got a little cooler as the sun got lower, but even with the industrial backdrop, still a cool place to go for a paddle!

I was holding the camera while paddling and accidently took this photo!

Plenty of navigation bouys to practise nav skills

Not easy to get lost in the Solent

Thanks to the boys and girls at Woodmill for a very pleasant evening paddle!

Isle of Man

2011-05-24T03:22:00.001-07:00

Just got back from a very enjoyable couple of days on the Isle of Man doing some sea kayak coaching. Quick chat on the car park.Then a warm up on the beachAnd we're off! It was quite winds but there was plenty of shelter near the rocksEven when we went into more open water there was still shelter because of the high ground surrounding the bayOne or two inquisitve seals popped up occassionally to check us out.I wonder if this one was planning to hang around until the next high tide to get off this sea stack!

Some cool stuff to see around the coasts of IoM - the little hole you can see just below and to the right of the stone wall is the entrance to an old tin mine.
It's a 35 minute flight from Birmingham, I can be on Man faster than getting to North Wales - fancy something different for a sea kayaking adventure, go to the Isle of Man!

Reptiles in Worcestershire

2011-05-24T03:03:00.000-07:00

So I turned up to run an FSRT at a small lake in Worcestershire and had to shoo a grasssnake off the decking so that we could launch.

Then we came across this fella sunning himself on a log - not bad for April in England!No-one seemed to mind the reptiles in the lake though and were quite happy to repeatedly fall in the water!

Another trip to Baja!

2011-05-24T02:29:00.000-07:00

So after the South West Symposium in San Diego it was time for another coaches trip to Baja Mexico.

We set up camp at La Bufadora, just south of Ensenada - this is the site of the biggest blow hole in the world! (alegedly!)

Someimes the sea is very calm

But most times the Pacific swells make it a rock gardening heaven!

Here's Eila playing in her Pilgrim

Russell Farrow reporting for action!Russell Farrow - in action! Some cool pour overs!

You do need to get the timing right though, I won't be naming this hapless paddler, to protect their dignity!

Here's a photo of me getting the weeks first wash in the 'little' blowhole - first the big breath

Then the big rinse!

Oh dear - perhaps one of us should have pulled their boat a little higher up the beach! I saw some lovely starfish and risked life and limb in the swells to get close to them.

After a quick photo shoot I put him back on the rock where he came from!

Some of the wildlife wasn't quite so friendly - we found this little fella under Eila's tent!Eila taking it easy after a day on the water!The best tachos in Baja!
Nigel and Eila buying Tequila for the collection

What a magic place, contact www.aqua-adventures.com to organise your paddling trip in paradise!

San Diego

2011-05-23T13:52:00.001-07:00

So in search of more Winter sunshine I headed out to San Diego for Aqua Adventures Symposium - imagine my surprise to find it was raining hard in Southern California! This is outside Jen's house the first morning!Needless to say that was short lived and the sunshine came back - this is my office in La Jolla - I love SoCal!

All the locals are friendly - this little chap popped up to say Hi at Fiesta Island - which is an off leash dog beach - that's one brave (or stupid) gopher!Even the traffic cops are friendly - you can quite happily park like this and no-one minds!

Silver River

2011-05-23T13:17:00.000-07:00

So having escaped the Swamp Monsters of the Suwanee in North Florida we headed a little way south to the Silver River.

The silver is different to the Suwanee - the latter being a 'Blackwater' river, the water appears very dark due to the amount of vegetation it runs through in the Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia. The Silver is a crystal clear spring fed river, which is great to spot fish and turtles and even 'gators cruising under your boat!
There are even monkeys here - these are rumoured to have been left from when they filmed Tarzan movies here in the Johnny Weismuller days, but apparantly they simply swam off the zoo island at the head of the spring!

You can read all about the trip by buying this mag - http://www.canoekayak.co.uk/

Suwannee River

2011-05-23T11:39:00.000-07:00

Somewhere Down the Suwannee River!

After the Sweetwater Symposium the coaches headed North to the river made famous by the song. The first night was spent in a fantastic cabin, where the guys swung in chairs on the porch, drunk beer and told lies!
The Suwannee River is absolutely stunningAmerican Sea kayak coaches, no longer burdened with bulkheads and hatches took the opportunity to take BIG coolers! Very relaxing couple of days on a beautiful river. Occassionally we stopped to do some playing and coaching, everyone was very attentive!

Although this was supposed to be a relaxing trip after a hectic symposium - I think some of the coaches were taking it a little too easy!

What a great river - we managed to stop at a number of features to play with ferry's, breaking in and out, and even some traditional skills

Level 1 in Tampa

2011-04-16T08:05:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to Jay, Ed, Bret, Rachel, Lisa and Rich on becoming BCU L1 coaches. Jen and myself had a great time teaching this course! What great people!

Florida!

2011-04-13T13:47:00.000-07:00

Now at last it was time for some Winter sunshine.

First stop was the Sweetwater Kayak Symposium in St. Pete's, Tampa Bay.

This was the third time I'd attended this event, and as always it was awesome!

We went paddling in stunning sunshine is the Gulf of Mexico.

There's some big boats out there!

I ran a Level 1, a Level 2 assessment and a three star canoe.

How cool - you can buy a huge bottle of Tequila, shaped like a carbine!

Many thanks to my 'brother from another mother' Russell Farrow, for inviting me again, and organising such a cool symposium!

Check it out next year!

4 Star Canoe Down South!

2011-04-13T12:58:00.000-07:00

OK, January 2011. after seeing in New Year at Butlins Minehead (much better than it sounds, and better than I expected!) it was back to work.

First off was a 4 star assessment on the Dart, open water day done on the estuary, and the river day on the Lower, because of very high levels we had to have a week off inbetween the two days!

