Humber Tributary

A blistering cold day in December and both Fi and myself needed to get out. Between all the Christmas shopping just time for a quick paddle over high water.  With icy decks and frozen hatches its still better than fighting for space in the shops.



Fi is eyeing up a goose for Christmas...




Loving the Taran still..

UK Paddling

For my own benefit I thought it would be interesting to mark on a map the locations I've personally paddled over this last couple of years.....and I came up with this, locations marked in red.

Surfing Rockpools

Big, big sea over here on the North East coast, chance of a bit of fun within the fairly sheltered bay of Filey. Dave brought his Alaw Bach and I was paddling the Taran.

A wonderful day catching nice clean waves along Filey front, I should have had an amazing video of us both surfing the same waves in tandem and much more but alas the Gopro was playing up. A few stills from the day..





We were both having such great fun as the surf built through the day, nice big clean swells that eventually broke sending you bongo sliding towards the beach at a fantastic rate.

Unfortunately Dave stayed on one wave far too long and ended up bongo sliding into a submerged concrete post....



We weren't going to let this spoil our day and it will fix.

Taran

Feeling rather under the weather - man flu - and a 7 occasional 8 forecast it would have been very easy to stay at home but I wanted to have a run in this boat.

The tidal river looked like the sensible option, so after downing more pills it was onto the water at Weel Bridge Beverley. Ipod on and up the river I shot. Any feelings of instability soon dispersed and the boat handled lovely, for the majority of the journey the rudder was simply not necessary leaving the boat to handle through simple strokes and edging. Quick? Yes very, but then that is what its built for.









As the sun disappeared over the horizon the temperature plummeted, a quick stop and within seconds the wind chill painfully bit into my hands. Back onto the water and a sprint for the finish, a total distance of 28km, 14Nm for the afternoon.



Now I've familiarized myself with the boat I'm keen to get onto some more challenging water, but not until I've got rid of this blasted man flu.

Fooling Around at the Farnes

A superb day for the end of November, a disappointingly flat sea but a bit of fun to be had anyway. Great company with Neil, Brian, Jim, Rich, George and Fi.

Incident Management at UKSG6

A few photos by Axel Schoevers and Warren Parker from the recent UKSG6 of yours truly and side-kick Neil Turnbull.

Good Friend Neil's Video of the Recent UKSG6 Symposium, Anglesey 2011

Esthwaite Grand Slam Kayak Match

The idea was to land three species - pike, perch and trout from this lovely water within the English Lake District.

The weekend arrived and we made ourselves comfortable in Hawkshead YHA. Saturday dawned beautifully but within no time the weather deteriorated. Today was a practice day which found both Fiona and myself in search of pike.





We had limited success with one small fish each which proved to be a hard day for everyone.







Fi was happy as it was her biggest pike to date...but no way was she holding that thing as it had teeth.



Back to the hostel for a hot shower and freshen up and then into Hawsker with friends for dinner. A few beers too many and off to bed.

Sunday, match day, proved to be just as difficult and the fish eluded both Fiona and me. Good friend Simon did latch into a nice fish though, taken on a fly...











The fish, along with a trout later on gave Simon 1st place, well done mate. A wonderful weekend with good friends, shame the fish had not been biting better but it didn't spoil what was a very successful event.

Storm Gathering Symposium 2011

A brilliant weekend up at Anglesey with friends. Big seas and strong winds made for an exciting experience.

Sea Kayak Bass - The Movie

A lovely weekend at the beginning of October saw us paddling around Flamborough in search of bass. Flat, clear seas made for ideal conditions and a very productive couple of days - not to say fun.

Another Paddle up the River with Ant

Another lovely day on the river, low water levels and high summer weed made fishing a little awkward but we did manage to hook and lose a nice trout.

But on such a beautiful day who cares about fishing...

Watch in full screen and HD if possible...

South Landing Kayak Match

A brilliant match hosted by Stonefish. Fi brought the 1stWet&Wild roadshow down...





Won by yours truelly with a 9lb + skate

Sea Kayak Bass

Flat Seas are usually quite boring in the sea kayak - unless you take a fishing rod...





Dave finds the bigger ones though - as usual...

Paddle Orkney 11

Both Fi and myself made the long trip up north to experience the delights of paddling around Orkney. The excuse was to attend the symposium but we also spent eight days on expedition discovering this delightful place.

Watch in full screen and HD if possible..

South Landing to Fraisthorpe on a Snotty Day

Assisted in leading a group around the bay with a southerly making things a little exciting..





Plenty of practice of putting people back into boats in challenging conditions...

Back on the River with Ant

Another beautiful day spent with Ant chilling out on the river...

Runswick Kayak Match

A brilliant day with lots of 'weather'.







It didn't stop the anglers catching though...







Some of us even took the lazy route....