Words:
Sandra Kakkuri

Photos:
Gethin Roberts

the dynamic waters of… Anglesey

I have been lucky to do an internship at Sea Kayaking Wales with Gethin Roberts and his great team. I am a 22-year-old Finn and studying to become a wilderness guide.

WHY DID I GO TO ANGLESEY?

Why did I choose to do my internship in Anglesey? Because of the significant tidal ranges and the fast-flowing currents. The difference between high and low water is around six metres. When the ocean moves from lowest to highest water levels and vice versa, a huge amount of water gets squeezed into and pulled out of the channel between Ireland and the west coast of the UK. This, in turn, creates powerful tidal currents. These tidal currents get faster around heads of land sticking out in the sea. The island of Anglesey offers many places to play in tide races. The cliffy coastline offers many opportunities to explore caves, gullies and beaches. There are also many opportunities for having fun doing rock hopping!

Anglesey, for me, is a place where I could get more experience with tides, trip planning in tidal waters, group handling in tidal environments and developing my technical skills in all the different types of dynamic water. I have made trips to the Swedish and Finnish archipelago, which are beautiful places for kayaking, but there is no tidal water.

DYNAMIC SEA KAYAKING COURSE

The weekend of the 16-18th of April, I had the cool opportunity to participate in a dynamic sea kayaking course (level 4). On the course, we had two exceptionally talented and experienced coaches and a very strong group which made it a great and safe opportunity to challenge me in demanding conditions.

It was quite an explosive way to start my kayaking season. I hadn’t kayaked in six months, and now I jumped straight into tideraces on a spring tide – I felt a bit nervous.

Can I trust my skills after this long break? I had been doing ‘get back into kayak shape’ exercises, but still, I could feel my body getting tired the first day, not used to the activity and a bit tense because of my nerves. The group was supportive, and I knew we had very competent leaders, but still, since it was a new group, it took a while for my brain to understand that I was safe.

Middle Mouse

We kayaked out to an island, Middle Mouse and circumnavigated it. When we were kayaking back to the mainland, the current was almost faster than the speed we paddled in. It felt like we were not making any progress to the beach for a while. And also, my skeg did not work, so I had to keep turning the boat with only my right side working out. It made me tired, but I felt so proud of myself. The first day out this season, and I think I managed pretty well! I also learned to check if the skeg works before going out on the water!

This day also gave a clear picture of why it is so important to do the trip plan and know in which directions the current is going and how strong it is. Here you would not have wanted to go with a beginner group!

On day two of the course, I felt stronger, more confident, and relaxed in the group. On day three, I had a big smile the whole day and was like, “Yeeaah woohoo,” bring me more of this!

On the course, the opportunity to go out of my comfort zone was there, but it also felt safe to say, “No, I don’t want to do this task; I want to rest.” It’s always a challenge by choice.

Day three of this course was my favourite! That had to do with my confidence growing and the weather conditions allowing us to do more than the other days. We started the day paddling out from Trearddur Bay. Along the coast, we found some fun rock hopping opportunities with the swells creating the water like a slope between the rocks. Then we practised rescues and being rescued in the waves. That was fun; always good to practice rescues in dynamic water!

At Rhoscolyn Head, we went into a tiderace and played in roughly 1.6-metre waves. It was messy with the waves coming from all directions, so it was unsuitable for surfing. Paul said it would be better to surf on a neap tide. But it offered a great time for practising balance and being confident in messy bumpy conditions. It is such a fantastic feeling to be in a place like that and be smiling and confident, at one with the elements.

PEOPLE AND PLANNING

It has been a warm and welcoming atmosphere since the first day. One of the guides, Huw, said, “Take all you can out of this time here; ask as many questions as you like.”

It’s cool to paddle with local guides skilled at kayaking, have a lot of experience, understand the environment and know the place like their back pocket. All the guides have been friendly and happy to share their knowledge and help! Also, the other people on the dynamic course were eager to share their tips and help me! We have had many discussions about doing (for example) a rescue this or that way, what to think about and consider before choosing. There are many things I have taken with me from those discussions.

In the mornings, we always had a planning session looking at the weather and discussing where it’s best to go. I have learned a lot from that. A guidebook explains the environment and what the currents are doing; it’s a great tool!

At the same time I did my internship, Dario was staying at the same hostel (Anglesey Outdoors) for a course and taking an award. He is an Italian kayaking guide who works in Greece, and it has been so fun to spend time with him and learn from his knowledge.

In the evenings, Dario and I had planning sessions. So we looked at the sea chart and the forecast for tomorrow. