Tiderace Xcite Classic - an impression

The Xcite is designed as a fast yet manoeuvrable coastal touring kayak. According to its designers the kayak is "at home playing in rough water, equally comfortable carving turns through rock gardens, the Xcite has ample storage for week long trips. Its high stability and quick turning response make this boat a joy for those paddlers looking to improve their skills and take on advanced conditions".

During the paddling week in Spain with Lieke, I paddled a (black and white) Tiderace Xcite Classic, one of the Test-kayaks of SK Kayaks in Llanca. A week is too short for a full review, but I spent enough hours paddling the kayak for a good impression.

Fitting the kayak on the beach, I was impressed by the volume of the Xcite, and a bit afraid it might be too voluminous for me (1,82 m, 73 kg) - as I was planning to do in Spain mainly day-trips with the kayak. Once on the water the high volume was immediately forgotten: due to the ergonomics of the cockpit, the contact with the boat is excellent and the hull shape with a lot of rocker the Xcite is very responsive on body movements (edging, leaning) and paddle power. It accelerates quickly, it is reactive like a much smaller kayak, but it has the cruising speed of a 17 foot-kayak. The kayak is easy to roll: the low back deck makes lay-back rolling easy, the high knee position facilitates forward-rolling. The large cockpit is a delight on rocky shores: it's very comfortable (and safe) to be able to get your legs out of the cockpit before landing! At the rougher moments (winds up to 5 Bft.)on our trip, the boat tracked well in wind, wave and chop.

From the first moment I found it a pleasure to paddle the Xcite. After a week I started to appreciate it even more: it's not only a playful boat that gives confidence in the rough stuff, but also a comfortable tourer with enough load capacity and a appropriate cruising speed for long camping trips. It does what the designer promises!

About the built quality: the finish is excellent. The test-kayak was a "Classic" - (=Tideraces standard), featuring a high tech lay-up with reinforcements and coremat constructions to increase stiffness on the critical spots. This results in a very stiff (and probably strong, but that's difficult to examine for a simple tester) yet light kayak.

Tiderace wasn't represented in the Netherlands for a long time, just recently the Kanoshop started a dealership. Congrats to Wendy and her team ;-)

SKUK (NDK) Pilgrim - an impression

The Pilgrim is designed by SKUK (Nigel Dennis kayaks) with the smaller or slimmer paddler in mind. Viewed from a distance the kayak looks like a shrunken Romany or Explorer. It shares much of the characteristics of these larger brothers in the SKUK kayak-range. The hull shape, the shape of the deck, the lay-out of the decklines, the key-hole cockpit, the sloping bulkhead, the position of the skeg-control – it’s all familiar, just quite a lot smaller: the Pilgrim 480 cm long, 50 cm wide and has a total volume of 250 l (especially this last figure is very low, compared to a standard seakayak).

Lieke is a slender teenage-girl (ca. 1.70 m long, weight below 50 kg). She is rather sporty, has a good endurance, but she is not very strong and she hasn’t got a lot of seakayak-experience either. She paddles occasionally with her father, but not very often: kids need time for their own hobbies, sports, friends (and school ;-).

To be short: Lieke managed exceptionally well to control the Pilgrim. She could easily turn the kayak around in a few paddle strokes. She also had no problem to hold it on a course, even without deploying the skeg. Mostly we paddled in calm conditions, but occasionally the wind increased and we paddled in winds up to 5 Bft, in waves of 2-3 feet high and even met some clapotis on the headlands of the rocky Costa Brava shoreline. In all conditions Lieke was comfortable in the kayak. The more lively the water got, the more fun she had with it. For one part this will be due to the “unlimited confidence” of a daughter in her father, but I think for the bigger part this is a compliment for the designers of the Pilgrim. Lieke was paddling with the kayak, not the kayak with her. The team of Nigel Dennis has done a successful job in creating an expedition-ready kayak for the smaller paddler!

About the speed of the kayak: Lieke herself was sometimes a bit disappointed that she couldn’t paddle as fast as her father did. But that’s not a fair comparison: I am (older), larger, stronger, more experienced and trained in paddling - and I was paddling a kayak with defintely a longer waterline. Lieke paddled a decent pace and covered (untrained) easily distances up to 20 km a day. I think this says enough about the glide of the kayak.

