Solent Sea Kayaking

It’s been a while since I’ve posted on the Solent Sea Kayaking. This is due to my day job as a teacher. I’m currently in ‘Coursework Season’ which means hours of chasing students to complete work and then marking, marking and more marking.
Whilst I can still get out for the occasional paddle most of my [...]

Photography is a relatively new hobby for me and provides an added dimension to paddles, particularly when paddling local routes repeatedly.
A recent post by a superb Sea Kayaking photographer Mark Rainsley on the excellent South West Sea Kayaking website about the kit he uses, along with a couple of email enquiries about my own [...]

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve had a couple of great night paddles and one aborted paddle. I recently outlined my self enforced criteria for deciding when to paddle solo at night and the routes I’m prepared to paddle.
Last week I set out in wonderfully calm conditions and enjoyed a great paddle along the [...]

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve had a couple of great night paddles and one aborted paddle. I recently outlined my self enforced criteria for deciding when to paddle solo at night and the routes I’m prepared to paddle.
Last week I set out in wonderfully calm conditions and enjoyed a great paddle along the [...]

Valley Sea Kayaks have today launched their new website.
Paddlers who are regular visitors to the superb UK Sea Kayak Guidebook forums may be aware of the discussions and comments regarding the Valley Sea Kayaks website and it’s relatively long ‘hiatus’ during the revamp.
The homepage of the new website has this message:
I know for many, [...]

So the UK is gripped in what the press are calling the ‘Big Freeze‘. Today provided brilliant sunshine and freezing cold temperatures with the car reporting -5 degrees celsius. A quick phone call to the brilliant staff at Lepe Country Park confirmed that the country lane running down to the beach was passable. It was [...]

Just a quick post to wish all readers of Solent Sea Kayaking a very Happy New Year.
I saw in the New Year watching the Fireworks over Southampton from Hythe Marina then headed out very early on New Years Day to watch the sunrise over the Solent in very cold but beautiful conditions, launching from [...]

The weather forecast was for freezing temperatures dropping to -4 degrees centigrade however after a couple of very breezy nights the wind looked set to stay below F2. Grabbing the opportunity for a paddle I headed down to Calshot.
Early indications of the cold conditions manifested themselves in iced up puddles on the slipway. I [...]

Ok, my self imposed rule for this post – affordable! Not necessarily stocking fillers, but not huge expensive gifts like shiny new sea kayaks, as much as we would all like to Santa to add another Kayak to our rack. Hopefully this list will give a few ideas. I’ve added 10 items that I use [...]

Huge congratulations are due to Freya Hoffmeister who today completed her circumnavigation of Australia. This solo trip has taken her 332 days (of which 245 were paddling days). The distance covered was an unbelievable 15,000km. You can read more on Freya’s website.
Freya is the first woman to complete this epic journey, and only the second [...]