Posts by Toons:
- Optimised the google and bing trawling, they were killing us with requests
- Database optimisation work
- Upgraded the server, now twice as much memory as before.
- Done some additional page caching work
- The roll takes longer to do.
- The end of your roll ends with the paddle in not the greatest position to deal with whatever knocked you over in the first place.
Kew to Battersea, via The Grapes
August 10th, 2016Summer’s here. It’s a brilliant bright sunny day and the kayaks are out on the Thames. Six boats departed Kew on the ebbing tide. A short stop in Battersea and Fiona joined the gang, then off again. We headed through Westminster as the tide was almost out. The absence of much flow meant we could enjoy the sites, avoid the clippers and sneak right under the London Eye. It’s amazing how different town looks from the river.
Onwards, with a few short stops to rescue stray balloons, and we were almost at Greenwich – when we got distracted. A pub was in sight. After a successful landing on an uninhabited beach, with numerous ladders to the pub, we were thwarted. They wouldn’t unlock the gates and let us in. Oh well, a picnic on the beach instead, before heading back upriver on the flood tide. On route we stopped in Westminster and raided the beer supplies of a (far more accommodating) boat on the Thames – climbing up over the side causing much confusion to the ‘normal’ folk who’d approached from the side-walk!
30-ish miles, 8-hrs of sunshine, 7-kayaks, 6-stops, 5-ladders we couldn’t get up, 4-balloons chaired, 3-sun-burnt paddlers, 2-pubs and 1-person spotted sitting on a balcony overlooking the river.
Huge thanks go to Alex for a great day
Philippa, Fiona, Liza, Philippe, Dan and Tudor
Chelsea Kayak Club Server Upgrade
May 2nd, 2013
Done some work on the site.
What does this mean? Hopefully the website will be faster. If you notice any problems since the upgrade give me a shout.
Site Work
May 15th, 2012You may have noticed a little downtime today. I’ve updated our webserver so it instructs your browser to cache more of the site and for longer. Sorry for any trouble and hopefully you’ll see a slightly faster site. For anyone that’s interested I enabled some apache mods, see more here.
IC-M33 Radio Charging Problems
October 9th, 2011
Recently my VHF radio stopped charging. The charger flashed orange when the handset was put in to charge and after a 4 hours had not charged at all. UK Rivers Guide to the rescue again. The flashing orange means there is a charging error (not actually made clear in user manual). A quick clean of the connector with some fine wire wool (I actually used a pan scourer) fixed the problem.
Someone I met during the IOW Sea Symposium had trouble with the ICom Radios before and advised me to put some vaseline on the center connector before going out on the sea to prevent corrosion. This advice I promptly ignored, only to find on my next trip the battery was dead. So I thought I’d pass on the wisdom as I know it’s our club radio of choice.
Toons.
A New Year Begins!
March 3rd, 20112nd March 2011
Last night the Club held it’s first AGM at the Horse and Groom Pub in Belgravia (watch out for the minutes) – a reasonable turnout for a cold Tuesday night and attendees reflected on the story of the Club so far – it really is hard to believe that Chelsea has entered a new membership year already!
Plenty has been achieved over the past 12 months and it is going to be exciting to see how the Club develops over the next year!
Watch this space!
CKC Editor
Two Star Shenanigans
January 31st, 2011In addition to the circumnavigation of Hayling Island, last weekend the Club also organized a 2 Star Training / Assessment Weekend at Thames Ditton Reach for seven of its members – Paul, Marina, Geoff, Stu, Kate, Rob, and Manda. Coaching was provided by Alan Pearson and Phil. Paul Sardar and Marina de Stacpoole sum up their experiences and thoughts about the weekend.
Paul Sardar said:
“Intensive, fun, exhausting, demanding and rewarding!”
