Another couple of hours scanning some old slides has revived some great memories of sea kayaking in Jersey. It is clear that over the years the Jersey Canoe Club has been involved in a variety of entertaining events both in local waters and further afield.
The start of the 1979 Canoe Club race from Gorey to St Helier. It is clear that it was important to have an orange Nordkapp HM and wear a Ricard sun hat.
John Hurley at the 1982 white water championships. Close to St Helier the white water was revealed when the tide dropped. The water was from the power station and so it was really warm. An ideal place to paddle on a cold winters day. Sadly it has disappeared under the reclamation site,
In the 1980's Jersey competed in the Home International Surfing competitions. 1986 we entered a team in the slalom event for the first time. This was training at St Ouen's in almost perfect conditions. Sadly the week of the event was accompanied by no surf and pretty strong easterly winds.
In the early 1990's the BCU introduced the idea of a National Canoeing Day. In September 1992 we managed to get 120 people to turn up to St Catherine's to form a raft.
The 1990's also saw the development of Sea Kayak Symposiums. This is 1996 and Gordon Brown is demonstrating a number of Greenland rolls and skills. We were fortunate to have John Heath at the event who gave a running commentary to Gordon's performance.
Some people expressed an interest in folding kayaks. This is a naked Feathercraft Khatsilano.
We also developed a tidal slalom course in front of the Club House at St Catherine's. I think this is Scottish paddler Donald Thomson taking part in the closing event of the 1996 Symposium. All competitors had to use a VCP Skerray.
The 1998 Symposium. This is a bird watching paddle, I ended up paddling Bill Oddie around in double Spud whilst he pointed at feathered things of interest. There must have been at least 50 people in the group, which created quite a spectacle.
An innovation at the 1998 Symposium was the making of kayaks over the weeken with people able to assist. Howard Jeffs produced a fibre glass BAT and Duncan Winning built the "Jersey Junior" being paddled here by my daughter Lisa.
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