Choosing what to pack on expeditions can be tricky, often limited by space and weight, meaning the things you take must be multi-purpose. This has never been so much the case than on my recent trip to the Outer Hebrides.
The islands are off the west coast of northern Scotland and a 5 hour ferry from the town of Oban. The chain of islands extends for 210km, most of them being uninhabited. Our target was to sea kayak around the southern tip and base ourselves on the islands to do some multi-pitch sea cliff climbing.
With a perfect weather window, the trip was a total success. The highlights being paddling in the 3m gap formed between the mainland and Liànamuil island in an exciting swell, a four way arch, multi-pitch abseiling and seeing lots of cool wildlife including puffins, seals, eagles and basking sharks.
Narrow Gap at Barra Head
The front hatches of our sea boats were filled with climbing gear leaving limited space for 7 days’ worth of food, something to sleep in and on, and some spare clothes. The only shoes I had were my Palm Gradients and were used with great comfort to paddle over 30km twice in consecutive days and on other days walk and scramble across the islands accessing the crags. I was so impressed with these in the mountainous terrain that I plan to use them again next time I head into the hills at home in North Wales. Their grip,
support and comfort over long distances is as good as any mountain boot.
A Bashing Shark.
My Oceana jacket was comfortable over the long paddling distances, a pleasure to use but also kept the wind off me whilst cooking dinner at base camp on the cooler evenings, again multi-purpose as it was the only windproof (& water proof) layer I had taken with me!
I can’t describe the extent to which I enjoy overnighting from a kayak. It’s hard to do within the UK in a white water context, but we have one of the best coastlines in the world so why not enjoy it!
With alpine adventures under way and expedition season fast approaching, this months Coaching Dispatches looks at big waves.
Photo: Tim Burne | Location: Sweden
Posture is the key to everything, without it we would capsize. When dealing with big waves upper and lower body separation becomes even more important. As the boat rides up and over the wave we must be ready to let the boat pitch upwards and keep our centre of gravity over the front of the boat.
When riding through a long wave train, our vision might be limited, we might only be able to see on top of the peaks. If we then want to change the way we are facing to change river position, we must think tactically about when this can effectively be done. In tight smaller wave trains, we might not be able to turn effectively in the trough of the waves because of the resistant from the peaks around us. We can’t push the boat through a wall of water. On big tall waves we might not want to travel up the wave facing sideways, in order to maintain posture and boat speed for anything unexpected behind the wave.
Posture is Key. Photo: Adam D | Paddler: Matt Tidy | Location: Nepal
As we see a big wave approaching, the obvious reaction is to hit the power and charge. We get that shot of adrenaline, tense up (effecting posture) and stop thinking about our strokes. As you get more used to this environment you’ll find you generally need less speed than you think and you’ll then find you have more control.
Remember you can’t take a big stroke off the top of a wave because there isn’t much water about. Two common mistakes I see regularly, is to take a stroke at the peak and the last half of the stroke just fires through the air or reaching behind a wave. In both cases we are not anticipating the change in water level through the waves. Slow, even powered strokes. This is a great time to play with changing blade pressure.
Nick applies even blade pressure as he rides over a wave in Switzerland.
Don't forget to turn around and play on those waves! Photo: Tim Burne
Chris Eastabrook Coaching offers bespoke personal coaching covering a range of skills and mental preparation designed around your white water kayaking goals.
Next weekend is the Val Selesia festival and along with fellow Palm paddler Dave Carrol, I will be running the Palm Throwbag Olympics (Thursday and Friday evenings) so I figured it would be good time to share some of the top tips I regularly teach on white water safety and rescue courses ready for the competition.
1. Plan. Using a throwbag is usually proactive, as in you have time to plan where and how you’ll be using it rather than reactive (jumping out your boat as someone swims passed?). Use this time to think about where a paddler is likely to swim, and whether there is an eddy to swing them into.
2. Throw. Too much emphasis is put on the throw itself, as long as it reaches the swimmer, no problem! Roughly I use underarm when I want accuracy, an overarm when I’m throwing down from a cliff or I want the swimmer to feel the rope hit them and a wide bowling action for distance, like putting a rope across a river.
3. Belay. Key for me is managing the forces just as the rope goes tight. The load is same for you on the bank as it is for the person in the water. It doesn’t matter how strong you are, your grip on the rope or the ground if the person in the water is tired, they won’t be able to hold on. You, as the rescuer, must anticipate the force and brake appropriately. The easiest way of doing this to move downriver and away from the river, space you planned for in step 1. It is possible to let rope out or use a body belay but again doesn’t matter how you brake someone in the water as long as you do, allowing you to rescue any sized person. The bigger they are, the stronger the water, the more braking distance need.
Next Month’s Dispatch will look at tactics for bigger water paddling as many of us head away to France and Austria for some summer sun.
Chris Eastabrook offers year round safety and rescue courses and has Palm PFDs, throwbags and other goodies available to try out on the standard and advanced courses. Click here for www.chriseastabrookcoaching.com.
The photos for this blog came from David Fairweather, check out www.davidfairweather.net for more photos and stories. Thanks Dave, Thave.
A big weekend coming up for WW warriors here in the UK.
Sarting on Friday night team paddler Chris Eastabrook will be at CIWW in Cardiff explaining why, amoungst other things, Palm Gradient boots are so popular in Papua New Guinea. He kicks off at 8pm, but don’t forget the course is on the monthly 12 cumec release, so worth a bit of freeride action beforehand.
Further South West at about the same time, the one and only Big O, Olaf Obsommer will be opening this years Gene 17 Adventure Paddlers Weekender. This years show is a refreshing step away from the all action format covered so widely in WW kayaking. Instead it highlights how Olafs skill as a camerman, editor and veretan kayak adventuere have developed to recognise that whilst the purpose is kayaking, the desinations afforded by this means of travel are sublime in themselves.
Oh, and needless to say, there will be some boating. Water is falling from the skies and we will be bringing as many new Dagger Mamba’s as we can squeeze into the van with team paddlers Rosie cripps, Finn Burrows, Nick Horwood and Lowri Davies on hand to give you the lowdown. For those wanting to check kit we’ll have the sample Spark suit, Luna ladies PfD and of course prizes for the Saturday night raffle.
Wherever and whatever your paddling this weekend – have a cracker!
