Iceland Symposium

www.seakayakiceland.com

I would like to start off by saying a huge thank you to both Steini and Rita for looking after me so well. Iceland has amazed me in so many ways. Everyone I have met has welcomed me with open arms and the climate and scenary has passed all of my expectations.

Weather front comming in from the north bringing snow!!

Steini getting a hard time while towing my kayak.

The drive to a location for the 4 star assessment

During the week I have run 3 star and 4 star trainings and assesments. On the saturday of the symposium I had the surprise of being lifted by the helicopter during the rescue demonstration. They helicopter flew up through the snow from Reykjavik. Within minutes of them arriving I was lifted up and was safe in the helicopter. They then took the opportunity to show the town how skillfull they were. With me clinging on for dear life we performed dive bombs stalls, low passes and hovered over loan kayakers till they rolled a few times or swam.

I was told to always do what the locals do while travelling. I never thought that would mean eating a sheeps head at a lunch stop!!

On the sunday they had a sprint and rolling comp. In 2 deg water I found it hard to do even the simplist of rolls.
Before heading back Steini organised a night on a river in the south of the country. Before that we had to take out a group of 37 school kids. What a crazy bunch. Swimming in clothes and loving it! It was great to get out on the river and strange to finish at midnight. I highly recomend to visit iceland for its culture, people, landscape and climate. It is truly a unique country and I hope to visit again soon..

Lecture at Falmouth Maritime Museum

Patrick Winterton will be giving a lecture on his Scottish Extremities expedition at the National Maritime Museum at 7pm on Thursday 26th April.

Below is a small extract from an article he wrote..

See you there!

SCOTTISH EXREMITIES
1500Km of the best sea paddling Scotland has to offer:

‘Scottish Extremities’ is one of the most committing solo kayak expeditions to have been undertaken in British waters but it was not an unprecedented circum-navigation or a speed record attempt. As a consequence the question ‘why’ was frequently asked, but seldom convincingly answered. Now I’ve had plenty of time to think about it I realise this trip was born, not in the pub, but on the beaches. Weeks of sitting on Tiree and the like and being drawn to the distant Hebrides that regularly appear at sunset like a row of Chinese hats . For years I’ve wanted to paddle this, and other stretches of water but I’d never successfully coordinated the time, friends, and weather.

Frustration finally set in at the beginning of the year which is when I took the initial step of turning a dream in to reality: the first major investment. From then on the Scottish version of ‘memory map’ stole all my spare time. Each red route line laid down became more ambitious than the previous one. I was almost shocked by the excitement of this process but became increasingly reluctant to reveal the plans to anyone for fear of being ridiculed. The route was ambitious, perhaps ludicrously so for someone who was to be office bound for the five months prior to setting off.