Following on from box2k2's post, ALDI were selling screw extractors recently for a few quid.

Drilling new holes through the car may not be a good idea - the roof is often reinforced for the existing bolt holes. I guess that this will vary between cars though and I have never owned a Peugeot.

Thanks for a great meet. I hope to see some of you on the water again sometime.
I will post Peter a CD of my paddling photos from the weekend - feel free to make copies if there are any of interest - but it will have to wait until I get back from Norway in two weeks.
Cheers,
Sean

johnb wrote:I filled in for someone with only 2 weeks notice.

Thanks for taking my place. I am glad to hear that you and Glen completed the event successfully.
I hope to take part next year, work and family permitting, but I am sorry to have missed the chance to actually get out to the lighthouse.
Cheers,
Sean

Always have two eddies ahead of you that you are sure that you can get into; one for your next breakout and a backup for when you make a mistake. If you can't see two eddies from the water then it's time to inspect from the bank.

I met up with Espen from Black Hawk this week, following the good advice of Erling, Freek and Lars Verket. We went for a little paddle that I have written up on my blog: http://manckayak.blogspot.com/2009/02/first-paddle-in-norway.html . I am about to go out on the water again, so your efforts in re...

6"4' and 115kg The perfect size for both the Carolina and the IceFloe! I find that the loading of the boat is quite important in controlling the response of the boat to the wind. Get the weight distribution wrong and it can be a complete pig to handle. It is probably worth experimenting a bit befor...

Thanks to you both for the information - it looks as if paddling may be a possibility. The next challenge is to fit some paddling kit into my paltry 20kg luggage allowance! Freek - I hope that the trip in May goes to plan. I'll probably have finished my assignment in Norway by then, just as the weat...

Thanks for the link.

It looks as if I may be spending the next few months splitting my time between home and Grimstad. This will mean that I will have some weekends in Grimstad but will be reliant on public transport. Has anyone on this forum done any paddling in this area? Any hints or tips, including getting access to...

Thanks for the advice. It looks as if there are suitable boats out there.
Cheers,
Sean

Hi folks, My daughter (seventh birthday this month) is interested in doing the Cheshire Ring Race after seeing it on the TV. It may be 2010 rather than the next event but I am planning ahead! We normally paddle a plastic K2 or an open boat. She enjoys doing events such as the SeaQuest races and the ...

From your location SJ and the nature of the agreement you've mentioned, I'd guess you're talking about a lowland flat (ish) river. Correct? Not a game fishing river? My current location is irrelevant, since I have moved quite a long way from the river in question, but you are correct that this was ...

If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.

- James Madison 1788

you say that it is the Newcomers who cause problems but you don't tell people where it is, so they can either chose to avoid it or learn the "rules". I don't want to divert a discussion of general principles into a debate about a specific location. In this case, I haven't paddled there for about ei...

A key factor here is the level of usage of the river. One group of paddlers passing through isn't going to spoil a day's fishing. A group every ten minutes isn't going to be too good from the fisherman's perspective. Similarly, treating a single fisherman with courtesy is not a problem. It can even ...

Let me give an example of time sharing actually working. I'm not going to name the actual stretch of water in question but it had the following characteristics: 1) There was an undisputed right for people to fish. 2) The fishermen came to accept that we were going to paddle regardless of any dispute...

An equitable time sharing agreement for mutual convenience seems like a better idea than all parties trying to use the river at the same time. Why? How about EVERY user group (not just anglers/game fishermen) use the river at any time, environmental conditions dependent. Simple example - a fisherma...

There have been times when the paddling would have been better if the fishermen weren't there, even though everyone was amicable about sharing the river. I imagine that the said fishermen would also have had a better day if I hadn't been present. A different analogy might be the case of a five-a-sid...

Some of the bridges on the Ouse get reasonable surf waves at the right water levels. Olney and Harrold spring to mind but there are other spots. There's nothing worth travelling any distance for and there's only a small margin between too little water and being washed out. There are serious access a...

Let's get away from the use of this word 'agreement' when discussing the Wye and Usk can we. It is an agreement - there are a number of parties that got together and agreed some rules. However, it is an agreement between those parties and I haven't given any of them the right to speak on my behalf....

Are there any local paddlers that use the Wye and Usk that would be willing to comment on the success or otherwise of these agreements? 1) Are the "agreements" really any such thing or are they something that the parties interested in fishing are trying to impose? 2) Have the agreements improved the...

they're not retentive for surfing Is it no longer possible to surf the wave just on the lip of the tunnel mouth that is closer to the weir? Your boat is partly inside the tunnel, so there's not much scope for any moves, but it is rather fun. The water running through the tunnel is very shallow thou...

Your definition of paddling is not wading ankle deep in the sea I was proud of my four-year-old son on Sunday. We were just back from Cornwall and showing my parents our photos of our walk beside the stream flowing down Rocky Valley. My father asked Robbie whether he had gone for a paddle in the st...

If you are on a tight budget then don't forget to include the costs of fitting the boat out. I bought an old composite boat with a view to spending as much money on refurbishing it as I laid out on the boat itself. Of course, you don't have to do all of the work at once but you do need to work out h...

You found that quickly - I only posted my blog yesterday and you beat me to adding a link on this thread.

Thanks for providing the information.

Cheers,

Sean

And I bet that you didn't have a quiver of specialist boats when you were a canoeist, one boat did for both WW and sea!! You may even be from the 4m low/mid volume slalom boat for WW, Sea Trips, Surfing and maybe even the odd slalom era!! An old-school 4m slalom C1 is the perfect all-round boat. It...

At the risk of stating the obvious, the amount of success that you'll get with applying heat will depend on the adhesive that was used. If you have no luck with this approach then a spiral cut of the paddle shaft will allow you to peel the remains of the shaft off the blades with a pair of pliers. B...

How much difference did the agreements mentioned in the report actually make to the paddlers that use the rivers covered by them? I have been paddling on the Mersey for many years and never had any access problems. The agreement hasn't made any difference to my use of the river. Were there actual pr...

We managed to do this trick in a slalom C2 in the university swimming pool many years ago but never tried it for real on a river.

I found handrolling an open C1 to be harder than handrolling my slalom C1, so I guess that you have out-done us!

I have no argument with Dave's response but I suspect that much of the problem will be with your x-bow forward stroke. I imagine that if you are still paddling without a spraydeck and unable to roll then you will not be willing/able to commit to the x-bow forward stroke. This is likely to result in ...