Krazy Kayaks

Spent some time on the lake (in a boat) with Adam (in a separate vessel) Because I had took the boy with me (son, aged 3), for safety reasons I took a flat top/sit on top canoe, basically a unsinkable vessel (like the titanic).
Adam, after a bit of paddling, thought he liked the look of this sturdy vessel of mine and went to shore and decided to try one of these boats.
The problem being he tried a one man version ( I was sat high and dry on my 3 seat titanic with no ice burgs in sight). After 10 minutes on this new command of his his morale sunk as his arse went from damp to soggy in a short space of time. These flat tops have built in draining which works both ways so the lake was draining into his boat, he soon (Adam) abandoned his boat and declared the day over.
His final words being , think I may do it (the event) in a canoe (the ones look like boats as opposed to kayaks what have key hole cockpit ), it will help with carrying the gear.
Now slight problem number 1 then, this page is called Krazy Kayakers, so now we have to re- name this page to Krazy kayaker and (something that starts with a c) -----------------Krazy Kayaker and a Cxxx in a canoe. Can’t think of owt can you?


Got my Kayak 1 star award on Sunday , which means that I must have a shaver point and three towel rails in my boat, and a bed side lamp. Well that’s what it says in the English tourist guide book for 1 stars establishments.

I am a bit obsessive with this kayak stuff at the moment with every stretch of water I see. I imagine boating down it, as I gaze longingly at my sons 3 foot round paddling pool.

Just a few pictures of our outing yesterday...

Greetings readers!

As I mentioned in my previous post, we have been contacting a few kayak outlets recently to see if any would help us out with some of the kit we need for our crazy voyage next year. One of the outlets who has been very helpful is The Leam Boat Centre at Leamington Spa. They offered us the loan of a boat for the trip and also discounts on any other kit we'll need (huge thanks to Matt at the centre for this massive generosity!)

And so us two Krazy Kayakers decided to take a trip down there today to have a look at the boats they have. I met Dave at Leicester Station and once I'd buckled him up in the car and given him his bag of boiled sweets we set off into the sunset towards Leamington on a little jolly boys outing.

The centre at Leamington is top class with a good selection of boats both for sale and for hire and has excellent facilities. There was also a host of friendly staff on hand to help everyone out, in particular the clueless and so in no time at all we were surrounded! We got to meet Matt who told us that the boat we were going to loan had now been sold, d'oh! However he is going to try to source another boat for us which is really grand of him. He also gave us loads of advice on what sorts of boats we'd need and also the timescales needed for our trip, he reckoned that we should be able to do it in 10 days. He also mentioned that we'd probably be in a fair bit of pain at the end of those 10 days, don't you just wish that people would just lie to you sometimes?

We took a couple of kayaks out for an hour and really enjoyed a trip down The Leam and back, the sun was out, the paddling was nice and easy and the scenery was lovely. Our boats were good quality too and fitted with skegs (small rudders) although we didn't find this out til we got back! It's a great way to relax just paddling down a river, I love it, although I think Captain Waverider is really looking forward to tackling some heavy white water, apparently 300 miles of canoeing is not really enough of a challenge!! (Don't worry I'll remind him of that when we're swollowing salt water and floaters!) Dave got to show off some of the moves he's been learning at his kayak classes and talked me through some of the rescue procedures he's been taught, I think you must need to be a contortionist to do one of them and as I'm not one of them I'm sticking to my plan of 'I'll not be going for swim on this journey'!! It's worked so far!

We have both come to the conclusion today that what we really need now is a couple of boats of our own so that we can practice more and also get used to a regular boat. Every time we hire a boat at the moment it costs us about a tenner each which soon adds up. That said, to buy a boat and the kit needed will probably be about £500-£600 each (we can't get the loan boat til at least October) and thats on top of the £80 to buy the roof rack kit to go on the car. So I think I'm going to have to start doing some overtime and saving the pennies as well as scouring Ebay for a bargain. If you're reading this and know someone with a half decent kayak that they no longer require, please get in touch!

