Cold?

In northern Sweden it's still winter. A frozen lake is no issue for this hard core kayak-roller in a Black Pearl-kayak: watch the chilling video-clip on Björn Thomassons weblog.

Freya talks...

... in Holland about her "Race around Australia": April, 27th.

1. update 6-4: Uitnodiging aangepast, entreeprijs bekend - plaatsreservering bij Kanoshop via e-mail.
2. update 7-4: Locatie lezing bekend, adres toegevoegd: Amersfoort.

The official invitation in Dutch language:

Uitnodiging

Lezing „Race Around Australia“

Een 332 dagen durende kajak tocht langs één van de meest afgelegen kusten ter wereld - gegarneerd met Haaien, Krokodillen en giftige zeeslangen, solo en zonder ondersteuning: Freya Hoffmeister (45) uit het Duitse Husum is geslaagd in iets wat vóór haar slechts éénmaal iemand eerder gelukt is; door een man met een begeleidingsteam, 27 jaar geleden.

Gemiddeld bracht ze 11 uur per dag op zee door en legde in die tijd zo'n 60 km af. Deze „extreme“ sportvrouw stak de Golf van Carpentaria over in slechts 8 dagen; een afstand van 576 km, waarbij ze op open zee in haar kajak sliep. Ze peddelde langs drie 180 km lange rotskusten, ook 's-nachts, zonder mogelijkheden tot aanlanden. Eén haai beet in het achterschip van haar kajak en liet daar behalve een tand ook een groot gat achter. Het doel dat ze wilde bereiken verdween echter nooit uit het zicht: Australië rondvaren, een heel continent. Twee „kleinere“ eilanden dienden als „opwarmertje“: IJsland en Nieuw-Zeeland (Zuidereiland), welke ze beide in recordtijd rond voer.

Freya zal op 27 April om 20.00 uur in Amersfoort een levendige en boeiende lezing verslag doen van haar spannende avonturen.

Entree 10 euro. Locatie is bar/restaurant Zandfoort aan de Eem, Kleine Koppel 20/21, 3812 PH Amersfoort.

Wil jij dit spannende avontuur meebeleven? Reserveer dan per mail je toegangskaarten via info@kanoshop.nl o.v.v: "Race Around Australia: naam – aantal kaarten en telefoonnummer".

Meer informatie op Freya's website: http://qajaqunderground.com

(Btw: nice co-production - picture and original text by Freya, translated by Axel, location tipped by Tom, logistics by Oskar, Paul and friends).

Between Helsinki and Taipei: Greenland clinic in Rheerzerveen - Holland

Tahe Marine Kayaks published a news item about the rolling clinics in Rheezerveen some weeks ago. Funny to see oneself pictured in the middle of items from all over the world. The initiator and organiser of the clinics was Freek. Kayak-centre Arend Bloem (since January, 1st : Arjan Bloem) supported the clinic with a demo kayak (the Tahe Marine Greenland Touring).

Where and when is this?

Any idea when and where this picture is taken? It's not Iceland... Let me help with some more pictures.
Perhaps the vegetation gives a clue?
These pictures are from my Catalonian friend Marc. This is the Mediterranean, the Costa Brava on March, 8th, 2010. Click here for an impression of the Costa Brava with a more agreeable Climate. That was last year. The Llanca-region: a great place to be!

Hairy legs - it's springtime!

Weather is fine this week. Today was the first day of the year I biked in shorts: a memorable moment. It's the cyclist's equivalent of "Rokjesdag" (in memory of the Dutch author Martin Bril). On the water it's also getting more enjoyable, more paddlers are getting active. With temperatures up to 20 degrees Celsius it's tempting to paddle in summer dress, but the water is still cold. For paddling on anything looking a bit like open water it's still drysuit-time!

Freya's interview on German TV is also online

Last week Freya Hoffmeister was talk-guest in a television-show on NDR- one of the regional German TV-channels. Freya was interviewed about her recent kayak-circumnavigation of Australia. Unfortunately NDR isn't transmitted by our local cable TV-provider. I missed it last Saturday ;-( No disaster: the broadcast is also on-line available in the NDR-Mediathek: click here for a direct-link. ;-)

Pact van Rede - inventory taking of the interests of seakayakers

In the past I focussed several times in this weblog on the significance of new regulations for the interests of the seakayakers in the Voordelta. In some aspects the Voordelta was a forerunner for the Wadden region. Also in the Wadden the authorities, NGO's and commercial parties are working on a (better/new) balance between the recreation and the nature interests. A new development, which probably will be a reality in one or two years, are the so called "gastheerschap-posten" on the sandbanks: places where hosts welcome and help the visitors of the Waddensea in developing a more sustainable recreational behavior... And there are more projects like this in the pipeline.

