looking towards the end of summer, or no more skills sessions

Thursday at 5pm, time for skills sessions during the summer. Now we will soon change the clocks and loose an hour of daylight. It will get darker earlier and the summer will slowly disappear. The water will still be warm enough  and we will continue to paddle all winter, but the skills sessions are over and what a lot of fun they were.

The only way to get better at seakayaking is to paddle a lot and to practice the lessons you learn. To challenge yourself in rough water and have good instruction.

Every time you go out you should practice something, either rolling , self rescue or any of the steering strokes, if not used all the time these skills become rusty and not part or your routine movements

Sometimes you have to create scenarios

sometimes you can tow your friends

whenever there are waves or surf you can practice 

               surfing is always fun and useful when landing  through waves

self rescues are vital to safety more so in rough water, but the basics are learnt in quiet seas

bracing is fun in the small shore breakers

assisted rescues in windy conditions are a bit more difficult

Don`t know what this is good for , maybe there`s something unpleasant in the cockpit

bracing in the waves

rolling takes time and patience but is the ultimate self rescue

launching from the beach and getting in your kayak while in the surf is also helpful

sometimes you have to swim yourself to the reef

Cheers for now, it was a great season