Suz Posted September 27, 2004 Share Posted September 27, 2004 As some of you know, a few friends are doing BCU 5* training in Anglesey, Wales. They arrived safely on Sunday morning with all their gear. Today will be their first of five days on the water. The weather is 60 degrees and rainy with a 8 kts breeze. If you are interested, you can keep an eye on the Aberporth buoy:[http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/station_page.php?station=62301]I am sure that Rick will regale us all with the stories when they get back! The one I am waiting for is how they get through the first wave that is formed to get into the tidal race.Suzanne Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 27, 2004 Share Posted September 27, 2004 Standing Waves of Penrhyn Mawr during a BCU 5 Star assessment, wish I was there!!!. http://www.cs.pdx.edu/~walpole/pics/kayak/anglesey1/14.jpg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Nystrom Posted September 27, 2004 Share Posted September 27, 2004 Looks like a blast, doesn't it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted September 28, 2004 Share Posted September 28, 2004 Now it looks like some big seas are headed their way, on Oct 1, near 30 feet... http://www.wunderground.com/data/640x480/ukm_wave_anim.gif http://www.cs.pdx.edu/~walpole/pics/kayak/anglesey1/10.jpg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Suz Posted September 28, 2004 Author Share Posted September 28, 2004 Maybe Paul... Yikes, I have never seen the man out of his boat. Conditions today are a little bigger, 5'every 5 seconds with a 14kts wind. Yesterday's on water report was a combination of WOW and big, rugged, no complete sentences, just complete awe!The 2-3' swells of yesterday brought 10' confused stuff in the race. What does 5' swells bring in the race? Is it proportionate?Suzanne Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Suz Posted September 30, 2004 Author Share Posted September 30, 2004 I bet the stories will be as big as the waves when they come back!Suzanne Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rick stoehrer Posted October 4, 2004 Share Posted October 4, 2004 we're all back and all well!as nice as the paddling is here...the world is an awful big place and in the words of mr shakespeare..."there are more things in heaven and earth...than are dreamt of in your philosophy..." or maybe from mr buffet "if we weren't all crazy, we would go insane"? in any event, the similarities are boundless and the differences are amazing! water that moves, MOVES like a river...tidal streams scream, cliff faces rise outta the water with caves pocking the sides with ceilings high as cathedrals rising over your head as you paddle in. or some of them so low that as the swell rushes in, the air is forced out in a whoosh and then the mist follows that after the boom of the wave face hits the back....easy to think that sure, there's a dragon in there, i can see his breath and he's cetainly making a racket there in the dark...there will be pictures and eventually a proper trip report. for now, we all returned happy to have gone and humbled at what's left to be learned. if nothing else, it taught us to laugh at ourselves sometimes.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Nystrom Posted October 5, 2004 Share Posted October 5, 2004 "caves pocking the sides with ceilings high as cathedrals rising over your head as you paddle in. or some of them so low that as the swell rushes in, the air is forced out in a whoosh and then the mist follows that after the boom of the wave face hits the back....easy to think that sure, there's a dragon in there, i can see his breath and he's cetainly making a racket there in the dark..."Hmmm...that sounds familiar. The islands of the eastern Atlantic definitely have the better coastline, at least from the perspective of paddling adventures.Glad to hear that you all had a good time and made it back safely. Did your gear make it back with you? ;-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rick stoehrer Posted October 5, 2004 Share Posted October 5, 2004 all paddlers and gear present and accounted for....so far. janis dumped the bag of big stinky gear for me and it is presently awaiting a wash on the back deck and then to be hung/dried....not too sure i remembered to grab my waldies off of the deck there in angesley...i may have contributed a pair of blue size 10 foam shoes to their efforts...once we get the photo's amassed and some thoughts to cyber paper, someone suggested that there may be enough material and interest in doing a slide presentation....thought that may be a good idea for some weekend that's too cold and miserable to paddle.what a time/place...i still can't get over what we saw and were exposed to doing there....it really is just a whole new world of options, risks, concerns and the steps to limit exposure....just a profound difference in how you need to look at the water/weather.i know you 4 went to the shetlands...is it something like that?"unabashed plug alert"tom up at mikco; pretty impressive in a boat right? the times we've all seen him up in casco or where ever...impressive? as impressive as the physical skills are of he and the other coaches in wales, the difference that is most impressive, most just outside our experiences is in the thought processes and almost prescient knowledge of seeing things on the water that we just don't see, just don't know to look for and know will happen. in putting the puzzle together.the biggest, most vast and impressive thing we were exposed to in this trip wasn't so much penwryn mawr ("pen win" and then "mawr" ryhmes with "big enough to eat a car") but is the way these folks understand their enviroment and folks in it. that's what i am walking away with - i want to understand my enviroment like that and how to get switched on to folks around me better. and that'll just carry over to everything, won't it?"plug alert off"there is just sooooo much to learn and do in boats.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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