For the past six years William and I have spent our summers playing around in canoes in Sweden and at home here in Denmark, now William has been thrown in at the deep-end of kayaking….

This is only the second time he has been out in a kayak….. it looks like he is a natural…

Our few hours on a local lake turned out to be a bit of an attraction as William balanced on the back deck, kissed the boats nose, and did loads of self rescues, tourists in the many canoes clapped & took pictures

The ‘Play-boat” used was the Cetus LV, rather big for a boy of ten, but a good 15 liters of water secured in the day hatch helped to press the hull into the water.

Next week we will be heading to Sweden with some friends on a kayak trip with inbuilt games, popcorn & marshmellows roasted over a bonfire….. is there a better way to spend time together ?

optical communicationDNV – Det Norske Veritas, is an organization of unsurpassed reputation within risk managment. I have just completed several courses for some employees at the Copenhagen office. We started last year with a couple of one day sessions after they purchased 3 Capella kayaks for employees to use after work and at weekends, their office is just a couple of hundred meters from Tuborg Harbor. The sessions over the last two weeks have been for new people to get a good start with technique & to learn the basic safety drills.

Here we are using Easky 15 boats as well as an Easky 15LV, these boats are really great for getting people to relax on the water, even after a few short minutes, they are so stable and yet really easy to turn through 360 degrees, I am glad that the Scorpio is as agile as it is, otherwise it could be a bit of a challenge to weave in and out of the trainees…..
It has been great fun teaching safety to people that daily are working in risk management, getting them to see the relationship between good maneuvering skills and rescue drills

Just arrived home after a great weekend at Havkajakroernes spring meet. This year we travelled to Flensborg fjord that seperates Denmark & Germany, we stayed on Store Okseø, a small island 700m from the Danish mainland.

We had great weather, sunshine and upto 23c although a force 5 wind on Saturday did tire a few people out….

I taught a quick rescue session and led two trips with around thirty paddlers.

And no……. this was not part of the rescue session, it was a part of the morning session designed to get paddlers to get to know each other & work together

More images can be seen here

I will write more on my site later in the week

all the best from Denmark

MikeD

There’s nothing quite like waking up to a cup of well-brewed coffee while on expedition.  For me, it’s not a luxury, but a necessity for jump-starting my morning.  As with all my menu choices for sea kayaking trips, I try to strike a balance between ease of preparation, weight savings, minimal clean-up, and taste.

Since I’m a stickler for a good cup ‘o joe, I’ve tried just about every imaginable method for brewing coffee in the backcountry.   Here’s a quick run down on how to get the best possible caffeine fix on your next multi-day trip.

Click here to read how…

After returning from a hectic weekend of non-stop input & thought provocation, I am now filled with ideas and questions.

The European paddle pass systaem, has been adopted here in Denmark as in many other mainland european countries. After passing the L2 seakayak instructor exam last year, I have been waiting to find out how the coach training here in Denmark would be compared to coach training under the new BCU system. Well I arrived Friday evening to find five other trainees and three coaches, so from the very start it was an intensive process with such a high trainer to trainee ratio. Denmark has more than its fair share of top instructors with a diverse background. Over the course of the weekend we worked on:

• The 5 B’s
• VAK
• Coaching
• Levels (What seperates a level 2 paddler from a level 3 paddler etc.)
• Assessment
• Feedback

During Sunday morning the 6 trainees delivered a 20 minute session that we had prepared before arriving on the course, it was great fun and really exciting, it is not that often that you get to teach 5 other coaches & 3 top trainers.

It was great to see two other trainees in matching Bahiyas (The Bahiya boys….. .)

I will post more about the weekend and the VAKs, Bs and other starnge sounding subjects on my own site as time allows.

I am hoping to get out to play in the Scorpio LV again over the next three or four days, and decided to remind myself of my first-impressions of the boat last November:

The LV is very much a LOW Volume version of the Scorpio, looking at them side by side the LV is much lower volume, the back deck is a whole 7cm lower, the front deck 3cm lower, 2cm narrower…. and 7cm shorter. After testing the Scorpio, I really have been looking forward to this LV version.

The conditions I tested in were around force 5 building to a light 6, with confused waves of between 1 – 1.5m of coldish 9c water….. winter is on the way !

Well, the LV is rather a different beast than the standard Scorpio in my opinion. You are still getting a reletivly high initial stability, although as soon as you start to edge the LV you can really feel the difference that the 2cm reduction in width, it is not unstable, just rather more lively. Edging still produces carved turns, it only requires a few sweep strokes to turn a full 360. If anything bow rudders are more effective than the already great Scorpio, cross-bow rudders are extremely quick and aggressive, you just have to be a bit more careful to allow for the little livlier attributes of the narrower hull. Low brace turns are very quick whilst it is possible to lean the boat more or less completly on its side, this produces a radical turn of well over 90 without feeling unduly unstable. In the waves it is very easy to manouver into any position with ease. In short steep waves the bow has a more relaxed feel to it than in the full size boat, a considerable amount of volume has been taken out of the bow area. Windage has been greatly reduced, but then again, so has space to load up for extended trips… After extensive play with the skeg up, I lowered the blade into the sea, not because it was necesary, just to see how the LV would react. it seemed to bring a calming influence to the whole experience, I could now without much discomfort stow the paddle & eat a bannana whilst just watching the horizon disapear only to show-up again a few seconds later.
The only area that did suprise me was that it did not seem any quicker at catching waves, to be fair, trying to surf short steep waves is not easy so….. I will be looking forward to a surf session in the next few weeks.

Well I never did get out for the surf session, and the forecast is for light winds over the next few days, so I will be experimenting with the boats edging & turning performance…… and finally enjoying a little spring sunshine

Mike

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Coming in January 2009! The Golden Gate Sea Kayak Symposium.

January 9th, 10th & 11th will mark the first Symposium of it’s kind on the west coast. With a quiver full of Professional Coaches and a format of the finest instruction possible, this event will rock the US Sea Kayaking Community with professional education and enthusiasm everyone has been waiting for.

Don’t miss this one of a kind event, in a one of a kind location!

See you there, Captain Penguin

Come join Ben Lawry and Garth Schmeck for a dynamic educational clinic on the Sacramento River. (more…)

Where the heck is the nose of your kayak? Are you looking at it or are you feeling it? These are questions I constantly ask my sea kayaking students when paddling in strong currents or crossing eddylines. (more…)

I recently followed a lengthy debate on a popular paddling forum regarding the pros and cons of rescue stirrups (aka rescue slings).    A rescue sling is a device used to help a swimmer who can’t seem to pull themselves up onto their boat during a rescue.     Although I’d definitely consider a stirrup to be  a last resort, there are times as a guide that a stirrup has proven a quick and effective way of getting a cold and tired paddler back in their boat.

(more…)