Stand up Paddleboard Coaching

British Canoeing have developed a discipline support module for those coaches who want to be involved with Stand up Paddleboarding and, in my opinion, it is one of the most sensible developments of the last few years.  Allowing existing paddle sport coaches who have experience of SUP, to train so that they can deliver SUP sessions in sheltered waters to groups who are keen to receive some coaching in this rapidly expanding discipline. 

Last weekend Tower Hamlets Canoe Club paid a visit to the Island and took advantage of the opportunity to take part in course.  St Brelade's Bay was the venue but because of the pleasant conditions we were able to include a short trip around to Beauport, taking the opportunity to swap boards and paddles, ensuring that everybody was able to try a variety of equipment.

So if you are involved in paddlesport coaching and are looking for some professional development and the opportunity to expand your coaching remit then look at getting on one of the British Canoeing SUP courses which are running over the next few months.

 Sitting in the middle of Beauport, discussing some aspect of SUP coaching.  A rather enjoyable way to spend a Saturday

 Exploring the possibilities on a SUP

Heading out from St Brelade's

It wouldn't be a course in Jersey unless there was a bit of cliff jumping.

 Towing practice.  (Thanks to Shep from THCC for the botton 3 photos)

Friday morning stand up

It is amazing how a sunny morning with light winds will encourage you to get out on the stand up paddleboards.  That is just what happened on Friday morning.  It was hard to believe that less than 48 hours ago the Island was being battered by a significant storm.

 Heading out on the early morning spring tide.

 With the high spring tide we were able to enter one of the small caves in St Brelade's Bay.  One of the great things about paddle sports is the opportunity to do new things.  I first paddled in St Brelade's in 1969 and up until today I had never paddled into this cave.

 Laurie entering Beauport

Beauport is possibly my favourite bay on the Island and today it looked particularly special when viewed from the stack in the middle of the bay.

Heading through the gap, back into St Brelade's and time to refresh some skills such as rescues and towing.

St Brelade's Bay on Mother's Day

Today was one of the first Sunday mornings this year which didn't have strong winds forecast so the Jersey Canoe Club Sunday morning session headed west from St Brelade's along one of the most pleasant stretches of Jersey's coastline.

 We changed in perfect spring sunshine but by the time we launched the clouds had gathered.  we were paddling along the stretch of coast which is close to the hotel where the Jersey Sea Kayak Symposium is going to held in May.

 Part of the group under Corbiere Lighthouse.  I know that I am biased by I reckon it is the most beautiful lighthouse in the world.

 As we headed east the sun did manage to break through.  This section of coast is perfect for coasteering in the summer months, fingers crossed for warmer weather.

 Cliffs just to the west of Beauport.  Always a pleasure to paddle past these granite faces.

Time to head in for the Mother's Day beer!

South West Delights

Although this is the closest stretch of coast to where I live, it seems to have been quite some time since I last spent a day exploring this area of Jersey so it was a real pleasure to be on the water on Saturday.

This is a section of the Jersey coast, which I have paddled hundreds of times but there is always something to discover whatever the season.

Paddling into a feature which we known as Junkyard Gully.  At the rear of the inlet there is a large blow hole into which was thrown a lot of scrap metal and cars in the 1930's and 40's.

Laurie passing to the south of Corbiere Lighthouse, which marks the south west corner of the island.  There was a bit of swell around and some tidal movement but it was a relatively calm day.

 Heading south past Corbiere after stopping for lunch in the reefs to the west of La Pulente.  A bit chilly but it is October.

 Louis looking as if he is having a good time.

Louis and Rachel playing in the small race which was developing to the west of Corbiere.

Along this section of coast there are some many great jumping spots.  This flat topped rock is at Gorselands.  Laurie is in mid air whilst Simone is considering his options.

Just before Beauport we were able to take a short cut through the reef at the Grosse Tete.   This is known as Conger Gully, mainly because of the stories we tell younger people when out coasteering along this section of coast.

