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Last sunday, 29 october, it was good weather again for testing the Skim Distance: a NW wind blows at 6 Bft.
Happily 6 clubmembers liked to share and to face the challenge of quite a lot of waves, sometimes reaching 1,5 meter.
Although I faced last week some surf already in the Skim Distance, I needed more information on how the kayak performs in surfconditions.
Because of the tide going down, the waves were rather steep, which was for some members an invitation to go swimming. I did not envy them as I saw how long it took sometimes for them to reach shore again.
As I do not like swimming at all, I started thinking if I could prevent the swimming part; might it happen to me bailing out in deeper waters. So why not use the re-entry? And paddle to shore with a water-filled cockpit. It must be much faster than swimming.
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Kayaktesting and circumnavigation of Noorderhaaks
on saterday 21 oktober
As I am currently busy with testing of the Distance, made bij Skim, I was very eager to go paddling with her today because the wind gave favourable test-conditions.
Wednesday-evening I found 4 other clubmembers willing to paddle saterday. In the discussion following, we decided not to travel to the "Voordelta" in the south of Holland. Although that area is my favorite for testing because I know the area very well and because it is also a safe area where quit a lot of escapes are possible. Also most of the sea-conditions you can think of, can be found there.
However I sensed that evening the wish to stay closer by and to go the "Noorderhaaks": a small, uninhibited island near Den Helder. An area not very well known to myself, but Rob has been there on quit a lot of occasions. So that is what I thougth: This is the opportunity to learn more about this interesting area and become more familiar with it. Besides that: It is much closer by, meaning less traveling.
By the way: the Noorderhaak is is also one of the infamous areas known in Holland´s nautic history. There are more of these places, but On Noorderhaaks quite a lot of ships wrecked on the solid sandbanks, due to the high and pondering surf in combination with strong 2,5 sm/h-currents.
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For days already I found on www. windfinder.com the information that friday/saterday 6/7 oct. would be real windy days.
As I did not have any appointments on saterday, my blood was cooking a little bit as I have currently the Skim Distance for testing and this could be an ideal opportunity for investigation; The water not being very cold yet.
As the day comes near I did not find a companion for the day. But the last minut, the evening before, Jos phoned me for a shorter trip.
So it turned out NOT to go to the sea, but to an inland lake the Alkmaardermeer.
As the wind was blowing 7 Bft., with stronger gusts in between, this turned out to be an interesting excersize as well.
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Na een voorspoedige reis naar Noordpolderzijl, gelegen aan het einde der wereld, komen we (lees: Rob, Henk, Wiegert en ik) er achter dat er ook minder voorspoed bestaat want we kunnen niet door de slagboom die de weg naar het wad vrijmaakt. Zowel in het nabij gelegen cafe ´t Zielhoes als bij de buurman kunnen we de sleutel vandaag niet lenen.
Dus zit er niets anders op dan alle spullen en kajaks naar de zee te dragen. Hadden we nu toch maar onze kanokarretjes meegenomen, verzuchtten we.
Maar goed, als we alle spullen ter plaatse hebben is het leed weer snel vergeten want het is mooi weer en het avontuur op het wad lonkt naar ons.
Na het verlaten van de vaargeul, tussen het haventje van Noordpolderzijl en het wad, zetten we koers recht naar Borkum op een koers van 25° Dit moet ons naar de hoek van het verboden gebied rond Rottumeroog voeren.
De zee is rustig en er staat nauwelijks wind. Heerlijk.
Als we ten zuiden van Zuiderduintjes varen valt ons op hoe mooi helder het water daar is; het lijkt wel een aquarium.
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Yesterday I recieved the SKIM Distance, a new seakayak, for testing.
Peter Grobbee brought the kayak in the afternoon to Den Dolder, where I work. Very convenient for me and not too far for Peter to drive.
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Today the "Little Wing"-kayaks from Warren draw my attention: just because of their very unconventional look.
The first glance made me think: brr, what a "broad looking", blunt kayak.
A closer look was much more positive because of the innovative shape with the waistline.
Oh ...., and what a narrow width of the waterline. It looks like a racing machine.
