Archive for January, 2006

Come upon a sea of trouble

Till the winds of change shift

– beach boys

So. . . did you hear the one about A man, his girlfriend, his parrot and a guy named Gary? Apparently this poor chap was getting a little worried that his pet parrot was started saying “I love you Gary”, and making smooching noises whenever the name Gary was said on TV. Well, you guessed it. . His girlfriend was having an affair with a guy named Gary. Now that had to hurt. But the worst part was that his pet parrot, which he had long before his girlfriend, would not stop saying the painful phrases! So he had to find a new home for his parrot as well. So now Chris has no parrot & no girlfriend. He sure misses the parrot.So while this was fresh in my mind JC tells me she is off to film Grey Parrots. “Oh, Really?”, What could I say but, “Have a great trip and remember, either be very good. . . or don’t take a parrot home!”. You see, friends love me for my sage advice!

- d

* Image of Stanley the African Grey Parrot from the Honolulu Zoo. Thank you!

Hail people of Iceland Journey of a land anew Ram as our liaison Vision inspire and move – mastodon

Can I use the “A” word in this blog??

In the vernacular of the day. . Let’s send some love out to Sean Morley! Yeah even police sergeants need lovin too!! Especially if they use the term “constabulary” in a sentence. Here in the states we don’t use words like “constabulary”. Gee, makes me want to watch Thin Blue Line. . .I’d been working on this post for what seems like a month. Sometimes I just can’t get my brain to work! Then, since odd minds think alike, Wenley beat me to the punch. That’s ok though, Sean just get’s some extra “air play” round the ‘blogosphere’ this week.

Anyone who plans to paddle around Iceland solo deserves it. Many of us may have had our first introduction to Sean Morley from Justine Curgenven’s video “This is the Sea II“. In it we see Sean paddling ridiculously close to some rocky cliffs in some pretty active water. Yikes! It’s also at this point that a whole new group of paddlers start asking about wing paddles, but that’s a whole other story!

After seeing Sean’s skills along those cliffs it’s not too surprising that he completed the first solo circumnavigation of the UK and Ireland in 2004, the first ever to include all of the inhabited islands. This comes down to doing about 4500 miles in six months through all the wonderful conditions that the UK has to offer. May of this year Sean intends to circumnavigate Iceland which will total around 1500 miles and take 10 to 12 weeks to complete.

You may remember that Shawna Franklin, Leon Somme, & Chris Duff did this trip in 2003 and had some very interesting moments along the way. One can only guess at the sanity of doing it solo! (Don’t tell his wife I said that. . . It’s very safe. . really. . verrrrrrrry safe!) The mix of warm and cold ocean currents around Iceland produce a climate that is mild for its latitude but with a tendency to get a little nasty. Even in summer he can expect some fun in the snow and fog as well as occasional gales to keep the ride exciting. . . or give him a reason lay round in a tent and catch up on a good book. It should be an epic adventure! In addition to his personal paddling goals, Sean intends to raise funds for charity, aiming to top the £10,000 he collected for the RNLI and the Marine Conservation Society during his 2004 expedition. So this would be a great time to mention that Sean is still seeking corporate sponsorship. In return he guarantees maximum exposure through the various media and a commitment to raise money for your chosen charity both through his website (www.expeditionkayak.com), the DVD and through a series of lectures upon his return. So. . . Mr. Gates. . . now would be the time to call Sean. If you were to advertise the Xbox360 on his expedition, he should be hitting the water just about the time you can get the Xbox back on the shelves! Hey, you could also get a new game out by then. We’re all looking for a kayak video game after all. I’d call it, “Sean Morley’s Bad Ass Ride!”. EA sports, are you listening?? In it, our simulated Sean would paddle all the worlds great sea kayak destinations in absolutely atrocious conditions. (except the ‘Bitches’ as we don’t want to offend US sensibilities.) Of course we would want to select top sea kayaks and a variety of paddles as well. You could also include practice sessions where he tries to perform maneuvers like a side scull with a wing paddle while avoiding great white sharks and monstrous Japanese jelly fish. How cool would that be!? XBox360 Sean Morley Edition anyone??

Sean also has one of the better sea kayaking websites out there. I think one of the unique things he offers online is a free members area with message board, lots of video, a newsletter and more. I spent a good amount of time watching his video clips and interviews. I was also very impressed by a page on his site about Risk Assessment. Specifically related to his UK expedition, this section gives anyone who fancies themselves a sea kayaker a lot of information about the risks you face, how to analyze and mitigate them before you slide off the beach. Very good stuff! Sean provides a sort of sample Risk Assessment chart (both generic and specific risks) that is worth taking time to study.

One thing I learned was to always go to the dentist before I head out for more than a day or two. I don’t know why I never thought of that!! It seems like MY dentist should have our spare room. . Ok Sean, better get that book done soon or I’ll be forced to re-read Harpo Speaks!

*Photo provided by Sean Morley. Used by Kind Permission.

Good morning. What an interesting day it’s been and I’m not even done with my first cup of nasty black coffee yet. . .

Over the last couple months here in Wisconsin, people kept coming up to me with some cryptic statements that Nigel Dennis Kayaks were no longer going to be available in the US, or that Nigel had left NDK now that they have taken on the new corporate name of Sea Kayaking UK Ltd. I think someone was also concerned that Nigel may dye his hair in the near future as well! The upside of the rumor mill has been that people have been willing to pay a bit more for an old explorer! And now with Simon heading out I’m betting the mill will be going crazy. Let’s see if any sad stories about the death of kings start showing up around the web. I’ve got an Explorer I’ll sell you $7000 by the way!!!!