Daily Picture - 66

A rather pleasant Sunday morning out from St Brelade.  We headed around to Noirmont to play in the tide race formed on the ebbing tide.  Conditions were made more interesting due to the rather large swell running in from the west.  Just offshore it was probably peaking in the region of 8 feet with a swell period of about 14 seconds.

Derek is taking quite a wide route around Point Le Fret, to avoid the breaks in the region of the reefs.  A good way to spend a Sunday morning.

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Beautiful day at St Brelades.  Plenty of people on the beach, with small surf rolling in at low water.

St Brelade's Church is probably in the finest location of any of the Islands churches and has been serving the local community for over a thousand years.

With lighter winds and rising temperatures there is the likelihood of some good sea kayaking over the next few days.

Sea kayaking Sunday morning - St Brelade's

The last Sunday morning session with the Jersey Canoe Club saw much warmer weather than we have been experiencing over the last few days.  Launching from St Brelade's the plan was to head towards Corbiere but it was necessary to take into consideration that we still had an 11+ metre Spring Tide and there was a swell approaching from the North Atlantic.

It was a reasonable turn out for the time of the year, there were 17 of us heading along the south coast of the Island, experiencing some constantly changing conditions.  We turned back just before Corbiere, spending some time working on skills, something we probably don't do frequently enough.  The Peregrine, which flew over whilst we were looking at edging was a real bonus. 

A pint sitting outside, at the end of the session, was a treat for the end of January.

 

 Passing through the gap between St Brelade's Bay and Beauport.  In the summer months this is one of my favourite places to stop and swim.  There are some great jumps off the rocks, particularly towards high water.

 Just entering Beauport, one of the most beautiful bays on the Island.  In the summer months there would be numerous boats at anchor in the bay but we had the water to ourselves today.  

 Approaching the Grosse Tete, just to the west of Beauport.  This was the first time that we had really appreciated the swell

 The swell was certainly arriving in sets. Pete Hargreaves and Peter Wrigglesworth certainly gained some altitude as the passed through the gap.

 Trespass Point, the tide was certainly starting to flow west.  The cliffs behind are a lovely climbing location, short steep routes and sheltered from the prevailing winds.

 We pulled into the bay under the Highlands Hotel.  This is where the Jersey Sea kayak Symposium was based last May.

 Corbiere seemed isolated today.  We decided not to go all the way to the lighthouse.  The swell arriving in sets, the speed of the flow and 17 members in the group, seemed to have the potential to become just a bit too interesting.

 We, therefore, decided to turn and head east along the base of the granite cliffs.

 Some late morning sunshine catching the granite.

 St Brelade's lies ahead.  We had only been out for 2 hours but it had certainly been a morning of contrasting water conditions.

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Mine and Nicky's kayaks ready to depart St Brelade's.  Lovely paddle to Corbiere although we turned back before the lighthouse because of the size of the swell and the speed of the tidal currents on the spring tide ebb.  17 paddlers from Jersey Canoe Club out on the water followed by out first apres paddle pint sitting outside at La Marquendarie Pub.  So much warmer than yesterday.

How far have I paddled?

Over the years I have come in for some ridicule as I have kept a kayaking log book. My first entry was in January 1979 and since that date I have made a record of every time that I have been in a canoe or a kayak.  Sometimes it might just be a brief note whilst at other times it might be a comprehensive record of where we parked the car, what the launch was like, any wildlife seen etc.  Due to the fact that I have kept the log book going for so long it has now become almost impossible to stop.

Earlier this year I was wondering to myself as to whether I paddled the equivalent of the circumference of the earth at the equator?  First of all how far is it around the equator.  Plenty of places will give you the distance in kilometres and statute miles, it was only after a bit of searching that I found the answer in nautical miles, it is 21639nm.  My log book records have always been in nautical miles so this was an important figure to find.

I then sat down with the log books and over a couple of hours completed a table. There were 5 columns, standing for year, sea kayak, sit on top, canoe/general purpose and total.  I passed the magical distance on the 19th May 2012 whilst on a trip out to the Paternosters.