The open water day was a little bleak! Cold, wet and windy! Good challenge!The day was brightened somewhat by a seal, who followed us for quite a while popping up between us.He then sat and watched as we ate lunch and set up sailing rigsThe open water day the following week, by comparison was absolutely gorgous! Devon is a truly beautiful place when bathed in Winter sunshineOoops - time for a rescue!Working up a sweat poling!Oh this could go badly!Guessed it might!

Catch up

2011-04-13T12:34:00.000-07:00

Oh Dear, I'm afraid I've been a bit lax keeping up to date with this in the last few months, so here goes for a whistle stop catch up!

December started with a drive down to PGL Liddington in freezing conditions to work at the Canoe England Annual Coaching Conference, I ran some Foundation Modules and did some work with some L2 Mentors - good fun!

Then I was running a number of Level 2 and a Level 1 courses -they were all cold!

Sammi - demonstrating her L2 walking on water skills!

Cold, but stunningly beautiful!I'm getting so good at these L2s now I can do them standing on my head!

WWS bRRRRRRRR

2010-11-30T13:36:00.000-08:00

So, my cold week just gets better!!!

This time its extreme White Water Safety and Rescue course for the Hardcore Leam Boat Centre Massive!!!

Todays office -

The temperature readout on the truck says it all!

Alex testing the water!!Nicks in next! Rolling over the eddy line.Cold but happy!Everyones safe - Duncan's on the line!

Well done guys, I was all for cancelling the course, and would have done if it were for lesser mortals!!!

More cold level 2

2010-11-30T13:18:00.000-08:00

This time it was the second weekend of a L2 training at Leamington. The ice was a little thick!!!

Off go our intrepid kayakers on an ice breaking mission.

Don't try this at home kids!

Pretty though huh?

Level two in the Cold

2010-11-30T12:35:00.000-08:00

Just run a L2 assessment in North Derbyshire, it was a little cold to say the least!

Good job the Edale crew are hardcore.

Everyone passed, so that's awesome. Thanks to all the 'guinea pig' students - they were pretty hardcore too.

Jenny was really excited - they don't have snow on the Isle of Man!!!

Bugsworth Basin -what a cool place, well more than just cool today!

Old Jersey!

2010-11-22T14:13:00.000-08:00

As opposed to New Jersey!

I got invited by Derek Hairon from http://www.jerseykayakadventures.co.uk/ to help him run a 4 star sea on Jersey.

I hadn't been to Jersey since I was twelve so I was dead excited.

We had a training and an assessment going on, so I was switching between the two courses, I met some great people, and had some awesome paddling.

We launched at Boulay Bay on the North Wesy coast, what a great venue, shelter from the wind, but as soon as we got round the headland we were into classic four star territory!It was very pleasant when we launched - this is November don't forget!Bit rougher when we landed though! Time and tide wait for no man, especially on Jersey with 12m TIDES!!!I fell out of my kayak - on purpose! and demonstrated cowboy re-entry - yee ha!

4 Star sea in San Diego

2010-11-22T13:52:00.001-08:00

Busy, Busy, Busy!
Here's a few photos from a four star that Jen, Ginni and myself ran in San Diego.
This is a rough ground landing on the breakwater that seperates the San Diego River from Mission Bay Matt on the same breakwater sticking plasters on make believe holes in his kayak!

We did some surf landings on Dog Beach, I tried to take some photos of the guys in the surf, but inconsiderate dog owners kept getting in the shots, ya gotta hate it when that happens!

Here's a man happy in his work!!!
Next day we headed North to La Jolla (it's pronounced la hoya!), this is a really cool place, sandy beach and sea caves - here's Ginni and Mike getting kitted up (Mike took some of the photos in this blog entry)

CNTP in SD

2010-11-22T13:42:00.000-08:00

BCU love their TLAs (three letter acronyms)

But this is a four letter one - Coastal Navigation and Tidal Planning. This is a pre-requisite of four star sea, so I took over Jen's Aqua Adventures shop in San Diego over a couple of evenings to deliver this course to local paddlers.

I did have to get my head around the US differences in navigation, their bouyage is backwards and they have negative tides and no cardinal marks, phew! Luckily Ginni was around to help out when it all got a little to complicated for the simple English boy!

Students seemed to enjoy it though, look how studious they are!

Level 1 in Loreto

2010-11-18T05:59:00.000-08:00

Jen and myself running Level 1 on Rattlesnake beach, don't let the pictures fool ya - it was really tough work!For one of us at least!BCU sylabbi at the ready!I did get a litte rest occassionally Girl Power! Yuri, Jen, Leah and Ivette - looks like a bit of product placement for Werner!This was home for the week - the Tripui Hotel - what an awesome place!Food was excellent too, this is 'mole' which is actually chicken in chocolate sauce - how cool is that!Unclaimed piece of meat turned up in Baja - turned out to be Foxy!

Baja!

2010-11-18T05:30:00.000-08:00

OK so thanks to Ginni and Ivette from Sea Kayak Baja Mexico http://www.seakayakbajamexico.com/ Jen and myself find ourself delivering BCU courses in Loreto at the first Loreto kayak symposium. Ginni lives here - this is her camp on Rattlesnake Beach - this is the coaches getting breakfast, day 1.When she aint living at Rattlesnake Beach or in Washington, she lives out of this truck - Ol' Blue! The Mexican students were very happy to meet their English, American, Dutch and Canadian Coaches!The vultures seemed very pleased to see us arrive too!I've coached at some pretty amazing venues, but this rates right up there with the best of them! I love Baja Baby!Not a bad view from todays office - Axel and Jen taking a well earned rest from the rigors of BCU coaching!Jen found this Mexican stray mutt on Rattlesnake Beach, it's a cross eyed cactus hound, I called it One-Eater because it only had one tooth!So Jen fell in love with the cactus hound, we took it to the vets in Loreto for rabies jabs and worming pills. Apparantly it's spelled Juanita, she has perfect teeth, and is now a 'bone' fide passport carrying US citizen, residing in San Diego - the American Dream is alive! How come I never get to keep my pets??????

