Anglesey Sea Kayak Symposium Rough Water Day

Saturday of the 2014 Anglesey Sea Kayak Symposium saw a large group of paddlers heading out into Penrhyn Mawr. The "intermediate" group, of which I was a part, got into the races a little after peak flow (which the "advanced" group went for), but a day or so after spring tide, this was still a fairly pushy bit of water.
As the tide began to slacken, we took a brief stop for lunch before catching the last of the flood to run down the outer race and into Abraham's Bosom, where we played behind the stacks on our way to South Stack. We were out of the tide, but met it again under the bridge where the ebb had already set. This gave us some current to paddle against to get up through the gap, then into the ebb race on the outside before heading back to Porth Dafarch.
One or two people have posted comments about sit-on-tops (now deleted as irrelevant). Please note (for your own safety, apart from anything else) that all the kayaks you see are proper sea kayaks, with cockpits and spraydecks, and a reliable roll is essential for venturing out in conditions like this - SOTs are not suitable !

[@TheDcrocks1]

I think having a longer boat in conditions like this is beneficial compared to a short boat,what do you think? let's say 17ft for a long boat ( 6 m ) and short boat at 15ft ( 5 m ) I think the short boat would be manipulated much easier than a longer boat,ironically you woukd think having longer boat would allow more surface area for the water to grab.

[@ItsMe-rg1dk]

I go there every year and I kayak as well and the water can be very bad and scary. I would like to do a meet up with some people here.

[@TheDcrocks1]

Have you been able to set up that meet up? I'm in Florida and looking to experience some new water.this looks like fun.

[@explorermike19]

Wow, what a washing machine! great vid. very exciting. thanks

[@alhuseinen]

nice video, i am learning from your technique. by the way can you share what music you used?

[@charlesrenniemacki]

There are much, much better videos out there that give you a much more immersive impression of sea kayaking off Anglesey and they did it really easily, do you know how? Their sound track is the natural sound of the wind and waves and not some over-the-top shitty soundtrack that ruins this entire video!!

[@andywaddington7765]

Do feel free to download the video and change the soundtrack - that's the point of CC licencing. Everyone has their own taste in music - and its easy enough to use youtube-dl to pull the video and have your own choice. Personally, I find I have hundreds of hours of video with basically nothing but white noise as soundtrack and I find it pretty tedious.

[@andywaddington7765]

Hmm, a quick check shows a copyright claim so it's not currently CC licensed. But the video component without the sound is so licensed, so as far as I am concerned you can still download and add your own sound.

[@ThePioneerChannel]

Man that looks like fun! I wanna do that with my kayak.. got myself a delta 17.

[@deaninchina01]

Damn I wish we had some water like that here around Newcastle Australia!

[@FlatlandMando]

A place where...if you are comfortable on the water here, maybe you can be comfortable anywhere!

[@waynefatguyinakayak7408]

What an incredible video! Videos like these encourage me to keep going out and increasing my skills and to keep stepping up my game.

[@dowlass]

@AndyWaddington, out of interest is that a North Shore Calypso you're paddling in this video? The hatch covers look kind of familiar to early North Shore builds.

[@andywaddington7765]

Sorry, missed this comment at the time. It's a North Shore Mistral - a little smaller than the Calypso, essentially the same hull as the original shoreline, but with different hatches (including a dayhatch).

[@johngriffin618]

awesome video. I kayak fish offshore, and never go out on rough days but just in case a storm gets me by surprise ive been watching these types of videos to get an idea of what to do and what not to do.

[@ChannelX24]

Dude this is awesome, looks freaky but hella fun.

[@wills1110]

Id wanna take my canoe out there, have to be bailin water like crazy but that makes it more fun

[@ahilbilyredneksopinion]

This looks more intense than creeking....I want.

[@GITMachine]

This looks absolutely terrifying. I hope to be at your skill level one day...

[@singjing6946]

Good

[@GaneshD123]

Wild - great video and music and thank you so much for posting!!!!!

[@Aleadergear]

Wow! What an adventure! Great filming.

