Busy Busy Busy

July 13, 2008 on 8:25 pm | In Sea Kayaking, Uncategorized | No Comments

As I have written before, it is that time of year again when I am flat out, nose to the grind stone. Last week saw me out paddling with clients in Loch Roag for four days, then two days of powerboat training and still trying to keep up with the office work. Saturday was mostly a write off as I spent it doing the accounts !

Today I managed to get out for a run on the moors out to the back of the village with Alex, it was pure pleasure although the pain of running just made the colours more vivid.

As you become familar with a place you start to notice the smaller things. The heather is starting bloom and the purples are, even in todays flat light, so vivid and in such a contrast to the browns and greens of the moor. The butter cups are out, looking like a yellow paint brush has been dappled across the crofts and this year there seems to be huge amounts of ‘bog cotton’ giving the appearance of patches of snow across the landscape.

After the paddling there are a few pictures (there were over two hundred before the edit) here a couple of the nice ones:

Little Bernera Beach

The Caribbean?

Graveyard Little Bernera

Sunset over Old Hill

Tim Pickering
http://www.canoehebrides.com
Living in the world's biggest adventure playground - The Outer Hebrides CanoeHebrides.com - Sea kayaking Expeditions BikeHebrides.com -Quality Mountain Bike Hire

The weather is back to normal

June 30, 2008 on 10:00 pm | In Sea Kayaking | No Comments

The fantastic run of sun has come to an end, we are back to weather systems scurrying through with the attendant fronts. Although it has the downside of some wet stuff falling from the sky there is the stunning cloudscapes which come through the sunshine and showers. I am also reminded we live in the land of rainbows.

I have a couple of days inside as I am doing a wilderness first aid course and I am looking forwards to learning some new stuff, vacuum splints and oxygen, great for the hangover I hear.

I have a weekend of paddling in prospect with clients flying in on Thursday for a trip out into the wilds. I am just going to look at the forecast and see what is in prospect.

There are a variety of places we look for our weather; I usually start with the met office and the inshore forecast and the European pressure forecast. This I follow with a look at Magic Seaweed which gives me an idea of the swell (it is a forecast for surfers, then I wake up Ugrib which is a global forecasting system, after you have downloaded the piece fo software, you highlight the area you want the forecast for and it gives you the pressure, wind speed and precipitation and so far we have found it reasonably accurate when stirred in with the other forecasts.

I might also look at wind guru/wind map which gives a good idea of the wind in Stornoway.

So good luck forecasting

Tim Pickering
http://www.canoehebrides.com
Living in the world's biggest adventure playground - The Outer Hebrides CanoeHebrides.com - Sea kayaking Expeditions BikeHebrides.com -Quality Mountain Bike Hire

Sea Kayaking on Arran

June 25, 2008 on 12:06 pm | In Sea Kayaking | 1 Comment

I took to the water on Arran in my frst ever experience of sea kayaking. I took an introductory course with Arran Adventure Company along with another nine people. We headed to Brodick beach to unload the kayaks from the van and I was lucky enough to share a kayak.

We were given a brief introduction into how to balance and sit correctly and how to use the paddles. Then it was time to get into the water.

At first I was quite nervous but it really is quite difficult to tip up a two man kayak.

The experience was amazing and really made you feel close to nature. At one point the water was so clam that it was as though we were on a sheet of galss and the reflections off the mountains were stunning. We were also joined by three seals which was lovely.

I would recommend this as an adventure sprt for beginners as I felt really safe and will definitely do it again. We kayaked from Brodick to Corrie along the coast of Arran and it was the perfect length of two hours.

Gillian Thompson
http://www.visitscotland.com/adventure
Works with adventure sports in Scotland and has a keen interest in hill walking and a new passion for surfing.

Wet Sunday Afternoons in Lewis

June 22, 2008 on 3:40 pm | In Sea Kayaking | No Comments

Finally, I find myself in front of the desk top with all the pictures, I know I should be working but driving rain in the North Easterly gale has sent me to the photos to remember how it can be (and was yesterday). So just a few from the last couple of weeks some pleasure, some work (although when the weather is good the line is blurred)

Tim Pickering
http://www.canoehebrides.com
Living in the world's biggest adventure playground - The Outer Hebrides CanoeHebrides.com - Sea kayaking Expeditions BikeHebrides.com -Quality Mountain Bike Hire

Oban to Stornoway

June 13, 2008 on 8:37 pm | In Sea Kayaking, Uncategorized | No Comments

I have returned from what was a long weekend. From where I left off:

I am afraid it looks like I am off on a rant.

Oban is an odd place if you come from the Outer Hebrides, it is stuffed full of tourists. It seemed the world and his wife ride there on their motorbikes, which for me as a petrol-head makes for a great spectator sport.

I had dinner in the EE-Usk  restaurant on the front, the place was great and the service was OK however no one asked me if the meal was good, they just took my card ran it through the machine and wanted me out to get the next set of customers in and I am sorry to say the fish wasn’t cooked, sad because the part which was, tasted fantastic.