Road Trip - Mexico!

2010-11-18T05:09:00.000-08:00

Back in the Big Truck again, this time we are off to the First Ever BCU Symposium in Mexico. 1000 miles down the length of the Baja peninsular to Loreto. Check out the canoes on the trailer, we were planning to run BCU 2 star and Level 1 Paddlesports Coach courses, so needed canoes, five days of driving round trip taking canoes to the Sea of Cortez!The road is pretty scary, some wicked grades and curvas peligrosas - you better get to know that translation isf you wanna do this trip! It's also very narrow for most of the time, check out this semi (that's what yanks call artics), nearside wheel touching the white line, offside touching the yellow! Imagine how close they get when they meet each other. On the bends it can get pretty hairy! We did stop for a leg stretch and photo opportunity, that's a Cordone cactus - only found in Baja apparantlyJen showed me this little cave - Some really coool pictographs inside, historians have nicknamed this the 'children's cave' because they think that these drawings were done by kids of the tribes, as they are quite different from other cave drawings in the area

Four Star

2010-10-14T10:27:00.000-07:00

So after one day at home it's back up to North Wales to help Rob Yates and Jon Cox deliver a 4 star canoe assessment.

Rob on the bottom wave at Mile End Mill

Day One, and we are on the Dee, it on about 4 on the guage - so plenty of water for what we want to do. After the warm up paddle up the canal we are on the Dee just below the Horsehoe Weir, and paddling to the first little leadership challenge - Chainbridge Rapid. It took a bit of deliberation but we are soon looking down towards the Serpent's Tail, at this level it's a bit sporty for canoes, and outside remit for 4 star, so we are off with portaging and lining.

We just had time at the end of the day for a spot of surfing fun in the bottom hole, in glorious sunshine.Next morning it's off to Llyn Tegid - Bala Lake, and the glorious weather from yesterday was decidedly absent! the mist was so thick we couldn't see the water, Rob and myself simultaniously said - "Navigation then!" The candidates looked slightly worried, but not as worried as I was, I'd heard the stories of Teggy - the Llyn Tegid Monster!!!!

No-one seemed in much of a rush to launch into the unknown -

I made sure I kept 'line of sight' that was about 50 feet!

"Teggy, Where are you????"

Eventually we found our way into the Upper Dee and began poling and tracking our way up, After a spot of lunch on the banks of the Dee we paddled back into the lake and witnessed a minor miracle, the sun was now out and the weather so glorious it was as though we had paddled to different country!There wasn't much wind for sailing canoes! - so we played with trim! Some of the group were so happy with the lovely weather that they dipped their feet in the lake, convinced that Teggy wouldn't come up now it was sunny.If you fancy paddling with me, drop me an email - I always find fantastic weather!

Not a bad job!

Welsh Canoe Symposium

2010-10-14T09:11:00.000-07:00

Each year there is an open canoe symposium, it rotates on a three yearly cycle between England, Scotland and Wales - this year it was the turn of the Welsh. It's quite an honour to be asked to work at these events so I was happy to get an invite to coach at this one again this year. The Welsh event is traditionally held at the Urdd Centre Glanllyn on the banks of Llyn Tegid (Bala Lake). It's a fantastic venue for a great event, waterside facilities, close to the Tryweryn and other North Wales rivers. Accomodation is excellent as is the food, with camping close by for the hardy types! There are workshops over both days for all abilities and tastes and very entertaining talks in the evenings.

Glanllyn - My first workshop on Saturday morning was improvised sailing, using the wind to blow you along, using whatever bits of kit you happen to have to hand - all open boaters have a brollie about their person - don't they? Then we played around with cags on paddles, tarps on poles, survival bags etc - Then we played around with some slightly less 'improvised' sailing - not much room on that little 15 footer with the Jolly Roger flapping around!My second sessios was Deep water strokes which really was an excuse to take my Northern Sound Birch Abenaki out for some paddle waggling! - I found Alex out there with another one of Rob's Northern Sound Birch canoesThe next day I went for a more sporty day on the Lower tryweryn, unfortunately the camera battery was flat so no photos of that!

Regional Go Paddlin' Day

2010-08-22T12:59:00.000-07:00

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

2010-08-22T12:37:00.000-07:00

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!

CANI - Yes you can!

2010-07-19T01:00:00.000-07:00

Last year I was invited to Northern Ireland to talk to CANI (Canoe Association of NI) about running L1s and L2s. I was there for a very short time - and unfortunately didn't see much of Belfast culture, I saw the CANI offices, a Mexican resturant and a Starbucks! I did however have a very productive meeting, and met some great people. One person who kept in touch was Hugo Dale, a L5 coach who is very keen to run more coaching courses in NI. This week he has been working with me running a Level 2 at Upton Warren and on the Severn for Birmingham, Walsall and Sutton Canoe Clubs. Here's a photo of Hugo and myself looking a little like Tweedle Dee and tweedle Dum! He liked my PEAK UK BA so much he went and bought one, and we had one of the guys on the course who works for CAT, so we got supplied with caps! More photos to follow soon!

Level 1 at Leamington

2010-06-10T09:35:00.000-07:00

Just ran the first weekend of another Level 1 at Leamington at Leam Boat Centre

Sunshine all day Saturday and sunshine and showers the next day.

