René Seindal

There’s a place at Riva degli Schiavoni in Venice, in the Bacino S. Marco, which is used for mooring shiny luxus yachts – some of which are very shiny.

S.Marco reflected in the side of a yacht

Myself and two others with S.Giorgio Maggiore in the background, reflected in the same yatch.

The 35th Vogalonga was held on May 31st, on the Sunday following Ascension as tradition dictates.

The Vogalonga is a 30km non-competitive “race” through the city of Venice and the lagoon. It starts a 9 from St. Mark’s with a cannon shot, and proceeds around Sant’Elena, past the islands of Certosa, Le Vignole, Sant’Erasmo, San Francesco in Deserto, Burano, Mazzorba, San Giacomo in Palude, Murano back to Venice for a final trip down the Canal Grande back to the finish at St. Mark’s.

As an exception to an otherwise firm rule, Venice Kayak rents kayaks for the day of the Vogalonga, so we were a bunch of people launching from the camp site, in addition to the maybe 50 or more other kayaks, canoes, inflatables and other boats starting from there too.

Marco and I had to get everybody off safely, so we launched last, at about 8.30, with the prospect of not getting to the start on time, as the paddle to St. Mark’s normally takes about 40 minutes.

The weather gave us a hand, though, for which we paid dearly later. The forecast was for a NE wind, turning ENE later, of force 4 to 5 for most of the day. The sky was ominous, dark and menacing, but we were spared any rain during the day. The only trial would be the wind.

With a F4-5 tail wind and waves of ½m we half paddled, half surfed down the Canale San Nicolò and around Sant’Elena to St. Mark’s, where we arrived in less the 20 minutes, well before the cannon blast and the start of the Vogalonga.

The start was as chaotic as ever. One thousand five hundred boats or more, assembled without any order or system, all starting at the same time, is bound to create some disorder. Being in a small vessel you need to be careful and look over your shoulder every once in a while. A gondolone with twelve, fourteen or eighteen oarsmen cannot turn or stop in a jiffy, and the many backwards rowers often have little idea of where they’re going or what they’re hitting.

The first critical point was when we turned left at Sant’Elena, straight into the wind. Many rowers weren’t prepared for the wind that suddenly hit them, and had difficulties turning the corner. A caorlina just in front of me completely cost control and veered to the right, straight across the path of many other boats struggling to turn left. Much shouting ensued, but being behind and left of the fight I didn’t get involved.

The next 15km was one long hard slug into the headwind. Initially, the canals there were narrow and the field still close together, so there was little choice but to keep up with the speed of the others. The average speed of the many Venetian boats with four, six, eight or more oarsmen was around 5km/h in spite of the headwind, so we just had to push harder and keep up with them.

After a while I spotted Marco maybe 200m ahead of me, paddling in a leisurely pace just in the wake of an eight oarsmen gondolone, shielded from the wind by the much higher Venetian boat, and I started paddling even harder to catch up with him. I didn’t gain one metre on him, but I did succeed in geting very tired way too soon during the Vogalonga. After a while I gave up and found a similar place in the wake of a caorlina, where I could relax a bit. There were still over 20km left of the trip, and I had no intention of pushing myself out of the race.

I followed other boats like that for a good part of the northward part of the itinerary, breaking away every once in a while to try to take some photos. It was almost impossible to photograph anything. As soon as I stopped paddling, even for the few seconds it took to pull the camera out of the pocket to turn it on and drop it on the spraydeck, the wind would cause me to lose speed and turn sideways across the path of the others. The few photos I did manage to take were almost all shaken because I had to lower the camera before the autofocus has finished.

As we turned left around San Francesco del Desterto towards Burano I made a small mistake. Most other boats kept a course more to the left, downwind, which seemed to take them south of Burano, not north of the island as the official itinerary said. I assumed they had been blown a bit off course by the strong winds, so I kept more to the right towards the northern side of Burano. As a consequence I ended in secca, in shallow waters due to the low tide, and for about 1-2km I had to fight the winds from my right with only 10-15cm under the keel. Had the tide been just a little bit lower, I would have been stuck.