Five words that I would use to describe last weekend’s 2 Star training course. It was the great group of people that were brought together for this course that made it for me. They provided a combination of humour (sometimes off the wall), great teamwork, experience and just a little bit of competition. Not a moment was wasted as we spent two full days intensively learning paddling strokes, rescue techniques and an abundance of knowledge about kayaking and canoeing. We even learnt the difference between a canoe and a kayak!
Marina de Stacpoole said:
A relative novice to kayaking and someone with absolutely no previous canoeing experience, the 2 Star course proved to be an intensive but extremely fun weekend. Arriving for 9am on the Saturday, the weather started off as somewhat grey. Luckily, by the end of the afternoon the sun had emerged so the fear of a drizzly two days was dispelled!
We were split into two groups, with some using kayaks and others in canoes, swapping around at various points. The general purpose kayaks took a bit of getting used to, as I’d only really used sea kayaks before. Essential skills were learnt, culminating in a relay race of two groups at the end of the day. Geoff managed to amuse everyone on the very first morning by managing to capsize his canoe! (ED: we’re all between swims, eh Geoff???)
The cold was helped by gratefully received cups of teas and coffees at various breaks over the two days!
Using the canoes was really enjoyable, especially as it was my first time in them. This was helped with support from canoe savvy Paul who I teamed up with to practice my paddling skills.
All in all a fantastic couple of days. A lot of new skills were covered with not a second going to waste.
Paul and Marina
Emergency Text Procedures For Kayakers and Hill Walkers
November 21st, 2010Simon Willis posts an article on SMS safety procedures and registering your mobile with the emergency services.
While you’re there have a look around the site, it’s great.
http://simon-willis.blogspot.com/2010/11/emergency-text-procedure-for-kayakers.html.
Toons
CKC in CK Magazine
November 5th, 2010The December 2010 edition of Canoe and Kayak Magazine is just out and CKC is this months Club Scene feature.
The feature gives a great overview of what the Club is about and includes a view from the Chair (Andy), a good selection of photos, and quotes from a few current members and Harry Whelan (the manager of Cremorne Riverside).
Download a copy of the article here!
CKC Editor
Pawlata is not a Starter but a Main Dish
July 28th, 2010I was chatting with a member of the club last night, discussing rolling.
“I can’t roll”
“Well next time we’re in the pool, we can start learning the pawlata”
“Oh I can do a pawlata”
It’s a very misunderstood roll as it’s often the first roll anyone learns. There is an association with learning so many people just consider it’s ‘just for the pool’. I have used it a few times in white water where my first or second roll has failed and it’s getting to the point where it is a question of rolling or taking a swim.
Going out on little day trips and doing sea kayak training, we often forget rolling and controlling an empty boat is totally different when you have the hatches packed and your life spread out on your deck. There’s a very good article on the roll, which makes an excellent point.
“There are many different rolls to choose from. Since sea kayaks are larger than whitewater kayaks and definitely heavier, taking advantage of a longer lever makes a lot of sense. I recommend to learn as many rolls as you can. Once you have made the Pawlata roll a reliable one you will find it is one that will serve you well especially when the conditions get rough and your sea kayak is packed for a long trip.”
There are some downsides namely
Despite it’s drawbacks you should not be worried about relying on the pawlata as your solid base roll.
Toons
Paddling Taster
July 17th, 2010On a perfect summers day in London, Phil and Jacqui took a group of 6 (mostly beginner) girls out on Wimbledon Park Lake to teach us how to paddle!
We had all listened to Jacqui tell us how much fun it was for so long that we thought we’d better see for ourselves! After a fair amount of giggling we managed to get onto the lake in our kayaks in the correct fashion without getting too wet!
Phil taught us the basics (forward, turning, stopping), then some less basics (backwards, sideways), then for the adventurous few, the scary bits (capsizing)!
We finished off with a game of kayak British Bulldog (remember that game from school?) which was great fun but drew a fair bit of attention from those enjoying a peaceful day by the lake!!!
All in all, a great way to spend the day! Thanks Phil and Jacqui!
Jo (a paddling) newbie!)