Then I hope to paddle more weeks in 2017 and do more kilometers
Work on my storm roll so that it's 100% even outdoors in a surf
Have a lot of fun! With old and new kayaking friends.
The last trip 2016 was close to my home December 30, a windy day but not very cold.
Happy New Year all my kayaking friends
No ice and snow! A very warm December.
Do I take this color matching too far?
The SnapDragon poogies are great. No gloves required when I use those.
I will make a video about what to wear in the winter when kayaking in a few weeks.
Saturday at December 10. A foggy but calm day on the Lake Vänern. The water level on the lake is rather low so there are a lot of new shoals and grunds coming up above the water and new places to run aground. A lot of new scratches on the underside and I have to do some repairs of the gelcoat this spring. Well, the kayaks are supposed to be used.
I did some training with my paddling technique around the small shoals and rocks.
My YouTube channel is getting popular. About 50,000 views now and one clip is over 13,000! That is the one from the calving glacier and ensuing tsunami.
The Tsunami video
New video "New Scratches"
Entering Sunnanå yacht harbor
Ghost like!
Looks almost like a water color painting. No filter!
I have now done my second "Harry Year", that is when you have been kayaking every month for a whole year (calendar year). I don't know where that expression comes from but it's something they call call that when you have achieved this. Probably a guy named Harry did it for the first time.
Actually I have been kayaking 33 months straight, all months on the Lake Vänern!
I have also been out kayaking every week since first of March (missed one week 😒when I was a teacher).
I was out today on a beautiful December day on the Lake Vänern. Windy, warm for December (+8°C) and a bit of sea.
Watch the video from today and also my second video from my trip in Alaska.
After a nice Sunday we had an even better Monday. I had to go and have a meeting with my job on the small town Marstrand on the Swedish west coast. And as that meeting (and dinner) was in late afternoon I took the kayak with me and took a short trip from Tjuvkil to Älgön and back. About 15 km in three hours. I kept a good speed.
As you can see on the photos the weather was fantastic and just about 0°C.
What a beautiful day!
This is the last Sunday of November and it's also the First of Advent (Advent Sunday) this year. I was again out with Friluftsfrämjandet in Lysekil for a day trip with our kayaks. I think we were about 25 or 26 persons that took the trip around Flatön south of Lysekil on the Swedish west coast.
As it was a windy day and some were not that used to kayak in heavy sea we stayed inshore all the time. Good call as both the air and watertemp are rather low this time of the year.
I did have my GoPro with me but I didn't like the what I filmed this time. Too much salt on the lens. I did do a roll at the end in the frigid water and had my friend Anders filming with the GoPro. But he turned it around the wrong way :)
So instead I here post a long video from my trip in Alaska this summer..
Anyway it was a magical weather this beautiful day.
Getting ready
My Anas Acuta in the sun
My GoPro looks like a floodlight :)
The sun was shining like this the whole day. (Short days this time of the year)
For one week I have been teaching Leadership & Communication at Klarälvdalens Folkhögskola (community college). This was a a job I got very suddenly but it was also a lot of fun. It was in a small village called Stöllet in northern Värmland, three hours drive from my home.
It is a beautiful area at the southern tip of the Scandes mountain range, a lot of woods and the big river Klarälven passing just outside the school.
I had theory combined with a lot of practical exercises outdoors in both leadership, communication and conflict handling. A great class, who are studying Turism and Outdoors activities, with only eight students and we had a lot of fun. I hope they learnt a lot as well.
Out on a hike, a fire and coffee are important outdoors.
I have been busy and not had time to update on my blog lately. But here I am with a post from the Swedish winter.
First I was out on a very stormy day for some kayak surfing. This was while waiting at the pilot station for a ship to come. The canal was closed due to strong winds as they could't open the bridges.
A lot of fun! I shared the beach with two surfers. It was 24 m/s winds (about 50 knots) and that was a new record for me. It was very hard to get out to surf back and a bit more then an hour and I was too tired to continue. Watch the short video clip from my surfing session. And I didn't tip over one single time! This surf training is very good.
Then after a few days of snowing I took a trip from Sunnanå to Köpmannebro and back. Snow, ice and very beautiful. It was about -2° centigrade in the air and the only thing I was freezing were my feet. I have to get something better to wear in my kayaking boots. Thicker wool socks? I have new poogies, Snap Dragon "Hyper Hands", the best I've had for protecting my hands against the cold.
There is a video from that trip as well. That was the first time I edited a film with Premiere Elements and on my new computer. I am very pleased with this computer, the programs are not crashing for me now.
Another very nice autumn day. We have had a lot of those this year.
This Sunday I was out with 25 other kayakers from Friluftsfrämjandet (an outdoors organization) and we paddled about 15 km outside Lysekil. This is a town on the Swedish West coast (North Sea) and there is a nice archipelago outside the small town.
The weather forecast is now warning for snow and colder weather so it's best to enjoy every day possible.
I did a few rolls at the end of the trip. Working very good but I didn't test any "storm roll" as I have to practice more indoors first to have a solid roll. But the laid-back and butterfly rolls are almost perfect.
I am testing a new video editor, the AVS Video editor. It's better than GoPro studio but I will try Adobe Premiere Elements on the next video. I will also have a new computer next week, that will save me a lot of irritation. The one I have now is too old and slow.
A windy Friday I had some time to go out surfing with my Anas Acuta before going to Karlstad for piloting a ship. Very, very nice! It's getting a bit cold (8°C in the water and a bit colder in the air) but going in and out of the seas makes you warm.
I was at Ursands Camping where I tested the Black Pearl a week before. Almost the same height of the waves. But I feel a lot more comfortable in My Anas Acuta than in the Black Pearl. No wonder as I have about 2000 km in my A.C. That is a kayak I don't step in to, I wear it!
I think I have decided about what kayak to get next time. It will be a good plastic kayak for rock hopping, surfing and rolling. That is also good for lending to my friends and family. A Black Pearl will be used almost exclusively by me and it's not a practical kayak as its very small and can't take any cargo. Good mostly only for surfing and rolling.
Now it's only to decide what kayak to buy :)
