P&H Custom Sea Kayaks Blog

Sea Kayaking Articles from P&H Staff, Team Paddlers, and Friends

Tag: Sea Kayaking

Lessons Learned – Rapid Acceleration

By

On March 14, 2022

In Technical

This video series, titled ‘Lessons Learned’, will highlight things Christopher seas while he is on the water coaching and will give you some ideas to think about the next time you head out in your sea kayak. We hope that you will find them educational and that they help you get the most out of your days on the water.

During the season we can build our confidence but we tend to keep missing waves and not being able to get onto the features we are trying to. This is where rapid acceleration comes into play. Get out there are use these tips to increase your enjoyment on the water. Professional coaching will help with your forward paddle stroke and the rest will come with time and hard work.

4 Key things to keep in mind when training and working n rapid acceleration

  1. Visualize where you need to take off from and how much distance you need to get your boat up to speed
  2. Increase your cadence 1,2,3,4,5
  3. Shorter up your paddle stroke
  4. Physical fitness and endurance are key to be able to reproduce this for a day on the water.

Visit www.committed2thecore.com for more tips and professional coaching opportunities. Christopher Lockyer is a proud member of the P&H pro paddler Team Based in Nova Scotia. Sea you on the water

Lessons Learned – Trim and posture

By

On March 7, 2022

In Technical

This video series, titled ‘Lessons Learned’, will highlight things Christopher seas while he is on the water coaching and will give you some ideas to think about the next time you head out in your sea kayak. We hope that you will find them educational and that they help you get the most out of your days on the water.

Posture and Trim – Lessons Learned

When it comes to posture and trim we all need to work on flexibility and also be aware that we are always moving in our kayak. Regardless of the environment, you are working in try and key your torso moving at all time. It will give you an increase in your range of motion but more impotently will increase blood flow to your entire body. Regularly moving your joints can help reduce pain, keep your joints flexible, and improve strength and overall balance.


Keys to Posture
• Try and sit up tall when performing forward paddling
• When in bumpy water try and change your posture to a slight forward lean
• Work on bracing and recovery stokes in your forward posture
• When working on rolling practice your forward finishing roll
• Posture is key to overall body health. Back fatigue can be a result of weakness in your core

Here is a link to 8 stretched that will help you touch your toes. These tips will help with posture and help you put your socks on as well.

Sea you on the water ~Christopher Lockyer

Lessons Learned – Lean Forward

By

On February 28, 2022

In Technical

This video series, titled ‘Lessons Learned’, will highlight things Christopher seas while he is on the water coaching and will give you some ideas to think about the next time you head out in your sea kayak. We hope that you will find them educational and that they help you get the most out of your days on the water.

So often we sea students putting themself in awkward body positions while on the water. So many tend to forget to lean forward which can increase opportunities to hurt yourself and also move you farther away from being able to reach your grab loop to get out of your kayak. When in the pool or practicing in flat water reinforce the home base potions tuck forward as if you are going to attempt a roll if for no other reason but to protect yourself and be close to your grab loop.

Hope this helps. Sea you on the water.

Visit www.committed2thecore.com for more tips and professional coaching opportunities. Christopher Lockyer is a proud member of the P&H pro paddler Team Based in Nova Scotia. Sea you on the water

Committed 2 the Roll

By

On February 21, 2022

In Technical

Often when learning 2 roll or working 2 better our roll, we find ourselves in moments of challenge or defeat.

We have compiled a list of 5 tools and Tactics that are intended to be agnostic of the style of sea kayak roll that you are working on.

6 Simple Tools and Tactics 2 sea kayak rolling

1 Mental Setup
2 Physical Setup
3 Slow things down
4 Stretching/Strength/Separation
5 Project Post Recovery
6 Introduce variation

Click on the image to download the PDF.

Dre’s West Coast Adventure: Part Two, “I’m so lucky.”

By

On May 29, 2020

In Expeditions, Trip Reports

June 13

I’m on Day 3 of this adventure and on my 2nd weather day! It’s amazing the difference 2 days make. (Day 1 was a weather day, and I still had my head in 2 worlds). I was super stressed the last couple days before the trip started.

Then also on the first paddling day, I had a REALLY slow start (I had to carry the boat about a quarter-mile, then all the gear), a really heavy boat, I didn’t know if it may be loaded too heavy and bow heavy, there was water coming over the bow… I was still stressed. Was it a bad idea to round Cape Flattery like this? The forecast was 5-foot swell at 12 seconds – I expected some energy out there.

