Northern England & IOM, Jim Krawiecki

The latest in the Pesda sea kayaking guides to the UK coastline has just been published. Jim Krawiecki's Northern England & IOM has been four year's in gestation and the wait has been worthwhile. Jim writes in a fluid and concise style and the pages ooze the detail which comes from the author's familiarity and enthusiasm for the area. There are 50 full routes spread over 267 colour pages. These

Sea kayak Oban

Scotland always been lucky to have a good number of really excellent sea kayak retailers. In the past I have posted about the late Mike Thomson of Scottish Paddler supplies and the good folk Geoff and Anne Turner of |Kari-tek in Ayrshire. This time I want to highlight Stuart and Cathy Wagstaff of Sea Kayak Oban.

Their shop is situated right in the heart of Oban only 250m from the railway station

The Outer Hebrides seakayaking around the isles & St Kilda

The thud at the front door this morning could mean only one thing. The new Pesda Press volume "The Outer Hebrides, sea kayaking around the isles and St Kilda" by Mike Sullivan, Robert Emmott and Tim Pickering had arrived.You cannot possibly expect an unbiased and critical review from me on this beautiful book, which is well written and beautifully illustrated, mostly with the authors' own

Flat Earth Kayak Sails preview

David enjoys the Flat Earth Kayak sail on a Quest LV.My friend David and I have been experimenting with kayak sails for nearly two years now. We are both keen sailors and windsurfers so it seems very natural to us to put a sailing rig on a kayak. Indeed when "sea canoeing" took off in the west coast of Scotland at the end of the 19th century, nearly all were fitted with sails. Note, those who

P&H Cetus LV test and long term review

About the test: paddling conditions and paddlers.Having paddled and enjoyed the P&H Cetus for over a year now I was really looking forward to paddling its lower volume sibling, the Cetus LV. This test took place during the period May 2009 till March 2010. It is based on paddling it for over 330km in a wide variety of waters off the west coast of Scotland: the Solway, the North Channel, the Clyde,

GearPods review

Here is an interesting gadget. In its nylon sleeve it can be strapped on to a BA kept on deck......or it just the right size to push up into the wasted space beside a skeg box. Its called GearPods, basically a modular series of different length tubes with single and double ended screw caps so that a series may be screwed together. The little Pod on the end is ideal for electronic car keys though

The Boathouse, Kingairloch, Morvern

It always amuses me when I see people packing food and drink for their first sea kayaking expedition to Scotland's wonderful west coast. They imagine that such a magnificent, primeval landscape will be as a desert, with little opportunity for resupply or refreshment. But in truth, there chinks in the landscape's armour, little oases, like this one at Kingairloch at the head of Loch a' Choire.