Any club paddlers interested in an evening working with the Lerwick Lifeboat please let us know ASAP. Could be as soon as Monday 8th and would be between 7pm and 9pm. Details on the forum.
Month: June 2013 Page 1 of 2
Thursday saw a large turnout of paddlers again, and the evening was shaping up to be a stunning one with winds due to fall away as the evening went on. With one thing and another, it was decided to split into two groups. One group of seven did some canoe sailing down from Bridge End, the other 20+ paddlers went to Hamnavoe and a trip round the isles.
Turned out a lovely night!
Normal Thursday, meet Bridge End. Coaches will confirm what’s happening at 6.45pm
Check out the forum, there’s a link on the left side bar of the website or just go here and sign up. It will take a little time after that for us to catch up with you and activate the account. It’s still early days in it’s use, please bear with us and help it become as useful as possible. If you try signing in after a day or so after you set up your account, email me back and I’ll try and sort it.
There’ll also be a heads-up on the website and facebook pages if I know about it. If it’s me, there’ll also be details on the forum.
Don’t forget, no session this Tuesday as there’s not enough coaches available
Grabbing a quick weather window, a group of five of us (Bryan, Jim, Fiona and Steve plus myself) took the opportunity for a few hours paddling. Swell forecast wasn’t great and some of us weren’t wanting too late a night, so a shortish paddle in a relatively sheltered area was in order! Unfortunately the swell was in completely the wrong direction for the really good caves on the Northwest side of Muckle Roe, so thought we’d give the south side a go. Great evening despite not being able to go into the best caves on the south side either. Good way to spend the Simmer Dim.
Photo looking out into St Magnus Bay, taken just off of Picts Ness by Fiona.
This trip was organised through the club forum and was open to all club members.
Ever wonder what 28 paddlers setting off from Bridge End would look like? This week we found out!
With a good number of coaches and assistants, the beginners group did its first real trip this week. Conditions were ‘Shetland Breezy’ as we set out under from Bridge End and snuck south, hugging the east side of Lang Sound, did a quick regroup before entering Stream Sound and into what we knew was going to be the windy section of the trip. Trying to paddle NE while the wind came from S/SSE was guaranteed to be ‘interesting’ and the section between Kalee Ness and Hjogaland definitely tested comfort levels!
Despite getting a bit unnerved, and some a bit wetter than others, we all ended up sitting in the middle of Clift Sound and managed to stay more-or-less together as a group as we came under the bridge into East Voe and the get-out point at the Marina.
Prior planing and preparation meant a number of cars and the trailer were waiting there for us as we queued up to get off of the water, and the ensuing chaos of trying to get all 28 off of the water and back to Bridge End was well managed by all.
Everyone played their part and provided help carrying kayaks around, giving lifts back to BE and so on, which is all about being a group member on a trip. I would just like to thank Chris, Craig, Debs, Angus, Jim, Iain D and Iwan, without whom it really couldn’t have happened.
Just had an email from Nick in Orkney, still time to book for anyone that’s interested.
It’s a similar set up to our very own symposium and tries to have something for every level of paddler. There’s very few ways to boost your paddling skills to match the experience you gain in this sort of weekend, and it’s so physically close to us it’s a shame not to go. (…and you don’t even have to take the car…)
Those who’ve been before have found it a great weekend and learnt a lot!
In discussion with Angus, possibly looking at paddling from Bridge End to Scalloway Marina as this Thursday’s session. As we’re going to have to arrange shuttle for drivers to get back from Scalloway to Bridge End meet at Scalloway Marina between 6.30pm and 6.45pm to sort lifts out.
You will also now need to be considering the cost of transporting the kayaks on the trailers. This will be the third season that the Club fees have been set at £2 for local trips/ £4 for further afield for using the trailer.
Keep up to date with what’s going on with the next Symposium by visiting our facebook page Shetland Sea Kayak Symposium 2014 or you can of course speak directly to any of the organising committee for 2014 – Chris, Wendy,Vaila and Iain! Further details to follow…