The yellow Pilgrim test-kayak is a standard SKUK dioleen copy. This stands for a straightforward layout, solid and rugged. It was no problem to carry the Pilgrim on the shoulder – compared to my own kayaks this is a light kayak. Of course that will be more due to its size than because of the layup. All the hatches stayed bone-dry and the skeg functioned flawless.



In the Netherlands SKUK kayaks are distributed by Zeekajaks.nl (Axel and Nico).

A brief impression of 2 British-style seakayaks

Lieke and I were “travelling light” on our recent kayak-holiday in Catalonia. We didn’t bring along our own gear, but we rented kayaks and equipment at the local seakayak-centre. Pau and Marc from SK Kayak in Llanca provided us with excellent gear. We paddled 2 kayaks of the demo-fleet: a SKUK Pilgrim for Lieke (the yellow kayak on the picture) and a Tiderace Xcite Classic for me.
Paddling along the Costa Brava was a nice opportunity to get familiar with the characteristics of the both kayaks. The next 2 posts are dedicated to the kayaks we’ve paddled – please don’t call it a test, it’s just a brief personal impression.

Butterfly roll in the Mediterranean Sea

Father-daughter holiday: seakayaking around the peninsula of Cap de Creus - LLanca, Catalunya

Originally I planned to go paddling in Scandinavia with Lieke, my 15-year old daughter. But the weather-situation two weeks ago, changed the plan: the Mediterranean Sun looked more appealing for a relaxed holiday than the unsettled weather in Northern Europe. In the last minute we booked a flight to Barcelona, rented a car and went paddling in the North Costa Brava. We camped at the campsite of Port de la Vall. Kayaks and paddling-gear were kindly provided by Pau and Marc from SK Kayaks. We enjoyed the overwhelming hospitality of our friends of Club Pagaia, the warm weather, the crystal clear water and the stunning coast of Alt- and Baix Emporda. The last 3 days of our holiday we visited the amazing Catalonian cities Girona and Barcelona. Father and daughter had a great holiday!

SK Kayaks is recently appointed as an SKUK (NDK) Expedition centre and can offer seakayak hire and guiding, instructional courses, expedition support and transport. Please contact orders@seakayakingspain.com for further details.

The most recent issue of Ocean Paddler Magazine (nr. 26) covers an informative article with great pictures about seakayaking in the Cap de Crues region: "The Kingdom of Tramuntana".

OmmenTV - Video of Helen Wilson's rolling clinic in Holland

You can't have it all;-( I missed a unique event this weekend. Freek, Andre and Kanocentrum Arjan Bloem organised the Greenland rolling clinic with Helen Wilson. Here is a video from the local news. Axel Schoevers published an impression with nice pictures on the Travels with Paddles-weblog.

Midsummernight - the Wyrda club paddle.

Jaap and Edwin did a performance this evening: synchro paddling.

(test: first Blogger post with mobile phone)

Triathlon Woerden

On Whit Monday the local triathlon takes place in the city centre of Woerden. Again it was a festive event. Kayakers from kv Wyrda escorted the athletes in the water-segment. Janine took part in the Sprint (1/8)-distance. I missed the party because I was paddling around the Aardappelenbult. You can't have it all ;-).

My return to the sea: rondje Aardappelenbult

Home- and work-situation leave little room for kayaking at sea lately. I still do paddle regularly, but mostly on the placid inland waters around Woerden. So I gladly took the opportunity for a paddle with Govert in the Voordelta on Whit Monday. Circumnavigating the Aardappelenbult (a large sandbank a.k.a. "de Bollen van de Ooster") with 5-6 Bft SW brought the salt-water feeling back.

We rounded the Aardappelenbult clockwise. The time schedule was more driven by comfort (returning in time for dinner) than by taking best benefit of the tides: we paddled 2 thirds of the route against the current and wind - a nice workout :-).

Since 2008 the Aardappelenbult is a closed zone. Navigation around the Aardappelenbult has become simple with dozens of marker buoys around the resting zone. It's only a bit difficult on the water to identify where exactly the part of the resting zone begins where kayakers and windsurfers are (by exception) allowed (= the Northern tip of the resting zone, shadowed on the map). Strangely this zone is not marked by any special signs - find your position by taking a bearing on the lighthouse.

28 km, 5/6 Bft SW, HW Vlissingen 12.30 uur.