Here's young Pete, demoing the 'double pump'Flatwater freestyle, whatever next????Even on the Sunday the sun came out long enough for us to escape the hothouse for the great outdoor classroom!

L3 Refresher

2010-06-10T09:22:00.000-07:00

There are a few people out there who still need to do a L3 assessment, I just came back from another glorious couple of days on the Dee, with two paddlers looking for a bit of a refresher before they go for assessment.

Bottom hole at Mile End Mill, Ken in the red boat, and some random paddler in the yellow one.This is Andy, just dropping down through the little rapid below the steam railway bridge - there's that guy again in the yellow kayak!Me, just above the top holeKen and Andy - two satisfied customers!!!

4 star at Llangollen

2010-05-20T12:16:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I had a days work with Leo from Getafix.

The mighty Dee was almost 2 on the guage!

But the sun shone and three happy paddlers passed their 4 star White Water kayak assessments - I really enjoy my job!

Duncan, looking confident on Chain Bridge rapid Colin weighing up the ferry glideDuncan on the run in to Serpent's TailAlex, 'S' crosses on the Serpent's tailColin crosses the tail,Side surfin' the Bottom HoleKeep that bow up Alex!

What a very pleasant day, gotta love the Dee in the sunshine - quite looking forward to the weekend now!!!

Level 1

2010-05-16T14:16:00.000-07:00

This weekend and last I've been busy running a Level 1 course for Rugby CC, with Stu Malcolmson

Six new Level 1 coaches, Stephen, Luke, Dave, Kath, Jen and Julie.

Monster Trucks and Guns!

2010-05-14T06:09:00.000-07:00

First take a Ford Monster Truck - Jen bought this for me!Drive it out into the desert....Take friends.... I can't make up my mind if this is Bonnie and Clyde, or Natural Born Killers.....More friends.....and guns......
more guns.....

Then just shoot stuff.......

I love America!!!!!!!

And America love's me .............. Git her dun!!!!

Baja Baby!

2010-05-14T05:34:00.000-07:00

After the South West Symposium, Jen took all of the coaches down to La Bufadora, Baja for a spot of R&R.

On the way we stopped at a tamale stand and I got to ride one of the famous Zonkeys!!!We Surfed kayaks in the Pacific swellsWe played in the blowholesMost of us got ourselves in some kinda trouble, I think Jen is telling me off here, I don't know if it's cause I aint wearing sunscreen, cause I aint wearing a PFD (that's BA for the Brits), or cause I'm seal launching her glass boat!!! After a hard days paddling and breaking stuff we went to La Bufadora Tequila Bar and Grill, where it was Tacho and Tequila Tuesday! We had a couple of Margeritas, than I sangRussell played guitarWe all danced a littleDressed up a littleSome of the girls went a little crazy

A fun time was had by all!!!!!!!

South West Kayak Symposium

2010-05-14T05:04:00.000-07:00

After a week at home, to wash socks and see the kids, I was off again, this time down to Southampton to run a Level 1, as soon as I was done with that it was back on the plane, this time to the South West Kayak Symposium run by my best friend Jen Kleck at Aqua Adventures in San Diego.

My mate Owen from Isle of Wight Sea Kayaking joined us and ran a couple of Level 2 assessments - well done to all the guys who passed that!!!

My first job was to take Owen out into the Quivira Basin, in Mission Bay, just yards from Jen's shop to see Seal lions

Jen and myself ran yet another Level 1 - were getting good at em now!!!

The symposium was fantastic as always and we even had a party on the beach! Here's Russell, Steve and Nigel trying to get me to overcome my shyness and sing a song

Backing singers help!Always a good idea to dedicate a song to the boss!!!

You can even see a video here

Englishmen and women in the USA

2010-05-14T04:01:00.000-07:00

Right, still trying to catch up here!

In March, right after Russell's Sweetwater Symposium, I had a group of Friends from Birmingham Canoe Club join me, so I could show them some of the sights of Florida. First we went back the Weeki to see Manatees, again we weren't disappointed.

Keiron getting upclose and personal with a Weeki mermaid

Weeki Mermaid, getting a bit personal with me!

Then we teamed up with Jake for a few days in the Everglades, it was pretty cold for the time of year, and as anyone who has paddled in the Glades will tell ya - cool, with a little wind is a blessing down there - no biting insects!

Arriving at camp on White Horse Key.

Clare, Dave, Ian, Sarah, Keiron, Lee and Jake

After Lee had almost been bitten by a scorpion (Lee was also almost bitten by a brown recluse, a gator and a manatee!) - Clare adopted this rather fetching sandals and socks combo

View from the camp!

We had a great time saw plenty of wildlife, dolphins, turtles, osprey, roseate spoonbills and my personal favourite - horseshoe crabs,

Then we went to my favourite paddling destination in the world, the famous Myakka River. This is a grade one river with grade 6 consequences. It had been cold in Florida for months and this was the warmest day of the year so far, so the gators were all out, and some were more than a little playful, even rubbing their backs across the keel strips of the kayaks - scary eh Clare??

Jake trying to outgrin this scaly smiler!

Keiron likes Gators!!!

Deep Hole, Myakka River - we counted about 70 gators just in this spot!

Here's Clare's report that she did for the club magazine - it appears to be mostly lies, unless I was on a different trip!

Sweetwater Symposium

2010-04-07T13:18:00.000-07:00

Wow, so much has happened in the past few weeks, I've kinda lost touch with it all.

So sorry there's a bit of a delay on this.

Thanks to Russell at Sweetwater Kayaks I was invited to the 2010 Symposium. I had the pleasure once again of working with the great Jen Kleck from Aqua Adventures on a Level 1 course. The weather was unseasonaly bad for the time of year - story of my life, but I had a great time anyhow.

