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!