As I approached Burano and finally got enough water under the boat to paddle faster, a completely devastated Marco pulled up besides me. He had ended up behind me earlier because he wanted to take some pictures, and had had to paddle like a madman to catch up.

We agreed on taking a break after we had rounded Burano, in the canal at Mazzorba, where the wind would be in our favour. We picked up some drinks and bananas at a service boat in the canal, and as I ate my bananas and drank the sugary greenish stuff they had give us, Marco paddled across the canal to say hello to a friend. I drifted along, leaving Mazzorba towards the island of Madonna del Monte, while I took photos of the passing boats.

Each year in the Vogalonga there seems  to be a boat that attracts more attention than the others, and it usually involves female rowers for some unknown reason. Last year it was a beautiful wooden sandolo with a couple dress in white with golden scarfs, and this year it was a smaller sandolo or mascareta rowed by four women from the Remiera Querini in Venice.  The boat was adorned with blue flowers and the girls dressed in matching colours.

Most rowers were relieved of having turned the corner and now having a good strong tail wind, but for some the problems seemed to get worse. Many of the backwards rowers seemed to have problems with the following waves, and many went way off course. A black gondola, the only one I saw doing the Vogalonga, also went off course at times, but they definitely made it, as I saw them later in the city.

The strong winds and the open landscape in the middle of the lagoon gave more and larger waves than I have ever seen in the lagoon. As I approached Murano, especially after I had passed the island of San Giacomo in Palude, the waves were between ½m and 1m, which is a lot in a shallow lagoon. It was definitely enough for me to catch a wave and surf a little. I had loads of fun, until a backwards boat almost rammed me from behind as I was waiting for a wave.

I was full of energy as I entered Murano and continued towards S. Alvise on the NW side of Venice. The official route was towards S. Alvise then right to the start if the Canale Cannaregio where we were to enter the city canals.

The waves were building up as I came closer to S. Alvise, and they were now mostly around 1m from the back slightly on the right side. When I was almost at the Canale Cannaregio, I had to do a detour because a large area was closed off by a floating barrier. As I paddled around the area, I noticed a sunk dragonboat and two or more backwards boats in the water, in a mess of oars and other stuff from the capsized and sunken boats. A couple of persons were swimming inside the area, apparently trying to collect oars and other floating items.

(Press photo)

The Canale Cannaregio, especially at the Ponte Tre Archi, is another critical point where boats often pile up. This time is wasn’t that bad, but the backwards people still caused problems as they had problems getting through, even hitting the central arch with getting too close to the sides.

Once I was through the Canale Cannaregio and into the Canal Grande everything eased up and traffic flowed without problems. There were no vaporetti or taxis, and very few gondolas. It was a fantastic experience paddling slowly down the completely quiet Canal Grande which hardly had a ripple on the surface.

At the finish I got my diploma and medal, and moved over to the side to watch the others coming in. Marco arrived soon after, as did the gondolone from the rowing club Diadora (where I’m a member now) with Lino Farnea a poppa, and the splendid red peata from the Remiera del Brenta.

Tony from the UK was the only one of ‘our’ paddlers who came in at that time, and the three of us started our return paddle towards the Lido. To avoid having to fight the wind again around Sant’Elena, we went through the inner city canals until we came out at San Pietro in Castello, which is little more then 1 km from the camp site.

We returned very tired, with the expectation of finding several of our guests there, as it was clear that a substantial number of participants had dropped out of this year’s Vogalonga. To our surprise there was nobody.

They all came back in ones and twos during the afternoon, and everybody who started made it through to the finish. Most were completely exhausted after many hours fighting the headwind, but also content.

According to what I’ve heard and read afterwards, the Vogalonga 2009 was the hardest ever. Over 100 boats left the race shortly after the start when they got hit by the headwinds at Sant’Elena, many others were blown on ground in too shallow waters, and some 30 boats sank or capsized at the Canale Cannaregio. About 80 rowers ended in the water there, and 20 in hospital with minor injuries.

