René’s old blog
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Kayaking in Venice
In June I spent a week paddling with a friend in Venice and the lagoon.
The boats were on loan from a Venetian friend. As far as I know, there are no places in Venice where you can rent sea kayaks. My friend didn’t know any.
In the city
We spent two days paddling inside the city. Its not really that difficult as long as you follow a few rules.
Don’t get in the way of the locals. They live there, they work there, they have stuff to do and we’re just playing. It goes for the gondolas, the taxis, the ambulance and the carpenter’s barge. Always give right of way to the others. During the days in the city I spoke to many of the locals and the have no problems with kayaks in the canals, only with people misbehaving in the traffic.
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Toys, toys, toys …
I’m a happy little boy right now. Tomorrow I will get a Rockpool Menai 18 on loan for a month, and today I got my motorcycle back from the workshop. The motorcycle, a Yamaha TDM 850 from 1993, has been sitting idle in the garage for over two years now. I bought it in Italy […]
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Bird watching
I know most of the sea birds species in Copenhagen from my daily walks with the dog, but since I started paddling I have seen other species you don’t normally see in town. In the city we have Mallard, Coot, Tufted Duck, Great Crested Grebe, Mute Swan, Grey Heron, Greylag Goose, and several species of […]
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Paddling home
Today I paddled home from the beach park. Almost as usual, somebody had taken my kayak for use in a beginners course at Kajakhotellet, so I had to settle for something else. First I laid my greedy eyes on a Skim Distance which I haven’t tried yet, but then someone pretending to be a buying […]
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Saltholm, Flakfortet and the Wind Turbines
Today’s paddle took me a bit around the strait of Øresund. I started at the shop, Kajakhotellet.dk, and first I just planned to do on of the usual tours in the vicinity, but the sea was so calm and the sun was shining from a clear sky, so I changed plans and paddled to Saltholm, an islands about 6km east of the beach park, at Barakkebro, the only allowed approach on Saltholm at this time of year. Most of the island is a nature reserve for birds and seals, and all access to that area is restricted in the breeding season.
I then paddled north to Flakfortet, where I have never been before. I spent some time exploring the small island which is now a leisure harbour, and it was fairly crowded due the good weather.
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Thursday’s paddle
Every Thursday my local kayak shop has a come-along paddle, just for a few hours after work. It is free for all, but yesterday we were only five, two coaches, two aspirant coaches and a girl that helps in the shop.
We took one of the common trips, to the local lighthouse and back, which ended at 7 km. Quite eventless, really, no wind and no waves, but a nice social occasion. The only thing that happened was that a group had set up an ad-hoc race track just in front of the exit from the beach park, so we immediately ended up in the middle of a bunch of sailing boats, and we had to creep along the coast towards the airport to get out on open water.
I did get to try two kayaks I haven’t paddled before: the Nigel Foster Silhouette and the Skim Dex.
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Rockpool’s Menai 18
Yesterday I went back to Varberg in Sweden to try the Rockpool Menai 18. I had made an appointment with Sara from Escape Kajakcenter in Gothenborg, Sweden, that they would bring a Menai 18 and an Alaw Bach to Varberg for trying.
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Back to Sweden
I went to Sweden last week to try the Rockpool Alaw and the Alaw Bach at the Escape Kajakcenter in Göteborg. At that point I didn’t know that the Menai 18 was in production, so I didn’t try it. Now I have to go back, either to Varberg or Göteborg, to try that out, before […]
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Rockpool Alaw and Alaw Bach
So I have managed to spend a whole day from 7am to 8pm just to get a few hours on the water in two Rockpool kayaks: the Alaw and the Alaw Bach.
They are only sold in a few places, one of which is Escape Kajakcenter in Göteborg, Sweden. They had a course that day in Varberg where there are often good waves, and they had kindly offered to bring some extra kayaks for me to play with.
The train trip was over three hours but in compensation I was picked up at the train station. On the beach there wasn’t a single honest wave in sight, but there was a Rockpook Alaw waiting for me. It was an early model, according to Sara from Escape Kajakcenter one of the first five ever made.
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Nigel Foster visit
Nigel Foster visited my local kayak dealer, Kajakhotellet.dk, on May 17th and 18th. I participated on the 18th. Nigel Foster is a very soft spoken man. He explains a thing, demonstrates it and sends us of to try it. At first this exercises were very simple, like edging the kayak to make it turn, but […]
