So last weekend Myself and my Da Philip decided to head west for the weekend and spend the weekend Sea kayaking at the ISKA Sea Kayaking Symposium, Leaving Dublin on Friday after noon but not before heading to i-canoe to pick up all the Demo boats and gear for people too see and buy.
Once in west port we found that we where booked into a swanky hotel with pool and Jacuzzi, I am not that accustomed to this sort of paddling weekend im more used to the surroundings of my van.
We signed up for some of the various activities that where going on over the weekend and then it was off to the bar for some grub and some chat.
Saturday morning came and we were off on the advanced trip to Clare Island, However on hearing that the group would not be circum navigating the island 4 of us packed what we needed and headed out to do the circum nav. I was paddling one of the i-canoe Demo boats the Tahe Reval Mini which I should have got from the name was not the best boat for me and Philip paddled the Tahe Wind 505.
On squeezing into the mini on the beach I proceeded to paddle out into moderate seas once out in the middle of the crossing to Clare Island I soon realised why this boat was called a mini the small swell that was hitting us was breaking into my arm pit I was paddling at water level instead of on top of it. We had a 30km minimum paddle ahead of us and I wasn’t feeling the most comfortable.
Once on the west side of the Island the sea was as flat as you could get and I could take off in the mini, Philip was having no issues with his boat with it suiting his weight range well. I then swapped with Paul Norris who being a lot lighter found that the Mini preformed really well. I used the H20-2 sea kayaking paddle for some of the way and found it great with so little resistance we also had a prototype full carbon H20 paddle this was really nice and if they decide to bring them into production I will be adding it to my paddle bag.
After the trip we dashed back to the Hotel to set up the i-canoe stall for a 2 hour display from all the shops and suppliers, here Paddy McGovern and I chatted with paddlers and solid off some kit, people seemed to like that we had actually spent the day paddling and using the kit we had to show. After that we had a very welcome dinner and then a Talk on the archaeological history of the west of Ireland.
Sunday awoke to a quick dip in the Jacuzzi and then off to Rossmoney to for a boat demo so people could try what we had brought over and all 3 boats seemed to go down well. Myself, Paul and Philip decided to paddle a 15km trip from Rossmoney to Old Head the weather had changed since the sun of the previous day and turned too Rain and wind with some sea fog. This was a nice paddle getting to weave through the islands of Clew Bay and then head on an open crossing to Old Head. After our shuttle arrived to pick us up we headed back to Rossmoney for the final bit of the weekend a prize giving Where the winners of the orienteering competition where announced i-canoe had given some vouchers to the weekend as prizes and they went down quite well with the winners.
Once all the formalities where over we said our good byes and headed back for Dublin after a long weekends sea kayaking. Now me and Paul are back to the next issue at hand the organising of the Colligan Gorge Games 09 Hope to see everyone their.
Cheers
Paddy
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