St Davids: Seals, Waves, Bishops and Sea sickness

 

Me and Dinny, after much deliberating in the weeks running up to this trip, decided to do the classic sea paddle, the “Bishops and Clerks.” Reading the guidebook it shows you a pretty red line, which way to go and a few comments along the lines of “a committing paddle“, “if the sea looks bumpy when you can see out past Ramsey then turn around” and “it can take from 4 hours to a 14 hr epic.” hmmmmmm. Also, it has icons to illustrate choppiness of the sea: it shows Ramsey sound as flat, and way out at sea between south bishop and Ramsey as extremely choppy. Anyone who has seen Ramsey sound on a normal day can understand why we were both excited yet cautious of what awaited us way out at sea.

St Davids – cake report

Maybe someone will post a paddling report or a weather report or a surf report. This is the cake report from Helen, Laura, Chris, Leo and Anna. We listened to the Welsh National Orchestra practice some nice music in the Cathedral. Then we ate this:

It is chocolate and walnut brownie from “The Refectory.” It is very hard to choose between this and Guiness cake. So we ate both.

Edited: Please check the comments for the book report, beer report, port report and here are Simon’s pics

Washburn

Ade, Dan and I had two very pleasant runs down the Washburn yesterday, what a lovely May evening. We bumped into the uni contigent long enough for them to witness my technical “drop-paddles-while-in-an-eddie-and-then-get-wet-scrambling-for-the-bank.” Not a swim. Oh no. The rest of the trip was uneventful, cos I followed Dan’s perfect lines. Cheers Ade for mending all these club paddles! xh 

Porto: The search for tea

Me and Cath went to Portugal second city Porto the home of Port wine.

After catching the Ryanair from Liverpool which landed 50 mins ahead of schedule due to strong tail-wind then taking a taxi from the airport to our accommodation we realised there are bigger nutters out there than me 

Nelly the elephant packed her trunk

Oh dear, Ressuscie-Annie is looking a bit peaky. Has she had a terrible accident with a marker pen? Goodness, she’s not responding to our questions, even when we flick her ear in an irritating way…..

After all the usual checks (see whole article), we start CPR at 30 compressions then 2 breaths.

Handy Hint of the day: 30 compressions is two verses of “Nelly the elephant”, quite fast.

Eight of us attended Ian Bell’s aquatic first aid course this week. We learned a lot of things, many thanks Ian!

Saints

 

Saint David: patron saint of Wales. Saint Justinian: lived on Ramsay Island. Saint Eusoria: saint of nice weather. There is no saint of “The Bitches.” St Walburga: saint of “dogs, rabies and hydrophobia.” St Isidore of Seville: saint of surfing…the internet. There is no patron saint of “White Stuff” or “Fatface,” but San Juan Bosco is the patron saint of Patagonia.

Looking forward to a lovely bank holiday weekend.

Look-in-to-my-eyes, in to my eyes, don’t look around my eyes..

Sue and me went on a BCU whitewater course at the weekend, at Canolfan Tryweryn. The course was run by Tom Parker and Paul Targett. Definitely recommend it.  We learned many things and swam a lot.

One thing they mentioned which I’d never thought about, was the importance of eye contact and body language when you are giving instructions to a swimmer. Making eye contact with the swimmer puts them “under your control”! How cool is that? They will feel compelled to look at you, as long as you maintain eye contact! They have a better chance to hear your instruction. And then they’ll do as you say! …

… At least, they might do as you say, if they trust you, if you stay calm with your arms fairly low, and don’t look like an arm flailing, wittering MADMAN!

Who do you trust?

Claire’s London Marathon

Pics of Claire and Ade running this year’s London Marathon, April. Claire ran for the charity “Young minds,” (donate via justgiving).

Claire:  

"I had a great day on sunday despite the heat

and am pleased to say I managed to run the

whole way round (however slowly at times!)

and finished in 4 hours 52.

I really appreciate all your sponsorship

and I know Young Minds do too. Thankyou!

If any of you fancy running the marathon

next year let me know as spectating looked

great fun so I'd like to give that a go now!!!"

Shiney New Kit and Having Sue for Dinner

Well for those that dont know, I’ve had finals recently, and after taking half of them, a break from revison was in order. So I went window shoping in a kayak shop. (Looking back I feel a bit silly now, I should have gone to a glass shop for windows). So me and Joe (some of you know from my birthday last year) went for a wee drive to Outdoor Active, a cracking little place in glostershire just off the M6 J14. Just to get out of the training centre we stay in and stretch the legs.

Wasn’t intending to spend any money but, as luck would have it, a delivery of sweet helmets had arrived 30 mins earlier. ( sweet is a make of helmet and not just some youngster hippy trendy lingo for a nice helmet.) And since I have been trying to try one on for ages i just felt compeled to do just that. 45 minutes later after trying and adjusting and trying some more I became quite a few pounds lighter in the wallet as well as becoming the owner of a nice shiny new helmet!
This brings me to dinner with Sue. Me and Rachel just had a great dinner with Sue (stew before anyone asks) as she passed through after spending the weekend doing a WHite Water Rescue Course with Helen H run by Tom Parker coaching.  As you do, we discussed paddling and kit which brings me back to my helmet which Sue and Rachel tried on. Cracking piece of kit, I’ll write a proper review when I’ve used it in anger, but for now just look how nice it is.

Babushka book review

Buy it at Amazon 

‘Barbed Wire & Babushkas’ by Paul Grogan. Two English kayakers set off to run the Amur river of Siberia, source to sea. Thats over 4000km of mosquitos, forests and surreal bureaucratic barriers - the Amur is a sensitive China-Russia border. It can only really be paddled by people who are able to talk themselves out of various “AK47″ situations and live on a mixture of weevils, porridge and mystery tins. The story is interspersed with visits from a series of colourful, mostly incredibly kind and generous people who tend to adopt the two kayakers and ply them with vodka. This is what makes the journey, and the book.

A treat to read, get it.

Anglesey Weekend – Sun, Sea and Seals

(27th-29th April) 

After loading and unloading Penny’s car for only the sixth time we finally managed to pack all the paraphernalia required for a top weekend in Anglesey. With me comfortably lodged between a windsurf sail and a paddle we were off! First, through the Wirral’s “ring of steel” to follow the route of the North wales visual telegraph, across one of the richest mussel beds in the world to Anglesey. Arriving in Holyhead just in time for last orders, we met up with Helen, Rachel, Will, Cath and Dinny.

A late night was followed by an early morning for Dinny, Cath and Will. They set off on a 30 mile (45 minute, by the wookie-calculator) paddle out to the Skerries.

 

Helen and Rachel felt almost guilty waving them off from the windy beach -  carrying a boat in that wind was taxing enough, let alone paddling! Meanwhile Tamsin, Penny and I were dining on fried eggs and bacon at Tesco Cafe.

Focus on First Aid

Upcoming aquatic first aid course is at Liverpool University Guild training room, Monday 14th and Monday 21st May,  7pm-9pm. Usually we just tag along to local club FOA’s courses, but those are often in the outskirts, which is difficult for the students in terms of transport. For that reason, this one has been organised in the Guild.

 There may be one or two places still on the course for students or olds – contact HelenH if you would like to attend.

Other first aid resources:

St. John’s ambulance have a very impressive website of first aid stuff, you can even download podcasts, imagine that.

Places to buy first aid stuff to put in your pelicase/waterproof jar inlcude: First Aid Warehouse, St John’s supplies and First Aid 4 Sport.