So if you don't already keep a log book think about starting keeping a record of your paddling experiences, in a few years time it will make interesting reading.  I don't have a log book from 1969 to 1979 sadly, as there could be some interesting reading about a number of sea kayaking adventures, including being pulled of the water by Tito's police in the former Yugoslavia, as we naively thought it was alright to paddle on the sea in communist countries.

 The oldest picture I have scanned in.  The first trip to the Ecrehous, August Bank Holiday Sunday 1974.  Is it really 40 years since I first paddled out to the Ecrehous.  Possibly the best one day paddle anywhere.  This was probably the first ever organized paddle by the Jersey Canoe Club, which we had just formed.  This was 5 years before I started keeping a log book but it was a pretty memorable day.

A few months after I started keeping a log book.  An evening surf session in May 1979 at St Brelade's.  We were so proud of our KW7's.  So versatile, one day we would be rock hopping the next heading out to an offshore reef.

 One advantage of keeping a log book is that you are able to track your memorable paddles.  This is dawn on the morning of my 150th paddle to the Ecrehous, we are packing away before returning to Jersey.

The day that I passed the equivalent of the circumnavigation of the earth.  Getting ready to leave the Paternosters.

After the blizzard its time to paddle

After the snow it was time to head out kayaking again and to see how the Island had been transformed in the matter of a couple of days.  Nicky and myself took advantage of the early morning sunshine to launch from St Brelade's but it was obvious that the snow was already disappearing.  It was a beautiful 90 minutes out on the water, well worth the effort of digging the car out of the snow on the drive.

Nicky at St Brelade's.  Spring tides mean long carries.

 We headed east first towards La Cotte de St Brelade.  Probably the most important archaeological site in Jersey.  

 Looking into the heart of La Cotte de St Brelade.  More than a quarter of a million artefacts have been excavated at this site, which is proving crucial to our understanding of the Palaeolithic era in northern Europe.

From here we turned west towards Pt la Moye and the granite cliffs of the south west corner of the Island.

Pt la Moye, a popular destination with fishermen, not surprisingly we had the area to ourselves today.

Once we had been able to see Corbiere, we turned and headed back towards St Brelade's.

This is a great place to explore, on Sunday we had been scrambling and wading through the cave, which is just in front of the bow of the kayak.  Today though with a sea temperature below 7 degrees we wanted to keep as dry as possible.

 Beauport.  The 8 metre raised beach is visible at the back of the bay.  It is hard to imagine that this time last year people would have been sitting on this beautiful south facing beach.  Roll on the summer.

St Brelade's Bay

It was another bitterly cold day although the majority of yesterdays snowfall had disappeared.  There were just a few patches on some of the cliffs and beaches.  I decided to have a quick tour of the sights of St Brelade's Bay.  A bit of fresh air and exercise but the temperature was still hovering between 1 and 2 degrees so I decided to make it a fairly brisk paddle.  

In common with so many days this year low grey cloud seemed to suck the colour out of the landscape.  I don't actually think I have kayaked under blue skies or in sunshine so far this year.

 Approaching La Cotte de St Brelade, one of the major archaeological sites in Jersey.  Take a look here for further information

Snow lying on the beach is pretty rare in Jersey.

Pt Le Fret is often an ominous looking headland, and today with the low grey cloud was no exception.  The remnants of an Atlantic swell were dissipating their energy on the surrounding rocks so I took a slightly wider track than normal.

From Pt Le Fret it was possible to look east towards Noirmont but today my journey involved heading west.

From Pt Le Fret I headed offshore and west towards Corbiere.  The north easterly wind and ebbing tide certainly assisted my progress.  According to my GPS, I peaked at 7.7 knots although I noticed that I went above 7 knots on several occasions.

St Brelade's Bay looked quite distant and as I moved away from the shelter of the land the surface of the water became a bit more lively.  I saw 2 fishing boats but apart from those I had the sea to myself.

      

Beauport as it looks in the summer and as it looked today.