Here's some of the coaches in the back of Russell's jeep on our way to the symposium. Steve Maynard, Suze Hutchinson and myself. You might just be able to make out Sedrick, Russells German Shepard, and Jen Kleck in the boot - that's the trunk for tha yanks!

Ha ha, here they are!

Cool thing about Florida is all the wildlife, Pelicans on the dock near the shop -

Dolphins in Snug Harbour, this was literaly a few yards from the shop.

...and although we did see manatees from the dock, to see them in the crystal clear waters of the Weeki Watchi takes some beating. I'd been here before, but this was Jen's first time - and there were plenty of manatees who were quite happy for us to stop and watch them up close and personal

Busy, busy, busy

2010-01-18T03:35:00.001-08:00

After a welcome rest over the Christmas period it's all systems go again!

I've just spent the weekend at Canoe England's Coaching Conference - what a great event, superb facilities, 200 delegates, the place was buzzing!!!

I'm just heading off to the Isle of Wight with Leo from Getafix to join Owen at Isle of Wight Sea Kayaking to renew my First Aid ticket.

This weeeknd I am running a 4 star canoe training in North Wales for Inspire Outdoors - there is one space left apparently, drop Stu an email via his website if your interested.

I've been busy working on becoming a provider for some BCU courses.
I can now deliver 4 star sea - not bad for the boy from Dudley eh???
I can also deliver the Coastal Navigation and Tidal Planning course - this is a classroom based course that can be delivered in a day or a couple of evenings and is a pre-requisite of 4 star sea.
I have also just become a deliverer of the the long awaited 16 houir BCU Aquatic First Aid course - this is a hands on paddling specific two day course, and can be used as a pre-requistite of 5 star.

If anyone is interested in organising one of these courses let me know and we can sort out some arrangements

New Boat

2009-11-20T04:22:00.000-08:00

Managed to get my new boat out to play yesterday on the Clywedog.

Pyranha Burn Medium. It's a bit different to my old Jefe, so just getting used to it, but what a great boat - I'm well chuffed......

...... and so are the girls -

Clywedog

2009-11-20T03:33:00.001-08:00

Still wet and Windy yesterday!

I was running a four star kayak providers day with two of my good friends Jon and Matt

All the rivers in North Wales were in the fields and many roads were flooded. We met at Newtown, I'd paddled here two days ago and it ws ok - today it was just a big brown mess.

We decided to go check out the Clywedog, it's a trib of the Severn which confluences at Llandilloes about half hour from Newtown.

Here's Matt checking out the first drop on the Clywedog

Jon styling a flare 'n' boof

This is me about 5 years ago - the last time I ran the Clywedog

What a little gem!!

I had a great day, very pleasant paddling, good weather - in the gorge sections we even got out of the wind for most of the time.

Good paddling, Nice River. Good company!

Wind and Rain!!!

2009-11-20T03:25:00.000-08:00

This week it has mostly been wet and windy.

Here's the cars loaded up ready to go, two vehicles. Six canoes

I ran a four star canoe for the Old Vicarage Centre, the lake day was at Bala - it was horrendous, almost gale force winds. Luckily we managed to launch at the top of the lake and paddle up into the Upper Dee - still pretty grim though.

We had a good one the next day on the Upper Severn, around Newtown, it was high but do-able. None of the photos came out very well.

Isle of Wight

2009-11-20T03:12:00.000-08:00

Just before I went to Georgia I worked on some four star sea courses with Owen Burson at Isle of Wight Sea Kayaking.

Here's Owen -

Check out the blue skies and calm waters!

We had great weather and some great paddling

At one point we spotted an unidentified boat on the horizon -

We decided to paddle over to find out what it was, and found these two guys fishing from what looked like a bath tub!

Gators and Oysters

2009-11-20T02:45:00.001-08:00

In October I had the good fortune to be invited by Marsha at Sea Kayak Georgia (www.seakayakgeorgia.com) to coach at their symposium. I ran a Level 2, or rather I watched as my good friend Jen Kleck ran the course. What a great symposium in a fantastic location.

I was a bit slack with photos I'm afraid.

We were always well fed, but one night we had an oyster dinner, they were different to any oysters I've had before, much smaller and they cooked them with pepper, but there were bucketloads of them!! Check out the boys cleaning them before cookin 'em

One of the highlights for me was when we found a 3 foot gator on the grass in front of the shop, they guys managed to grab it while I held onto one end of a paddle, while the gator held onto the other! We released him into the creek at the back of the shop - no-one was very keen to do rescues there again!!
I'm in the process of organising a trip to the 'Deliverance' river - the Chatooga with the guys from Sea Kayak Georgia for next September, let me know if you wanna come!

New Sign at Leam Boat Centre

2009-11-20T02:22:00.001-08:00

Pedalo Confession

2009-11-20T01:30:00.000-08:00

OK, so it has been a while since my last confession.

I really needed to update my blog, so I thought I'd start by owning up to this one!

I love working at Leam Boat Centre 'cos they have loads of cool boats to play with.

I was running a Level 1 Coach Course, sat in a GP kayak with no deck, cos I wasn't gonna do anything but observe, anyway in the review I got all animated (surprise surprise) and ended up edging the boat a bit too much and soaking my shirt and shorts - cotton briefs too! I went back in and changed into more suitable clothes, then as I was about to rejoin the group I thought it would be cool to take a pedalo, everyone laughed - what a guy!

A pedalo is an amusement park ride

You sit in a moulded seat next to your partner and pedal it recumbant stylee, that then turns a paddlewheel under the hull which moves the sucker along, little joystick in the middle to steer.

