Martlet Kayak Club

After a late night ferry crossing, 1 car, 2 people, 2 bikes and 2 boats arrived in Calais ready for an adventure.  Dropping by Paris (only 300km away) seemed like a good idea, so we spent the early hours driving round the empty city.  By the time we arrived at the Eiffel Tower it was dawn and we made our way south just as the morning traffic started.
2 hours of sleep later and several more hours of driving we hit the alps!  A glass of wine or two before putting up the tents and we had arrived.
The next day more happy campers came and we tested our boats out on the nearby lake, before taking on our first Alpine river – the Durance – the day after.  The Durance was great – turquoise blue waters, birds of prey wheeling overhead and Big and Bouncy Wave Trains the whole way down!  In fact it was so good that we did it again on the Tuesday!
On Wednesday people went their separate ways:  Some of the crazier paddlers headed off to tackle the Guil gorge section (one part of which Andy apparently decided to do on his head).  Other (perhaps even crazier) people flung themselves and their bikes down the mountain in full body armour.  Sarah and I decided to go to Italy for an icecream.  It seemed like the safer option, but rally car driving skills were required to negotiate the narrow winding mountain passes.  We climbed to over 2800 metres, saw 10 marmots and a camel, and sampled 3 flavours of icecream!  Success!
Back on the water for the next couple of days, we were joined by Niki and Bill from York Canoe Club.  On the Thursday we did the Upper Guil – with lots of eddy hopping and fantastic views of Chateaux Queryas as we neared the get out.

On Friday we headed for the Ubaye, where we pretty much all practiced our swimming and boat retrieval skills!  But any nominations for swimmer of the year were more than compensated for by the surrounding mountains, non-stop rapids and paddling (or swimming) through the gorge and under the Roman bridge.
We headed to Embrun that evening for Mussels night and stumbled on some traditional French dancing.  The rather heighty Duncan dancing with the rather less tall 6 year old was quite a sight to behold.
Saturday there was still time for some more downhill mountain biking and walking before Martina and I set off back on the long road to Calais.  It was hard to leave the Alps and all the others still having fun.
All in all, spectacular scenery, fabulous company and great paddling!
Highlights:
Andy (said casually) ‘Sanne, is that your table on fire?’
Sarah being picked up by her BA by a French raft guy and then, realising it wasn’t one of his rafters, cast like a sack of potatoes into the eddy
Waking up to coffee and fresh pain au chocolat every morning (even when we were sleeping on the side of the motorway) – thanks Martina!

So… Same time, same place, next year, anyone?

Each year MKC is asked to help provide safety cover for a variety of water based events. One such community event we have traditionally supported is the Brighton Swimming Club’s annual Pier to Pier swimming race. Our paddlers paddle from the club to the start at the West Pier and escort the swimmers on their swim to the Palace Pier. This year a lot of our regular paddlers were away either on their own holidays or at our increasingly popular Alps trip.

Saturday arrived with flattish seas and sunshine, near perfect conditions for the bib swim. My main concern for the event was paddlers getting sunstroke!

……and they’re off! The first wave of Male swimmers enter the water.

Clive waits patiently to follow the Women’s wave 2 minutes later!

Pre-race banter by Safety Cover Veterans Clive, Graham, Cliff and Graham.

Newer members got their first experience of providing Safety Cover. Georgie and Harry taking a breather before the race begins.

A big thank you to all members who gave up their Saturday morning to help Brighton Swimming Club. I hope you all enjoyed the event. Rob

It’s been a busy couple of weeks for everyone involved in coaching at the Club. Well done to all the members who have passed their tests and undertaken new training. The progress in people’s paddling skills is very evident, especially amongst some of our newer members, who have only been paddling for a few weeks. Congratulations to Grant Foster, Martin Scott, Craig Nicholson, Mike Watton, Alfie Watton, Liyun Ye, John Miller, Harry Miller, Georgie Harrison and Carrieanne Stares; all of whom passed their One Star Test. The test was carried out on the sea by the Club on a Thursday Club Night - July 8th. And thanks to Ade who came down especially to administer the test.

The following Tuesday (July 13th) seven members of Martlet passed their Two Star at Cuckmere Haven. These included Izi,Gareth,Nigel,Clive,Emily,Agnes and Danny.

