René’s old blog
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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.
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.
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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 […]
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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.
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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. […]
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Back to Stockholm
I’m heading back to Stockholm on Tuesday for a short visit to Horisont Kajak. I was supposed to meet with Carin and Lars on last Thursday, but failed to make it within the time constraints I was travelling under. Now I’ll try to make up for it. Since I’m leaving for Italy on May 1st, […]
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Tour of Sweden
I’ve spend most of the last days roaming parts of southern and central Sweden. All in all I did some 1500 km in three days, but only managed to keep two of my three appointments. On Wednesday I drove from Copenhagen to Gothenburg to visit my friends Sara, Johan and Elda at Escape Kajakcenter. The […]
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Elections in Italy
Today is election day here in Italy. So is tomorrow, as two days are needed here to vote. Voting started this morning and will continue until ten in the evening, to be resumed Monday morning at eight until three in the afternoon. A final result or a credible projection should be available Monday evening. The […]