Getting seakayakers into the white water play-ground - NKB Kajakfestival 2011

The participants were enthusiast about the Greenland-style rolling clinic yesterday at the Kajakfestival. The organizers also: we had a great afternoon working with motivated people. We expected to get more people taking part. But due to the limited number of participants in the clinic, all got a lot of personal coaching and attention, resulting in successful balance braces, paddle-rolls and hand-rolls. To speak with the famous Dutch fb-coach: "every drawback has its benefits".

It's a challenge to attract non-white water paddlers to the site of DWD in Zoetermeer. It might be because of the reputation of the site and that sea kayakers don't feel in their element at a "hard-core white water track". It's a pity: the sport wins by crossing borders. Just check the inspiring video of the SeasonTV to see what you can get when you combine white water athleticism with the seakayaking ability to cover long distances. Seakayaking is more than just getting from point A to point B ;-)

The Season Episode 8 from Fitz Cahall and Bryan Smith on Vimeo.

Well, the side events of the Kajakfestival were presented in a more moderate way: on the flat water sections of the WW-site. The lay out of the white water track in Zoetermeer is indeed not really suited for seakayaks. Only the final wave in the outflow basin of the track looks like a place where you can have fun with a seakayak. Just take a white water boat to run down this track. Good to work on your edging skills anyhow!

Seal hunting - the Dutch approach...

In the Netherlands seals are not hunted but rescued. Seals have names in the Netherlands. This is Tomke. Tomke got lost in the canals of the Province Zuid-Holland. A watchful lock-keeper closed the doors of the lock as Tomke swam by. A team of the local fire department with the people of the EHBZ (= Eerste Hulp bij Zeehonden - First Aid for Seals -SSRC) took the seal out of the water. Tomke is now recovering in Pieterburen at the Seal Rehabilitation and Research Centre Lenie 't Hart.

More pictures and video's of the rescue operation in the lock of Leidschendam on regio.15tv.

Rolling and Rescue Clinics at the NKB Kajakfestival, 21-22 May.

From the 20 to 22 May the third edition of the NKB Kajakfestival takes place on and around the white water track of Dutch Water Dreams in Zoetermeer, Netherlands. International guests are very welcome of course, but I suppose the 2 seakayak-related clinics at the festival will be particularly interesting for Dutch and Belgian public. That's the reason that (by exception) I've simply copy-pasted an original Dutch text with the announcement of the clinics...

ZEEKAJAKACTVITEITEN TIJDENS HET KAJAK FESTIVAL

Rolling-Clinic
Wil je kennis maken met traditionele Inuit-kajaktechnieken? De NKB commissie zeekajakvaren organiseert een demo-wedstrijd en een clinic Greenland-style eskimoteren tijdens het Kajakfestival. De wedstrijd-deelnemers proberen eerst in korte tijd zoveel mogelijk verschillende eskimoteer-technieken te demonstreren. Daarna kun je tijdens de clinic zelf onder 1 op 1 begeleiding van een ervaren instructeur (leren) te eskimoteren in een Groenland-kajak met een Groenland-peddel. De les duurt een half uur. Beginners kunnen aan het eind van de les vaak al de eerste rollen zelfstandig uitvoeren. Gevorderden kunnen hun techniek verbeteren en/of er nieuwe rollen (met of zonder peddel) bij leren. Hans Heupink, André van Eck en Freek Knol zullen dit onderdeel voor hun rekening nemen op zaterdag 21 mei (tussen 12.00 en 15.00 uur).



Rescue-Clinic
Wil je alles weten over de actuele kajakreddingsmethoden op zee? Op zondag 22 mei (van 14.00 tot 16.30 uur) biedt Axel Schoevers speciaal voor actieve zeekajakvaarders de clinic zeekajak-reddingstechnieken aan. In deze clinic komen ook varianten op, respectievelijk alternatieven voor, de bekende technieken als de X-redding en de puntjesredding aan bod. Tijdens een les van 1 uur kun je onder begeleiding van een ervaren instructeur - de voor- en nadelen van de verschillende technieken ervaren. Voor kajaks- en peddels wordt gezorgd, je hoeft alleen kajakkleding mee te nemen. Reken op een nat pak!

Meer informatie over uitrusting, kosten (voor beide clinics 10,- euro p.p.) en aanmelding staat op de website van het kajakfestival www.kajakfestival.nl onder het tabblad “clinics”. Wees er snel bij: vol is vol!

En verder: tijdens het Kajak Festival vinden er vier Nederlands Kampioenschappen plaats. Kajakkers treden aan om deel te nemen aan het NK Afvaart, NK Slalom, NK Freestyle en het NK Boater-X. Vier spectaculaire en mooie disciplines in de wildwater kajak sport. Ook is er een Kanopolo toernooi.

