(photo from May on my way down here)Category: Venice Kayak
Venice Kayak was my kayaking company in Venice, Italy.
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Season is over
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) -
A Busy Paddling Bee
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. -
Elba
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. -
The Redentore
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.
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Nigel Foster’s Whiskey 16
Venice Kayak has taken delivery of one of the very first of Nigel Foster‘s new design, the Point 65º 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.
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Bibione Weekend
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.
Jen Kleck on the move 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.
Gaudenzio, Raymond and Lori 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.
Nigel Foster teaching (or playing) 55-1200×900.jpgWe 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.
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Bibione Kayak Symposium
A bit delayed, as is normal and indeed expected here in Italy, I’ve arrived here at the Capalonga Camping for the first Bibione Kayak Symposium. It was a 90km drive from Venice, with side bags on the motorcycle, the tent and a split paddle on the back seat. The only noteworthy event of the drive were at Bibione where they had little signs along the road saying: “Beware! Crossing squirrels”.
My main purpose here is to get to known all the important people from the Italian kayaking world. Sea kayaking is not a big sport in Italy, at least not yet, so it shouldn’t be an entirely unrealistic goal.
I’ve been writing a bit with the people of Sea Kayak Design, as they’re supporting our Venetian kayak venture with kayaks at cost price, and today I finally met Giuseppe, Rino and Raymond in person. They have some very nice, well designed and well built kayaks that I’m really looking forward to trying. That’s one of the things on my agenda for tomorrow.
Sea Kayak Design wants to emphasize on build quality rather than on quantity. They kayaks I saw today were certainly of impeccable craftmanship, but the real test will be if orders come in faster than they can keep up with. Good thing than Venice Kayak will get some of the early one. Venice Kayak will work as a test center for Sea Kayak Design, so drop by and give them a try one day.
The special guest here at Bibione are Nigel Foster, Kristin Nelson and Jen Kleck. I had the fortune to paddle part of this year’s Vogalonga with them. They’re doing classes here each day, but since most participants will only show up in the weekend, the classes haven’t been very booked. So much the better for those of us who are here before the weekend, so I have signed up for a morning class with Jen and an afternoon with Nigel and Kristin. I believe that we will only be a handful at most.
Nicola de Florio from Avatak Pagaie is also here. Its been quite a while, so its been great seeing him again.
Many Italian paddlers seem to know me now, even if I don’t know them yet. Partly because of the spactacular failure last year with the circumnavigation of Sardinia, partly because it doesn’t happen every day that a Dane not only gets the silly idea of organising paddling tours of Venice, but actually tries to do it. I guess it also helps that the sea kayaking world in Italy is of limited size.-
I still haven’t any squirrels around here. -
Vogalonga 2008
Sunday was Vogalonga Day and all of Venice was turned upside down for a day.
The Vogalonga is a celebration of Venice and its rowing traditions, and in part also a protest against the invasion of the city by motorised vessels. The waves made by motorboats and ferries are very harmful to both city and lagoon.
There must have been close to 1600 boats this year, a bit more than last year. The highest number I saw was 1566. On top of the registered boats there are all those who just come along—like my friend Marco who has done it so many times he doesn’t care about the diploma any more—so the total number of participating boats could be anything from 1600 to 2000. The number of persons participating must be many times higher, as a lot of boats had a crew of more than one.
Most of the locals row traditional boats. Many are from the various rowing associations, but there are a lot of private boats too. There were many gondolas, of course, but I think the most popular type must be the sandalo, and the smaller sandalino. The sandalo is a very elegant boat, long and slender with much less rocker than a gondola. Besides these I saw Mascherete, Topi, Tope and a huge Peata.
Personally I must have been one of the slowest of the many participants. I came in just minutes before the closed the finishing line down.
We started from the Camping San Nicolò on the Lido. I was up at 6.30 to get everything ready, so we could be in St. Mark’s Basin at 8.30. It’s only a 30 minutes paddle, but there are always things to do, and we had a group of some 12-14 persons to get on the water. Our launching conditions at the camping aren’t finished yet, and the very low tide caused a bit of problems, but we found various corners and ramps to launch from.
We paddled to St. Mark’s Basin in a loose group and soon got separated in the confusion. I followed Marco in the hope of getting to meet some of his Italian paddling friends, and we did meet up with Giorgio Sartori who is organising the Bibione Kayak Symposium in these days, some 70km north of Venice. Giorgio was in good company, with Nigel Foster, Kerstin Nelson and Jen Kleck.