Now to be honest, I knew these guys were mis-informed about the early demise of NDK, but I didn’t want to say anything here without at least giving them the benefit of the doubt. This morning I got my confirmation. . . So directly from the desk of Nigel Dennis. . . NDK is alive and well. NDK kayaks are available in the US as normal. Nigel also sent round a form letter to express his personal appreciation of all that Simon has done for NDK and to update staff changes for 2006. With Simon moving on to the warmer climates it will now be Phil Clegg who will be handling all the emails. Poor, poor, man! Phil is an instructor at NDK, a member of the Welsh Kayak Surf Team, and a BCU level 4 sea coach. We’ll have more about Phil & his other upcoming challenge soon. . .

I can imagine Nigel’s feeling a bit stressed out after coming back from South Georgia and jumping right back into the business world. By the way, you may enjoy this. (then click news) Be sure to check out the flash slide show ( scroll down on the new page, click the red “F”).

Now the important thing in all this is that Nigel understand that NDK must stay in operation at least until I can afford my new special order Explorer with the ocean cockpit and Welsh flag paint job. . . (of course I have bad luck requesting custom artwork). On the other hand with NDK alive and well, I’ll have to lower the asking price on my old kayak! You win some, you lose some.

- d

The future’s so bright, I gotta wear shades – Timbuk 3

Today Simon Osborne posted to the NDK website that he would be moving on from NDK. He remains however an NDK sponsored kayaker. We certainly wish him all the best as he moves on. . . I hear that first step will be in Isreal!?? Yeah, that climate has to be hard to resist!

Simon’s website is www.kayakingforcancer.co.uk!

Hopfully we’ll see ya on the water!!

Romeo, he said to Juliet, “You got a poor complexion.
It doesn’t give your appearance a very youthful touch!”
Juliet said back to Romeo, “Why don’t you just shove off
If it bothers you so much.” – dylan

Pools are great, but I miss rolling up into a hot sun. I have to admit it’s great sometimes to have a pool all to yourself just to work. The downside is rolling up and finding yourself slipping under the slide! Or rolling up in a torrent of dolphin spit!Slipping off the side of a pool into the water is always a fun little endeavor. It’s not like it’s big deal to drop the 6 inches off the side, but you never know when you’ll do something stupid and end up upside-down right off.

Being back in a warm pool was great. I slid over into a balance brace which I’m finding easier all the time in the WW boat. Of course it’s a cheat, but I hope the experience will someday translate for me over to my sea boat. At this point it seems like a really desperate hope! I had an offer to help me with that next summer. I plan to hold her to it!!

If I’m going to work on rolling there is no point in taking my Euro paddle, so I just took the stick with me today. First I worked through the rolls I’m most at ease with, standard G rolls, c to c, sweeps, storms, angels and shotguns. This small group of rolls I can pretty much do without too much thought. Then I moved on to working on chest sculling and reverse sweep rolls which I’ve found to be working nicely with my NDK & a Masik. If I take the Masik out, them I can just forget coming back up. In the White water boat, I’ve had to start at the beginning. Chest sculls seem really weird in that the ww boat just wants to be 100% over. The roll on the other hand goes well If I keep Alex’s (who by the way, is getting a lot of mention recently!!) single rule in my head, “Boat First”. I’ll come up each time. But as soon as I lose concentration and bring my body up first I go right back over!

Then I spent some time working on another Greenland roll, “Rolling with paddle held in crook of elbow”. I would pull that off pretty easily as long as I did not hit the bottom on my way round with the paddle. I have to work on that set up a bit. I also tried a variation on the classic “shotgun or armpit roll” but with the end of the paddle in the crook of the arm instead of in the arm pit just for fun. Rolling this way is fairly simple, however you have to keep pressure on the paddle so it does not slip off your arm. The arm pit roll is generally looked at as another way to roll up in case of injury. I’m guessing this variation is in case of injury AND you almost lost the paddle as well. . .

Lastly I worked on off-side rolls. I don’t really have problems with my offside rolls directly, but I know that my on-side rolls are slow and smooth most of the time, where off-side they are fast and less fluid. I have to work on that. Well, back to the pool next week. (and maybe Lake Columbia in between) One thing about a day at the pool, you are reminded how far you have to go.

-d

Jets are like comets at sunset – blur

Ok, so Foil Kayaks have been the topic of a couple blogs already but I couldn’t resist talking a bit about a kayak that claims an almost 17mph top speed!! When I first saw a photo on their website at http://www.foilkayak.com/. I couldn’t quite figure out what I was looking at. It turns out that the foil yak is basically a Racing Boat riding on hydrofoils. Very unique.As you begin to paddle, the front foil will rise first until it is just under the waters surface, then the main foil will follow and lift the hull out of the water. (At about this time I would fall over!)Then as you increase your speed the hull foil will lift and tilt slightly forward like a 70’s muscle car. Cool.

It’s pretty easy to understand the basic idea that if you can get the hull out of the water, you reduce drag and increase speed. Logical. Foilkayak says that you will gain about a 15% higher take off speed, and that the top speed will be 30% higher than that. Which I translate as, “it will go fast”. For the mathematically inspired, Foilkayak provides all sorts of funky formulas for you to verify their claims. As for me, I’ll take their word on it. Currently the top speed they’ve recorded with the flyak is 16.9mph (27.2 kph). Wow!

* Photo by Martin Fevang. Provided by kind permission of Foil Kayak.