The Craic’n: January 2025

It is good to know that a good-sized group of hardy souls braved the cold and made the most of the window between the two weather events for the January’s Second Saturday Paddle. This time it was to Inchcailloch for the postponed Mince-Pie Paddle. – Were there even any pies left over from Christmas festivities for the event 🤣 But a good opportunity for trying out some of Santa’s gifts.

The committee are still working on trips and events for the coming year, these will include night paddles, river trips, day and weekends trips, a summer expedition, training/skills sessions, events and more.
Second Saturday Paddles are already posted on the club calendar. Locations and details for these are confirmed a few days before each one, taking into account weather conditions, group experience and the leaders preferences! People are already signing up for February – I hope to see you there..

In this issue

1. Stop press – Paddle Scotland, events this week!
   2. Committee meeting
   3. An interview with …
   4. Weather Apps
   5. Trip Reports

1. Stop Press – Urgent
   Paddle Scotland Online Events – Paddle Scotland offers a wide range of training for many different types of canoeing and kayaking and for all levels of experience. Many of the online events are free to members.

Bev has specifically asked me to highlight one this Tuesday 28th January. This Women’s Coach/Leader Development Programme is something she did a while ago and highly recommends it us as one of the key things that motivated her to becoming a coach and leader and develop her kayaking. Career. See – https://sca.justgo.com/weblets/load/Events/66728f3b-1e94-44fc-8217-e70f15953221/details/9A7178A31163374021523ACA892DA996B0F5F62

Another of Bev’s recommendations is the Young Ambassadors Programme, for members aged 14-22 . Paddle Scotland are looking to recruit a team of young people aged 14-22 who want to make a difference in paddlesport. (SUP, canoe or kayak). Successful applicants will join a 2-year programme involving regular online catch-ups, two residential weekend events per year and an opportunity to access some reduced rate qualifications. These sessions will include a range of activities designed to support your development as a paddler, and help you make a difference in the sport.
Any applicants will have the support of DCKC Committee, coaches & leaders.

Note the closing date is 30th January, it may be possible that late entries will be accepted so check with Paddle Scotland – 01887 292040 or coaching@paddlescotland.org.uk if you are interested. 

Finally, Paddle Scotland have a series on ‘Paddling On The Sea’ which may interest the sea kayakers amongst you. Have look at the website to see what may interest you.- see https://www.paddlescotland.org.uk/highlighted-events.

2. Committee

The next meeting is on 5th Feb, the agenda is quite full with Paddle Scotland matters am amongst other things. However, if there is anything you would like raised or discussed please contact a member of the committee, me, send an email to info@dckc.co.uk , or use the suggestions box on the club website.

3. An Interview with … … …

… … … … … … … … … …Bev (Ouzman)

Bev is well-known to many club members, but possibly not to the newer ones. She has been a stalwart and advocate for DCKC since joining 8 the club years ago, with several notable achievements supporting and developing the club. She has now moved out of the area to become the DCKC outpost on the Black Isle, where she is waiting to move into her new seaside home (a key criteria for its selection being walkable to the shore with a trolleyed sea kayak!). So for those of you who do not know her, as well as those who do, here is a brief outline of Bev’s kayaking career to date.

She first started paddling as a sliver wedding anniversary celebration! The original plan was a short paddle on Loch Lomond, but the romantic dinner endpoint option turned out not to be available, so she and Marcus did a 5-day sea kayaking course with Glenmore Lodge instead. Based at Corran in some of the best weather Scotland can offer, they had an excellent experience. What really grabbed Bev was the different perspective of the mountains she knew from hillwalking, and the marine wildlife, both above and below the water. 

