Gaybo King

Nope, it’s not a reference to my sexuality, but my training is moving on. This kayak 'King' is made by Gaybo and is what I am using at the moment, the boat must be 20 years and is No13 off the mould.

John Willacy the designer of the Taran comes from a white water racing background, you can see this in the boat he has designed, Chris, myself and yes - OMG Jeff Allen, are all looking forward to putting through its paces.

Anyway, cross training (not a reference to anything other than paddling) in WW racers is like a relationship in many ways, Its difficult at the beast of times!  However the security of epic wings makes it more positive. I am out side of my comfort level wash hanging in the King but it makes training a bit more exciting.


Regards


Harry 'the one and only'  Whelan

West Coast of Ireland

Found training to be a bit frustrating lately, work sort of disrupted my schedule and when I returned to swimming yesterday after several days out, it felt as if I'd taken three steps backwards. When ever I feel like this I click on the following link and it reminds me why I'm heading over to Ireland:

http://www.youtube.com/user/relentlessenergy#p/u/14/1swPZzxv0tI

A big thank you to both Mark and Debs for helping us to support the Ovarian Cancer Action charity...cheers guys

Jeff, Harry and Chris

Porthtowan surf boat team head south to the world championships in NZ

I just thought I would put up a quick post on behalf of a friend of mine called Nick Healey from Porthtowan Surf Boat team. I went out for a sunday roast with him and Lizzie last night and it came up in conversation that he was shortly heading out to New Zealand to compete in the world surf boat championships (like that sort of comment comes up in conversation every day!)
I was taken aback that I hadn't heard anything about this on the news or in the local papers and it made me wonder just how many sports we have in Britain where by we have teams which compete at international level and excel against the worlds best.

Here we have a tiny surfing village on the North Cornish coast going up to represent Britain and compete against the worlds very best at an international event, lack of financial support and minimal sponsorship means that the team will have to pretty much fund the venture themselves which (A) shows a massive amount of commitment on their behalf, but (B) also indicates to me just how much we support some of the more widely recognised sports, but have little in the way of help in other lesser known activities of which we in the sea kayaking world are also no doubt aware of.

The team from Porthtowan will be the only British team competing against the world's best in a country where surf boat rowing is as popular as soccer, they will not however be going to NZ as complete under dogs, they are the current european champions. How great an achievement would it be if they came home with a medal or two, with approximately 6000 competitors the odds are certainly stacked against them, but knowing how hard these guys have trained and committed they are, I wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't a little bit of bling floating around North Cornwall again in the not to distant future.

For more information on the team where you can show your support, view video and images of them all in action go to:

http://www.porthtowansurfboat.com//

Stiff Legs and a paddle with Rob Feloy

Training

I have had a couple of emails recently from Mick O'Meara and Dermot Blount, both wishing us good luck for the challenge and an offer of support when we are in their vicinity. Great to know guys, so thank you from us all.
Mick also gave me some sound advice for training - the need to focus on core development, so yesterday, for the first time in several years I headed down to the gym with my wife and she started me on a core development programme. Lizzie is an osteopath and personal trainers and also knows when I am slacking. She didn't spare the rod and I suffered, waking up this morning with stiff legs.  We should have warmed down and stretched; I hear you say....we did, I'm blaming it on being almost 9 years the wrong side of forty. Anyway we concentrated on starting to develop what Liz termed  the spiral chain of muscles which are so integral to our paddling. We finished off with some rowing to warm down and then stretching out on the mat. I have my work cut out.Looking forward to catching up with you, Mick and Dermot on the trip

Rob Feloys new C-Trek 16
In the afternoon I met up with Rob Feloy, designer of numerous kayaks including one of my all time favourites the Inuk. Rob has just redesigned the C-Trek, now coming in at 16'5".
Conditions were good if not a tad windy, SSW F6 but mainly off shore, localised wind eddies altered direction slightly and there was a two to three foot ground swell wrapping up from around Manacle Point.
I was really impressed with the C-Trek 16 I've got to say, probably something to do with Rob's background of being a naval architect, his designs come straight off the drawing board rather than someone else’s idea being chopped apart, sort of copied and then filled and faired to create something termed as a new design. The kayak is going to hit the market in the very near future and I'm sure will do well as it was very fast, easily as fast as most 17'-18' kayaks on the market but also turns on a sixpence and very stable as is the larger C-Trek. It will in my mind make an excellent kayak for rock hopping and guiding. Good luck Rob, I hope it does well mate and a big thank you to Gordon, Joan and Roger for supporting us in supporting the Ovarian Cancer Action charity