When I came back to the deck I was struggling to parallel park it so I just pulled up next to another one and hopped across, one leg on each, I then twisted to pick up the painter of my pedalo, and the boats drifted apart slowly. No problem, I just scissored my legs together to bring them together again - I do it all the time in canoe, but to stabilise myself a little I held onto the high seat back. As I applied pressure, the f******* seat popped out, I toppled backwards a little and the boats parted dropping me on my ass in the Leam!

I did hurt my fingertips while clawing at the poxy little excuse for a boat to save myself, to no avail. I came up, looked around and all of the deck staff, all of my students were just staring in disbelief, even the hundreds of members of the public around sensed that something monumental had just occured - the silence was eerie, then I heard a click from an SLR camera, then the laughing commenced! I was up over the pedalo and onto the bank in an instant, grabbing my cap as I went.

In this photo, I've just climbed back on and am in the process of replacing the REMOVABLE seat!!!.

Time to change again for the third time and it wasn't 11am yet!

Jenna said that never in the history of the Boathouse has anyone fell off a pedalo, even the most incompetent of deckhand boys has ever been that f***in' lame!

GART - Death Valley

2009-09-16T05:24:00.001-07:00

Ah, now I feel homesick!

So we are heading out of Yosemite to Death Valley, at this point Ellery Lake we are at 9538' above sea level, it's pretty cold up here, check out the ice and snow on the side of the mountains.Two hours later and we are nearly 300' below sea level, this is the dashboard readout on the truck- yep that says 122 degrees F! It was so hot we were worried about the sealed hatches in the sea kayaks deforming so pulled over to pop the hatches, there were three boats so 9 hatches to take off, it seemed to take forever to do anything in that heat, the sweat was running off me in a matter of minutes.Ah, the open road, now this is what I call a road trip!We stopped to look around the information centre, which was very good, and cool inside too. On our way back to the truck we popped into the restrooms (don't call them loos out there they don't know what you are talking about). I heard a bit of commotion in the ladies and this little fellow came wriggling out, aparantly it was quite a nice temperature in there for a Rosie Boa - the ladies wanting to take a pee weren't so amused!Badwater Basin - Death Valley 282' below sea level.

So now we really are on the home straight, and as if by magic the elusive Elk finally put in an appearance

By 10pm we are back in San Diego, by 10.30 we are in the pub, by 2am we are staggering out the pub, at 2.20 we are Stand Up Paddleboarding in Mission Bay, by 4am I'm at last in bed - well crashed out on the floor at Aqua Advetures Shop.

Jen took me and my hangover to the airport at about noon the next day, and that was the end of the Great American Road Trip!!!

GART - Yosemite

2009-09-16T05:06:00.000-07:00

So the new kayaks have all been delivered, we could just run down I5 to San Diego, but where's the fun in that? So we decide to head East to Yosemite. As I'm driving along I notice a warning sign that tells us the road we are on is closed near to Yosemite, Jen flicks through the road atlas and we are soon on our diversion. This puts perhaps 50 miles on the journey, and as we start to get near the Park we start to see convoys of Firetrucks heading towards the blaze. We also see that there is thick smoke blanketing the landscape, so much for beautiful views of the mountains! Reminds me a little of the Oregon coast two days ago!

We did get to see these fire helicopters hovering over the river just a few feet from us, loading up with water then flying away to dump the load on the fire. There were always two more choppers waiting to fill up at this spot - it was pretty awesome to watch. I love the fact that the Californian Fire dept employ a photograper!Through the smoke we could just make out El Capitan!As we came out of the park, the road we wanted to take was closed due to fire, so we took another diversion - this was about 150 miles and put 4 hours onto our trip - the distances are just huge! If I drove anywhere for four hours in the UK I'd fall in the sea! Eventually we started to come out of the smoke and headed towards Death Valley

GART - Redwoods

2009-09-14T14:59:00.000-07:00

So the night before I nearly lose the truck and trailer over the precipice in the dark, I'm taking no chances today, I leave the trailer on the side of the road and in daylight try to drive the truck through a tree!!!

It won't fit!!!! But only because of the kayak racks, we toy with the idea of taking them off, but decide to just watch other people taking their trucks through the tree. Did I mention the road goes THROUGH the tree!!!!!

So still impressed with the whole road through tree thing, we come across this- The Legend of Bigfoot shopIt's a kind of gift shop/ museum of all things Bigfoot and all things made out of redwood, I bought a fridge magnet I was so impressed!

At last we arrive at this famous landmark, and get into San Francisco at rush hour, after the Elk thing, and the tree thing, Jen decides to drive through the City

We drop off a load of kayaks here, the guys stayed open late for us, it was about 7.30 by the time we got there. We stayed while they unwrapped the boats - there was a beautiful surf kayak, a Rush I think in black and a super slick looking Anasacuta again in black. The next drop was at a dealers house - it was really late now, so we found another motel to stay. Jen was a bit happier now that we hadn't got thousands of dollars worth of other peoples boats on the trailer!!!!

Gart - California

2009-09-14T14:33:00.000-07:00

So at last highway 1 takes us across the state line and we are in California, nearly home, you'ld think... well you would if you were from Dudley. Wow California is a long state!!!

Anyway we are driving along, it's getting close to dusk and Jen spots a sign for spotting wild Elk, cool! I turn off the highway into a sort of car parking area, but there are no elk in site, I drive on a bit and we spot this sign -

"Oooh, oooh Fern Canyon, Mike Franklin said it was cool there, lets go"

Check out the rest of the sign - we didn't! I drive onto this dirt road which climbs through the redwoods at a pretty steep angle, that big truck is auto, rear wheel drive, got a huge trailer on the back with 5 sea kayaks, 7 surf boats, a white water boat and two canoes and we're going off road!!!!

