Today was launch day, luckily the sea was nice and flat even though there was a moderate easterly wind. With some help getting in [ I have to be careful not to scrape the hull on the shore, so entering and exiting the kayak should be done while afloat], I took the first strokes. At first the stability was a bit wobbly, but once I got used to that it was no problem, it trims well and tracks straight too, only problem was with the backrest. Leaning against the wooden back beam was not comfortable and the small support that I had made did not work, maybe it was not attached to the beam tightly enough or it was too small, but after a while my back was very uncomfortable. This made paddeling a bit difficult. Nevertheless we went out for about an hour and a half and the boat performed very well. It was a very exciting launch with a group of Wednesday paddlers all present to cheer me on. Lynn and Eli came as well to help and witness the great moment. Thank you all for your encouragement and good wishes.

Now I need to finish the deck lines and improve the backrest and then practice. I managed a roll and it felt extremely easy.

I am sure that after a couple of modifications it will be a great kayak, and maybe a name will come to mind too.

More pictures can be seen herehttp://s28.photobucket.com/albums/c212/stevegor/greenland%20kayak%20launch/

Tomorrow I plan to launch my new Greenland Kayak, I still have to put on the deck lines, but want to see how it handles on the water. I guess i`m a little impatient after the whole building process. I built with the help of Building the Greenland Kayak by Christopher Cunningham, and for additional insights and inspiration I also used the books Building Skin on Frame Boats by Robert Morris and The Aleutian Kayak by Wolfgang Brink. The whole process was a learning curve, lots of fun and interesting, and surprisingly more simple than I would have imagined. The real test will be tomorrow when it goes out on the water
Champagne anyone??

Avital gets back in the surf

What a grin, she just couldnt stop smiling, thats what happens when you begin to master the surf. Good for you Avital, heres a few pictures from t0 day , small surf but lots of fun http://s28.photobucket.com/albums/c212/stevegor/mistress%20of%20the%20waves%20returns/.

more brown water

The Yarkon river joins the sea at the Reading power plant, thats our starting point today, the water is brown and its not advisable to go swimming, who knows what lurks in the depths..., but a few brave souls are not afraid to go paddeling up and down the river. There is a lot of boating activity, olympic kayaks and rowing boats, sculling and some sea kayaks too. Rami has his boathouse there www.gilkayaking.com {not really his . but thats where the action is} So we set out to explore the waters in Tel Aviv, lots of bird life, ducks and stuff, we went up as far as we could to the 7 mills and then took the right fork to the beginning of the ayalon, then home again for that hot shower. I guess the river has its attraction but give me the sea anyday.

Im planning to launch my new Greenland kayak on Wednesday, just hope that it does not sink.

Todays pictures are herehttp://s28.photobucket.com/albums/c212/stevegor/up%20the%20yarkon%20river/

This morning we had a quickie, in and out on the run, tuesday morning is usually a short paddle, but today I felt really rushed as I had to go to work early. Now I know that its not a good thing to let work intefere with kayaking, and as a rule I am very good about that but today was an exception. We sprinted out to the ship at the end of the loading zone, went round it and down under the bridge and then back to shore, not even taking advantage of some of the waves forming for surfing. Roded appeared out of the blue from France, nice to have you back again, there is even a nice picture of him too. Even the photos didnt come out too good, so I tried to play with some of the filter effects in picassa and call them ART.

saturday 7 am

http://picasaweb.google.com/nseligster/Sat10Feb

Just a couple of pics today, cloudy grey sky, almost rain, and then the sun came out to warm us up after rolling practice. Quote of the day comes from Dr Arye Avni remembering a schoolteacher who told him, 'there are no grey days, only grey people'.........

What a difference, today the sea was as calm as a lake, hardly a ripple on the surface when we set out. We went north from Sdot Yam past ancient Casearea until JasserAl Zarka, a small fishing village just next door to exclusive modern Casearea. It takes about 45 min of moderate paddeling to get there depending on the weather and wind, today it was an easy trip, hardly any wind at all, just had to be aware of the fishing boats crowwing our path. We all gathered for a short stop and a drink of water and then some of us decided to continue on to the Island just off the shore of Kibbuts Maagan Michael. This is about 15 to 20 minutes further north. 5 of us went on, Limor, Lev Ohad Oren and myself, as we got closer to the Island we saw lots of cormorants just sitting on the rocks getting a bit of sun on their wings, Ohad went in for a closer look and scared them off for a while, but they wer`nt in the mood for flying and just settled back in the water on the other side of the rocks. Suddenly more kayaks appeared on the water round the Island, it was the paddlers from Thomas`s club at Hof dor. Its always nice to meet fellow kayakers on the water . They were on their way down to Caserea, but I dont think that they made it all the way. Limor managed to get us some coffee from the sailing school at the fish ponds of Maagan michael before we set out for home. The wind had picked up a bit, the sea was a little choppy from the southerly wind, but not enough to bother us, and we made good time back to Sdot Yam. Another perfect paddle completed with a few eskimo rolls before a hot shower and breakfast. The pictures can be seen herehttp://picasaweb.google.com/nseligster/ToTheIslandFriday9Feb/photo#5029541776103124962

brown water

Today the sea was wild, the usual outing was cancelled, we usually go out on Wednesdays at 8.30 for about 2 hours paddeling along the shores of the Med, either north past ancient Caserea or south towards The Hadera power station. Nevertheless Rami Gil and I decided to take my kayaks out and play in the rough stuff. The water was brown due to the heavy storms that just finished, the waves were about 2 to 3 m and the sea was a mess of white water soup. We punched through the waves and enjoyed the large swells while we went south for about half an hour, then decided to go and play in the waves. We both surfed fairly large waves almost to the shore and then the fun really began, trying to get back out was not as easy as comming in, the waves were neverending, and just when you thought that you had got through another one loomed and tossed you over backwards, tumbling underwater you loose all sence of direction and the poor visibility doesnt help much, but eventually the roll rights you and you just manage to take a well needed breath of air when another wave tests your ability again. What fun....