The kinks ironed out, the boat performed admirably, I remember I could paddle – and I got to the Cape and the stacks off the Cape. It was gorgeous. While I still had regular thoughts that I muttered aloud, “wtf am I doing?” – they became increasingly peppered with “I’m so lucky.”

I had to take another day off today. The forecast said 7 foot swell at 7 seconds, then 6 feet at 9 seconds, then I couldn’t get the right forecast and the marine forecast on my Garmin didn’t differentiate between wind waves and swell and seemed to show wind speeds on land, not water… the beach looked big. All the forecasts agreed it would diminish. A friend sent me ten proper forecast, and indeed, it’s supposed to be smaller. The beach is already looking smaller.

So today I made the best of a ridiculously high percentage of weather days and walked to the Cape Flattery trail to see what I paddled yesterday. Gorgeous. And all I can say is – I’m so lucky.

Post-Expedition Thoughts

I don’t particularly remember that my head was still in two places the first couple days of the expedition. It’s an interesting reminder to read that several months later.

What I DO remember was competing thoughts of “wtf?!” and “I’m so lucky.” I didn’t know at the beginning of the expedition – and probably wouldn’t have guessed – that those two thoughts would be my constant companions through the next 3 months. I think that every single day, I said both of those things out loud. I still think both of those things every time I see photos from the trip – and I see them every day because they’re my screen saver now… I see the photos, and I think how unbelievably lucky I am to have had the chance to do this and to get to see all the indescribable beauty I was immersed in for 3 months. And I also have that moment of “wtf?.” As I was planning, as I was paddling, and after the whole thing was over, I’ve had this constant feeling of something surreal. I mean – really? I lived out of my kayak for 3 months? On the beaches of this country – a heavily populated, heavily industrialized, heavily regulated country?

I’m grateful for one more thing now – I feel so lucky I took this trip last summer. My initial plan was to do it summer 2020. I don’t know what prompted me to move it up by a year – but wow am I lucky I did!

Anglesey Stacks trip with P&H dealer Manu Redureau

By

On August 30, 2017

In News, Trip Reports

On Sunday 27 August P&H dealer Manu Redureau, of Bekayak, Brest, France, joined me for a blast around the Stacks.  This trip also gave Manu the opportunity to try out the Delphin MKII Corelite X in rough water conditions.

Our journey took us from Porth Dafarch to North Stack and back – similar to the route shown below from the ‘Welsh Sea Kayaking: Fifty Great Sea Kayak Voyages’ book.  We enjoyed surf and rough water at Penrhyn Mawr, followed by some small surf at South Stack before lunch on the rocks in Gogarth Bay – the seal pupping season from August to November precluded us from using the beaches.  After lunch we returned to Porth Dafarch by closely following the coastline and exploring lots of channels, arches, caves and rock gardens.  The journey was both fun and a great work out.  Thanks for a great day out Manu!

Geth Roberts, www.seakayakingwales.com

Penrhyn Mawr

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South Stack

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Wen Zawn and Cathedral Arch

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A smaller Gogarth Bay arch

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Below Elen’s Castle

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Abraham’s Bosom

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Oh Sea

By

On December 31, 2016

In Trip Reports

We are in the first place real sea admirers, and in the second place sea kayakers. This is the last video of the year 2016. It contains footage of the last sessions we did with the team. After ten years of wandering our piece of the North Sea, we are more enthusiast than ever! We wanted to start the video with a fitting poem, as a tribute to this wonderful water mass that provides us with intriguing, challenging and beautiful conditions to paddle in. We want to thank all our team members for their friendship, our sympathizers for their support and al others who made our team grow during those last years. Come with us on our last journey of 2016, we’ll see each other next year on the water!

 

Sea Kayak Sailing – Enhancing The Seafaring Experience

By

On July 24, 2016

In Reviews, Technical

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South Pembrokeshire

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West Coast of Ireland

Sea kayaks enable their users to explore and play on life-affirming journeys.  Part of the challenge is to safely utilise the currents, swell and winds.  The direct energy of the wind has been largely unused by most modern sea kayakers.  In recent decades sailing rigs have become far more manageable to use on sea kayaks and their distribution/availability outside of Australia and New Zealand is only now becoming a reality.  This exciting development is opening up brand new sea kayaking opportunities and challenges for all.  From downwind coastal runs to traversing huge exposed island chains, like the Aleutians, sea kayak sailing is putting bigger smiles on people’s faces and aiding in epic journeys.

