Sea kayak filmed by a quadrotor

Heres a  shot of Guy with his flying video camera, I guess you could call it a non military drone if you like. great for getting that fly`s eye view of your event.

If you look closely at the picture you will notice  Guy on the left with a remote control panel, he is flying his Quadrotor, in the picture on the right in front of David as he paddles to the shore. He has a video camera mounted underneath and is taking a video of David .

He also got some footage of Yoav and I getting some rolls in after our paddle on Wednesday.

Heres the video he took of us, the potential for surfing videos in rough water is astounding, we have to get him to come around nest time the surfs up

Rain

The week ended with a rain storm .

While the rockets were flying in the south of the  country earlier this week, we had some great days of paddling. It seems surreal that we can be at war with a deadly enemy, daily we can have rockets falling on the south of the country and millions of citizens having to run for shelter and we can have a nice peaceful paddle  in the middle of the same country.

We were missing Yossele who had been called up for duty. He was down south waiting to see if he would be sent into Gaza with the IDF forces on the ground.

By Friday some sort of cease fire had been agreed on , the attacks had stopped and the even the weather had changed. We had a wonderful rainstorm which delayed our paddle while we waited for the lightening to pass.

After the 7am paddle we could buy fresh bread from the bakery at the kibbutz

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Saturday we still had some rain, clam seas and no lightening, what a gift

There was even a bit of a wave to play in.
So now I guess its back to normal, for the time being.

Paddling in a war zone

None of us wants war, we just want to live and paddle in peace.
Unfortunately some things are not under our  control and we are often put in a position where we have to react to aggression in order to protect ourselves and stop the attacks.
The instructions  to the general population, under rocket attack from Hamas are as follows, and the time that you have to  find shelter is in inverse ratio to the distance you live from Gaza.
15 seconds is the time that people have to get to shelter in the closest situation.
So you have to always be aware of where you are and where you can run to if the sirens go off.
If you are out in the open with no shelter you need to lie on the ground and cover your head, this to protect yourself from the shrapnel that will go flying to cause maximum damage.
If you are in your car you need to stop and run for cover, if possible.
What about if you are in your kayak,
Here are my suggestions .
Always wear your helmet during war time paddling.
Always wear your pfd and keep some supplies in your pockets, eg band aids, energy bars and other survival equipment.
Have some  kayak repair materials handy in case of need.
If you are on the water and you hear the siren, capsize at once.

 Now depending on where you are in the country calculate how long you need to stay underwater, for example Tel Aviv area, about 1.5minutes, in our region of Sdot Yam its about 2 minutes.

How long can I stay here?

If you can`t stay under that long, wait the appropriate time and then flip over, when you hear the explosion you can then roll up again. Hopefully being underwater you will be protected from harm.
Lets hope this round passes quickly and we all stay safe.

Monday morning, the sea was still in turmoil from the weekend storm, Izy managed to get to the beach, now he thinks should I or shouldnt I

So he did

And Yossi was there to get the pictures and the facials

We all know what comes next

Tuesday morning the sea was calmer with a smaller wave

How do you plan the right day for surfing when you have to work

The learning curve 

The boats are great now we have to learn to surf them.

the sea was supposed to be ROUGH

7am, according to the forecast the sea should have been at least 2m with strong winds. We were anticipating a fun first time in rough water

the front came in much later and we were met with a piddly little wave and flat water

Hadas was our creative photographer and made even the small waves look impressive

We are all first timers in these kayaks and so used the conditions to get familiar with our new kayaks

Hadas tried out Guys boat and was full of admiration

She sure has all the right moves

I learned a few things too, like use a good sprayskirt, mine is old and holed and my kayak filled up with water pretty fast

Ofer played with the Night Heron

There were a few short rides

Just being out on the water in such dramatic conditions was great

Matunuck Debut

Three out of the 5 new Matunucks being built have  been tested. Albeit only on flat water, we couldn`t wait to get them afloat and see how they feel

Well for a start they all float, that`s good.

Guy practices getting an edge

While I tried some support sculling

Here`s my paint job, if you look at the white you should see teeth if you look at the red you should see a zigzag line, its all a matter of how you see the world

At the end of the day we were all happy and excited. Now the real test is coming this weekend when the sea is forecast to be stormy with 2 to 3m waves
None of us have put fins on yet, some advise one center fin, others three fins, some forums say no fins are ok too.I guess its all a matter of individual preferences and experience. Time will tell. Meanwhile bring on the rough water, we are ready.

Hadas made a great video of our symposium

Some videos are a bit long and laboured, Hadas made a great one of our symposium that catches the spirit and feeling just perfectly.
Great job Hadas