I quickly lost track of where Marco went, and instead I paddled with Giorgio, Nigel, Kerstin and Jen for most of the first half of the Vogalonga. We paddled with the main group, and it was quite a spectacle with a plethora of different boats.
A beautiful blu-white Topa which had been built by hand by the crew themselves.
A beautiful blu-white Topa which had been built by hand by the crew themselves 
A vintage sandalino, made in 1968, rowed “alla valesiana” with two oars crossed. 
A Peata, an old type of cargo boat. 
This is by far the most beautiful boat I saw all day. A beautiful sandalo with a beautiful crew in beautiful clothes, they did draw both attention and camera lenses
Burano is a fascinating place, so we stopped there to have a look at the city with all the coloured houses, and there suddenly, Marco showed up again, with a couple of girls, naturally. To show off I guess, he started crawling around on the kayaks. The water in that canal is absolutely disgusting, so I had my camera ready should he end in the water, but alas, nothing happened.
We had a nice break there for a bit of sightseeing and a coffee. We continued, now way behind the main group of boats. I chatted with Marco for a while, and lost contact with Jen, Nigel and Kristin there. I tried to catch up with them on the stretch from Mazzorba to Murano, but only managed to work up a sweat. When I got to Canal Grande in Murano they were nowhere to be seen.
There were very few boats out in the lagoon at this point, so I knew I was quite a bit behind the majority of the boats, so it was quite a surprise to find the Cannaregio canal totally and utterly crowded. I had seen on the description of the route that the Ponte Tre Archi was a known congestion point, but didn’t really expect any congestion being so late.
Most of the trafic jam was caused by backwards rowers, English style rowing they call it here. There was quite a bit of current in the canal, so when the long boats tried to negotiate the narrow bridge arch they easily got turned sideways blocking the bridge. I moved forward to the bridge just as two backwards boats tried to do the same, and got squeezed between the oars of the two. It was a bit like being stuck between two giant combs with moving teeth. I got out of the problem by pulling myself close to one of the boats under their oars, so the other could get through first, then I followed before the second backwards boat.
Just behind the Ponte Tre Archi I found Jen Kleck, clinging on to a parked motorboat, looking like a lost puppy. In the mess before the bridge she had gotten separated from Nigel and Kristin, and didn’t know whether they were ahead or behind. We paddled together down the Cannaregio to the Canal Grande towards the finishing line.
As we neared the finishing line, Jen wanted to see a bit of the smaller canals, so we made a short detour down the Rio della Toletta, Rio del Malpaga, Rio del’Avogario to the Squero Tramontin and along the Rio dei Ognisanti to the Rio di San Trovaso and back to the Canal Grande.
It was a pretty detour, but we lost more time, and as we finally came back to the St. Mark’s basin the loudspeakers went “and thanks to all our sponsors for their support …”, and I was quite sure we’d managed to be too late my a split second, but as we passed the finishing line we got out little diploma and medal.
We ran into Marco again there, sitting in his kayak behind a couple of wooden poles, chatting to somebody on his mobile phone. Jen was quickly reacquiring her lost puppy look, so Marco rang Giorgio to find out where the others were. They were already at the car near the barrier, and after a bit of discussion of routes and canals, it was decided that Marco and I would escort Jen back there through the city.
Once Jen was back in safety, we paddled back to the Lido north of the city, to avoid all the confusion and have a bit of quiet around us for a change. At least I was rather tired. The approximately 30km of the Vogalonga had turned into 40-45km in all, and I really wanted to stand up and stretch my legs.
Just as we were about getting the kayaks up, meeting the others, and I started to think about showers and sleeping bags, Marco threw another bomb. It was suddenly his birthday too, so we all had to go out and eat together. Bye bye sleeping bag. Nevertheless, we had a nice evening at the pizzeria “Alla Botte” in Gran Viale on the Lido, but I was practically sleep walking back to the camping afterwards.
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Tour of Venice
Tomorrow is Vogalonga day, and we’re on our way to bed so we can get up in time for the start at 9 in the St. Mark’s basin. Today we’ve had a group of Vogalonga participants on a tour on Venice in kayak. We were three Sardinians, three from Puglia, one from Bologna, four Frenchmen and a lone Englishman, plus a Dane and a Venetian. We had no specific plan, other than paddling around the city enjoying the scenery. This time we managed to paddle all the way through the Arsenal. Its still a closed military area, though it is full of non military activities, so you can get in legally on foot, but not in a boat. We took the chance, and only at the very exit were we told to leave.
