Yesterday I went out for a downwind paddling trip togheter with my friend Jens. Average winds 16 m/s (31 kt) with top winds of 21 m/s (41 kt). Water temperature + 1 C (34 F),  Air temperature -1 C (30 F) and heavy snowing. Great fun but I wish I was on the southern hemisphere…

Winter paddling in Sweden. I had to swim a few times. Good clothing with good insulation is essential. I use a dry suit from Ursuit. Neoprene gloves and hood.

Johan, Patric and I paddled to Vinga last weekend. It was pretty calm weather and I haven’t been to Vinga in January before. The island Vinga is located furthest west in the Gothenburg archipelago. It’s is exposed it is a fairly long day trip, nearly 32 km back and forth. Vinga has one of oldest and also is one the most famous light houses in Sweden. Anders paddled with us the first part of the kayak trip but turned back at Böttö. I was really tired back home.

Johan in his Clapotis Sea Kayak and Patric in his Surfski from Zedtech. Just before we got the headwind at Böttö.

Lunch break by the light house. The light house stairs protect us from the wind.

16 km each way from the harbour to Vinga. I was so tired and fell asleep in the cinema later in the evening.

]]> http://kayakr.net/2012/01/17/kayaking-trip-to-vinga/feed/ 0 http://kayakr.net/2011/12/31/paddling-new-year/ http://kayakr.net/2011/12/31/paddling-new-year/#comments Sat, 31 Dec 2011 16:23:28 +0000 kayakr http://kayakr.net/?p=2641 Finally is the weather decent enough to do some kayaking. Just in time for the new year and the winter… My friends Pia, Erik, Patric and I had a great paddling in Göteborg Archipelago. The days between christmas and new years eve is pretty soft at work. I could work from “home” and my home [...]]]>

Finally is the weather decent enough to do some kayaking. Just in time for the new year and the winter… My friends Pia, Erik, Patric and I had a great paddling in Göteborg Archipelago. The days between christmas and new years eve is pretty soft at work. I could work from “home” and my home yesterday was Valö!  A great way of ending the paddling and working year.

Happy new year everybody. Let 2012 be a great year for kayaking!

The sunset was magnificent.

Dramatic clouds but hardly any wind.

Pia is paddling her green Skim kayak. When she is not paddling, hardly ever happens, she is creating really nice silver jewelry.

Sunrise at Valö

The winter is coming closer. Frost on the deck this morning.

Patric has bought a new kayaking hat! Orange…

I had to break through some ice to get ashore.

Great weather but the ice will make it harder for me to launch the kayak the next coming months. Today it was easy to break through.

Tjäröfestivalen 2011 was held at the island of Tjärö in south of Sweden and was a great success to the organizers. About 200 participants from all over Scandinavia and Europe attended the festival. I have put together a videoclip with pictures from the event. A full report will be published later on this week.

Danish paddler guarding the festival! (photo by Gabriella)

Gordon Brown was one of the instructors this year. Now in a Play from Arrow kayaks.

Nigel Foster is back in Sweden. This year with a new haircut…

Dubside is cooling down. He had many participants in his classes.

Last evening my friends Jonas, Patric and I had a great kayak trip to Valö. We left Göteborg about 7 pm and arrived at Valö just after sunset. Some hours with nice conversations about life, non-important things and kayaks was really nice. An early morning start at 6 am, downwind and I was in time for a meeting at 9 am at the office. This was a perfect start of a weekday!

Eskilsholmen is a small island, just 30 min paddling. That is a perfect way to spend an evening together with some good friends. This was the first time that Gabriella tried the Qanik. She is not an regular paddler but she enjoyed it. She discovered that the course stability was quite different comepared to the Silhouette. I used my old Silhouette for the first time. That was also nice.

Gabriella in the Qanik for the first time

Good friends at Eskilsholmen, discussing life in general, paddling and having a great time.

Patric in his Zedtech Griffin.

I was delayed due to laziness for almost a day to the annual gathering at Valö. So when I finally lanched my Qanik I tried to focus on my speed. With a nice tailwind I reached Valö in the afternoon.

Valö light house with some of the kayaks

Today it was about 55 kayakers at Valö

My friends Patric and Markus joined me today for a short kayak trip in the archipelago. I’m trying to learn how to use my new wingpaddle. It is a used wingpaddle but still a wingpaddle. I’m not sure if I will keep it but why not try something new for a while. At the moment I cant really tell any difference on the speed. I’m more confused when I cant do some common strokes. I will let you know more about my progress or if I will let the paddle be available on Ebay.

Markus joined us for the trip. He is paddling a kayak from Point65.

Patric is paddling a Zedtech Griffin. I joined him last november when he bought the Griffin. He is getting more comfortable in the Griffin now!

John Linder, who finished second in the 24 hour paddle race in Malmo, has also bought a Zedtech Griffin. We met Johan on our way back to the harbor.

My girlfriend and I went for a walk in Gothenburg today. After enjoying a good cappuccino at Da Matteo, we went to the harbor. We spotted a group of kayaks, including the longest kayak I’ve ever seen. It was a bachelorette party that had rented a take-a-part kayak from Point65. They have two models of take-a-part kayak. I cant tell which of the models it was. Kayaking on the bachelorette party is a really nice arrangement.

Hen party in a kayak in a Tequila or Martini solo from Point65.

We have had a long weekend in Sweden with excellent paddling weather. My friend Maria and I went our for three days of paddling in Göteborg Archipelago. The scenery in Göteborg archipelago is really nice and the access is also really good. I’d like to see the Älvsborg fortress again, and Maria had never been there before. It is located in the entrance of Göteborg harbour. So the distance is short but we have to cross the inlet to the harbour to reach the fortress. The traffic to and from Göteborg is sometimes very heavy but today it was just some ferries to and from Denmark that we had to keep attention to.

Maria outside the fortress

The guns at the fortress used to guard the city of Göteborg. But did it quite poorly…

Denmark has been succesful in capturing the fortress and the Swedish taxes raised to pay the ransom for the fortress i 1570. Since then we have kept the taxes at a high rate.

From Älvsborgs fästning we continued paddling to Galterö where we spent the first night. I have been to Galterö before before. The weather was nice but it got cold during the night.

Tent spot at Galterö. The second day offered really nice weather.

Kayaking among the skerries outside the island of Vargö.

From Galterö we paddled south toward Rävholmen. We had a nice soft tailwind and it did not take long until we reached Rävholmen.

We spend the second night at Rävhomen.

My Allak from Hilleberg at the tent spot at the island of Rävholmen

My new Qanik is really nice.

I was very pleased with my Qanik from the beginning and I start to appreciate it even more. I have re-mounted the back support. It gives me great support but it takes some time to adjust it before paddling because I sit on the back support each time I sit in the kayak. But it is worth it. I tried without the support but I was not strong enough to keep myself in a good paddling position. The acceleration of the Qanik is impressive. I catch waves that I have not managed to catch before. This was also the first time I have been out for more than one night with the Qanik. It works really well.

A swan appeared quite close to us

A good friend, Fredrik, appeared quite close to us.

After spending an hour at a café  together with some sea kayaking friends at the island of Styrsö we headed for Hinsholmen after a really nice seakayaking trip.