Most recently ten people underwent Foundation Safety & Rescue Training on Sunday July 18th. This was a whole day course and involved a lot of getting wet. Fortunately we were blessed with fine weather & a hot and sunny afternoon, which helped a lot. It is quite a full-on, rigorous course but everyone got stuck in and, when it came to the staged incidents at the end of the day, it was clear how much the candidates had grown in confidence. The Club has an increasing number of paddlers attuned to safety and, whilst incidents are few and far between, if an incident should occur there are now even more people equpped with the skills to take the appropriate action.

Congratulations to Agnes, Kelly, Simon, Richard, Patrick, Emily, Nigel, Richard and Matt, Clive. and a special thanks to all the Club Coaches who have worked with Martlet paddlers over the season and contributed to so many successful outcomes over the last fortnight.

There were also Members of the Cuckmere haven Club taking part and it was good to see such collaboration from our coaches organizing inter-club assessments and training. Thanks to Steve Douch from Cuckmere and Pete who all helped out.

We hope to continue these collaborative events and already have a Level One UKCC coach course in the Calendar for September.

 Whilst a significant portion of the known world celebrated Independence Day, the rest came down to Martlet Kayak Club, to take part in our Open Day. A large number of members came down to the Club to help and, as early as 9.00am everyone was busy getting out boats & equipment, putting up the banner etc and generally getting prepared for the day.

This was just as well as, by 10.00am, there were already large queues of punters forming - all keen to get on the sea in a kayak. It was a hot sunny day, which attracted even more people, but it was also quite windy and the wind strengthened significantly during the day. This made it a lot harder for novice paddlers to get afloat and stay upright. Our carefully laid plans to send people out from the beach in small groups - each supervised by a coach - were quickly abandoned as it quickly became apparent that the youngsters in particular were having great difficulty in coping with the conditions. Plan ‘B’ was to supervise the paddlers one-to-one, with Club members wading into the sea and walking the paddlers out through the surf and keeping their boats headed into the waves. This worked well until the tide came in and water started getting deeper. The vision of our esteemed chair accompanying a member of the public out to sea, swimming after them and determinedly hanging on their boat as the waves washed over him, was a sight to see.

 In the end, over 100 people took part (the vast majority local) and everyone seemed to enjoy the experience, despite the conditions. In fact many people enjoyed themslves more because the conditions were a little bit challenging. Hopefully a number of them will return and get involved inthe Club.

The Open Day was part of Brighton & Hove’s ‘International Festival of Sport’ Take Part. (The ‘Paddle Round the Pier was going on at the Hove end of the beach.) This was a new involvement for us but it seemed to fit with the celebration of sport & physical activity rather better than with the May Fringe Festival which we have participated in previously. So many thanks to all the helpers, we were in danger of being overwhelmed by numbers early on in the day and we desperately needed the help of every one of you. Whilst it is invidious to mention names, Paula did a great job as the initial contact who had to sort out eveyone as they arrived: Trevor’s team did their usual amazing (and back breaking) work getting people afloat and back ashore; and Martina took on the role of Beach Marshal, injecting some much needed German organisation & efficiency (as evidenced by their football team nights previously) into sorting out the hordes pouring down the beach towards the sea.

We finished a little early at 1.30, as the wind & waves got stronger and, after hauling all the boats & equipment back up to the Club & putting it all away, we enjoyed a celebratory barbeque outside the arches.

Hard work, but an enjoyable and very successful day for the Club.

River Ouse Trip - Lewes to Hamsey Weir and back

Sunday 27th June 2010

Well, it may have been the day England got knocked out of the football, but we had a glorious June Sunday to paddle the Ouse. It was a perfect opportunity for our open canoes to be out. It also provided an ideal first ever river trip for our new members.

Just aboutr MOOving water!

Martin gets some impromptu coaching from Andy, well he never did much paddling leaving Paula to do all the hard work at the back!

At Hamsey Weir

Harry’s first successful seal launch!

John during the successful first part of his seal launch……………….

John again during his equally successful third phase of his SEAL launch……………. the swim of shame ;o)

Second time this year we’ve picnicked here. Both times gloriously hot!

Martin

The return through the narrow cut through

Next trip will be the River Arun - Watch out for more news shortly!

Sunday June 13th

In their never- ending pursuit of the ultimate ice cream sundae, four members of the Sundae Paddlers Group extended their search to the Beachy Head area this weekend. Avoiding the double temptation of an ice cream van and a small cafe, right next to the launch point, the group set off from Seaford at 10.15 on a 15 mile return trip along the coast. It was overcast as we set off but we soon encountered one of the forecast sunny intervals that amazingly lasted for the whole trip.