We then had a close encounter with a vaporetto in the St. Mark’s basin, which almost ended a couple of participants in the water, but we got by safely all of us.
We then spend several hours paddling around in the area of St. Mark’s, San Polo, Dorsoduro and Cannaregio. We had lunch near Piazza San Barnabá.
The city is full of weird boats, from kayaks to huge canoes to polynesian canoes and many other water crafts I don’t know the name of.
On our way back we paddled north of the city back to the Arsenale, around Certosa and back to the camping on the Lido.
I have many photos but I’m too tired to upload them now.
More photos on Flickr. -
Vogalonga camping
Here’s a few photos from the Camping San Nicolò this afternoon as the participants of this years Vogalonga started settling in.
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Vogalonga weekend
My blogging is way behind schedule. My last post is one week and 2000 km old. Right now I’m sitting on the ferry boat from Venice to the Lido, as part of the weekends move from Mestre to the Lido. Tomorrow we’re organising a tour of the city for the guests we have for the Vogalonga. Many will come to Venice just for a prolonged weekend, so Saturday is their only chance to see a bit of the city. Sunday is the day of the Vogalonga. I’m not quite sure how the number inscriptions, but my number could either mean that there are some 1200 registered before me, or that there are the same amount of foreign boats registered, that is, not counting the Italian boats. Right now we’re collecting the last bits and pieces of equipment in the Camping San Nicolò which is our paddling base here in Venice. Today we’ve taken delivery of a kayak from Nautico Mannino in Catania and I’ve been to Treviso to pick up life vests and spraydecks, while Marco has taken three kayaks and a bunch of other stuff to the Lido. He’s also been making laminated maps of the city and the lagoon. We’re still some gear short, so we’ve been borrowing a bit to get ends to meet. It is almost impossible to get “normal” paddles here in Italy, at least in the price range we’re looking for. Practically all cheap paddles here are feathered by 80°-90° which is way too much for my taste. I don’t want our guests coming home with wrist injuries. In the end I had to ask the shop to take some less extremely feathered paddles home just for us. We won’t get them for a few weeks, though. We’re getting close to the Lido now, so I better leave the bar and get down to the motorcycle. -
Horisont Kajak
Today I kept the appointment I missed last week. I’ve been to Stockholm again to meet Carin and Lars from Horisont Kajak. Horisont Kajak does coaching and excursions in the skerries around Stockholm. They are far from the largest kayak business in the Stockholm area, but no doubt one of the most dedicated and active. Their base is on the Värmdö island, about 30km outside the city centre, at water’s edge in a forest, surrounded by a golf course. I don’t know if they have some golf/kayak packages, but they could have 🙂 It is a staggeringly beautiful setting for a kayak activity. After a bit of a mixup, due to the fact that Stockholm Central has two taxi pick up points, I finally met Carin in person. Initially I thought we were going to Värmdö, but after walking for a while I understood that we were going to stay in Stockholm city. Swedish and Danish are sibling languages, but like siblings they can sometimes disagree violently. The phonetics differ quite a bit, and there are traps in the vocabulary too. The word “roligt”, for example, means “funny” in Swedish but “calm” in Danish. In Danish “taske” is a bag, but it means “whore” in Swedish. A bag in Swedish is “väska” which is a liquid in Danish. The list could go on, but nevertheless we can understand each other with a little care. The languages are close enough to make it feel like a defeat having to switch to English to communicate. Back to Carin in Stockholm. We had a very nice walk down the edge of a bay, where we first stopped for a coffee, then continued down to a public park. There is water all over in Stockholm, as the city has grown over the skerries from one little island to the next. Its often called the Venice of Scandinavia for this. After a while Lars, the other half of Horisont Kajak, met us for lunch. He looked distinctly non-kayaky, dressed in a jacket and a tie. I guess that is the curse of a day job 🙂 Lunch was great, but got cold on me as Carin and Lars kept me talking about Venice Kayak instead of letting me eat. After much talking, pondering spreadsheets and photos, we agreed that we can work together. Hopefully Lars and Carin can find the time for a short visit to Venice soon, so they can see for themselves what we have to offer. I’m now on my way home from Stockholm. Tomorrow is for packing and last minute preparations, and on Thursday Valentina and I are off on the motorcycle towards Venice where we’ll arrive on Friday in time for the Festa della Sensa.
