Valley sent me a couple of the old style mushrooms free of charge when mine disintegrated from UV and old age. The wire they run on is only just glassed in at one end so can be eased out to slide a new one on and then re-glassed in. It is so quick to change a skeg wire that I just carry a spare cut ...

The original with the bar inside was a superb boat, I don't like the smaller triple layer quite so much, but in our club they are by far the most popular of the club boats for people of all sizes. Just a good all rounder with no vices (unless it be the Valley hatch covers, but they can be replaced b...

I've had some really cack-handed warnings and advice from highly qualified coaches who had blinkers on when it came to Greenland sticks. On my 4* assessment the assessor engineered an upwind race to prove that a GP was unsuitable for a 4* leader -he lost! and that was after the 'throw the paddle aw...

After a beach wrist injury paddling around Corsica I taped my wrist/hand to the paddle and managed well with little grip for a few days using the greenland paddle. After I went back to a weak grip I mentally practised the elbow crook role as I doubted I'd keep hold of the paddle. Start off slowly on...

That is the big ones, I've measured ours and the 600 is 17.5cm width and the 650 18cm width. Judicious use of heat often softens the glue enough to allow removal. You have nothing to lose, a hairdryer might work, a hot air gun will certainly have some effect.

I think a beginner should try out all the options and a bit of single blade as well, all the skills are transferable. Forward paddling the Greenland paddles need better technique, just trying to shovel water will not get you along at all, although with a euroblade the beginner will manage 6NM so eur...

Sadly the Shipping Forecast is no longer available as a WAP push, always my favourite in those off-grid areas. If you could get an SMS you could get the WAP push and such value, only 2Kb for the entire forecast including inshore waters. My emergency brick type waterproof phone can choose between WAP...

150 ml per hour in a rear compartment in a calm sea. Could the vaccuum generated when the hull cools with the boat in the water be pulling a bit of water through the skeg box too?? The mysteries of water in the hatches...... We had an Anas acuta from the 1990s that had never leaked a drop for 25 ye...

I had/have? almost the opposite problem, I have an original Tahe greenlander so quite a few years old now. I noticed that my dry bags started getting smears of sticky white sealant as I wiggled them in and out. It was only from one of the hatch rims, the other was still solid clean sealant. I cleane...

Yo, I just checked, And according to the highway code, It only needs tags if it overhangs by more than a metre: Not exceeding 1 metre No requirements specified No requirements specified but you can always be prosecuted for an unsafe load, some years ago in our club we had a bus take off a boat ster...

Ice hockey shrink fit grip on the control hand is good, I use this on my WW and surf paddle. My wife swears by cold water surf wax and at it when it finds its way onto the car seats. The gloss long ago wore off our paddles, but we hate having to grip hard.The trusty wooden GP sticks to the hands any...

NCI always like a call to break up their watch

Most things tend to fray or wear and fall off. I sew some hi viz to lengths of old seat belt webbing, sew a loop in one end and loop them on. They hang down nicely even in the wind if you are parked to help people not to walk into the boats and stream out straight behind when driving.

As with everything, knowledge and experience is more valuable than carrying a load of kit most of which is probably past its sell by date and no longer sticky/flexible/elastic or whatever desirable qualities it had when you bought it. Practise some repairs with whatever you have decided to carry. A ...

6mm and not too tight, a bit of slack is just the thing if you do have to hang on in bumpy water, using 6mm means you can have a bit of slack between each pair of fittings and the resistance to sliding through keeps the slack in place unless you really have to hang on somewhere. You can get soft fee...

From the southern tip of Islay it looks very tempting on a calm day as most of the confused water looks to be fairly close inshore and once beyond that just rivers in the sea with a bit of disturbance where they meet. Always several ships in view though so one might be busy on the VHF. Someone drove...

Adds weight and little strength, cosmetic scratches enhance that delightful patina people pay extra for in stone or enzyme washed fashion clothing. Wait until the weave is really showing through. I did fit one to a boat once and regretted it, after a few years the strip proved stiffer than the carbo...

years ago I had a winter windsurfing wetsuit with a very high neoprene seal skin neck and the same with the wrists. You tucked them under and the air pressure when you fell in tightened the seals very hard so they didn't leak at all. Having a dry zip it was always completely dry.

Maybe too late, but really easy to do, just leave the neoprene neck in place and fit a standard bellows style latex neck inside, it is the right size. I cut 2 plywood rings to make it really easy and used 'Xtreme' glue to give me time to smooth out all the wrinkles and then clamped it overnight betw...

Cliff nesting sea birds seem to be well aware of the risks. I was always surprised by some apparently ideal cliffs being unoccupied and the next corner being a crush of birds. After a few days of F9-10-11 brought our paddling in Lewis to a halt and massive drifts of foam inundated the coast, the uno...

Having let many paddlers try these boats over the years, the single most frequent complaint was of a claustrophobic feeling from being in the smaller cockpit opening. When the weather is grey and the sea big and cold, some paddlers are like snails and try to retreat into their cockpit, you see them...

The last thing you want rock-hopping is a throwline being looped around rocks by the surf, a good chance of loosing the throwline and just making things worse by being tempted to try and retrieve it.

Don't go for something too big and stable as it will soon become a barge. A low rear deck helps rolling, you will need room for your feet under the foredeck. Although I am small and light and paddle an anas acuta, we have a range of club boats so I've tried most things. The old style Northshore Atla...

As you get older the ocean cockpit keeps giving. Getting in you can sit down on the rear deck in shallow water and, having to shaken the water off your feet, slide in. So much easier than sitting right down low into a keyhole and then trying to fold your stiff legs in. Getting out, having slid neatl...

The problem with bungie is that the resistance increases and increases and then will suddenly decrease, using rollers and raising weights would give a more realistic effect, or rollers and lifting yourself up an inclined ramp which is how the fitness paddling machines work. However, I am just trying...

You will soon find you will want to paddle in more adventurous seas, or it will be thrust upon you by a sudden change in the weather, or rounding that headland, or a bit of wind against tide. There is also the tidal flow in estuaries, sometimes you just have to make some ground against it. The sea k...

Any sign of anything on the inside?

I didn't get on with the Valley hatch cover retainers at all. I glassed loops inside the hatches out of the way and put a tie from the inside so nothing to snag on the deck

These proposals cross posted from the white water forum are apparently from British Canoeing, but our club has not seen them until now, maybe only inland clubs were contacted? and the deadline is 28 February! Anyway, it looks as if sea clubs will be barely able to operate within BC if this goes thro...

Despite Valley trying to kill it off, the one and only is still available to order.