Jeff

Just Giving page now active

Apart from paddling around Ireland being a massive big adventure and hopefully a lot of fun, we shall also be trying to raise awareness and money, for the Ovarian Cancer Action charity and we have now initiated our just giving page which can be visited on-line through the following link:

http://www.justgiving.com/AroundIreland2011

We have chosen to this charity because of the loss of Anne Bird, my wife's mother who lost her life to ovarian cancer in 2007,  a very big thank you to Deb and Bob, the link was only active minutes and they had donated generously, so cheers guys.

We have set the target of £3000 as this is the amount of miles the three of us will have to paddle to complete the trip, so if you are feeling generous then please do donate, this 'Silent Killer' can affect women anywhere and is a very worthy cause for consideration.

Harry, Chris & Jeff

'When Harry met Taran'

Image & film courtesy of Vaughan Roberts of Romany Productions

Met up with Harry yesterday and he instantly started to examine the lines of the Taran. I could see he was itching to get in and go for a blast, so this morning after a healthy dose of coffee, the need for caffeine bought about by the previous evenings activities we set off down river towards the city. I gave Harry my Epic Wings so that he could kill two birds with one stone, eager to find a wing that suits him for 'Around Ireland'. 


The smile on his face gave me a good indication as to his thoughts on the boat, as he went haring off after the Thames River police launch, in fact he was like a rat up a sewer pipe on every launch that welcomed him aboard their wash. Vaughan from Romany productions and I didn't see Harry for the next half hour as he disappeared into the distance, taken away at about 14 knots, not in handcuffs but certainly locked into a watery groove just feet away from their transom. 


Harry eventually returned and Vaughan and I joined him on the water, once more setting off down river. Vaughan now had the chance to film both Harry and I taking it in turns wash hanging the power boat. Harry, being somewhat shorter than I could not reach the foot pedals to control the rudder but this didn't seem to hinder him much when it came to controlling the boat on the face of the wave, in fact both Vaughan and I were incredibly impressed at Harry's skill and agility when only inches away from a propellor blade.


Harry's verdict on the Taran? A resounding 'Thumbs up' 


Commenting about just how well the boat surfs I could tell that he was happy with converting to Rockpool, and asked me if I could take his Rapier away with me.


We both ended the day with a swim in Chelsea swimming pool and now having a refreshing pint of beer in his local boozer.


Cheers for now


Jeff 


P.S Don't try this at home

A good day on the river

I had a great day on the River Dart today, I am not what you would really call a river paddler, I feel a lot more comfortable on the sea. River paddling has always felt very much like being an insect in a bath with the plug having been pulled out. In fact rivers scare me a lot more than being at sea in a gale of wind. So why was today so good for me?
Well I got to paddle in the company of excellence...... Deb Pinniger was holding a white water safety and rescue course and I was lucky enough to be a part of it. It wasn't just the content of the course, or the way in which she delivered it, it was also being able to watch a truly skilled paddler perform within her element. Thank's for a great day Deb's, you are a star............Tomorrow I am setting off to paddle on another river, with another star, off to the 'Smoke' and the legend that is........Harry Whelan, a couple of days training with Harry and a visit to the London boat show :) I think the first pints on you mate!
Cheers for now
Jeff

Training paddle 6th Jan

After 6 days of sailing with clients, I felt an easy paddle was in order, so I set off early to cross to Koi Miy Ton,  paddling into a head wind of about 8 to 10 knots, nice and cool; over heating is my biggest problem. As the island slowly grew closer the wind picked up and I was glad to make land fall. 

After a 10 min rest I had to decide whether I paddle around the island as planned or go straight back before the wind and seas became worse.

Believing that Ireland will be windy and rough most of the time, I set off around Koi Miy Ton. Only 3 miles ish .... 2hours 17 minutes later I finished! I managed to average approximately 1 knot, whoopee! Another rest, then off home, the return paddle consisted of low braces, stern rudders and the odd forward stroke; passing a friend in the bay who was setting a second Anchor for his boat, he watched laughing, and shouted, 'you should have checked the weather', I returned his greeting with a friendly F*** O**, I was again, glad to make land fall.