The road eventually starts to flatten out at the top of this ridge then we start to descend the other side, the road is really steep now and twisty, and I'm concerned about coming back up, we pass a turning pull in, we joke that we could always come back to this, but we carry on, until we meet a Park Ranger, driving up the hill in a truck which looks far more suited to this terrain. I open my window and in my best Californian accent say "Hi Buddy!" Long story cut short, he thinks I've gone mad, hadn't I read the sign, he says I won't make the next turn, and insists I back it up!!!!!!!, he offers to watch me back, I'm a bloke, I tell him I'll be fine. Jen reminds me it's her truck and asks the nice ranger to watch us back. Bt now it's dark, I'm trying to reverse this huge truck and trailer back up a really steep twisty dirt track, I did manage it without any dings but I was sweating like a pig by the time I'd finished. We drove back and read the sign. And we still didn't see any Elk!!!We found a place to crash for the night, and in the morning drove back towards Patricks Point, because Mike Franklin said it was cool. At Patricks Point the fog was thicker than ever we couldn't even see the ocean!Later that day the sea did clear and we got to see some beautiful views, hmmmmm California Dreamin'

GART - Oregon

2009-09-14T08:41:00.000-07:00

GART - The great American Road Trip, Jen and myself joked about doing this at last years LoCo, I didn't think it would ever happen, but here we were, saying goodbye to all our friends in Washington and heading for the Oregon coast. The plan was to drive the entire coast of Oregon, down the coast of California about as far as San Francisco, then head inland to Yosemite, down through Death Valley, then end up in San Diego.

We stopped here for breakfast on the first morning, this is a whalewatching centre, they had apparantly seen six that morning - it looked a bit rough. We watched for half an hour then got distracted by the Oyster Omlettes in the Sea Hag Cafe - possibly the best breakfast I've ever had! We drove on South and quickly got engulfed by mist and fog, something to do with the Humbolt Current apparantly, either way we were told that the Oregon coast is stunning, but we wouldn't know! We saw lots of views like this -

Occasionally we did get a clearing in the mist and from what we saw it really is an awesome stretch of coastline. We didn't have time to hang around though, we had a trailer load of Valley Sea kayaks and surf boats which we needed to deliver on our way through San Francisco. Here's our little rig, all loaded up with delivery boats, the ones Jen had bought with her and the new canoe we had bought from Alder Creek.

Highway one, the coast road took longer than we anticipated, especially with the fog. We were planning to stop and paddle but the slow roads meant we were constantly behind schedule. Jen did manage to sneak a rest occasionally though -

Clackamas

2009-09-14T08:28:00.000-07:00

Last year we ran the Upper Clack in kayaks with Paul Kuthe, now we were back, this time to run the grade2/3 lower sections in Canoe. Here's the team demonstrating how environmental we are by taking a trash bag with us to pick up any litter we found - we filled two of these by lunchtime!
That's Jen, Karl, Ginni and Axel

Nuff said!

This is me running the most technical drop on the section in a Pocket Canyon we borrowed from Alder Creek - thanks guys, we liked it so much we bought one and took it back to San Diego with us.

This is Jen styling in her Nova Prospector 16.
Ginni with a bit of poling action, this was a fantastic strtch of river for four star canoe

Alder Creek

2009-09-14T08:23:00.001-07:00

Some of the LoCo coaches wanted to do BCU 4 Star Canoe Training, so we popped into Alder Creek in Portland to Demo some boats. They had just had a delivery all the way from Runcorn. Check out Jen's Chicken SlippersThese Americans love their Pyranha kayaks........

Three Star

2009-09-14T08:17:00.001-07:00

Ginni looked a bit lost with teaching Canoe, so i offered to run the three star assessment.
At one point I sent them off with improvised sails to the mouth of the creek, so that they could sail back to the dock, luckily the wind was blowing them back towards me at this point and not into the path of that HUGE container ship delivering Japanese cars to Oregon At last the work was over and we could relax, that's a 24oz can of The King Of Beers right there, gotta love America!

Games at Skamokawa

2009-09-14T08:02:00.000-07:00

So towards the end of every LoCo are the traditional games, Greenland Rolling (Skamokawa Style), Proposterous Propulsion and the ever popular Noodle Jousting.

I can't remember what the rules of this game were, but it seemed to mostly consist of pushing people in the water!

Don't feel too sorry, for Ginni here - I'm sure she deserved it!
And It wasn't too long before I had what was coming to me!!!
The Coastguard showed up soon after to make sure we were being well behaved and responsible, we said we were so they repeatedly threw a dummy out of the chopper and then jumped in the sea to get it back again. Looked like fun, I volunteered to be the dummy but they said I was a bit too 'dummy'

LoCo

2009-09-14T07:11:00.000-07:00

The Lower Columbia River Kayak Roundup, was a great event again, it was awesome to meet up with some old friends and meet new ones.

My job was mainly to run a L2 Paddlesport Coach course with my great friend Jen Kleck. This is Jen delivering one of the 'classroom' sessions on the sun porch of the Skamokawa Paddle Centre

Most BCU Coaches in the US are primarily sea kayakers, so canoe is not usually their prefered craft, you wouldn't believe that when you see Djuna making this little Bell Yellowstone Solo dance.

It was tough for the coaches though - this is Jean from Florida, grabbing a well earned kip on the beach at the moth of Skamokawa creek, the Paddle Centre is in the background - it's up for sale at the moment, what an awesome venue!

This photo is looking the other way out towards the Columbia River, those huge container ships seem to pass ever so close!!!

Ken coaching, while Djuna makes observations, it's a tough life being a L2 coach in Skamokawa

Lots going on!!!