[@owlstead]

Well done. Nice rolls left and right. Interesting to see these waves coming from everywhere. Say, that look a lot like a yellow version of my Northshore Buckaneer :P

[@andywaddington7765]

It's a Northshore Mistral - basically the same hull as the original Shoreline, rounded rather than chined. Pretty forgiving boat, even when empty.

[@Rampster27]

i officially no longer want to go sea kayaking.

[@mmcoubrey1]

looks great.. not that bad though!!

[@daveyJ213]

Mmm... you are obviously much younger than me and more skillful too. I think I'll just be the old guy on top of his Hobie; but more power to you. I really enjoyed the video.

[@andywaddington7765]

I was 57 when the video was recorded - still learning ...

[@daveyJ213]

My hat is off to you!

[@itinerariekayak8541]

Woow! A good workout!

[@ThePioneerChannel]

What did you use to get that 3rd person camera view?

[@andywaddington7765]

Basically, take one of those big suckers used for lifting panels of glass, bolt a length of PVC wastepipe to it, cut a small block of wood so there's a rounded bit which plugs into the top, drill and add a GoPro mount. Sucker attaches to a flat bit of the aft deck, with the camera just in reach to an outstretched hand. This makes the camera a bit closer than ideal. My original design, back before digital video, had a control cable to a point near my hand, so the camera could be further away (but then the tube was longer and the footage is more sea-sick-making, because the camera wobbled more). The whole lot, especially the GoPro, is also attached by a cord to one the the deckline points, just in case the sucker comes unstuck. That's never happened on this boat, but is a bit of a risk on a couple of my other boats with slightly curved decks. I also have a version which uses a triangle of bungee cord attached to the decklines which holds the camera more steady, but is something of pain to get aimed correctly. I clearly need to take some photos of this stuff, but funnily enough, right now, we can't get out sea kayaking, even though the risk of catching a virus spaced apart at sea is minimal...

[@ThePioneerChannel]

@@andywaddington7765 yeah I donno who make these rules during pandemics but I've been wanting to do camping myself 😋 not that I would get caught in the back country anyways lol. But yeah if you find pictures or get the chance to take some.. would be cool to see the setup. If you look up my channel name on Facebook I got a page you could post pics at !!

[@siempreafavor730]

Capó gran vídeo

[@Kwood10]

That looks like the same Werner paddle I have Shuna ?

[@andywaddington7765]

Corryvreckan - bigger blades.

[@wojciech6370]

THOSE PEOPLE ARE CRAZY

[@ovskihouse5270]

There is différent types of kayaks, can u say which type is it in this vlog (resiste waves ) Im newbie

[@Hellhamster]

Sorry for being a year late.... I think it's a Nigel Dennis Explorer

[@andywaddington7765]

Oops, missed this comment - its a North Shore Mistral.

[@SicSemper100]

Too F'n Kool...

[@zimzimzim8722]

damn! :D i bet if you fall down on these rough waters its difficult to swim..

[@andywaddington7765]

Probably shouldn't be out in those waters without a good roll, but on a symposium like this, swimming is not really an issue - there's enough skilled folk about who can get you back in your boat in 90 seconds or less, even among the waves. If not, with the fast tide, you will soon be "downstream" enough to get calmer water for a rescue. That is the beauty of the location for rough water training - anything that goes wrong will not drop you into worse conditions.

[@wadepatton2433]

Never get out of the boat! (a line from Apocalypse Now!) worth remembering. And you don't go out there without basic rolling skills developed.

[@grunter1389]

Cloudy , with a chance of Sharks !

[@GoProKMH]

You were part of the intermediate group? That looked advanced to me. Good rolling by the way. Keep paddling my friend.

[@thesickhorseranch]

This a rad video Sir!

[@user-qp6vg9ho8u]

Good video shame about the music

[@andywaddington7765]

It''s Creative Commons licensed, please feel free to download and add your own choice of music for viewing on your own systems, or even to distribute - that's the beauty of CC-NC-SA ;-)

[@fuglbird]

Nice music but boring paddling. Normally it is opposite.

[@kayakerkoreaeastseakayak7282]

wow,beautiful day