hone your kayaking skills

Thursday afternoons are skills lessons days at Optimist during the summer months. Making the most of the long warm summer days we meet at the club at 5pm for a learning session. Afterwards we sit around and celebrate the coming weekend with a drink and some snacks. Our TGIF is actually TGIT as our weekend is Friday and Saturday, Sunday is back to work, the first day of the week

The water is now about 26 C, thats pretty warm and friendly.

This time we practiced our rudder turns, stern and bow

Rescues  both self and assisted were also on the menu

The more you learn the better your experience and the more confidence you get

As well as having a lot of fun in the water

Some make it look so easy

Others need a lot more practice

Luckily for us these guys were having a meeting on the beach and invited us for a taste

David is a first rate surgeon and feels at home with sharp tools

Friday morning was shrouded in mist at first

Avital is getting ready to go to Greenland soon

And Izzy was trying his hand at rock hopping and seal landing 

Earning him his Rough Ryders tee shirt.
  So thats the plan for the summer, try to arrange your life so that work does not interfere with your kayaking and come and join us .

Summer, time for adventure holidays and new paddling experiences

Summer, the time for Otimists to go travelling again. This time a group went to paddle in Croatia

They reported on a great  trip with beautiful weather, good food and wonderful views.

Meanwhile another group were exploring the colder waters of Norway

They also had a great time exploring new unfamiliar places  and dealing with the cold water and weather

It sure looks like a great place for kayaking

Meanwhile back at home  we made new Greenland paddles

Here are Ginady and Arie with their new paddles

And the rest of us kept on paddling in our local waters

We have to be careful not to clash with all the SUP paddlers

And we also have a lot of new paddlers coming to try out kayaking for the first time.
And that`s not all because at the end of July a group of us are going paddling in Greenland.

It looks like its going to be a great summer.

making the most of what we got....optimist update

Some days we can play in the rocks along the shore 

The view of the fishing village of Jasser a Zarka, about 45 minutes north of Sdot Yam, one of our most popular routes, round trip about one and a half hours

This is the season of strong northerly winds, makes for interesting outings

The wind was too strong for most of us and so after a short while we headed back

Efrat and Motke  welcomed us to their tent on the beach with a hot coffee after our windy outing

The tent is up for the summer, all welcome to visit 

The power station still works on coal and it arrives by ship, we visit from time to time too

Going south after the beach at Olga the coast is more interesting with lots of bays and rock gardens

Avital likes challenging herself through the rocks

A nice place for breakfast, its called the Chinese bay

more rocks to play with

Some of our paddlers can really take a break

Then we had Independence day, another holiday  good for paddling

happy birthday Israel

Suddenly the weather changed and gave us some small waves

I like the name of this ship, it fits

Interesting seas

And of course there are the constant celebrations, birthdays are most common but weddings, and births are becoming more popular too, here we have a Fish and chips day to celebrate....

a new paddler, soon she will have her own kayak

Everybody loves fish and chips

Itamar got a new Greenland paddle

we practiced landing and launching in the surf too

Noam loves his new Tiderace Xtreme

Izzy is getting better in the surf with his new Zypher

Noam is also getting addicted to surf
And so as  we begin the summer  all looks good at the Optimist Kayak Club

where the sharks live = carcharhinus plumbeus

We now have  new attraction  for kayakers, its a shark safari.
 There is a place where the water is warm and shallow just south of the electric company powerplant, the warm water runoff keeps the seawater pretty warm even in winter and so I guess this is what attracts the sharks

I know that there are lots of divers who can swim around with sharks, I am definitely not one of those brave souls. Even in a kayak there is a level of tension when you look down and see this huge fish lazily gliding just a short distance from your boat. 

It,s also not so easy to get good photos , this one is from Yosi Wolfson who has been visiting them quite frequently.
They belong to the species carcharhinus plumbeus or sandbar shark said to be one of the largest in the world.
Visiting the sharks is not a club activity, in fact its prohibited, only in a private capacity and private kayak do we got out there, all at our own risk and personal responsibility. I guess thats reasonable.