Striking while the iron was still hot, Marcus then dragged Bev along to a DCKC club night at Pinkston and they were both impressed by the friendliness and enthusiasm of the DCKCers there. This encouraged them to sign up to a beginners’ course at the old Clydebank pool (coached by Graham and Leigh), with her first sea paddle out to the ‘SugarBoat’. The trip was not such a great success and could have put her off for life. Bev, by her own admission (See ‘Kayaks on Roof Racks’ Craic’n July 24) is ‘vertically challenged’ and slim with it. She did not know that the sea kayaks came in different volumes or that sea and river boat paddles are different lengths, so she had pretty torrid time in a boat that was too big and a river paddle that was too short. Exhausted but not defeated, Bev did her research then fell on her feet when the first boat that she looked at to consider buying, a second-hand Tiderace Xplore S, fitted her perfectly; the rest is history.

By her own admission, Bev was pretty smitten with sea paddling, learning to roll and completing her 3* sea kayaker award less than 12 months after she had first sat in sea kayak. In fact, her kids would tease “Mum is OBSESSED with kayaking”, but she was able to correct them: “I’m not obsessed – it’s more important than that!”.

Bev still has that first boat and it is now well-travelled. But, naturally enough for someone with her passion for the sport, it is no longer her only boat. Her fleet now comprises i) the original Tiderace, ii) a ultra-low volume Rebel Naja Greenland style kayak, great for rolling but light and twitchy, iii) a wooden stitch and glue sea kayak (built at Jordanhill School) that still needs a lot of restoration work; iv) a river kayak; and v) long-short surf kayak that has not had enough use recently! But there is a new acquisition in the pipeline, vi) is a personal reward for recently passing the BC Advanced Sea Kayak Leader award, (well done Bev) – a  brand new Tiderace Xceed XS with a modified front bulkhead, due to be delivered in February 2025. 

In reflecting back on her many trips with the club, Bev picked out one – an overnight trip to to the Garvellachs and back through the (immensely tidal!) Gulf of Corryvreckan – as being particularly formative for her personally, and the trip during which the “penny dropped” that she had responsibility for the safety of others even as a group member. This trip provided the first major reflective “what if” moment for her, and gave her an insight into the many challenges of leading trips.

Bev had not been paddling long with the club before she joined the committee, firstly as Membership Secretary, for 3½ years, and as Chair for 3 years. Both of which were during “interesting’” times for any club. Managing membership was becoming increasingly complicated at the time, with new methods of payment running in tandem with traditional cheques and cash. GDPR legislation also meant that keeping lists on personal computers was becoming increasingly difficult to manage securely. With others on the committee (particularly Emily Tweed) a couple of membership systems were trialled before settling on the Membership Mojo that we still use with ease today. Her time as Chair was during Covid, when it was a challenge to keep the club running safely and legally with rules and legislation changing daily, though again the committee (and especially Sandy Johnston) were pivotal in ensuring the club operated as required. There was also a huge increase in new members to manage and everyone had high hopes for being out on the water that hot summer. 

Although no longer on the committee, Bev still has ambitions to run trips for the club and is keen to encourage people to be involved in the running of their club, whether on the committee or behind the scenes helping out with many of the tasks involved with maintenance or community work. Most of you will know that our club has strong connections with the local community, through the Sea Cadets and various youth groups. (See Craic’n Nov 24 and Jan 23) Bev was a leading member of the team who put in the successful nomination for SCA Club of the Year 2023 (https://www.paddlescotland.org.uk/2023-recognition-awards-club-of-the-year).

A few of Bev’s favourites things:- 

Kayak kit – the on-deck compass, Once you have it, you’ll use it often

Camp kit – a food flask, perfect for cooking lentils or pasta – add hot water at breakfast, perfectly cooked and ready for sauce by dinner time. Camp tip – make up a bag of food for each day of a trip. Favourite locations – The Garvellachs and Falls of Lora. Dream destinations – Brittany (for surfing) and Greenland

Best Bit about DCKC – superb enabling coaches and leaders (you know who you are!)

What I would change about / for DCKC – More club members realising what a fantastic resource Pinkston is, giving it a go and persevering (NB, Bev admits it probably took her a year to feel any degree of comfort!)