Press coverage:

• La Nuova Venezia
• Il Gazzetino

Venice Kayak

Naturally, my future plans mostly revolve around Venice Kayak, which is after all a ‘strategic’ choice I have made.

Currently I work closely with a camp site on the Lido di Venezia, where I have all gear and equipment, and I have to follow their season. They open on April 24 and close at the end of September, so these points in time are fixed for me.

I much prefer having people in Venice for several paddling days, so we can explore more of the city and the lagoon, but I also do single day paddles ‘on-demand’ for people who are already there.

Venice Kayak is at www.venicekayak.com.

Voga alla veneta

When I return to Venice in April I want to become a member of a local rowing club there, the Circolo Canottieri Diadora, where I had a few Venetian rowing lessons last autumn.

Venetian rowing, or Voga alla veneta, as it is called locally, is the art of rowing standing up in the boat, facing forward, pushing the oar with the arms and body weight. The rowing style has become famous because gondolas are rowed like that, but the Venetians have a plethora of boats rowed Venetian style, from small racing boats to huge cargo freight boats weighing several tons.

Somehow a Venetian paddling experience is not complete without at least having tried to row in the local way, and I want to learn that and be good at it.

Symposium in Catalonia

During Easter the Catalan paddling association Pagaia organised the third international sea kayak symposium in Llança/Port de la Selva, on April 4-6 with the possibility of remaining until April 12 for further paddles and talks.

We participated in 2007 and it was a great experience. The setting was fantastic. A rocky coastline with lots of Mediterranean ‘macchia’ as its called in Italy, provided for good varied paddling waters. The symposium was held on a very good camp site with its own beach, and add to that a well organised gathering and great food too It was very nice, and I want to go back.

I hope to be able to make a presentation on paddling in Venice during the week after the symposium weekend.

The Pagaia symposium web site is at www.pagaia.cat/sympo09.

Vogalonga

The 35th Vogalonga is a must when one work in Venice. The Vogalonga is an annual rowing celebration. It is a 30km non-competitive ‘race’ through Venice and the lagoon, open for all kinds of paddled or rowed boats. In 2008 for the 34th Vogalonga, there were over 1600 boats registered, and an unknown number of unregistered boats.

It is quite a sight with that many human powered boats in one place, and I wouldn’t miss it for anything.

This year the Vogalonga is on May 31.

The Vogalonga is held on the Sunday following Ascension, which is an important religious holiday in Venice, called the Sensa.

The celebrations of the Sensa includes a magnificent procession at sea, with parade boats from all the rowing associations in Venice, and a ceremony where Venice, represented by the mayor and the patriarch, throws a golden ring into the sea to celebrate a symbolic marriage between the city and the sea.

The Vogalonga web site is at www.vogalonga.com.

Symposium in Bibione in Italy

Bibione Kayak organises a kayak symposium in Bibione Pineda, circa 70km north of Venice, in the week following the Vogalonga.

This is the second Bibione Kayak symposium. The first was last year, with participation of Nigel Foster, Kristin Nelson, Jen Kleck and many others, and they will be back this year, where they will teach and instruct.

There’s no registration fee for Bibione Kayak, in fact there’s no requirement to register at all. There will be a lot of activities during the symposium week. It will be possible to participate in the Vogalonga, take classes with the international guests present, and probably also daytrips for paddling in Venice.

Its a fun event and a great way of getting to know Italian seakayakers.

The Bibione Kayaks web site is at www.bibionekayak.com.

Commercial trips to other parts of Italy

It is my hope that it will be possible to organise kayaking trips to other parts of Italy, to places I know and where I have contacts, such as Sardinia, Elba, Sicily and maybe elsewhere. This is very much at a preliminary stage, but something I’m thinking about. I love Italy and I love kayaking, so I want to kayak as much in Italy as I can get away with.

