NIViking

As I’ve mentioned before almost all my technical ability in a kayak has been washed away by the passage of time and so when Belfast Kayak Club announced a six-week 1* kayak course I thought it would be a good idea to take part.

The first session happened last night at Shaw’s Bridge in Belfast.  Being me I didn’t read the, admittedly confusing, forum post correctly and managed to turn up at 5 o’clock and not 7!  Luckily some of the BKC folks were out doing a 2* canoe course and rather than leave me standing on the bank they (very) kindly gave me a boat and some rudimentary instruction in getting the thing to go in a straight line.  Thanks very much guys I enjoyed it immensely 🙂

Eventually 7 o’clock came round and the kayak course itself started.  With 7 or 8 students and 2 instructors we had a nice group and were taken through the basics of starting, stopping, going in a straight line (forwards and backwards), low braces and  low brace turns.  I have to say I enjoyed the session a great deal as the guys on the course were friendly and both instructors were very good.  Unfortunately I’m going to miss next weeks session as I’ll be in Plas-y-brenin (http://www.pyb.co.uk/) on a sea kayaking course but I’m really looking forward to getting back to this the week after.

This was the first time that I had used my Liquid Logic Jefe Grande (http://www.liquidlogickayaks.com/jefe_grande.cfm) creek boat.  In terms of size and comfort it is brilliant.  The handling is unlike any other kayak I’ve ever been in as due the flat rocker it turns very flat and very fast.  It doesn’t seem to want to carve into turns but it’s entirely possible that I’ve yet to have enough confidence to edge into them properly.

Next up is a sea kayaking evening trip with Tollymore mountain centre (http://www.tollymore.com/) on Strangford Lough.

For the record I didn’t take any photographs of this session as I was too busy enjoying myself 🙂