In the agreement "het Pact van Rede" parties agreed to develop a long term perspective on the combination of recreation and nature in the Waddensea. This starts with inventory taking of the interests of nature and recreation. There is a lot of knowledge about the favourite places and routes of birds and sea-mammals, but far less about the needs of the recreating water-sporters. To fill this gap the parties of the Pact van Rede want to produce a new map with the recreation-interests and opened a survey on the website http://pactvanrede.nl/
Off course this survey is soon to be officially announced along the communication-channels of the Dutch Kayak-sportsorganisations, but I publish it also here to reach as much (seakayak-)users of the Waddensea as possible (also the German and Belgian seakayakers who frequently paddle in the Dutch waddensea). The survey is held in Dutch, but I suppose that won't be to big a problem for our German guests. The survey is open until mid April, to fill in the survey you have to register at the website of the Pact van Rede first.

Here is the Dutch announcement:


Oproep aan Zeekajakkers op het Wad: Enquete naar gewenste droogvalplaatsen.

In het Pact van Rede hebben overheden en ondernemers, recreanten en natuurbeschermers met elkaar afgesproken een uitvoerbaar perspectief te ontwikkelen voor het samen laten gaan van natuurbescherming en recreatie op het Wad. Daarvoor loopt op dit moment een enquête waarin alle watersporters wordt gevraagd aan te geven op welke plekken op het wad zij graag varen en droog (zouden willen) vallen. Er is veel bekend over de locaties waar vogels en zeehonden graag verblijven. Men wil nu ook in kaart brengen waar mensen graag verblijven. De vraag is natuurlijk waar de twee belangen elkaar werkelijk in de weg zitten.http://pactvanrede.nl kan iedereen maximaal 5 locaties aangeven waar men droog zou willen vallen, zonder rekening te houden met de huidige regels die gelden op het wad. Om ook een goed beeld te krijgen van de voorkeuren van de zeekajakkers vraagt de NKB graag aandacht voor deze enquete. Meer informatie vind u op de website van het Pact van Rede. De website zal tot half april geopend zijn om uw droogvalwensen aan te geven. U kunt gegevens invoeren door eerst een account op de Pact van Rede-website aan te maken.

Joop Zoetemelk Classic 2010

In the summer of 1980 I got introduced to the working-life of an office-employee. To finance a bike trip to South-England I did a summer-job at the administration office of a technical warehouse. It was before the digital revolution: the office administration was completely paper based in those days. The main job of the people working at this department of the office was reading order forms, picking registration cards out of giant cabinets, writing mutations down at the cards, putting the cards back in the cabinet. As youngest employee I was placed at a desk in the outmost corner of the room and was given the responsible task of taking record of in and outgoing screws, bolts and nuts. Soon I learned the flow of order forms was never ending. Every morning there was a new stack of fresh order forms on my desk. I thought I had learned what office-life is about: eliminating stacks of order forms. How wrong I was.

In the second week the focus of the office changed. The radio was tuned to `Radio Tour de France`, and a complex schedule of pro-cycling-teams, cyclists and day-results appeared against the wall. The office became the nerve-centre for the company’s betting pool of the Tour the France. All day people passed by to discuss the latest news of the Tour. I knew little more than this was a bike-race in France, and I was impressed by the detailed knowledge of the colleagues about every single Tour-cyclist. Believing work was about order forms I focused on my screws, bolts and nuts and wisely neglected the Tour-madness. How dutiful I was.

It had to happen: one day one of the colleagues asked me who I thought would win the Tour this year. In all my naivety I answered: “Bernard Hinault”. On “Radio Tour de France” I had heard about Hinault’s previous achievements and in the first week of the Tour his performance was again very strong, so I supposed this would be a reasonable answer. How stupid I was.

I wasn’t aware of the impact this answer would have for the relation to my colleagues. My answer was impossible for these patriotic, Tour-addicts. For every Dutchman Joop Zoetemelk had to be the absolute favorite. I clearly placed myself in the outside position. From that moment I was called by the nickname the “Fransoos” . This came to a climax a week later when Hinault abandoned the Tour because of a knee-injury. The colleagues had a good laugh about the youngest employee at the desk in the corner of the office. At that time I didn’t think this was funny. Zoetemelk won the Tour de France in 1980. My summer-job learned me a bit about office work and a lot about sport fans and supporters.

Almost 30 years later: The Joop Zoetemelk Classic is a cyclo-sportive that passes his statue in Rijpwetering. Today I biked it with 2700 other cyclists and shook hands with Joop at the official ceremonies. A modest and friendly man that has become an icon in Dutch cycling history.

Joop Zoetemelk in the T-shirt of "Het Groene Hart Team"

3 men with a Greenland-style kayak...