Circumnavigation of Sicily

The paddling journey that went pear shaped in Sardinia in 2007 was supposed to include the circumnavigation of Sicily as well. That never happened, which still bothers me because the circumnavigation of Sicily was what I originally wanted to do.

I have travelled in Sicily since 1992, my wife is from Palermo, I wrote my MA thesis in History about Sicily, and I never get tired of the jewel of the Mediterranean, which has nature, history, culture, food and wonderful people in such abundance.

I’m not sure that this will be possible at all, as the project would take at least one month. The journey is about 1000km and I’m not a racer. I usually want to see things and meet people along the way, which also takes some time.

So the kayaking season is over here in Venice, and I’m heading back home now.  I have most things packed, and just need to check oil on the motorbike before I’m off, heading north towards Denmark, Copenhagen and Valentina and Jamil.

Yesterday I had a very interesting meeting with Maria and Andrea from Venice Canoe and Dragonboat, which is quite another way of experiencing Venice in a non-traditional way. I have rarely met nicer people, and I’m really looking forward to working with them in the future.

Now its my way and the highway

(photo from May on my way down here)

Its been a busy week. I’ve had a group of ten Danes here in Venice for the part week, with an assistant guide from our partner kajakhotellet in Denmark.

Its been a great week. We’ve done some fantastic paddles, in Venice and in the lagoon, by day and by night. As one participant said this morning at the bus stop, “Its been one Wow! experience after another”, but we’d be hard pressed to make it any different, with a setting like Venice. We couldn’t make it ordinary even if we tried Venice just isn’t ordinary.

Right now I’m sitting in the shuttle water bus from the Lido to the airport on my way to pick up the next group for the next week here.

We’ve had fantastic weather all week, between 27 and 32 degrees and clear skies, except for the last day which was rainy with occasional thunder. Today is grayish but the forecast for the coming days is good for the season, few clouds and temperatures in the low 20s. Its autumn here too, now.

We’re on the island of Elba now. Venice Kayak had three kayaks from Sea Kayak Design delivered there quite some time ago, with the intent of picking them up there some time ago, but nothing went as planned and we only managed to get here now.

The kayaks have been in care of Gaudenzio Coltelli who runs Sea Kayak Italy on Elba for well over ten years. Gaudenzio and his partner, Anna Paula, have been so kind to house us, even with our beagle Jamil who is with us on this journey.

We arrived yesterday to Portoferraio and drove to Marciana Marina along some very curvy mountain roads. Elba looks like a handful of small mountains dropped in the sea, so there’s no plains at all here, just mountains and the sea.

Today we drove from Marciana Marina along the western coast of Elba to the little village of Cavoli, where we’re just hanging out on the very crowded beach. We were very surprised to discover that you can see Corsica from Elba. The distance is only around 50km, and since both islands are mountainous, you can see one from the other.

From the beach bar where I’m sitting right now I can see the Isola Piana some 12km away, and the fabled Island of Montecristo about 50km south.

We took one of the Sea Kayak Design boats with us, and I’m going to take it for a spin around here in an hour’s time, when the sun is less scorching. There should be a marine cave not far from here.

We went to see the fireworks in Venice on Saturday evening, for the Redentore Feast. I have never seen the city so crowded, and Venice is often crowded, but the fireworks were simply spectacular. It was absolutely the greatest firework display I have ever seen, and it went on for well over half an hour. Most Venetians stay in boats in the St. Mark’s basin for the celebrations. After the fireworks we had a walk through the city by night, stopping on the Accademia Bridge to watch all the boats leave St. Mark’s basin through the Canal Grande. Only around two the crowd started to thin out so you could move more easily.

Here’s a few photos from the evening.

Venice Kayak has taken delivery of one of the very first of Nigel Foster‘s new design, the Point 65° Whiskey 16. Nigel Foster himself took it for its virgin paddle in the lagoon at Bibione.