The Sunday saw us roll up at Kilbowie for the 4* conversion course. A quick history as I understand it:

The BCU, British Canoe Union, have restructured their awards for personal paddling skills and the way the coaching scheme is done, I am not saying it wasn’t needed but the way it has been done has left a lot of paddlers wondering if they should bother.

There are two sides to the scheme the personal skills side are the star tests which are a measure of how competent you are in your personal paddling and the other is the coaching scheme to develop your abilities to teach paddling.

We spent the morning talking with Gordon Brown of Skayak Adventures  who has been writing most of the elements. I saw his notes and they made perfect sense, I then read the BCU guidelines and they is seems had been written by a dyslexic monkey.

I sit in an odd position as I am a professional guide but most of my coaching is done through Stornoway Canoe Club. This means I need the coaching qualifications for the club rather than the business. The guiding qualifications for the business, now I have them, never go out of date but the coaching ones I have to get renewed - annually.

So here is the rub, I don’t have to pay anything to do my professional work but I have to pay to be validated for the ones I use as a volunteer…

We were under the impression we were going to attend the course and then we would be able to carry on assessing 4* in the same way we have for the last ten years, but no. We have to watch a training course being run, we have to watch an assessment being done and we have to do an orientation day to teach navigation and then we have to have someone watch us run an assessment - minimum seven days. Oh and we can’t double up, so each one has to be for each person seperately. I am likely to only to use this for the club so how is the club going to finance four of us through this?

So, if we chose not to do it? No new 4* paddlers in the club, it is a pre-requisite for becoming a coach or guide in these waters so no new qualified coaches or guides unless they are prepared to travel to the mainland and pay for a minimum of four day coaching and a two day assessment just to get to the door.

I believe the BCU have got this seriously wrong and they risk alienating clubs. The clubs are the breeding ground for new paddlers who go on to become the coaches of the future. Sea kayaking is growing sport and shouldn’t we be making it accessable not more expensive and difficult?

It wasn’t all bad on a personal level, the afternoon was spent paddling in the tide race at the Falls of Lora under the Connell Bridge, I was trying to work out the last time I paddled there and it was over 15 year ago in a rotabat, (which older paddlers will remember). I got trashed then and so nothing changes except the trashings leave you aching more the next day.

The Falls of Lora are a tide race created under the bridge where the contents of Loch Etive and its tributary lochs empty through a narrow gap. There is a shelf and when the water rushes over it creates huge (and scarey) hydrolic feature. This includes on the right tides, a big standing wave followed by a massive wave train, some very exciting boils and whirlpools. It makes for a great spectator sport from the dry warmth of the bank. There is web site Falls of Lora where all the details of when it is working at its best can be found and some pictures, I was too busy trying to stay in the boat to get the camera out!

Gordon gave us some excellent pointers on using the water there for coaching.

So was it worth the club spending over £600 for the three of us to go there? The jury is still out, it was great to paddle and good to get up to speed with Gordon was very useful (as always) but in terms of coach development …

Tim Pickering
http://www.canoehebrides.com
Living in the world's biggest adventure playground - The Outer Hebrides CanoeHebrides.com - Sea kayaking Expeditions BikeHebrides.com -Quality Mountain Bike Hire

West Coast Paddling

April 21, 2008 on 9:31 pm | In Sea Kayaking | No Comments

Before the weekend’s paddling there is great news today, the Scottish Government have seen sense and not granted permission for the wholesale industrialisation of the Lewis landscape.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/highlands_and_islands/7358315.stm

We had probably one of the best paddles I have ever been on this Sunday. With the easterly winds blowing for the last week we have almost no swell running into the west coast. This allows the exploration of the wilder sections of coast and they don’t get much wilder than the coast around Mangasta.

So we launched from Mangasta beach and headed north through the sea stacks, rocky skerries and caves, below Screaming Geo where there were some climbers having an equally awesome day up andround Mangasta Island.

The island has a cave which passes right through the middle, it is just a boats width and there was just too much swell to go through, at least if you wanted to still be in the boat at the other end and not swimming in smashed fibreglass.

With wall to wall bule sky and blazing sun we pulled up on a tiny beach at the bottom of a boulder beach and had some lunch, it was difficult to leave but Aird Breanish was calling.

The character of the coast here changes and doesn’t have the huge soaring cliffs, it is equally unfriendly but it is the slooping rocks and the sucking holes which appear at the bottom when the waves slide back which bring the terror. There a miriad of passages and sea stakes to paddle round and explore.

This is a very exposed headland with no escapes but as you round it you arrive at a white sand beach tucked at the back of a corner, time for more coffee and if you are wearing a dry suit a swim!?!

Hauling out at the end the sun was so warm while the run back was fetching the cars there was some sleeping in the sun to be caught.

