IRISH SEA KAYAKING ASSOCIATION
On arrival at the hotel I was pleasantly surprised with the standard of the accommodation – far better quality than river paddlers’ use I can tell you! We were met by Mary and Andy Wilson and some others and were immediately made feel welcome and part of the group, which was great to help settle into the whole thing.
ally helpful too. Over the course of the day I picked up loads of useful hints and tips, and Marleen had found the following sea session with Kevin O Calaghan (Geo) immensely useful and it really boosted her confidence, in what were the biggest seas she had paddled to date. Dinner that night was a great chance to hear more stories about sea kayaking trips, and was followed by a great talk by Jasper Wynn – although I thought we were going to be there all night after he had only gone 100 miles after an hour! He sped up though and it was a very interesting talk.
Saturday morning the conditions were not great –a bit too breezy and wavy for all of the original plans to go ahead but the organisers handled the situation with aplomb and the plan was soon changed and things organised. Travelling to the water on the bus I have to again say that everyone was very friendly, chatting away about different experiences, trips etc which helped make the day very enjoyable. I went on the trip around Achilbeg with Nigel Dennis while Marleen did a workshop on following seas. In my opinion the variety of workshops on offer was absolutely top class, and I would have attended every one of them if possible. Not being able to split myself into 6 parts and do them all was really the only downside to the whole weekend.
Sunday was great too with Marleen working on basic skills and me doing some advanced navigation with Geo. Overall as you have no doubt guessed by now I was very impressed with the symposium. The instructors were professional and friendly, the accommodation great and the organisation first class. My expectations were exceeded by a long long way – not an easy thing to do – and even though it was my first symposium it certainly won’t be my last. Maybe I will see you there next year !
After lunch then we again went with Nigel – not intimidating at all being out with one of the best known sea kayakers around – honestly – and did some work on scenarios which were re ISSUE 51