Tag: Venice
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Voga alla Veneta
Tomorrow will be the basis of another anniversary. I have just made an appointment to have my first lesson of Voga alla Veneta, or rowing Venetian style, tomorrow.
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Anniversary
Today is my two years anniversary with sea kayaking. I did my first sea kayaking course at Kajakhotellet in Copenhagen, Denmark, on August 19th and 20th, 2006. Since then I have paddled almost 2500 km, circumnavigated the Mediterranean island of Sardinia and started a kayaking business in Venice, Italy.
This is the most recent photo I have of myself paddling. It was taken by Claus Philipsen on August 16, 2008, in the Bocca di Porto di San Nicolò in Venice, that is, the entrance to the lagoon from the Adriatic Sea. -
Terra di San Marco
I’m back in Venice now, in the camping getting the last things ready before a group of Danes arrives on Sunday for a week of magic Venetian paddling.
I was lucky enough to find myself a vacant window seat on the right side of the plane. The airport of Venice is built on the edge of the the lagoon, and the approach is almost always from the south, so the right side of the plane has a fantastic view of the lagoon and Venice itself, while the left side has a less spectacular view of the Po valley.
Photos taken with a mobile phone through an airplane window aren’t the greatest, but I had no other camera on me and the hostess wouldn’t let me open the window 🙂
The “gronde” of the southern lagoon, an area I still haven’t explored in kayak.
Terra di San Marco Venice with the Giudecca island and the minor islands south of the city.
Venice with its modern (1930s) additions of the Tronchetto island and the Barrier, officially named “Ponte della Libertà”.
The Barrier and the uninhabited San Secondo island.
Murano and San Michele, with a bit of Venice on the right and the abandoned Campalto island in front.
The northern lagoon near the airport. The “Tessera Canal” in front with Isola di Tessera and Murano to the far right, and Carbonera island in the centre-left. Carbonera used to house a gun battery, but it is now abandoned like so many other “marginal” lagoon islands.
The barene at the airport runways, with the violet flowers in bloom. The airport is built on a part of the lagoon, which used to be like this.
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Beagle Paddling
We took our beagle Jamil paddling one day in Venice, just to try it. He sat in the rear hatch of my Rockpool Menai 18, with his own little canine PFD on. There are a few photos below.
Beagles aren’t usually fond of water, but he was calm enough for a short paddle. After about half an hour he got more restless, and after an hour we called it a day. I don’t think it was the water that bothered him, but rather the cramped space in the hatch, which didn’t allow him to change sitting position easily. The next time I’ll take one of the doubles to give him more room.
Beagle Paddling 
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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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The Redentore Feast
Tonight is the night of the Redentore feast here in Venice. We’ll take the bus to the city, where we’ll meet my friend Marco and some of his friends on a sail boat to watch the fireworks. We’ve never seen the Redentore feast before, so its probably going to be quite interesting. It is one of the really big annual celebrations here in Venice. There’s little chance of ever witnessing this feast from a kayak, as the boat traffic in the area is intense and highly regulated. Tradition dictates that you take part in the feast in a boat if at all possible. Tomorrow afternoon the Redentore regatta is held, but I’m not sure we’ll be here for that. We will probably be on our way to Elba then. -
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 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. -
Venice by bicycle
I have bought a bicycle here in Mestre, and the other day I went to Venice by bicycle, and from there to the Lido. While it can be done, I’m not so sure it is advisable.
Driving a bicycle here in Mestre is great. There are bike lanes all over and it is easy to move around, so the first part of the trip was easy and quite pleasant.
The problem is that Mestre is surrounded by some major roads with a lot of traffic. There is only one road leading to Venice, and that is the bridge between Mestre and Venice. It is officially a normal road with a limit of 50 km/h before the bridge and 90 km/h on the bridge, but in practise it is made and used like a motorway.
Once I arrived on the outskirts of Mestre, I had to follow the SS13 for a while driving alongside some quite heavy traffic, onto the ramps of the Via della Libertà which runs on the bridge. Its a bit scary having big lorries passing you that close.
The bridge itself has a pavement for pedestrians and bicycles, separated from the road by a guard rail. Initially it was some 1.5m wide and made for a pleasant ride, but a few hundred meters from Venice it narrowed to maybe 0.6m and as the guard rail had had some less amicable encounters with cars there were places where I could barely squeeze by.
Once on the first island of Venice, there’s a kind of booth in the middle of the pavement forcing you onto the road, and then the road leading right to the Maritime Station and the Tronchetto island. Continuing ahead, this time on the pavement for safety, I reached Piazzale Roma which is the only part of Venice where wheeled traffic is allowed. A visitor to Venice would have to leave the bicycle here, but I just had a chat with an ATM and went back towards the Tronchetto island and took the Ferry Boat to the Lido.
The Lido is a nice place to go by bicycle. There are cars but not that many, as the only connecting to the mainland is by two ferry lines, and many of the locals prefer to go by foot, bicycle or scooter for local business.
On my way back it got rather nasty. Things went well with the ferry and until the start of the bridge between Mestre and Venice. At the start of the bridge, I couldn’t find any path on the other side of the bridge, so I returned on the same side as I came. No problems on the bridge, Venice doesn’t seem to be a popular destination for bicyclists when its raining :-), but when I arrived at the end of the bridge, I found myself on the edge of a motorway ramp, going against the traffic. In the end I had to cross a three lane motorway by bicycle to get back on track, and I could return home through Mestre, but it wasn’t a good experience. Cars tend to move way too fast on motorways, at least if you are on a bicycle.
Bicycle holidays in the area around the Lagoon of Venice are great. The landscape is beautiful, there are many small roads with little traffic and there are loads of nice places to visit and enjoy, but should you want to visit Venice on such a holiday, don’t go there by bicycle. Leave the bicycle and your gear at the station in Mestre, and take the train or a bus to Venice proper. The approach to Venice by land is made for cars and trains only, with only cursory attention to other kind of travellers.
