Last weekend the Danish Canoe&Kayak Federation held its annual general meeting.
Two things would be of some interest for foreign readers.
1) The EPP system was well received when we presented it for the clubs at the sea kayaking presentation. Speaking of the EPP. The standard will not be released to the public before some technical/political stuff has been taken care of.
2) I had a short but very encouraging meeting on seakayak races with the chairman of the racing board. We agreed to continue the discussion in the beginning of May. We seem to share at least two beliefs. We want a Nordic standard and we want sea kayak races in conditions where it makes sense to be in a seakayak.
[Dull politician with tiny muscles mode off]
Enough on that already.
During the weekend , there was a small kayak exhibition by a couple of dealers. This gave me the chance to see the new Sipre Tsunami, which Erik Arnström already wrote about.
The stylish bow of the Tsunami in the front. The bow of the kayak in back is of the Vajda Ultrasonic belonging to our two marathon danish supergirls.
Øystein(left) and Ravn(right) fondling the Sipre Tsunami. Both belongs to the seakayak board.
I also got a good look at the Sipre Katabatic Master. The dealer said that the Katabatic has the stability of a Struer Tracer while the new Tsunami was in the league of Struer Cleaver(wtf?).
Now I’m not shopping for a new sea kayak but the Katabatic sounds nice. Could even be bought with hatches. No – not connected with the dealer – or any other dealer really.
[Politician mode on]
No kayaking today as I’m working on my presentation for the Canoe&Kayak Federation’s annual meeting this weekend.
Two years ago I gave them a presentation on What can your club do for seakayakers?. This time the topic is Seakayaking and the Outdoors though it really should be This is what the federation will do for the seakayaking community. Along with the rest of the seakayaking board, I’ll present our initiatives.
Tintin: Professor, I didn’t hit the water today – does this mean…
While I normally detest producing (and attending) Powerpoint presentations, I’m finding some satisfaction in combining a Tintin’isque theme with the presentation style of Dick Hardt. One nice property of volunteer work is that things doesn’t have to be so damn serious.
[Politician mode off]
Now I wouldn’t want to be a wuss and dedicate an entire posting to politics. While the rest of the world is raving about the newest Seakayaking wants to be hip flick, here’s another BCU racing promotion. Pump up the volume!
About a week ago I started a project to create a map of all danish kayak clubs. It has been quite some work, as I want the map to show the exact location of each club(yellow markers).
Clubs around Århus.
Trouble is that the clubs are located in or near places with a somewhat fuzzy concept of an address. This means that the initial address->coordinate lookup was less than ideal(red markers). Luckily the kayak community is super helpful and paddlers all over the country mails me with corrections.
There are of cause obvious improvements to be made, like marking rowing clubs, campsites and say routes for various races. This will have to wait for a couple of political deals to be made though. I’m on it.
How about making a similar map for your own country? Norway and Sweden if you please!
One nice feature is that I can now link to a club on the map in my various entries. Like – the training center is de-flooded once again.
Sunday we went to the kayak club in Skanderborg for the last 10km winter race of the season. Great weather with sun and almost calm. We even arrived 30 minutes before start – much earlier than we normally do(but next time we promise…).
Race day is payday and Sunday was no different. If you don’t hit the water,weights or trail every day you’ll pay. It’s really super fair with no shortcuts for the lazy.
In my new kayak I currently lack the balance to draft in an chaotic environment as a race. In these races it’s considered good sportsmanship to take your turn pulling the group. Twice it happened that I would pull a group for some time. When it was my turn to draft I’ll fall back only to lose my balance, brace and fall behind.
Anyway if the race time/distance is to be believed I maintained an average speed of 11.66 km/h which is ok for now.
Morten beat me fair and square and this time I can’t blame the boat. He struggled no less than I did with the balance. Why did he win? No idea, it’s not like the kid is any stronger than I am.
Next real race is in two months.
The Usual Suspects.
The peloton explodes from the very beginning.
Post race relief – “How was your race?”
On the way home we discussed a new project. We want to paddle the Tour de Gudenå stretch of 120 km in 12 hours some time during Spring. Let’s see. We would want some strong and preferable very heavy paddlers to join us. The bigger you are the better the wash you generate…
As usual all credits for the photos goes to Morten’s dad.
The training center at the lake is a mess with ice floes and a new flooding. Therefore I went to the bay the other day and got one of the club’s Tracers.
This is one good-natured little Tour racer, which is always ready with a helping hand when the swell or waves upsets your balance. Apart from surf zone paddling, I cannot imagine sea conditions where we couldn’t power through. Sure the lack of volume in the stern makes it a wet ride in opposing waves and the rudder lacks efficiency but no ones perfect. The rudder deficiencies should be easily fixed.
I’m a sucker for a good view and I hate this “dining table” impression most kayaks leaves me with these days. I want to look at a sharp spiffy bow and not some voluminous pig. While the Tracer is only a few percent faster(yeah yeah I know…) than the fastest touring trainers, it looks like it’s in an entire different league.
Yes it got the looks alright. Ready for launch!
Not a rocking horse.
Standard Struer Boats footrest.
Tomorrow it’s time for the last 10 km winter race of the season and time for the grand Morten/Peter Nelo/Vajda showdown.
With a bit of wind and waves the better stability of the Supersonic should give me the edge while Morten will be struggling.
Division Racing in Denmark:
Danish Design:
Surfer in a Surf Kayak:
Kattegat x2:
Tour de Gudenaa 2007, Saturday: