Last Wednesday evening the kayakclub planned a surfsession at the beach near Bakkum. As conditions were good I joined the party because this was an ideal opportunity to paddle the Fjord in surf. Conditions: wind SW 6bft, waves 1,2-1,6m, temp seawater 19°C
Starting just after the high tide, with the sea lowering already, the waves were steep and rather disturbed while coming from several directions and zipping into each other, causing a kind of Clapotis as well.
At first I felt a bit uneasy under this conditions as the Fjord reacted on every wave with a kind of uncontrolled edging. Probably I had to get used to this behaviour of the Fjord as I did not notice this anymore after half an hour.
So after a while I paddled quite relaxed on the edges of whitecaps; mostly without bracing.
Stability
I did not capsize during this evening and concerning the steep waves, I thought that I may conclude the stability in surf is very good. Even when paddling with whitecaps coming from aside the Fjord was not difficult to handle. Lower waves I could let pass by without bracing. The higher ones required a brace but the Fjord reacted very well on every paddlestroke.
The only remark was that after having braced into a steep wave the Fjord did not dis-edge very quickly when the wave stopped breaking, so once and awhile I ended up with my bracing paddle-blade rather deep, which is not a stable position for recovering from the wave. But as the stability is high I was not punished with a capsize at the end of the wave. I assume that after getting used to this behaviour, I will anticipate more on this slower de-edging.
Braces
In high waves, requiring a low- or high brace, the Fjord was easy to handle. My favourite is the high brace and in rough, steep, breaking waves I could thus easily perform a Bongo-slide and even, by leaning backwards, change from Bongo-slide to surfing down a wave.
At a certain moment, heading out to sea, a particular wave grow out to a real beast. It was a very steep and high one and as I did not have enough time to change direction the wave hit me right in the front. It appeared I was going to loop backwards. Remembering earlier sessions, being much younger, I don´t like that as the risk of injuries is great. With the thought in my mind "No, not again", I invented another approach at that very moment by leaning far forward, while the bow was rising high already, and plunged my paddle-blade for a forward high brace into the wave in front of me. That worked out wonderful as the kayak, while standing on her tail (I did not hit the ground as the big volume of the kayak prevented her from sinking very deep) started to turn around her vertical axis. Probably I initiated this rotation at the moment I plunged the blade in the wave. However I spinned around for 180° and landed safely on the bottom, just on top of the wave: Only just too late to surf it.
Surfing
When the waves were powerful enough the Fjord surfs well. Probably she can surf smaller waves as well, but it requires a lot of power to get the Fjord quickly at a speed at which she can pick up a wave. This can be a safe characteristic as well because this makes it possible to choose and let waves, if you don’t like them, coming from your backside pass by without surfing. Probably this behaviour is caused by the Fjord not being a real light weight kayak.
When surfing I could control the kayak and keep her on the desired course by leaning far backwards. Sometimes when the waves were steep I had to lay on the backdeck while performing a high brace from that position. I really made a few nice rides this way.
Manoeuvrability
Once surfing on a wave I could rather easy change direction. But with most kayaks this is rather easy when leaning backwards. As I had to lean very far backwards this might be a signal she is not highly manoeuvrable. Trying to turn the Fjord with sweepstrokes in between the waves is rather slow. While edging as well, turning is much easier but requires a lot of force to be applied with knees and hips when you want to make a quick turn.
So I concluded the Fjord is rather course-stable and can be turned while using the correct technique. But I would not take her along for easy rockhopping. Comparing this behaviour with stories about the Icefloe, the manoeuvrability of the Fjord is improved quite a lot when compared to her.
Rolling the Fjord.
I could roll the Fjord the proper way, but rolling is a bit heavier than average. She also requires the paddlestroke to be performed over the complete arc.
Paddling the Fjord unloaded, she floats high on the water. Probably this caused it to be difficult, with my PDF on, to roll to the other side when going down the left side to perform the stroke on the right-side. It could be, when it turns out to be impossible to roll to the other side, that it might be necessary to roll up the other side. I don’t like that as my left shoulder does not like rolling on my left side due to on old injury.
Finally
I was happy with the tailorfitting I did in the cockpit. I guess, looking at the volume of the Fjord and my own weight of 70kg, that it had not been possible to control the empty Fjord like today without the tailorfitting.
The repair, the appliance of a new keel-strip, had also been successful, as I didn’t find a drop of water in the compartments at the end of the session.
More on paddling the Fjord will follow later.
PS
I tried also to find some information about the Fjord on Internet and was surprised that there really is nothing to be found. It’s obvious this is caused by the non-existence of Internet in the 1980’s. And as the Fjord is not in production anymore, or may only a few Fjords being left after 25 years, no one starts writing.
However I am happy to write about this historical kayak, just to record her characteristics, being not bad at all.