Thats about all for now folks, Dave took a couple of photos at Leamington which he'll post later, and if you're ever in the Leamington area, don't just look at the river, paddle down it!

Adam

(written one, not a visit to the loo!)

Had my first taste (quit literally) of moving water when I went on the River Don.

Learnt the mysterious art of ferry gliding where you go across the river against the stream flowing the other way, without paddling (much).

It is really a dark art, but when you do it is quite satisfying.

I also met a loads of people called Eddie who were just resting their canoes in calmer waters, my instructor keep saying go into them Eddie’s.

Apparently there is some Eddie etiquette, must be like the freemasons , funny paddle touching and stuff.

I shout bye Eddie as I leave calmer waters and head off down stream, no one shouts back, perhaps they didn’t hear me.

Top tip I have learnt this week- you need to be going faster than the river or slower than it to be in control of your boat.

Firstly I would like to express my thanks to all the guys at the canoe club for the advice which they given so freely. It is priceless information.

Secondly having read Adams complimentary blog entry about me I thought I should return the favour!

Suffice to say Adam is hiding his true canoeing skills under a bushel. He was the undefeated white water champion for 5 years running, in his own bath tub. He only lost his crown when he moved to a house that had a shower only.

I have been reading a few books on canoeing and it states that women have an advantage when caneoing as they have a lower centre of gravity because of their body shape (i.e. weight in hips/pelvis etc).
I believe with the right high fat diet, rich in sugar I can replicate that lower centre of gravity.

Hi

Let me introduce myself, I'm 'The Nutter'!! Well that's just what Dave calls me which is unfair really as this whole escapade was his idea, now who's the nutter!!
I'm Adam and a colleague of Dave's, we spent quite a bit of time together earlier this year as I spent 12 weeks on one of his most excellent courses, as such we became mates and I signed up to his fund raiser for 2008, kayaking from London to Sheffield.

As Dave has explained, the route has changed a bit from the first plan, initially it was London to Paris (but we needed far too many euros for this) and now we are on to London to Sheffield. Currently we'll be going via the sea and then onto canals and rivers. Now unlike Dave 'Let's go play with the great whites' Stannard, I'm more Ratty from the Wind in the Willows than Steve Irwin and would much rather we took a tranquil paddle up a canal then test our steel (must be a Sheffield thing) on the ocean, however I'm going to give it a go and see what happens. I'm sure happy days will abound as we cruise through the North Sea littered with it's small brown floaters that definitely shouldn't be mistaken for buoys.

As you can see from Dave's blog entry we have tested a number of different vessels, we wanted a pedalo initially but this was just not to be, even the titanics engine room didn't have to work as hard as our little pins did, and then there were the hydro bikes, fantastic fun and an ideal choice for the trip but again, money stood between us and them. And so it's kayaks. Now I've done a bit of Kayaking in the past and loved it, what better way to travel indeed, however I was a few stone lighter then and a good few feet shorter and so it was a shocker as to how cramped these little vessels now feel! Numb feet and legs look like they might both be passengers on this voyage!

As I live in Leicester and Dave in Sheffield we are both having to train apart however we do meet up when we can to get in the water, only the other weekend we were at Rother Valley resembling a pair of Whirling Dervishes as the wind kept spinning the boats around. So at present my main training base is Barrow Upon Soar not far from my home in Anstey, if any readers fancy a good laugh of a Sunday morning you can come take a look!

Between you and me, Dave is taking his training very seriously, he's signed up for Kayak lessons, has loaned two 'How to Kayak' books from the local library and can even tell you how a dented boat will affect your performance, he's starting to make me feel a tad guilty, surely it's just a case of sitting in some moulded plastic, paddling and praying? And so I'll leave the science to him, I'm going to be doing plenty of paddling to build my arm strength up and will start to worry about dents when they are being caused by my head or worse still those floating brown buoys I mentioned earlier.

I have tasked myself with the navigation of the journey, working out routes and distances, places to camp at night etc, Google Earth and myself have become very well acquainted! It's going to be a long long way that much I can say, but I'll be in good company and it's for a great cause.