Mensen die nog nooit in een kajak of kano hebben gezeten, kunnen tijdens het Festival kennis komen maken met de sport. Diverse specialisten staan voor u klaar. Er zijn dit weekend veel kanobedrijven, -verenigingen, -liefhebbers, -demonstraties op het terrein van de Wildwaterbaan en de kanovijver bij Dutch Water Dreams.

The Royal Weekend - The Anglesey Weekend

With the "Wedding of the century" on Friday and "Koninginnedag" on Saturday it was hard to avoid the royals this weekend. I missed the live coverage of Kate and Williams' wedding because I was biking. But in the days before even the Dutch papers were loaded with articles about the Wedding. Amazingly there was quit a lot of attention to the Isle of Anglesey as the residence of Kate and William.
Meanwhile the seakayaking community gathered at Anglesey for the Sea Kayak Symposium organized this weekend by Nigel Dennis, Seakayaking UK. Anglesey was probably the best place in Britain to avoid the bustle of the Wedding this weekend.
Anyway: according to the article in the Volkskrant you have the best chance to meet William at Anglesey in a rescue operation: Prince William is based at RAF Valley as a Sea King search and rescue pilot. Well: he won't fly rescue operations this weekend.

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

Speed rolling - old school video

Yesterday I competed (just for fun ;-) in the "Open Alphense Eskimoteer Kampioenschappen". Winner is who does most rolls in 60 seconds. Any rolling technique is allowed. The use of a paddle is compulsory (no hand-rolls allowed). I finished at a (shared) third place with 18 rolls, Govert tricked me out with 1 extra roll, Aschwin was the overall-winner with 21 rolls - congratulations, a very good result!

Tricky in the "Open Alphense Eskimoteer-kampioenschappen" (and different from the contest in the video) is that the kayak is not secured by ropes. Which means that, after some rolls, you inevitably start moving around in the small swimming pool, and you get stuck the edges of the pool. Correcting strokes, repositioning strokes cost time and concentration at the expense of some rolls. When the kayak is held in position you can fully concentrate on the rolling, no correction strokes, and you can squeeze out some extra rolls.

Tips for speed rolling are: put in more brace than sweep, don't bother about a smooth technique: don't finish the rolls by full recovery to the back- (or front-)deck. But in the 60 seconds contest it's not only about technique and power. Condition also comes into play, the lack of oxygen - timing and a good breathing technique helps.
Enough aspects to train on for a better result next year!

The video is 25 years old - Dutch TV nostalgia with Jos Brink, Sonja Barend, Vanessa...

Ocean Paddler - Digital or Paper?

Last weekend I received my paper copy of Ocean Paddler (OP) magazine. That was almost 2 weeks after Richard Parkin sent a message that delivery of issue 24 had started; overseas delivery takes a bit longer than UK-delivery.
To make waiting bearable (?) Richard included 2 weblinks in his mail for the digital versions of the magazine. The first is an "online/page turning" version which can be viewed in the web-browser. The second version is in PDF-format (for printing, off-line viewing or to be transferred to an E-reader). I first logged in to have a look at the "online/page turning" version on the PC. Technically it worked fine, but I didn't like the reading experience. I quickly browsed through the magazine and decided to wait for the paper copy to read issue nr. 24. A little later I experimented with the e-reader on my Smartphone and I transferred the PDF-file to the phone. Beforehand I didn't have any serious expectations about reading OP on the tiny 3.2" screen of the phone, so I was amazed: I read most articles of issue 24 on the phone (in the train commuting from work to home), before the paper version arrived!

Today I got a new message from Richard. My subscription to OP came to an end with issue nr. 24. To resubscribe I had the choice between 2 offers: a fully Digital subscription or a paper/hard copy subscription. I decided to go for "fully digital" and to invest the money I saved in an e-reader. No longer "dead trees" for my OP!

A new boathouse for KV Wyrda

After 24 years the local kayakclub Wyrda had to leave the site in the center of the city Woerden. Wyrda was almost homeless, but found (just in the last minute) a temporary solution. The club now rents an old shed along one of the exit roads. It's not 100% perfect (it's pricey, not all the boats fit in, it's quit a walk to the water) but for the time being it's a good solution. The club now has at least some time to search for a permanent location.
Moving over went very fast - thanks to a lot of helping hands!