sea kayaking - does it appeal to you

dylanwinter

dylanwinter

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www.keepturningleft.co.uk
while travelling around the top this summer I saw a lot of sea kayakers

until I saw the cliffs and sea caves of scotland I never understood why they did it

I do now

have any of you sailors had a go?

is it frightening?

the caves and rocks that close must be amazing

D
 
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I always wanted to do it (I am a capable kayaker & can eskimo roll) but never persuaded my canoeing pals to invest 200 quid in a reasonable use sea boat. You really need to go in at least 2 or 3 experienced people together so you can self rescue in the event of failing to roll for some reason. In experienced hands a kayak is the most sea worthy craft possible for rough water & surf. It's the only unpowered craft I would take into the swellies at mid-tide (& have done) just for the fun of playing in the rapids.
 
Its great fun

I've only done day trips but have mates who have gone for much longer trips

You are very intimate with the water/wildlife/rocks/cliffs/caves/beaches etc

I took a bit of getting used to kayaking and trusting that i wouldn't tip over all the time, but have been doing it since i was a kid

Excellent in waves, at times it almost feels like swimming, going thru the waves etc

Perfect for west coast of scotland - fairly short often sheltered hops and stunning scenery. Easy to pull up on beach at other end, ie monach isles etc. i'm not so sure about eg st kilda seems a bit hard core (tho interesting!) or even the two guys who kayaked to the faroes from lewis a couple of years ago... Shades of frank dye
 
Ps we borrowed a shorter one - lighter, easier to get on/off the side deck, and easier for the kids (and big kids!) to use in anchorages, than a trad 5m sea kayak. Got a £100 sevylor also, stops squabbling about three kids wanting to share one kayak
 
I have a sea/touring kayak, which I only really use on rivers (particularly ones that are not supposed to be navigable). Would love to go on the sea, but need to learn to Eskimo roll and find others of similar ability to get out and try it.
 
As first timer's we had a week's holiday in Dartmouth with Sea Kayak Devon,after a simple capsize drill on Day 1 no accidental capsizes thereafter and a foray out to the estuary mouth and beyond slipping through and around rocks and a cave;curious seals came to inspect us. Each trip about 3-4 miles and no sweat as we used the tides to best advantage

Ben, the principal and no connection to us, is a really nice guy and will show you the ropes and of course provide the gear/sea kayaks (polyprop kayaks, not composites, best for bashing around rocks).

We had a really great time and it felt so extraordinary to be able to reach out and touch rocks even with gentle waves knocking us gently into contact with them.

The downside? Well, I found sitting for a couple of hours at a time in a relatively fixed position required a beaching from time to time to stretch legs and have a pee; getting in and out tested my agility a little but other than that, no problems.
 
I distinctly remember walking along Brighton Beach one day thinking, ' a bit lumpy for sailing today' and then seeing two blokes and a girl from Brighton Sea Kayak Club come hurtling through the surf from seaward like multi coloured Torpedoes. Hard core, I'm just a wimp..:o :D
 
I was just thinking - all I would need to do is insure myself for a lot of money, go sea-kayaking and disappear, then get the missus to claim the insurance and we'd meet up again in a foreign country and enjoy the proceeds. What could possibly go wrong?
 
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parsifal said:
I was just thinking - all I would need to do is insure myself for a lot of money, go sea-kayaking and disappear, then get the missus to claim the insurance and we'd meet up again in a foreign country and enjoy thge proceeds. What could possibly go wrong?
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I think you have blown your chances now.
 
parsifal said:
I was just thinking - all I would need to do is insure myself for a lot of money, go sea-kayaking and disappear, then get the missus to claim the insurance and we'd meet up again in a foreign country and enjoy the proceeds. What could possibly go wrong?
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Possible. Just keep away from cameras.
 
I went kayaking and wild camping for a week last year in the Stockholm archipelago.

Absolutely wonderful. Stunning scenery, clean air, and we barely saw another human for the whole week.

Just me and five very capable women (one a former member of the GB kayaking team, the others all fairly serious outdoor types).

I'd love to do more.
 
NealB said:
I went kayaking and wild camping for a week last year in the Stockholm archipelago.

Absolutely wonderful. Stunning scenery, clean air, and we barely saw another human for the whole week.

Just me and five very capable women (one a former member of the GB kayaking team, the others all fairly serious outdoor types).

I'd love to do more.
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I'm surprised you have any blood left! My memories of wild camping in Sweden are always tainted with mozzies the size of sparrows! The Swedes with us were immune and used to let them land, carefully pick them off by their wings, burn off the proboscis with a lit fag (it was the 1980,s) and let them go to starve to death! Nice eh!
 
dylanwinter said:
is it frightening?

the caves and rocks that close must be amazing

D
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Over the past few years I have done quite a lot of sea kayaking but sailing seems to be taking over again. The huge advantages are that you put the boat on top of the car and off you go to somewhere interesting and - as you say - that you get very close to the rocks, rather than staying a mile or two out. The lift of a swell as you go over a rock is a great feeling. I have acted as support to paddlers going between NI and Scotland and NI and the IoM, so there is also an attraction to long distance paddling. I know a few ex sailors who kayak in preference to sailing because of these advantages. What I found, getting on in life, was that it was very good exercise without impact: when I paddle my joints don't creak as much in the morning.