Before I sign off my first blog I would just like to thank a few people, firstly Cath (Dave's good lady wife) for setting up this site, the just giving site and for all the emails she has sent to canoe outlets championing our cause and trying to get us some good deals on the kit we need, like boats and stuff. Also thanks to all of the said outlets who have responded to Cath with really generous offers, we're really grateful, who says all business is heartless. And finally to my good lady Katie, we don't get a great deal of time together and when we do I'm buggering off paddling, nice one Adam! But I'm so grateful that she's shown great patience so far and long may it continue!

If you're reading this, thanks for stopping by, but don't just stop there, pass this site on to all your mates and keep coming back to see how we are doing, we'd like that very much!

Adam

After doing a charity cycle ride from London to Sheffield in June 2007, which meant taking up cycling in December the previous year( I was not a cyclist), I , with the little help from a friend decided to (well plan to) canoe from London to Sheffield.

I did this to raise money for the neonatal unit at Jessops Hospital in Sheffield where my son was born 3 months early in Nov 2003. This time we will be raising money for the Premature Baby Charity Bliss.

Initially this idea started out as a pedalo trip from London to Sheffield. More about that later!

So can I canoe, err no!

When I started out on this project my time in a canoe was 40 minutes when I was about 14 at Matlock. I am now 45, and I would like to say that my old skills came flooding back(pun intended) but alas they did not.

So how did we begin?

I had this idea that we would pedalo from London to Sheffield, so on the 8th of July sea trials began (well not really the sea but a big lake). Me and my co paddler (nutter) met for an hour long pedalo trial. Off we set into the swell and lasted for 30 minutes. The thing we were peddling would not have got us across the Thames let alone along it.

So plan two, we meet up at Barrow upon soar for another sea trial (sounds better than canal trial) where we trailed a different pedalo. Much better than the first but still 300 miles appeared a pedalo too far. With the wife on the stop watch we also did a time trial 100 yard dash. Two ducks and a black Labrador beat us into third place. I consoled myself saying that it was a time trial not a race.

Next was a hydro bike. My legs were up for this fresh from my marathon cycle ride , these things could really move, but someone put a spoke in the works by telling me that they cost a grand and half each to buy.

Finally, got in a canoe with my co nutter. Two men in the same boat caused steering difficulties with straight canals but it appears we had a possible winner as we sent a bow wave over the Labradors head.

In the time trials the pedalo was slowest the hydro bike and canoe tied.

So it was decided that we would canoe from London to Sheffield, in June 2008, (and probably July, Aug and most of September as well).

Slight problem to solve. Apart from the lack of a vessel, I can’t canoe and all my strength is in my legs.

To solve this problem I have joined the Sheffield canoe club (they don’t know what a nutter they have in their mists yet).

Day one at the club.

'We will show you some strokes and then the capsize drill later', said a helpful chap.
30 seconds later I discovered the capsize drill, over and over again.
At one session they showed me the stern rudder. He kept shouting at me to keep my arm straight. I see why they call it the stern rudder, this guy was very stern.
Next we show you how to stop, put your paddle in the water 4 times on alternate sides.
I stopped very quickly on doing this, but unfortunately, the canoe carried on as I fell out.

I have been there a few times and at the end of one session I demanded to learn the roll over and back up drill (no doubt it will have a technical name).
Great joy when I did it, left the club on the crest of a wave..

In discussion with my co nutter I bullied him into incorporating a sea leg into our adventure next year. The route as it stands at the moment is down the Thames, round the bobbly bit in the east and hopefully in land at Boston( still being assessed if its possible), then up the Trent.

Back to the club, and time for some rolls as I was doing so well.
I knocked off 4 straight rolls, but then it all went wrong, and try as I did I could no longer do it.

Left the club that night, considering suicide, not drowning though, been upside down in the water most of the night all ready and the water gets up your nose.

For the arm strength, I am visiting Rother valley (big lake) frequently and doing trips round it, and have managed 3 trips round in about a hour, god was I bored, left thinking “I am glad I am not a duck”.