Winter at last!

Winter and snow makes for eksotic paddling in Bergen. Nice conditions on the way out, bad visibility on the way back. Valley "Anas Acutas" ordered. Thanks for the picture Stefan!

Storms

The weather is NOT at all like last winter. Storm after storm is coming from south west, and that makes for some interesting night paddling. Wednesday we went surfing in the dark. Very challenging and good exercise for body and mind.

Old picture, but I like it.

Embarrasing incident

Thursday night some friends and I was to take on the first paddle of 2007 but it ended quite embarrasing. When we put out on our usual training route, the weather was good and sea was calm. The weather detoriated fast as we got out to sea. In an attempt to get into calmer water one of the group capsized, so did one more in an attempt to rescue him. By then, the wind and waves had grown to a level where communication became almost impossible. I was separated from the others for some minutes and one of us was alone in the water by his kayak, but we all drifted toward shore and we got ourself and our kayaks ashore just to find the police, ambulance, the fire patrol, divers and the rescue boat coming to help us. About ten journalists and photographers documented the "scene". Someone had seen us and called for help. Very, very embarrasing! Lessons learnt:
1. Lights on a kayak are useless when pointed down in the water. Put the lights on your body.
2. A light-coloured kayak does not light up in the dark.
3. One day this storm will hit you from out of the blue (litterally), this will probably happen in familiar waters and you will probably not wear and bring all your expedition gear. Please do.
4. All the equipment in the world will not save you. Training will.
5. If you are so unfortunate to be in a similar situation, NEVER talk to the journalists! It is true, they twist everything you say.

Ok, Matthias, here are the links to my recent 15 minutes of fame: http://www.ba.no/nyheter/politinotiser/article2501245.ece
http://www.bt.no/lokalt/bergen/article328978.ece
BT even published a "nice" video...

Happy New Year!

We celebrated as usual with baccalao and also fired some flares that got a little wet during the summer. They worked very well!