Even more old kayaking photographs

Once you are set up to scan your old slides, its difficult not to keep going and scan a few more.  So a few memories of sea kayaking in the 1970's and 80's.

This is a memory of the first paddle that I really recorded on film.  August Bank Holiday Sunday in 1974.  We decided to go to the Ecrehous. It was a big spring tide and we had no idea about tidal vectors.  We did leave from Gorey as we realized that the tide would be running north really quickly.  We survived but it wasn't an easy paddle.

5 years later and knowledge and equipment had surged forward in leaps and bounds.  Nicky off the Ecrehous in 1979.  Those were the days when we used to tie our BS3595 Lifejackets on the rear deck.

 Pete Scott had just purchased his new Nordkapp, so at Easter 1981 we rushed off to Pembrokeshire to launch the kayak.  He was keen to practice his self rescues.

 The Skerries in April 1982.  This was when lighthouses were still manned so we carried out our duty and delivered the daily papers and fresh milk to the keepers.

 

My first ever visit to the Isle of Wight.  November 1983, it was a quick Sunday run from Lymington to the Needles with lunch at Alum Bay.  Sadly that is still the only time that I have paddled on the Isle of Wight.

 Just north of Fishguard in Pembrokeshire.  October 1989 and Nigel Foster, Howard Jeffs and myself were running a Level 5 coach assessment.  In common with so many assessments at the time it coincided with a major storm hitting the Irish Sea.

Some more old kayaking pictures

Here is another selection of photographs, illustrating some of the places that we have been paddling over the years.  It feels like it is time to pay a visit to some of these places again, its been over 30 years since I paddled some of these trips.

 This is paddling around the Great Orme in North Wales in November 1979.  We couldn't afford specialist sea kayaks so used general purpose kayaks with home made skegs that we used to slip over the stern, when we weren't paddling the same kayaks on white water.

 I started work as a teacher in September 1980 and before my first salary check arrived I had ordered my first Nordkapp HM.  I collected it from Nottingham at October half term and this is kayak being launched for the first time off the beach in Eastbourne.

 The first summer holidays of teaching so it was time to go paddling.  This is approaching Bardsey, in perfect conditions.  The string across the hatch cover was there for a very special reason.  My Nordkapp was one of the first to be built with the new hatch covers but the mixture proved to be unstable and the rims started to collapse.  After this trip it was back to Nottingham for new hatches to be fitted by Valley.

 A rather blurred picture from the Menai Straits in October 1986.  I was on my Level 5 Coach assessment at Plas Y Brenin.  We camped at the south west entrance to the Straits and I still remember the look of horror on the face of the group when the shipping forecast for the Irish Sea was SW Force 12.

 Paddling out of Porth Daffarch at the 1993 Angelsey Symposium.  The paddlers are Andy Stamp and Graham Wardle.

 The bay at the western end of Rathlin Island, of Northern Ireland  It was a Coach Assessment in 1996.  We were looking forward to a night of traditional Irish music in the bar, but it turned out to be a karaoke evening with Japanese divers, rather disappointing.

 The Scottish Sea Kayak Symposiums used to be great family affairs.  The five children on the right are my two girls, Howard Jeffs daughters and Gordon Brown's oldest daughter.  As you can see we used appropriately sized kit.

 

The BCU Sea Touring Committee used to run Symposiums every autumn.  Initially at Calshot and later on in North Wales.  This is some paddlers from the 1998 event off Cricceth Castle.