2009-09-14T07:07:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I've been home for a couple of weeks now, but what with jetlag, a sick PC and just being crazy busy I haven't had time to sit down and catch up with this.
I've just done three Level 1 courses back to back, so i'm just about ready for a change - L2 starting next week!!!

I'm going to try to puit somne stuff up about LoCo, The Clackamas, and the Great American Road Trip!

Aaaaarrrrrgghhhhhh!!!!!!

2009-08-11T13:59:00.000-07:00

So when I'm running three star and four star canoe there's an element of sailing involved. Now it's supposed to be improvised sailing, but I've discovered a way to make canoe sailing really cool.

Check this out -

Thanks to Blutak from Song of the Paddle I now have this fantastic Jolly Roger sail. He may not thank me for showing this off in case everyone wants one - it was quite a fiddly job apparently!

Some of the students made quite a good job of 'improvised sails' - Others were not so great!

Although the wind died a little we had great fun, broadsiding each other........

.................and storming the castle!

The only downside to this awesome piece of kit, is that I spend the whole day speaking like a pirate, Arrrgghh - and inexplicably I've taken to wearing an earing!!!!

LoCo Roundup

2009-07-27T10:49:00.000-07:00

Only three weeks to go before I fly out to Washington for the LoCo roundup!

This is a great event, now in it's third year. I was there last year and had an awesome time. This time I will be working with Jen Kleck running a BCU Level 2 course. It's a really laid back atmosphere on Ginni Callaghan's Slow Boat Farm.

I seem to remember being plied with Budweiser and Clamato - yep that's clam and tomato juice!

I also was king of the 'pull yer mate off the bucket' game - I beat Jen! She still disputes this!

Although this is predominantly a sea kayak event, the multi boat approach to the new BCU awards means that there is plenty of canoeing and river kayaking going on.

A gang of us sneaked off one day to go run the Clackamas which runs off Mount Hood in Oregon

This year I also have a couple of days work in San Diego, so I'll be Livin' the American Dream, by driving this truck all the way down the West Coast of the USA!!

Leoni Loves White Water

2009-07-21T06:08:00.000-07:00

Here's my daughter aged 4, paddling the mighty Jackfields Rapids in high water.

Last New Boat!!!

2009-07-21T01:40:00.000-07:00

Last February I got very excited at the Boat Caravan and Outdoors Show at the NEC Birmingham when I saw Northern Sound Birch Canoes. I started chatting to the Owner Rob, and before long we were launching one of his beautiful boats on the kiddies kayak pool! After more chatting Rob offered me the chance to trail the boat over a longer period of time.

The boat I have is just under 14' long and is built to an Algonquin design using authentic traditional tools and materials. As well as being a thing of great beauty, it also paddles like a dream.

Check out the Leamington Trial video on Northern Sounds website.

New Boat

2009-07-21T00:43:00.000-07:00

Here's some photo's of my new boat - it's a Nova Craft 15' Prospector.

Look at the hull - no scratches - it no longer looks like that! I've been paddling it loads on white water, so it has a few battle scars now, I'm very pleased with the boat - it handles beautifully on moving water, and tracks really nice in the wind too.

It's set up a little differently to a stock Prospector - there's about two inches off the freeboard at the midships, but the prow and stern are the same height, so the gunwale has a more 'sweeping' line. The seats are set differently too, it's primarily set up for solo paddling, so the bow seat is closer to the yoke and I paddle it backwards. I find this better for tandem white water too as it puts the bow paddler nearer the centre. The stern seat is a little closer to the centre too, to balance the bow paddler, and also there is room for my four year old to sit backwards on it so we can paddle with the boat balanced. It works extremely well for what we do.
This was the 'maiden' voyage - so I found a maiden to paddle it! This is Clare on of my Long Term Students

Tourability – 19th July

2009-07-20T07:34:00.000-07:00

The sun always shines for Tourability, at least it has every time we’ve run it since it started seven years ago – alas this year proved to be the exception. Undeterred by the miserable forecast, and high river levels a large gang of West Midlands coaches under the direction of organiser Dave Bateman gave up their Saturday to take youngsters and adults with special needs on a trip down the river Severn. Possibly due to the promised rain, numbers were a little low this year, but the brave paddlers who did turn up set off from Arley in a flotilla of canoes - rafted and singles and kayaks heading for Bewdley.

Generally we stop on the shingle beach above Trimpley for a picnic before taking on the mighty Eyemore rapids, this year the beach was under brown swirling water and the rapids were completely washed out, there were very few eddies and lots of overhanging trees, so stopping was pretty much out of the question – this was likely to be the quickest Tourability ever – we might finish before Dave had even had chance to have his breakfast! The miles were whizzing by, and Bewdley was already in sight when the lead boat disappeared up a small tributary on river right, officially this is Dowles Brook, but for today it was a Jungle Creek Adventure! Fallen trees blocked the way, but with pocket saws flashing like cutlasses a path was hacked through and the adventurers set off up through the jungle, howler monkeys could be heard in the trees and every bough had poisonous snakes hanging from them – difficult to believe we were still in Worcestershire. After two days and nights (about 300 yards!) we could go no further so we stopped and ate our picnic, the rain had stopped and the sunlight was even starting to dapple through the trees.
We soon headed back to the river Severn and continued the last mile to Bewdley High School, home of Wyre Forest Canoe Club who very kindly allow us to egress there. Everyone including the volunteers got a certificate of attendance and a Paddlepower Start Certificate.

Thanks to all the coaches who gave up their time, Anna for running the shuttle and huge thanks to Dave Bateman for organising the event.
Next year we are planning to move Tourability back to its normal June date – the weather in July is rubbish! If you work at a Special School or know anyone who would like to join us next year, or if you want to volunteer to help out - drop Dave Bateman an email for details dave.bateman@ackers-adventure.co.uk