winter paddling

Winter is a great time for seakayaking here in Israel, its not cold like in northern Europe or USA, and the water gets down to a minimum of 15C at the coldest. Usually round about February. Sometimes we have winter storms with rough water and wild confused waves, these are great days for playing in the surf

Other days the sea is like a glass lake and when the tide is out more of the rocky reef is exposed creating new scenery and playing spots for us

Its a great time to try out the new Greenland paddles that we made

and hone our skills by going in and out between the exposed rocks

We get new scratches on the bottoms of our boats

but if they are plastic who cares

Its more serious for new owners and their carbon or fiberglass kayaks

The low water exposes the reef  the seaweed dies and leaves a characteristic smell in the air. In a while new growth replaces the old

Meanwhile we have fun going in and out of the channels between the rocks, 

The only problem in winter is the cold makes it more difficult to pee and instead of jumping into the water you have to scramble onto the rocks in order to not get wet. Soon its going to be new year so I will take this opportunity to wish everybody a HAPPY NEW YEAR, hope 2014 is a great one for everybody and keep paddling.

winter is coming, storm predicted

Despite the storm prediction our  paddle workshop went on as planned

6 paddlers braved the cold and rain and came to make paddles

Working under cover we managed to stay dry and warm

and at the end of the day everybody had a new Greenland paddle

everybody had a great day

the storm came later than planned

it was really cold at the beach

and we had hail in the afternoon

most of us declined to get in the water

except Dror, but not for too long

even with warm clothes it was still cold

there were some surfers out there

they had some fun

Thousands had no electricity due to downed power lines and the electric company had a hard time repairing the supply, this picture from the web. There were also hundreds of travelers stranded in their cars and buses who had to be rescued by the police . It was one of the worst storms we have had for 20 years. 

And yet there was time for some fun too, this picture also taken from the web

.We are not used to such extreme weather here and it caught many of us unprepared for the freezing cold conditions, did someone say global warming?