Tim Pickering
http://www.canoehebrides.com
Living in the world's biggest adventure playground - The Outer Hebrides CanoeHebrides.com - Sea kayaking Expeditions BikeHebrides.com -Quality Mountain Bike Hire

Kelp Warriors in Harris

April 10, 2008 on 9:15 pm | In Sea Kayaking | No Comments

After a week in Uist grounded by bad weather it didn’t bode well for Saturday’s paddle with more wind and snow showers forecast. So when I drove off the ferry and up to Am Bothan (the bunk house in Leverburgh) to met Ruari it was blowing well and bitterly cold.

After Benny had fed us with strong coffee to steel us for the weather, we put in at the back of his house in the bays of Harris. It was straight into the gates of hell except it was cold not hot and the wind was howling. Once we were out of the bay we found some shelter from the cliffs and the sun came out. It could have been spring but for the stinging pain every time the water touched your skin.

We headed south and pulled out for a bite to eat at Lingabay, I had never been there in a boat before and wow is the only way I can describe it. The back of the island has a lagoon with a sandy bottom and the contrast of the azure water next to the brown of the rocks with the snow capped mountains behind was just what I needed after a hard week inside. Ruari was telling us how they mined the felspar for explosives during the war there and then we were overflown by a juvenile sea eagle.

Paddling out was interesting battling through the kelp.

We poked into Rodel and with the big spring tides, it was time to jump out of the boat for a short portage into Loch Rodel and then on to Renish Point.

Round the point we were faced with the wind in our faces and by now it was freshening and to say it was a hard slog would not be putting too strong a case. I was exhausted and hurting by the time we reached the Anchorage. Thank goodness they were open for the first time this season and so tea and buns was the order of the day. Benny was hungry so it was a large slice of chocolate cake, scampi and chips and then more chocolate cake.

A great day paddling an unexpected gem.

Tim Pickering
http://www.canoehebrides.com
Living in the world's biggest adventure playground - The Outer Hebrides CanoeHebrides.com - Sea kayaking Expeditions BikeHebrides.com -Quality Mountain Bike Hire

Facinating Turns

February 9, 2008 on 11:08 am | In Sea Kayaking | No Comments

As I am sat here in the office, I am supposed to be working, well, it started as working, I was researching one of the books I am writing at the moment. I was looking at the history of adventure racing and was chasing round the internet to find Anna McCormack who is a professional racer, who I know from when I was racing. I wanted to e-mail her some questions.

It is fascinating to read about her exploits as a professional racer, I then realised I would be able to get her details from Karen Darke.

I can hear you asking where is this all going?

I sea kayaked with Karen, through the John Muir Trust’s Equal Adventure trips to Uist, so my search lead me to be looking at Karen’s web site. I am now sitting with a feeling of awe and inadequacy at what Karen has achieved, in the same breath it leaves me inspired to realise what you can really achieve. Read Karen’s book and I defy you not be be humbled and motivated.

Karen sea kayaking with seals off Uist

Tim Pickering
http://www.canoehebrides.com
Living in the world's biggest adventure playground - The Outer Hebrides CanoeHebrides.com - Sea kayaking Expeditions BikeHebrides.com -Quality Mountain Bike Hire

It is Offical, Scotland is the best place in Europe for Sea Kayaking

February 5, 2008 on 5:09 pm | In Sea Kayaking | No Comments

Below is the link to the leaflet giving some ideas on the best paddling to be had in Europe.

As I read it I discovered there are a few places I am going to need to go to and get the boat wet. I was particularly drawn to the Northern Isles. This was helped after Rob from the Canoe Club was up there for work and managed to get a couple of paddles in and was blown away by the place.

The Best Sea Kayaking in Europe

Time to get the maps out and plan the summer’s expeditions

Tim Pickering
http://www.canoehebrides.com
Living in the world's biggest adventure playground - The Outer Hebrides CanoeHebrides.com - Sea kayaking Expeditions BikeHebrides.com -Quality Mountain Bike Hire

Christmas Spirit

December 27, 2007 on 5:33 pm | In Sea Kayaking | No Comments

Ho Ho Ho. To much Christmas spirit and I need to get out for a run. It has been a good festive season and Father Christmas brought me a new toy, a waterproof compact digital camera, so ideal for the new year’s paddling trips.

Disaster for the canoe club, the council have announced they are going to be closing the swimming pool in Stornoway for the next six weeks. This is not great for us because we have pool sessions on a Thursday evening with over twenty young people and more than fifteen adults.

Apparently the tiles need replacing round the edge of the pool and considering it is a new pool there does need to be some questions asked - like ‘why is all the steel work round the pool going rusty?’ surely in a swimming pool the best grade of steel would have been used and ‘why is the roof still leaking?’

But the biggest problem is how are we going to keep all the reprobate instructors off the streets on a Thursday evenings when their wives kick them out of the house for the evening?

Enough typing on with the trainers and out for a run …

Tim Pickering
http://www.canoehebrides.com
Living in the world's biggest adventure playground - The Outer Hebrides CanoeHebrides.com - Sea kayaking Expeditions BikeHebrides.com -Quality Mountain Bike Hire