Licence to drive!

A driving licence makes paddling easier. Autumns most answered question: why havent you got it years ago? Answer: There are better ways in life to spend 20 000 nok (the north face of Mt. Everest, the streets of Havanna, the trans-sibirian railway, the maya ruins in the jungle of Mexico, Ha Long Bay, the hustlers of Tangier(!), China and so on...) AND, cycling is almost as fun as paddling and a far more ecological sound way of getting around.

TIME

It is so fantastic to have a lot of time for paddling - Christmas holiday. It has been quite windy lately and the swell was about 2,5 meters outside of Turøy yesterday. At the western tip of Sandøyna there is a good surfspot, as you can see in the picture. It was, however, a bit too big to do alone (mind the rocks!) so I just watched and looked for nice action-spots for next time. As usual, the sea was quite choppy so I even wore the helmet for most of the trip, and that was probably just right, the currents around the small islands and boomers are stronger than I sometimes think, I could of course stay further away, but what fun is that?

Old kayak

My wife has "found" an old Greenland kayak at the Fisheries Museum in Bergen! Maybe East Greenland 1870.

Rolling board

The rolling is progressing so it is time to make a rolling board. Started the other day and will finish today. No time to test it this week I am afraid.

This is nothing less than the greatest piece of work on greenland kayaks I have ever seen! Harvey Golden has written a book where he presents "one hundred and four greenland kayaks". http://www.traditionalkayaks.com/ One often hear people dividing greenland kayaks into west or east greenland kayaks. This book tells you more. A LOT more. Golden recognises 13 different types of grenland kayaks after having studied kayaks in museums and in Greenland. He altso build 18 replicas to find out how they behaved on the sea. What suprised me most is how narrow these kayaks are. Most of them are less than 50 cm wide and one as narrow as 36,9 cm! One is 630 cm long and 43 cm wide, something that already makes me think about the 2007 "Sotra Sea Kayak Race"... Anyway, I first have to start building a rolling kayak. Found wood for the gunwales Saturday, so it`s rolling! Dimensions: 480x46x12(depth). Strongly inspired by Magnus Aström http://qajaq.se/joomla/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=17&Itemid=36 and a rolling kayak build by Davidsen and Padilla now owned by the Sisimiut Team of Qaannat Kattuffiat

More rolling

The water is still quite warm, so I arranged a rolling session today. Got three new rolls, the butterfly roll (as Cunningham names it), the behind the neck roll and the greenland storm roll wich finishes slightly different from the normal c to c in that it is a low brace roll. Also managed the trick to reach up and breath (and cry for help) still halfway in the cocpit and holding on to the chine while upside down. A bit hazy explanation. I`ll post a picture next time. Torbjørn did the PFD roll - see MY VIDEOS. Both of us almost got the handroll!
Hans Petter joined us and we took a look at his selfmade carbon boat. Nice!