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.

Channel Island Sea Kayaking

A few pictures of sea kayaking around the Channel Islands, mostly from about 30 years ago or slightly older.  The difference in shape of the images is because the earlier ones were taken with a Kodak Instamatic camera (remember those?) before I had a job which paid enough money to be able to buy a 35mm camera.

In all the time that we spent paddling around the Channel Islands in the 1970's and 80's I don't think we ever bumped into any other sea kayakers, it really did feel like an era of exploration.

 This is returning to Jersey (visible behind the paddlers) from Sark in June 1979.  Note the old style hatches.

 Another image from the Sark paddle in 1979, in those days the only sea kayak which we considered having was a Nordkapp HM.  If you could afford it you had Lendal Nordkapp paddles with wooden blades, if not you just used your standard Wild Water paddles.

 Heading north from Jersey, the island is Sark, which was our original destination but we changed part of the way across and decided to go to Guernsey instead.  The paddler is Derek Hairon who now runs Jersey Kayak Adventures.

 Arrival at Bordeaux in Guernsey on our day trip from Jersey.  What had planned to be a gentle paddle turned into a 40 nautical mile day trip.  In the distance can be seen Herm (left), Jethou (right) and Sark just visible between the two.  On the return journey we stopped off at Herm to phone through to our parents to let them know that we were going to be late home and the telephone box still had buttons A and B to press.

The summer of 1982, I was getting married and so distant holidays were out of the question but we had a great two weeks paddling around the Channel Islands.  This is Port au Moulin on the west coast of Sark in August 1982.

Havre Gosselin, on the west coast of Sark  This was on an Advanced Sea Assessment in May 1983.  The Nordkapp HM still dominated the kayaks in use in the Channel Islands.  This photograph was used on the front cover of Canoeist Magazine.

 Leaving Creux Harbour, Sark in December 1983.  We left Greve de Lecq, on the north coast of Jersey,  in the dark and crossed the 12 nautical miles to Sark.  The idea was to purchase duty free drink for Christmas and we had a significant number of orders.  Unfortunately the shops were shut so that part of the paddle failed.  We did managed to find a toasted cheese sandwich before returning to Jersey and landing back at Greve in the dark.

 In the 1980's I was busy running lots of training and assessment courses for the BCU Senior Instructor Award.  This was December 1983 on the south coast of Guernsey.  The paddler in blue is Ron Moore, a superb coach and legendary speaker who was based in Plymouth, who is sadly no longer with us.

Another BCU training course in October 1984.  This is at Havelet, just south of St Peter Port.  Plastic kayaks had made an appearance, although Brian Aplin is still paddling what looks like a fibre glass KW7.  It was Brian who I accompanied on his swim a couple of months ago, from Lihou to the Hanois.

The Minquiers in September 1985.  We visited this reef to the south of Jersey as a day trip whilst training for the Canoe Club paddle we were planning for the following summer when we kayaked from Tromso to Honnigsvag, around Nordkapp.

In the 1980's I ran a canoeing (kayaking) school in Jersey but we used to do lots of trips away.  This is crossing from Guernsey to Herm in perfect conditions in July 1989.

 1989 saw the arrival of the Aleut II, designed a built by Howard Jeffs.  I still have this kayak.  It opened up a number of possibilities.  Pete Scott and myself attempted to paddle around the Channel Islands but it also meant that some people could undertake paddles that they might not have done on their own.  This is two of the younger Club members heading down the east coast of Sark in June 1990.

 I think this was still a Senior Instructor course, we hadn't quite become Level 3 coaches.  This is launching down the steep slipway in Saints Bay Guernsey in October 1990.  I was amazed that we survived all these courses because nobody had heard of risk assessments etc.  What I do remember was that there was always a huge element of fun.

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.

Jersey Canoe Club 40th Anniversary Dinner

The Jersey Canoe Club was formed towards the end of the summer of 1974 and so the Club is holding its Anniversary Dinner,  at the Corbiere Phare, the scene of the meal at this years Jersey Sea Kayak Symposium.  We need a range of resources and images, which reflect the history of the Club.  Whilst looking through some of the thousands of slides, which I carefully labelled over many years I decided to scan a few, as they reflected the paddling scene of over 20  years ago.  

Here are a few taken on the west coast of Canada as the explosive growth in sea kayaking in North America was just to take off.

 Sea-Trek Sports were based in Sidney, on Vancouver Island.  Gord Hutchins was the owner and over a few year years I visited on numerous occasions to run BCU courses.  This is the shop fron in September 1994.

 Gord had some great kayaks.  This is the Nordkapp HM I used at lunch spot on Sidney Spit.

 Gord also had a number of Inuk kayaks, designed by British paddler Rob Feloy.  Fast and easy to roll.

We also paid a visit to Race Rocks, at the eastern end of the Strait of Juan de Fuca.  Built from Scottish granite in 1859-60 it was still manned when we paid this visit, not becoming automatic until 1997.  I was just amazed by the number of sea lions and Turkey Vultures that we saw that day. 

The following autumn saw another visit to Canada after going to the Port Townsend Symposium.  This is Lisa and Sarah on an overnight trip to Rum Island.

Another family visit in 1997 and on a six day trip around the Gulf Islands we saw a number of pods of Orca's.  This one is sneaking up on Pete Midwood, paddling a double with one of his young daughters.

 We also headed north up Vancouver Island and in one long day trip of 30 nautical miles visited the old settlement of Mamalilikulla, complete with old totem poles.

Rainy Rozel

The easiest thing to do this morning would have been to turn the alarm off and roll over, as the rain hammered down on the conservatory roof and the trees swayed in the south westerly force 6.  Fortunately I resisted the temptation and headed east towards Rozel.

This small bay is located on the north east of the Island and is potential departure point for trips to the Ecrehous but today the paddling agenda involved a trip along the coast, to the west.  Conditions were not ideal photography and I ended up deleting more than twice as many as I kept but they give a flavour of sea kayaking off the north east coast of Jersey on a rainy Sunday morning in November.

A rather grey start to the day on the beach at Rozel. 

Approaching Bouley Bay.

L'Etacquerel Fort didn't look particularly appealing on this November Sunday morning.  Built in 1835-6 to defend the eastern side of Bouley Bay, it is available for rent for accommodation.

 Approaching the Jersey Canoe Club cottage at Egypt.  It was areal surprise to see how much the trees had grown.  The small building used to be clearly visible from the sea.  Probably time for some gardening.

 We have been fortunate over the last couple of months to have a number of Tiderace sea kayaks on the Island, for people to try out, thanks to Paul at Seaborne.  Chester from Absolute Adventures is trying out the Xcite-S.

 This is a really poor photograph but I have put it in as it represents one of the highlights of the day.  At the top of the photograph there is a small fin, which is all that I managed to capture of a sunfish which swam through the group.  In 45 years of messing about on the sea this is only the third sunfish that I have seen.

 Entering the harbour at Rozel, the small pier was built in 1829 to provide shelter for those boats engaged in the oyster fishing industry, which could not be accommodated in Gorey.  As if ordered the rain ceased and the sun came out so that it was very pleasant getting changed and a dry walk to the Rozel Bay Hotel for a welcome pint.