There are more photos of the Whiskey 16 and Nigel Foster on Flickr.

It has been a busy weekend here at the Bibione Kayak Symposium, as it should be.

Expecting a rush on Saturday, I signed up for classes on Friday, so I was out of the way of the way for the weekend. Morning class was with Jen Kleck, for rolling exercises. Jen is an absolutely marvellous teacher and taught a couple of girls to roll in almost no time. I hadn’t done any rolling practice for ages, but the roll was still there, both on- and offside.

We were joined by Gaudenzio Coltelli from Sea Kayak Italy on the island of Elba. Gaudenzio is an experienced Italian coach, who has taught here for ages. He was with us to see Jen in action, but he ended up practising sculling with me, a technique I haven’t quite managed properly before. It is amazing how easy a difficult thing can be once you have a good teacher.

In the afternoon of Friday I had signed up for a class with Nigel and Kristin. First we paddled from the local lagoon to the Adriatic to look at waved. Standing on a sand bank, drawing in the wet sand, Nigel explained about waves and how they behave and break around obstacles. He then explained about surfing, and we returned to our boats to try it out in practise. Coming from a somewhat wave inhibited place, I have had no prior experience surfing, but it was amazingly easy to get going. It took several tries to learn to catch the waves and to brace and steer properly, but it was great fun and I learned loads.

We then moved back into the lagoon for the second part of the class. I’ve done classes with Nigel before, and his incredible repetoire of techniques and stunts never cease to surprise me. First we played sailing, by forming a platform of all the kayaks and the standing up to let the wind drive us along as a human sail on a raft.

Then we practiced efficient steering in windy conditions, using edging in combination with bow and stern rudders to get the wind to do part of the work. There seems to be some written or unwritten rule that every Nigel Foster class has to end with everybody going around in little circles.

In the evening after dinner Italian paddler Dario Agostini made a presentation about his 2003 journey down the Danube river, from St. Moritz in Switzerland to Istanbul in Turkey, an 80 day journey of almost 4000km.

Saturday

Saturday became the big Point 65° N day. Sandro Spagnol from CS Canoe, the Italian distributor of Point 65, arrived with some of our new boats for Venice Kayak. We had ordered a Sea Cruiser, an XP, an X-Lite, and most importantly, a Whiskey 16, the latest of Nigel Foster’s designs. I’m almost certain our Whiskey 16 is the first and for now only one here in Italy.

Nigel got a bit emotional, it seemed, and held that afternoon’s classes using it while I took some photos. What Nigel can do in a kayak is already impressive, but watching him do it in a boat which is specifically designed to do well what he does well, is mind boggling. He could do a ballet in kayak if it were set to music.

After dinner that evening Karen Darke told of her journey in kayak up the coast of Vancouver Island to Alaska. It was an impressive journey, and it didn’t become less impressive knowing that Karen is confined to a wheel chair due to spinal injury after a fall while rock climbing.

Accidents can happen at any time, causing injury or death, or ending us where fate put Karen, in a wheel chair. It doesn’t really take much, and we’ve probably all had some close encounters with destiny, but shaking them off afterwards, preferring not to think about what the consequences of what we just avoided could have been.

Yet we go and play with danger, by paddling in remote and dangerous places, by roaming half of Europe on motorcycle, or like Karen, by climbing rock walls, and we do it for no other reason than to do it, to see if we can, to play with danger.

Sunday

Its been raining all night, and the symposium is slowly grinding to a stop. There are still some classes this afternoon, but most exhibitors have packed up and are heading home, many participants have done the same.

We’re still around, in part because there are many who wants to try the Point 65° Whiskey 16. I’ve already packed up all my gear and I am just waiting to take the tent down, hoping for a few rays of sunshine to dry it just a little bit.

Most of the participants of the symposium have been Italian, so it hasn’t really been all that international. For me this has been great, because it has given me ample opportunity to get to know many of the Italian paddlers, coaches and producers.

All in all I’m very content that I’ve come here.