Another Practice Day

Despite the strong South Easterlies and storms of the past few days, Counsellors Beach in Dunmore East was nice and calm with just the occasional small wave.
Man focus of today was to practice our strokes for the upcoming level 3 weekend (weekend after next) and everyone is doing fine.
I tried rolling today with Mick Cagney as my helper (although it did take some time for Mick to join the circle of trust!). I tried the C to C and failed. I tried the sweep roll and failed although I felt it was working better for me than the other roll. The thing with learning a roll is it always seems to work to a point and then fail just when you think it is going to work. Anyway this kind of practice will get us going until pool sessions over the winter. Still it looks sooooo easy when you see people doing it on DVD and its one of those things you say "it would work if only I could...."
Paul was trying some extended paddle strokes and they looked impressive especially the extended high brace. He got a DVD "Beyond the Cockpit" and it details using extended strokes where the grip on the paddle is generally one hand on the shaft and the other on the end of the blade.
Water is still warm so it will be interesting to see when we reach the cutoff point when people don't want to get wet (opinion seems to be end of October)

Dunmore to Portally Cove

Had a kayak trip yesterday evening from Dunmore East to Portally Cove. Sea got a bit choppy which took somewhat from the enjoyment but it all builds up the experience. Paul claims to have seen some fins in the water belonging to Dolphins - but maybe it could be the first sighting of sharks in Dunmore East!
We had to cut paddle short because of falling light and when we got back to Dunmore East we headed for main strand and practiced some strokes.
Level 3 course is on Oct 7-8 so we've 3 weekends left to crack high brace and sculling for support.

Check out links on right to view my photos and also Joe's web album