New kayakers do seem to be a bit frightened of going over (I remember my own white knuckles) but the secret is to go out with others who are experienced and can get you back into your boat (not difficult). I am not a natural club joiner, but found that being in one was great: loads of trips organised and plenty of training and support. I don't think it is a sport which is best self taught. It is therefore quite a social activity - the club I was involved with would have both small groups of friends or larger groups of 20 or so going out.

There are big plastic baths floating about (called, 'sit-on-tops') which are hard to paddle and control. A proper sea kayak (ideally a grp one around 17 foot long) is a different animal - it glides along and you can easily do 20 km in a day.

It does require a goodly bit of equipment (and some people find it hard to store a long kayak) but there are plenty of providers who will take you out for a day or so. My own club has boats which are used for new members so that they don't have to spend money until they are sure they want to do more of it.

ps - the photo of the beacon for my avatar was taken from my sea kayak a few weeks ago.

pps - one club member is always putting up YouTube videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvyMJ_nhMj4 He prefers a strong wind from the stern. It doesn't always have to be as windy as this ...
 
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dgadee said:
Over the past few years I have done quite a lot of sea kayaking but sailing seems to be taking over again. The huge advantages are that you put the boat on top of the car and off you go to somewhere interesting and - as you say - that you get very close to the rocks, rather than staying a mile or two out. The lift of a swell as you go over a rock is a great feeling. I have acted as support to paddlers going between NI and Scotland and NI and the IoM, so there is also an attraction to long distance paddling. I know a few ex sailors who kayak in preference to sailing because of these advantages. What I found, getting on in life, was that it was very good exercise without impact: when I paddle my joints don't creak as much in the morning.

New kayakers do seem to be a bit frightened of going over (I remember my own white knuckles) but the secret is to go out with others who are experienced and can get you back into your boat (not difficult). I am not a natural club joiner, but found that being in one was great: loads of trips organised and plenty of training and support. I don't think it is a sport which is best self taught. It is therefore quite a social activity - the club I was involved with would have both small groups of friends or larger groups of 20 or so going out.

There are big plastic baths floating about (called, 'sit-on-tops') which are hard to paddle and control. A proper sea kayak (ideally a grp one around 17 foot long) is a different animal - it glides along and you can easily do 20 km in a day.

It does require a goodly bit of equipment (and some people find it hard to store a long kayak) but there are plenty of providers who will take you out for a day or so. My own club has boats which are used for new members so that they don't have to spend money until they are sure they want to do more of it.

ps - the photo of the beacon for my avatar was taken from my sea kayak a few weeks ago.
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Absolutely spot on.

It does worry me that the RNLI keeps reporting "kayakers rescued" when one of a small (allegedly experienced) group comes out of their boat & ends up in distress. There are simple rescue techniques (X & H rescues are taught by the BCU) and we used to say stay in the boat & bang under the hull & a colleague will put their bow to your hand so you can easily roll up without specialist skills.

It seems people just bale out immediately & then have no idea how to empty the boat & get back in. Its all explained very well in the BCU Manual.
 
Agree with Dylan, they are becoming a lot more common on the west coast. They seem to fall into two groups, parties of a dozen or so that you see near centres of civilisation and then smaller groups that turn up in even quite remote anchorages. They are obviously very seaworthy as sometimes you can see them on islands quite a way off the mainland. These must be larger kayaks as they have tents onboard. They must have quite a lot of space as the last party we saw, arrived and set up their individual tents and then proceeded to erect a communal shelter which they used as the bbq and eating area. Have always thought that apart from the ability to nosey into little places you could never take a yacht it must be quite cosy to have all your kit onboard.

The only downside is the midges, these do not seem to like to fly over water so we can be on land and being eaten alive and then get into the dinghy and escape leaving the kayakers at their mercy. A campfire must be totally essential.
 
I wonder how good those inflatable kayaks are? They would be ideal to stow away onboard and use when anchored off some interesting geological feature.
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Depends, like everything else upon what you're gonna use it for and is it of a suitable quality for that use. I have a very durable whitewater capable inflatable, bounces off rocks because that is what it was designed/built to do. The cheaper ones are little better than a poolside lilo and are about as strong as a plastic carrier bag. Wind is the big spoiler with inflatable kayaks, they sit high on the water and get blown about. Inflatables are usually not very long and that makes for hard work paddling any distance. That said with a good paddling technique you can paddle for hours at a reasonable pace and should not tire edit: you just won't get very far. So inflatables are handy for spur of the moment adventures in calm/windless conditions. However if I've any distance I want to cover I'll take one of my wooden ones every time.
 
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We did a great deal of sea kayaking before taking up sailing. Did a week's course at Plas-y-Brenin, then paddled a good deal, especially north-west coast of Wales. This was quite a few years ago when sea kayaks were a lot rarer than they are now and all of our trips were done in slalom boats when they were far less extreme than they are now. I made slip-on skegs that gave a bit more directional stability to them. Derek Mayes, who was our P-y-B instructor, crossed the Irish Sea in a slalom boat, unsupported, with one companion. Some of my most memorable trips were South Stack in mid-ebb against a SW wind, big overfalls, and out to the Skerries from Holyhead on the flood, back on the ebb, nearly run down by the race fleet out of Holyhead SC.
 
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