A new year

Then its 2017 and the kayaking year has started. My first trip was on January 3 as I was working the first two days of the year. This was a short trip at Sunnanå, close to home. Watch the video from that trip.
Then a few days later I joined Friluftsfrämjandet on a trip with 10 other kayakers. This was at Lysekil on the Swedish west coast and it was cold, windy and very nice! I did my first two rolls of the year and we had a hot sauna waiting for us after the trip! Very, very nice as we were a bit cold by then.

Photos from January 3

Not too cold, but freezing

No ice?

Sunnanå yacht harbor

40 shades of gray (and some red) Very sexy 😜

Me breaking ice (from my GoPro)

More grey scale and some red. (Thank you Photoshop)

Photos from January 8

Winter. -8°C when leaving home. Here about -2°C

Freezing on deck as the rest are preparing

One of the leaders, Anette.

Lining up for a photoshoot 

Congestion (efter this a made two rolls)

Advent Sunday and Alaska video

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)

My GearLab paddle

My friends from Mellerud, Kajsa and Anders

End of October

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.

At the start

A lot of kayaks!

Fredrik and Marcus, two of the leaders.

What a day!

Fredrik against the sun.

At our lunch break.

Kayak technique drills

This day was a very rewarding and frustrating day. I went to Lysekil, at the west coast of Sweden, to have a whole day training kayak technique with my friend Tony from Kajakguiderna. He is a very skilled paddler and was instructing me in all types of kayak techniques, forward paddling, high and low braces, high and low brace turn, forward rudder, towing and much more.
Now I only hope to remember all that he has taught me today. The rewarding part is that I have learnt a lot today and by a man with infinite patience. For the frustrating bit it's to realise how much I have to learn and practice to be a good paddler with a good technique.

Well, at least my roll is one of the few things he didn't have to correct. That one I got right! But he has been one of my rolling instructors so it figures.

We saw a lot of harbor seal and a mink this very beautiful autumn day. Not sunny but calm and the water still a bit warm.

Harbor seal

Tony paddling under a rock

Tony from Kayakguiderna paddling his Gemini from Valley