A school boy error, I didn't bother with a forecast and paddled into a well forecasted front. 

Chris

Chris should have been in a Taran :) 

Swim, swim, swim and how easy it is to lose yourself in the pool

I got up bright and early this morning and set off to the swimming pool, my aim was to try and complete my first measured mile, nautical mile that is-of course. As it was I went a little bit beyond, as I lost count of the 76 lengths needed, so added on an extra 10 or so. 

My wife Lizzie who was also swimming with me, decided that it would be a good idea at the 30 length mark to try and pull down my neoprene paddling shorts - this was of course in-advertant, she was in fact just trying to get my attention, but in so doing they filled with water, the change in drag became really obvious to me. No longer a stream lined creature of the deep, now a wobbly water filled Guinness drinker once more!

For the next 40 lengths this played on my mind and I tried to lose myself in the stroke, seeing if the shape I held my hand would catch and release water like a wing blade, then I tried changing the angle my arm entered into and then travelled through the water, instead of pulling water straight back I started to experiment to try and make my strokes longer in the water. It dawned on me that there is, as much technique in swimming as there is in paddling and hull design. Except you are the vessel, my beer belly, even though it is reducing slowly, is like having an underslung deck bag on a kayak, I am going to have to work on that. I then lost myself in thoughts on the Taran's flat bottom, when I went out in Salcombe with Rod and we surfed the swells back from Prawle Point I was managing to pick up swells very easily, the buoyant bow keeps the ride high, certainly in comparison to other boats I've paddled. Once on the swell the kayak would accelerate and almost start skipping, planing I think they call it in boat terms, in my terms it skipped, from one swell to another, I now found that I was starting to try and steer from swell to swell, using the rudder. In retrospect I now realise how much of a reflective learner I am, but I was naturally falling into the groove of doing this in the moment, which isn't reflective at all! Can you see how I lost those 10 lengths?

Anyway back to Lizzie, having failed in de-robing me, she did manage to make me focus on streamlining. That's life, there's always someone to bring you down to earth when your feeling on top of things and in all thing's there is a hidden lesson. 

With 16 weeks of training ahead of us all it will be interesting to see the differences which take shape both physically and mentally in each of us over time. We haven't consulted with each other in regards to a set training schedule, each of us are doing our own thing. In the past I have always gone into an expedition knowing that without wind or tide being present I'm happy to manage 30 miles daily, but this time we are all keen to push our own personal limits to see what we can do. Time will tell I guess.

Happy New Year from Salcombe

Happy New Year, hope you all had a great entry into 2011, I certainly did, headed up to Salcombe with my family to see the New Year in and had a great time; even managed to get some training in - several swims, one in the local pool at Kingsbridge where my son and my wife hammered me for an hour doing 50 metre shuttle sprints, and another swim from North Sands beach, v cold, but the dip was a fantastic cure for a rather large hangover, if I could bottle that cure, I'm sure I wouldn't have to work anymore.


Today I was afloat once more in the Taran, meeting up with a good friend of mine, Rod, we set out from North Sands beach. Rod was in his brand new Carbon Kevlar Nordkapp, which looked very shiny indeed as we set off for Prawle Point, the wind was blowing steadily at between a 3 and 4 from the east and directly across the tide, which was going to make for a fun surf home. But first we set off for a bit of rock hopping, a chunky 3-4' swell made this an interesting couple of hours, partly because of the conditions, but also because of the rudder on the Taran. I've got so used to edging my turns that I'm inadvertently applying the rudder whilst also edging, sometimes with the wrong foot, ( I'll get the hang of it eventually!) so quite often I end up stalling the turn and then have to paddle backwards to re-align. Then I had to work out the rudder in astern, this was a good exercise, especially given the conditions, after the first scratch to the shiny new Gel coat, the learning curve grew a little less steep and I began to relax. I felt I had started to nail it by the time we ran the small channel between Prawle Point and the outer rocks.
We then surfed home, once more the Taran has ticked all of the boxes for me, picking up numerous linked runs, connecting swell after swell, surging and streaming with ease down the faces; the boat is very fast downwind and I had some fantastic runs of several hundred meters.


Once more, happy new year to all - looking forward to seeing you soon in London for some Catholic paddling Harry.


Jeff