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The
New Mountaineering Can
bobbing around the ocean really be better than backpacking? Simon Willis tries sea kayaking, and
likes it.
Just as fashion
devotees frequently opine that "brown is the new black", so I've heard
sea kayaking described as "the New Mountaineering". I think my friend Douglas Wilcox said
this tongue in cheek, but I understand the sentiment. In Scotland, Munro bagging has
reached epidemic proportions; the faces of popular Welsh mountains are deeply
scarred by countless boots; and the Lake District hills appear to have
contracted some sort of super-bug that stubbornly prevents the wounds of
erosion from healing. So rather
than head for the hills, increasing numbers of us are taking to the sea. Two
hundred people turned up at the Sea Symposium in Scotland's National Outdoor
Training Centre, Glenmore Lodge.
Instructors there reckon demand for courses has increased each year
for the last five years and a trade association estimate puts participation
up 25% over the same period.
Sales of kayaks and equipment have never been higher. According to Ian Miller of the
Scottish Canoe Association, Òalmost all of the newer members have come from a
mountaineering background.Ó Sea
kayaking is backpacking as it used to be. There's that long-lost sensation of humility in the face
of overwhelming natural forces.
Overnight camps return to being special times in special places. You can carry the contents of a
seventy-litre without hurting your back and best of all, you never follow a
well-worn trail. It requires
divine assistance to leave a footprint on a wave. My
girlfriend Liz and I booked ourselves on a one week course with Glenmore
Lodge, and after a day training in their pool and on Loch Morlich, we found
ourselves standing on a beach near Arisaig on ScotlandÕs West Coast. As I'd been taught, I floated my
boat, braced the paddle against the sand to stop it tipping, and slid into
the cockpit. I stretched the
spray deck to seal the hole, and before I knew it I was gliding through the
water. And
here's the strangest thing; it felt completely natural. If I wanted to stop, I stopped. Don't ask me how I turned, turning
just... happened. Compared to walking,
bobbing around the ocean encased in yellow plastic should be utterly alien,
and yet I felt completely at peace.
We curved around a headland and our shallow draught allowed us to cut
through a channel impassable to other boats. Bright, white sand slid beneath as we moved across the
North Channel entrance to Arisaig harbour. We were heading for a maze of islands, skerries and
beaches that cluster around the entrance to the harbour and are a haven for
seals. A extended family looked
up as we drew closer, then slipped off their respective rocks, the adults
adopting cautious positions while the curious young came to investigate, as
interested in us as we were in them.
Once you've been buzzed by an inquisitive seal, you're sold on sea
kayaking. ScotlandÕs
west coast is World Class sea kayaking territory. The tourist authority Visit Scotland recently studied
which adventure sports held the most potential for overseas visitors, and sea
kayaking was in the top three.
The Scottish Canoe Association receives a steady stream of e-mails
from all over the world seeking information and Ian Miller, who used to be
tasked with replying, explained the attraction. "You can kayak in Alaska or the Milford Sound and the
scenery will be breathtaking, but the water will probably be flat. Scotland's unique combination of
water, weather, wildlife and mountains gives it an adventurous, slightly
dangerous edge." Of course
kayaking is emphatically not "new". The design of the boats has evolved from that of the Inuit,
as opposed to the open birch-bark and dugout canoes of the North American
Indians. The sport was
popularised by a Scot, John MacGregor, whose first canoe was fifteen feet
long, made from oak and cedar planks and christened 'Rob Roy'. In 1866 his best-selling book 'A
Thousand Miles in the Rob Roy Canoe on Rivers and Lakes of Europe'
popularised the sport, and it grew around the touring ethos. In the early 1930's James Adam and
Alastair Dunnett, later to be editor of 'The Scotsman', paddled from the
Clyde past the Cuillins and wrote of their adventure in the excellent book,
'The Canoe Boys'. And I recently
found an edition of The Great Outdoors from the 1980's in which Hamish Brown
explained the appeal of canoeing to the mountaineer, particularly when it
helps to reach remote mountains. It seems
most sea kayakers come from a mountaineering background, and our Glenmore
Lodge instructor Doug Cooper was qualified to teach both sets of skills. In one week, we not only learnt how
to control a kayak in different conditions but also how to safely plan a
trip. Doug taught us how to
calculate tides, and explained how they affect a journey. For example, you couldn't leave the
mouth a sea loch through which the tide is entering at 10 knots if the
fastest you can paddle is 8 knots.
However, catch the tide when it's going out, and you get a free ride,
popping out like a cork from a bottle. If all
this has you thinking, "Sea kayaking's for me", it'll also be
dawning on you that you are currently missing a sea kayak. The shortest of these is around
fifteen foot long, and the cheapest about £700, and that's before you buy a
paddle, spray deck, personal floatation device, specialist cag, gloves,
flares, waterproof radio, roof rack... the list goes on. If you buy new, you'll receive little
change from £1500 and could easily spend double. Oh, and you'll not only need a place to store all this,
but also someone as daft as you to paddle with, since only a kamikaze novice
kayaker takes to the sea alone.
So unless, like me, you're fortunate enough to have a partner who is
into this sort of thing, your first stop should be your local kayak club,
which should be able to offer advice, instruction and possibly loan
equipment. Sea
kayaking is growing exponentially.
Frequently, when we come ashore at the end of trip, someone will
aproach and ask us how he or she can find out more for themselves. I point them towards a club or one of
the growing numbers of companies offering sea kayak holidays, and I always
echo Ian Miller's warning about this sport's addictive properties. "When I started sea kayaking I
had 30 Munros left to climb", Ian told me. "Fifteen years later, I think I've 28 still to
go." Scottish
Instruction Glenmore Lodge, Skyak Adventures. Getting
Started Courses
and club details from: Scottish Canoe Association, British Canoe Union, Welsh Canoeing Association, Canoe Assoc of N.Ireland: 02891
469907 Inspiration: Scottish Sea
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