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 paddles in the United States

Some further images of kayaking in the 1990's which, I have scanned in from some of the numerous slides I accumulated over about 30 years.  These are a selection taken in the United States in the mid 1990's.  Sea kayaking on the west coast and canoeing in the north east.  Some great memories.

 One of the real highlights was a couple of visits to the Port Townsend Symposium in Washington.  At the time I had organized a couple of Symposiums in Jersey and was just stunned by the scale of the event.  This was the view of the waterfront in 1996

 In contrast to the events in Europe where there were numerous small classes with paddlers being coached on the water things were different at Port Townsend.  Here Nigel Foster is running a skills session, what is shown is the crowd of approximately 100 spectators, Nigel was the only person on the water.

 Sea kayaking legend Derek Hutchinson just completing one of his sessions.  A couple of days later we spent a memorable few hours sailing to Vancouver Island, where we were both heading.

 The classic image of Easyrider kayaks.  A similar photograph was used as the advert for a number of years in Sea Kayaker Magazine.

 There was some "interesting" developments.  The white canister on the front deck was called the "Rolling Aid".  Capsize, pull the lever and it explodes in a rather large air bag which it is possible tp push up on.  Great demo but not sure how useful, might be easier and cheaper to learn to roll with a paddle.

 As we had young children but wanted to continue with multi-day paddling trips we went canoeing.  Not really something that we could do in Jersey, so for a number of years we went to Maine and paddled some of the rivers in the northern part of the State.

 There were plenty of new techniques to learn, such as portaging.  This is the path around Allagash Falls in the north of Maine.  I have run this river several times but the last time was too long ago.

One of the camp sites on the West Branch of the Penobscot.  They were clearings cut out of the dense forest allowing easy egress from the river.  A couple of tables, fire pit, somewhere to tie the tarp etc.

 

Little did we realize what we were experiencing here.  This was our first ever paddle on a sit on top.  Nicky is on Megunticook Lake in Maine in 1995.  For many involved in kayaking this was to be the future.