Greenland Rolling demo at the Costa Brava

Lars made this nice video of the rolling demo at the Pagaia Symposium in Llanca, 2 weeks ago. The demo was a very international happening: Speaker was Doug van Doren from the States, the rollers were Lars and Bernhard from Germany, Marc from Catalonia, Manolo from Galicia and Hans from the Netherlands.
It was fun to do. I had some slight reserves about doing a demo for public with a borrowed kayak (I had tried the kayak I was rolling in only in the 5 minutes direct before the demo started...). But the kayak worked fine - "don't blame your kayak" - I could only blame myself that in the hurry I had forgotten to put on my PFD. I wasn't dressed in a tuiliq but in a drysuit, and for the more tricky hand-rolls I find the extra flotation of a tuiliq or PFD welcome.

A visit to Bruxelles

There is no paddling planned this weekend. The Easter weekend is reserved for a city visit with partner and kids. But we did discover a kayak in the centre of Bruxelles: in the Army Museum, a double kayak of the Belgian Special Forces unit. The black wetsuits are cute.

First pictures of the IV Pagaia Symposium in Llanca

It's so decadent: today I returned from a weekend in Spain, where I attended the Pagaia Seakayak Symposium. It was great fun to paddle along the Catalonian coast, to meet the Mediterranean paddlers and to give workshops with an international team of Sea Kayak Instructors. I enjoyed the company of my good friend Bernhard. Most of all it's the relaxed and friendly atmosphere that makes this event so unique. The people of Club Pagaia did a marvellous job in organising the symposium. Big compliments to Jose, Dominique, Francesc, Pau, Anna, Marc, Lorea, Stephan and all the people of the organizing committee!
I'll report more detailed later this week: first an impression with some pictures (I only made a few pictures, most with the mobile phone - I had left my camera home to stay within the weight-limit for the flight back..).

Pagaia Symposium

In 11 days I catch a flight to Spain for the IV edition of the Catalonian Sea kayak Symposium. The program of the workshops and course is now published on the website of the symposium. Kayakclub Pagaia has invited an international team of coaches. I am scheduled to give workshops on Incident management, Assisted- and self-rescues and Greenland style rolling. I am looking forward for a fantastic weekend!

The official invitation of Club Pagia:

Hello kayakers!

Our Club Pagaia is a small non-profit organisation, funded and formed by enthusiastic and dynamic people, always willing to do more for the sea kayak world at a national level. This very same will and illusion has taken us to organise this IV Edition of the Seak Kayak Symposium.

We are contacting you as this spring, the IV Edition of the Seak Kayak Symposium will kick off in Llançà (Costa Brava) from the 16th until the 18th of April 2011- The objective is to extend and improve our knowledge on technique, theory and practice of navigation, reinforce the values that kayaking gives us and to connect with nature while discovering our beautiful surroundings. In this occasion, we can confirm the attendance and participation of the following international paddlers: Nigel Foster, Nigel Dennis, Phil Clegg, Manuel Pastoriza, C&F Claeys, Bernhard Hillejan, Jean Marc Terrade, Eduardo Rodriguez, Pau Calero and many more participants.

As you know, we share this same passion and you actively work in the kayaking world. We would like to request your assistance spreading the word and sharing our project with others. We think that a good way of making this happen is inserting a Symposium logo-link on your home page or wherever you see relevant. In exchange, we would add your logo/link in the Symposium’s website, in the friends’ links section.

You will find further information by click on the below link. This section is updated on a daily basis:

http://www.pagaia.cat/sympo


With your help on this, our invitation will travel farther and reach other kayakers. With your participation, you are increasing our success, ensuring the project will continue to grow.

We hope you welcome our initiative with as much passion and enthusiasm as we are preparing this event. We would really appreciate your collaboration on making this event bigger and the love for kayaking stronger.

Please do not hesitate to contact us anytime and direct suggestions or comments to comunicacio@pagaia.cat

Kind regards and força a la pagaia!


Symposium Comitee



IV Symposium Internacional Sea Kayak

Pagaia - Club de Caiac Cap de Creus

www.pagaia.cat/sympo