Barra Sea Trials!

So it was time to test out the boat, and the recent fixing that I had made! Took it to a West beach on Barra (Halaman Bay - one of the more sheltered).

Nice fast(ish) boat! After only surf kayaking for a while, I was reminded about the size of surf you can get through in a sea kayak.


Nice boat for rolling. High cockpit volume, allowing wide knees, make it pretty easy to bring back up.

Getting out past one of the bigger ones. The photo doesn't really do it justice. Again, I was surprised by what I could get through. The boat's 5.5m (18ft) long, and huge volume, so it feels like it will make it through anything! The waves weren't perfect though, not many rollers, so I didn't get the chance to try any popouts - or maybe I just didn't want to venture out to where these waves were actually breaking!

Heading out to see. The forecast was 6m, but that dies down quite a lot as it comes in. The beach isn't actually that brilliant for surfing, but it's not bad. I was there in the middle of the ebb, and towards the end of the session the waves started dumping, which was a bit more fun!


All in all, I really like the boat- now I just have to kit it out how I want it. Thanks Mark McKerral for the boat - looking forward to hearing about your Capella adventures!

New (second hand) boat, and fibreglass reinforcing...

Well, I picked up my new (old) boat from Fort William last weekend. An Island Kayaks Expedition. Took it for my maiden voyage in it in FW - great boat, high volume, nice for turning on an edge. It's had a knock here and there, so when I got home I did my first fibre glass fixing...

INSERT PIC 1 - BEFORE
INSERT PIC 2 - AFTER

I had thought making a fibre glass fixing was going to be hard, but it wasn't really. I think the most important thing was just taking time over it.

Coaching Toolbox

I just made this up (see below) because I wanted one bit of paper which illustrated pretty much all the coaching tools/techniques that I use. It's useful as a reminder, and everything on it allows me to psychologically deal with pretty much any situation.

Off surf kayaking tomorrow, and just bought my first ever camera, which happens to be waterproof - finally, I can take pictureson the water and not have to worry about killing my camera!