The Greenland-style club and their hard chine kayaks from left to right: Rolf built and designed this glass-fibre Greenland-style kayak himself, Hakola built this skin-on-frame kayak for his son Andreas and Lars paddles a standard production Tahe Marine Greenland kayak.

I paddled the Valley Pintail kayak at the SAU-Spring-cleaning/training two weeks ago. Since the Valley Anas Acuta is broken, I paddle more often with the good old Pintail and I still find it a great kayak to paddle. But paddling next to Rolf, Hakola, Lars and Trenk (not in the picture, but paddling in an Anas Acuta...) in their beautiful Greenland-style kayaks, nostalgia gets me and I long for a hard-chine kayak again.
There is a new kayak waiting for me in Wormer...

3 fantastic kayaks with their proud owners: they're right!

Pilates for paddlers?

Tuesday is power yoga- and pilates-day in my weekly fitness routine. Our trainer isn't the Californian sunset-beach-girl Peggy of the video, but Maria is no less convinced and just as persistent. I really enjoy her workouts: it's all about core-stability, flexibility and balance: very essential for paddling. It facilitates holding an active paddling position and improves control and feeling for the boat. Pilates and Yoga make a better paddler. And it's just great fun to do these exercises. A welcome break of the day!

De snoek - the pike

Last year Natuurmonumenten opened a new visitors-centre in the Nieuwkoopse Plassen. This weekend I visited it for the first time. It's a shame: places of interest nearby home are often forgotten... The visitors-centre offers a good starting point for outdoor activities and exploring nature in our region. It's also an attractive place to take a break during a trip with a restaurant with a lovely view on the lake. There is a well made exposition about wild-life in the Nieuwkoopse plassen. This pike swims in one of the aquaria that offer an insight in the underwater-world of Nieuwkoop. Such an amazing fish!

Goeree: paddling around what used to be be an island

Sometimes I get a bit bored of paddling always the same routes in the Voordelta (the most nearby seakayak-destination). So René's invitation to explore a new route was very welcome. The idea was to circumnavigate "de Kop van Goeree". Paddling along de Kop van Goeree (from Stellendam to Springersdiep) is one of the standard seakayak-routes. It's not one of my favourites because it's a one-way trip: you paddle 20 km with a following tide and then have to return by car to the starting point (I don't like the hassle of parking and driving cars, picking up kayaks and paddlers etc.). René and I wanted to explore if it is possible to paddle back to the starting point. Of course you can wait till the tides turns and then paddle back, but that's a long time waiting and it means paddling twice the same track (boring!). We looked for an alternative: René had discovered on Google Maps inland canals crossing the island. Before paddling the route with members with his club Rene wanted to explore if it's manageable to do this inland crossing. There are some potential obstacles to overwin: varying from Delta-dykes, to dams, disabled locks, low bridges and unclear crossings with main-roads. A nice challenge!

This Saturday we proved: Goeree is an island, completely surrounded by water! We paddled all along the Goeree and had to get 5 times out of the water for a short portage. Mostly the water continued directly after the obstacle, but to cross the main road on the Brouwersdam and to avoid paddling in the nature reservate of the Schelphoek a longer walk with a kayaktrolley was needed.
In figures: the total circumnavigation was 35,8 km of which we paddled 21 km at the Northsea, 5 km at the Grevelingen (a former bay of the Northsea - that has become a saltwater-lake due to the Delta-works), 7 km at inland-canals and we walked 3 km with a kayak trolley.

The historical dimension to this circumnavigation: long ago Goeree was an island (this map dates from the year of 1581).

Wind 3-4 Bft. NW, temp. 5 degrees Celsius.

Marc's bothy bag...

Warning: this bag is not a toy.
To avoid danger of suffocation,
keep out of reach of babies and children.

It could have been an example of Dutch economy/Dutch greed - but it was a German who came with this low budget bothy bag....

"Saukalt": the Spring Cleaning event of the Salzwasser Union

SAU = the German seakayak association Salwasserunion.
Saukalt = popular German expression for "damn cold".

No sign of spring at this year's edition of the Spring Cleaning, the early season training of the Salzwasserunion. At the departure from the harbour of Harlesiel (for the crossing to the isle of Wangerooge) on Friday-afternoon, it started snowing. With a following wind (South force 5-6 Bft.) the crossing was good fun. Saturday was a sunny day, but cold with a strong breeze (now Northern) and temperatures below zero. Sunday the wind was gone, just a perfect winter day.

The central topic of the weekend was "the silent trip": strictly no word, no whistle form briefing till cool down. A fascinating experiment on different levels of communication (non verbal) and groups-dynamics (awareness of the individual members).

Thanks to Bernhard for the organisation of the Spring Cleaning and thanks to the Salzwasserunion for the invitation!

More pictures in the Picasawebalbum.