CSCC Reports 2014: Jersey sea Kayaking Symposium - May 2014

The Jersey sea kayaking symposium made a welcome return this year after a 4 year gap while the organisers from the Jersey Canoe Club took a well deserved break.  This year Dan, Rob and Gavin attended. The format was similar to previous symposiums with a mixture of skills sessions, coastal paddles and fun sessions.  However, this year we stayed at a hotel (the excellent 'Highlands'), rather than camping as previously.

Participation in each of the sessions at the symposium was allocated through forms which magically appeared at 7pm each evening in the lounge in the hotel.  Most of the 'delegates' at the symposium were desperate to get at the sheets while there was still space available on the hard core actitivites like tidal races.  On one occasion some bloke tried to grab the sheet while I was still signing us down for a trip.  After this incident we decided not to bother competing with the 'sharp elbowed' element and we just took what was on offer when they had all gone off for dinner.  This meant that we had more varied paddling activities than I have experienced in previous symposiums.

The paddling highlight for us was a crossing to the Ecrehous reef (6 miles from St Catherine's breakwater).  This turned into an epic paddle - 2 hours 15 mins there and 3 hours 15 mins back due to the inconvenient trip timing and the spring tide.  No-one in the group of about a dozen needed a tow which said much about the standard of the paddlers at the symposium.

On another day we paddled from St Catherine's to Bonne Nuit Bay and back.  This provided beautiful scenery (cliffs) and an opportunity to play in a tidal race.  

I succeeded in bashing myself in the gob with my paddle at the start of a rescues session by Corbiere lighthouse, but the session improved and Gavin and Rob performed particularly well at assisted rescues and self rescues.

The stand-up paddle boarding in St Brelade's Bay was a great laugh with officially sanctioned 'jousting' and by the end even I (Dan) had got the hang of the basics and was keeping my back straight and chin up.  It's hard work on the hamstrings though.

We enjoyed surfing in specialist surf kayaks in St Ouen's bay and Gavin showed real talent at this, riding long distances with a beaming grin on his face.  The boats with skegs were particularly fun to manoeuvre.  John Richardson helpfully explained to me how to spot a rip tide (the waves break further out).

We also tried sit on top kayaks for a trip in Ouaisne to inspect some pre-historically significant rocks.  An academic from UCL gave an interesting explanation of their importance while I kept an eye on the boats which needed pulling up every few minutes as the tide rose.

Rob and I tried fishing with hand-lines and feathers in the same bay.  That wasn't a great success - Rob caught a tiddler and I caught a rock while trawling and lost my feathers.  I felt even more short changed when I saw the enormous bass which spear fishermen had caught elsewhere in the bay.   Meanwhile Gavin was cliff jumping in Greve de Lecq.

The symposium offered the chance to meet people from very different backgrounds from our own.  Bill, the underwater salvage specialist became an unofficial member of our group.  

The symposium included a buffet dinner at the Phare hotel next to Corbiere lighthouse and a BBQ at the ruined fort at Greve de Lecq.  At the latter Gavin baked some enormous scallops which we had bought that afternoon from two deep sea fishermen at Bonne Nuit Bay.  The other culinary highlight was our final dinner at the Salty Dog restaurant in St Aubins (a recommendation from former Jersey resident Mark W.).

We just had time to do a few touristy things before we headed back on the Condor ferry, in particular, the Elizabeth castle in St Helier, the underground war tunnels and the fruit & veg market, plus drives to some of the nicer beaches which we hadn't visited in our boats e.g. Plemont bay.

All in all this was a well organised, friendly and nicely varied symposium. Jersey provides diverse scenary and paddles - both classic open crossings and coastal sections - and session leaders did an excellent job in coaching new skills, and generally providing calm reasurance when trying challenging things on, in and above the water. Jesey Canoe club again proved good, convivial hosts to the 100 or attendees of the symposium, even when one impudently brought up the subject of tax.

More photos can be found in the gallery http://www.civilservicecanoeclub.org.uk/csccgallery/thumbnails.php?album=43