Future targets

And all I want is one bombproof roll and one bombproof handroll!!!

A new collar and cuffs

This week I sent my drysuit off for a trip to North Wales to get mended by Rubberman.  I think I’ve had my suit for nearly 2 years and the rubber had really begun to perish recently – I’ve already had my latex feet replaced with neoprene ones.  I sent the suit off on Tuesday lunch time and had it back by this afternoon, complete with new cuffs and neck seal.  Excellent service indeed!

Will my head fit through??

Tonight was another polo session.  We’re back to Friday night training now that KKC pool sessions have started again on Tuesdays. 

Tonight we did some dribbling drills, work on passing before playing a game.

Ready to play

Team talk   Guarding the goal     Fighting for the ball ‘Kathleen’ with a lovely pair…

Fund the Orkney Canoe Appeal! Buy Mackayak's old sea kayak!

Mackayak is still trying to sell her old sea boat.  See it here!

Positive Pool Practise

Tonight was the first of the KKC pool sessions.  Rather selfishly, I have decided that since I am coaching at the OSKA sessions, I am going to use the KKC sessions for personal development and improving MY skills.
My pool session goals for this year are:

1)    Learn to back deck roll
2)    Learn to roll polo boat properly
3)    Learn to hand roll reliably
4)    Hand roll polo boat

With these thoughts in mind, I started the session by jumping in the polo boat (thank you Hairyaker) and doing some hip flicks at the side of the pool.  I was a bit reluctant to try and roll it after my appalling attempts during polo practise a few weeks ago but I gave it a go and happily succeeded.  I was thinking about a back deck roll as I did it but I think I currently have a weird hybrid roll so I must work on tidying that up.     NK gets to grips with the polo boat 

My next aim was to work on my handrolling.  I want to learn to hand roll for playing canoe polo, but am interested in the art of handrolling as another kayak skill.

Mackayak has spent a lot of time this summer working on handrolling her sea boat which is no mean feat.  We are not sure how she manages to be so graceful, I shall have to get her to teach me after Christmas.

Last roll of summer from Mackayak on Vimeo.

Tonight I attended ‘Malcolm’s School of Handrolling’.  After several failed attempts, thanks to Malcolm’s patience I managed several hand rolls so I was quite chuffed with that.  Thanks Malcolm!

Since it’s getting late I’ll end this post with Malcolm’s demonstration…..

Enforced Canoeing

Little car

At the moment we are trying very hard to do everything needed to complete our UKCC Level 2 coaching.  There are two things we really need to work on, improving our canoe skills to 3* standard and logging 10 hours of canoe coaching.  Today we decided we should get some hours on the stick.  However we aren’t really canoe fans….Bonnie Kirkwall Bay

We don’t like canoeing for the following reasons:

1) It’s always windy!

2) It’s always windy!

3) It’s always windy!

So we tend to struggle finding somewhere to go with the one (broken) canoe to which we have access.  Today we headed for the marina, to which we had kindly been granted access. The Kirkwall Marina

Today we headed into the marina for a couple of hours of practice.Mackayak does some solo practiceNorthern Kayaker comes back from Cromwell RoadPootling round in the Halloween sunshine

We paddled in tandem for a while before taking turns doing some solo practice.  I tried hard to work on paddling on my left side and getting a nice rhythm with my j strokes.  To finish off, we went tandem again and took a tour of the whole marina, even peeking our nose out of the shelter of the harbour.Mackayak looks north towards the open seaPassing some of the local fishing fleet

Today we had a bit of an opportunity to try and get comfortable again in an open boat, however, all too soon it was time to go home, the clocks changed today and sunset was at 1623.  Winter is certainly on the way.