 With the tides in our favour, we quickly passed Seaford Head, Cuckmere Haven & the Seven Sisters. En route we were overtaken by the Newhaven Lifeboat & we could watch them in the distance, carrying out a towing exercise with the smaller Eastbourne boat.

Pausing for a quick break at Birling Gap, we continued past the cliffs at Beachy Head to the lighthouse. (Has anyone else noticed the uncanny resemblance to the Lyons Maid ‘Zoom’ rocket lolly?) The lighthouse is now unmanned and was being serviced by a tender from a large Trinity House vessel anchored offshore.

 Returning we sampled the ice cream offered by the cafe at Birling Gap - well worth the climb up the cliffs via the staitcase tower. Then, arriving back at Seaford at 3.00pm, a celebratory ‘99′ was enjoyed by all at the little cafe by the Martello Tower on Seaford Beach.

Quite a strenous paddle for those of us who haven’t sat in our sea kayaks for a while; but a classic trip. The sun was out, the tides were in our favour, the white cliffs were at their best and even the winds were kind. Two ice cream stops in one trip! What more could you ask for? Watch mkcgooglenews for the next Sundae Paddlers adventure. Chris C.     

River Ouse Trip - Lewes to Hamsey Weir and back

Sunday 27th June 2010

Surf kayaking in nasty shorebreak and lovely easy pointbreak in California

Nice……

Little bit of surfkayaking at Davenport Landing 2008………. from marc Woolward on Vimeo.

and Nasty

For the love of shorepound from marc Woolward on Vimeo.

So the  first 2 star coaching group has started well with 8 people signed up to the course ending in an assessment sometime in June.

This season we have organised the Canoe aspect of the course to take place on the guaranteed sheltered water conditions at Cuckmere Haven as this was problematic last season.

The first Canoe session was held last Thursday and was a great success with coaching By Adrian Fall.

All participants seemed to enjoy the evening and the sun even came out for the wet bit!

Thanks to Adrian and to all the paddlers. lets hope this course can extend into another either late season or next…. Sign up now by registering your interest with Dai.

On 10th April 2010, 16 of our members headed down to Skern Lodge in Appledore, Devon to complete a ‘Surf Safety and Rescue Training Course’ as part of Martlet’s Surf Academy. We were blessed with fun waves and lovely weather, and a great time was had by all. Many thanks to Glynn Brackenbury and his coaching team for a great weekend.

Here is a report from one of our junior members, Zack Stubbs;

Surf safety course by Zack Stubbs
My trip report for the surf safety course in Croyde.
On Friday the 9th April Rob, Chris, Jamie and I went to Saunton Sands beach for a surf before the weekend course. It was small but very clean and it gave us a chance to get used to the surf and for me to take out my head cam (video on my f.b). After the surf, Adrian and Nikki met us in the car park and followed us to Skern Lodge where we were met by Simon who showed us to our rooms. We chose the ones with showers. Most of the other people turned up and we all went to the pub and ordered food. The next day it was an extremely early start of 9:00 and after we had breakfast we then went for a brief about the course. We were then split in two groups. I was with Sian, Nat, Nikki, Chris.S and Kelly. We were in the 1 to 2 star group and the rest were in a more experienced group. My group was taken in a mini bus to the beach where we looked at the beach and got talked through the hazards and the way the beach works. We then went back to Skern Lodge to get into our surf kit and headed back down to the beach to surf. Simon sent us in to get used to the surf and the powers of the waves. He observed us and then called us in again to talk about how well we paddled. He then taught us how to get our kayaks in safely if we swim and what to do if our deck pops. He also told us how to paddle in with water in our kayaks (which involved getting quite wet!). We then went out for another surf and we were paired up with a buddy to look out for in the surf. He then came out on his wave ski and told me about needing to reach higher for my top and bottom turns. I found this very useful as I could feel the difference if you reach a bit higher with my paddle on the wave. We surfed some more, improving as Simon gave us advice. We then went back to Skern Lodge and hung our kit out. We then went to the pub (with no beer) and had dinner. On Sunday morning we went in to the pool to practise rolling. I worked on my hand roll with help from Luke then we all planned to go for a surf but the waves had gone down so we didn’t go in.

All in all it was a very good course which I learnt a lot from to help me in the surf. Thanks to Marc for organising a great trip!