Thank you for these insights into your life and all the best for a smooth move into your seaside home.

4. Weather Forecasts

“Britain does not have a climate, only weather”, “Climate is what we expect, weather is what we get.” There are many quotes about the vagaries of the British weather, which stem from the difficulty in predicting what to expect in this maritime climate area. The. British weather, particularly in Scotland is notoriously difficult to predict, although the recent Storm Eowyn was well forecast a week or so in advance, and, more importantly, lived up to those predictions . How often are plans cancelled due to a poor forecast, only to find that the rain/wind/snow did not arrive and the weather was much better than expected?

Many people rely on the weather forecasting apps that are pre-installed on mobile phones, the Met Office or BBC. Kayakers need more specific predictions and with a myriad of apps it can be hard to know where to begin and which to subscribe to. So here are a few suggestions, feel free to add to the discussion with your most and least favourite apps for weather forecasting for kayaking. 

Note that reported wind speeds are measured and modelled at 10m above ground level. This is to standardise measurements across the globe and the effects of surface features (tree, buildings etc). What is not clear is whether sailing/boating/kayaking forecasters use algorithms to adjust the wind speed to sea level.

A good, go-to app is Windy, (the red one). Even without a subscription it enables you specify particular information you want – wind/precipitation/thunder/temperature etc. You can see reported (rather than predicted) data as well as choose which of the many meteorological models you would like to see, then compare the differences, which can be significant. This app has a feature to change the altitude; for sea level or paddling on high level lakes – Lake Titicaca anyone?

Windfinder is a good back-up app for comparison. Originally developed for windsurfing & dinghy sailing, Windfinder does what it says on the tin – shows the predicted wind speeds for your chosen area at 3-hourly intervals for up to a week ahead. Much simpler to use than Windy and correspondingly less information.

Surf and swell are important factors to consider, Surfline is good for this, giving information on height, direction, interval of any swell and the height of the surf as well as the usual wind and weather forecasts plus tidal information for the next four days. The app was designed for surfers, so their summary assessments of the data – ‘fair’ ‘poor’ etc are not helpful to most kayakers. Surf Forecast’ is another option. 

Finally, an often over-looked aspect of the weather is lightning. (See Craic’n July 2024). ‘My Lightening Tracker’ is a tool that reports on lightening strikes around the world and allows you to zoom into a selected area. The radar feature allows you to track weather systems for the following two hours (in the free version) to help identify any possible thunderstorms coming your way. This is another one that does what is says on the tin, simple to use, with just a couple of options on how to display the information. 

All the apps are a bit more complicated to understand and use then the standard sources mentioned above and so need practice, time and some patience to be able to use them efficiently.

For keen meteorologists, the Deep Dive is a broadcast on the British Metrological OfficeYouTube channel. Each weekly episode provides a detailed analysis of the forecasted weather or a specific weather event or pattern, usually presented in a video format where meteorologists use advanced weather models and charts to explain the intricacies of the upcoming conditions, including factors like jet stream movement, pressure systems, and potential impacts, providing a deeper understanding beyond a standard forecast. Released every Tuesday afternoon, the length of each episode varies according to the complexities of the the expected weather. 

5. Trip Reports

Trip reports are now being posted on the website (scroll to the back strip at the bottom of the web pages), with photos going into SmugMug (click on Gallery under About Us). Two recent additions are the 25km 2nd Saturday Paddle from Kilcreggan to Ardentinny and the 4 Star (Rough Water) Group ‘interesting’ Trip to Skye. Thanks to Dearbhla and Ronnie. 

Ed. That’s all folks. I have rushed to get this edition out to you before the end of the month, and with graham’s help I have suceeded! Apologies for the lack of good formatting and poor presentation, it’s a case of ‘publish and be damned’!

I will try harder next month, so please keep the articles coming in.