This kayak is not exactly brandnew because the first information is already dated 2005, but nevertheless it is worth a closer look now.
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Because this post is about a local issue in Holland, I wrote it in Dutch. If you are interested you can scroll to the end of this post to find a short summary in English.
Naar aanleiding van de laatste berichtgeving over het kampeerverbod op Simonszand had ik de volgende gedachtes. Ik ben zeer geinteresseerd in uw reacties.
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Ik kom net terug van vakantie in Noorwegen. Dit is een land waar je net als in Zweden, dankzij het zg. "Allemansrett" (=Allemansrecht) nog legaal kunt wild kamperen. (mits je de kampeerplek achterlaat in een zodanige toestand dat je niet kunt zien dat je er was, mits je niet dichter dan 150 m naast een bewoond huis staat en mits je ergens niet langer dat 2 dagen staat. Dit laatste geldt niet in de bergen).
Mijn ultieme vakantie is dan ook om vrij door de Noorse natuur te zwerven met een kampeeruitrusting en voor 15 dagen eten op mijn rug. Ik ben dan helemaal self-supporting want water schep ik uit een riviertje en kamperen kan overal. Dat geeft me het gevoel van volledige vrijheid en rust waarin ik het natuurlijk evenwicht kan hervinden dat ik nodig heb voor het komende drukke arbeidsjaar.
Dit ultieme vrijheidsgevoel is in veel West-Europese landen niet mogelijk omdat het niet is toegestaan om wild te kamperen.
Waarom niet? Zou het te maken hebben met het gegeven dat wildkampeerders er in drukbevolkte streeken een rommeltje van hebben gemaakt? En vonden de Overheden dat ze de landeigenaren daartegen moesten beschermen? Wie zal het zeggen!
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It is difficult to imagine: to love seakayaking and yet to decide to quit with it.
This is about Willem Molengraaff. The man who tested seakayaks for years. It was Willem who started doing these tests in the Netherlands; I dropped in just later.
Together, Willem and I tested quite a lot of kayaks and it was our fate that the weather turns bad most of the times at the days we made an appointment for testing. We got used to that and turned it around: we need bad weather for testing.
After being rescued in november 2003, because of a lower back injury that made Willem capsize and we not being able to reentry him again, Willem and I only dare to paddle in good and warm weather. Doing so, Willem made several seatours in Holland, Germany and Portugal since then.
A few months ago however, Willem phoned me after a solotour on inland waters and told me that he had decided to quit with paddling: "The mind is willing, but the body, being 76 years old, is not any more!". It is too painful and because of that it is no pleasure.
He regrets not to see his beloved sandplates any more.
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You know what a skayary is?
Well, I invented this word because I realised I had to help some Dutch people in reading Kayak-English.
I got some comments on the fact that I started writing my seakayaktests in English: Some Dutch people don't like this very much because their English is not that good and it became not easier for them to read the report.
On the other hand I can see it as an opportunity to improve on English: "if you like to read something that interests you, you will learn".
However to help them, I made a Dictionary with specific words of the seakayaking-jargon and looked for a name of this.
Looking at the words "Seakayak Dictionary" it was not difficult to invent the word Skayary.
I hope it will help my Dutch friends.
And I invite them also to send me a word when missing words that needs translation.
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Writing a testreport about the Vestvika was a challenge on several subjects.
To start with: this fast seakayak is so very new that there are no experiences, references or comments on it whatsoever.
Secondly: this is the first report I wrote completely in English. A real maidentrip because I had to learn quite a lot of the technical words that are used in seakayaking.
However, writing the English report turned out to be a very instructive excersize for me personally.
I must say that writing this first report, took me more time than when writing in Dutch, but yet I am proud to present you my first English report on: home.kpn.nl/aoxo94sx
This does not mean that I will translate all earlier tests. May be a summary in English is an alternative there, but I am afraid, when I were starting to translate everything, there would be no time for testing for a couple of years.
May be, when you have questions about a certain seakayak, it is better to follow the "alert-system": you ask questions on kayaks and I answer in English.