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Tropical beach on Caldey Island

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Windy day at Cadnant Bay Menai Straits

History

Kayak sailing was invented in 1865 when John “Rob Roy” MacGregor designed and built a sailing kayak for his 1,000 mile journey along the inland waterways of Europe.  Those early Rob Roy Kayaks subsequently evolved into the huge variety of kayak types that we know today.  Sail equipped kayaks remained popular into the 1930s.  In 1934, Alastair Dunnett and Seumas Adam (“The Canoe Boys”) used their sail equipped Lochaber kayaks on an impressive and pioneering journey to explore the west coast of Scotland.

Kayak sailing also became popular in continental Europe during the 1920s and 1930s.  In 1928 Franz Romer kayak sailed across the Atlantic from Lisbon to Puerto Rico.  He attempted to continue his journey onwards to New York but went missing, presumably killed, in a hurricane.  Oskar Speck’s similarly epic seven year kayak sailing trip from Germany to Australia should have been widely celebrated as an amazing achievement.  However, arriving at his destination in September 1939 he was interned for the duration of the Second World War.

Kayak sailing subsequently went out of fashion in Europe.  Towards the end of the twentieth century sails were beginning to be developed for use on modern sea kayaks by Australia and New Zealand-based kayakers.  Sea kayak sailing is now commonplace in these countries and is beginning to take hold in Europe and North America.

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Skerries Lighthouse, Anglesey

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Surfing in Ireland

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Surfing near Stackpole

Why sea kayak sail?

  • Speed/endurance/fun

Maintaining the top displacement hull speed is easier when sea kayak sailing.  It is also much easier to get your kayak planing in swell and tidal rapids.  This is particularly useful when attempting to catch less steep waves.  In essence you will catch more waves, considerably increasing your speed and range.  Average speeds of 7 knots with planing top speed runs in excess of 10 knots are not unusual in conditions where it would be considerably more difficult for conventional sea kayaks to plane and maintain average speeds of more than 3-4 knots.

When the waves become too steep it is best to stow the sail away as it will no longer enhance the experience and will, most likely, become a liability.

  • Enhanced safety

The sail appears triangular and conspicuous from afar and/or in overhead rolling swell.

The exposure of paddling along coastlines with less frequent safe landings is reduced if the wind and sail combine to add to the kayaks propulsion.

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Caldey Island tiderace

Getting into sea kayak sailing

Equipment

The main airfoil sail available in Europe is the Flat Earth Kayak Sails range of airfoils.  They are designed and manufactured in Australia by Mick MacRobb.  Other airfoil sails are being manufactured for sea kayaks but they are far less common in Europe.

Sea kayak manufacturers

Many composite sea kayaks will need strengthening in order to accommodate a sail mast. You can assess this by pressing down on the deck near the compass recess and gauging whether there is much flexibility in the deck and hull.  Most kayak companies will strengthen your kayak by special order. Plastic kayaks tend to be more robust in taking a sail mast.

Since 2012, P&H kayaks have produced all of their composite kayaks with enough strength to accommodate a sail mast.  Their plastic Scorpio MKII range of sea kayaks has been designed with sailing in mind. It easily accommodates a Flat Earth Sail and handles superbly well when sailed.

Have a go/purchase

Scotland – Karitec are the main UK distributor of Flat Earth Kayak Sails and have a range of demo boats to try out under sail.

http://www.karitek.co.uk/

England – P&H have demo kayaks fitted with sails and attend many sea kayak symposiums.

http://www.phseakayaks.com/

Wales – Sea Kayaking Wales (SKW) are based on Anglesey and have a range of P&H sea kayaks and Flat Earth Kayak Sails to try out.  SKW also run sea kayaking (including sailing) courses in Ceredigion, Pembrokeshire, Llŷn and the Gower.  Flat Earth Sails are available to purchase from SKW.

https://seakayakingwales.com/

More Information

http://seakayakphoto.blogspot.co.uk/ – An excellent blog written by, Douglas Wilcox, one of the most enthusiastic proponents of sea kayak sailing in Europe.

http://www.flatearthkayaksails.com/ – The most popular airfoil sail in the UK at present.

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Tenby

Geth

www.seakayakingwales.com

P&H Aries Review

By

On January 26, 2012

In Reviews

The P&H Delphin has shaken things up in the world of sea kayak play over the past couple of seasons and the new Aries is sure to do the same. What do you get out of P&H’s newest composite sea kayak? Lets take a look.

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