The third Women’s Scottish Sea Kayak Symposium was held this
August in Bute at Ettrick Bay – right
beside the Tea Rooms which cater for the event and are famous for kayaker
appropriate portion sizes and amazing cakes.
Setting off for the 600+ mile journey in the van I decided
to take the scenic route through the Highlands, pausing at Glencoe to take in the
moody atmosphere.
I set up camp – one
of an impressive turnout of camper vans – along the shore road with Arran
providing a picturesque view from the van door for a couple of gloriously sunny
days. Summer, which had vanished from
Orkney at the beginning of August, had moved to Argyll and Bute!
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| The view from the van - Arran from Ettrick Bay, Bute. |
After the obligatory brew and nosey around other folks’ van
outfitting, it was time to have a van meal and a yarn before the event proper
began. As usual Roddy had assembled an attractive fleet of Tiderace kayaks and
a quiver of Joe O’s beautiful laminatedpaddles.
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| 'What would you like to do today?' and a bit of a stretch.. Photo Rhiannon George |
The first day’s workshop was on the east coast at the little
bay at Kerrycroy. Not strictly Greenland but rather entitled ‘Love the Wet
Stuff’, we managed to fit in quite a few balancing (‘kiss your kayak’) activities
and getting in and out of your kayak, low brace support and turning strokes.
Gradually getting wetter as the morning went on. Boy did sitting in the cockpit
feel solid and secure after all that paddling and balancing out of it…!
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| Tracy tries out A Joe O paddle and, guess what?, ends up paddling the next day with one of her own. Photo - Rhiannon George. |
The afternoon was more about how the water can support your
body and your boat ( rather than your blade and the boat as we had been doing
in the morning) - floaty stuff being encouraged. Paddles by this time had been adjusted to
zero feather and folk were ready to give static or ‘balance’ bracing a go. The
emphasis was then clearly on thinking of the water as a friend and to embrace, not
resist immersion…
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| Stretch, balance and float. |
After an excellent meal on Saturday night, day two followed a similar pattern – both
groups had mentioned similar things they wanted to try in the morning – but in
the afternoon Rhiannon helped support learning of Greenland body position for
butterfly roll and standard Greenland Roll. Some good rolling was starting to
develop before the afternoon was out.
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| Progressive degrees of immersion throughout the day. |
Then it was time for me and Rhiannon to get a little
practice while we had each other to discuss issues with – but we were getting
tired so, aware of wanting to finish (usually forward) well we quit before
things started to deteriorate. The beach had been busy with families and dogs
and kites and picnics and sand-castles all day! I am not used to such a
bustling background to practice against.
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| The Festival was a good chance to share Joe O's paddles. |
After Sunday’s evening meal Justine gave her slideshow andtalk. Fresh from Alaska it was odd to see her in real life after following the
101 day adventure with Sarah Outen online. The whole Aleutian adventure is just
amazing – I am full of admiration and a little bit envious.
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| Good cakes and great craic - lots of laughter. |
It was great to see old paddling pals and make a few new ones
and, if not spead the Green virus a
little bit more, then maybe show how your relationship with the water can
change by relaxing and altering body position, maximising flexibility and range
of movement, adjusting buoyancy and … just taking time to float about a bit.
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| Sarah's gets soggy... |
Thanks to Sarah McIlroy for the photos of Sundays
shenanigans - most of the photos of the sessions on this post are hers. You can see more of her excellent photos and read about her adventures over at her blog 'Sarah's Soggy Scenarios', thanks also to everyone who threw themselves into the ‘wet stuff’’...
and thanks Roddy, Alice and Laura for organising.
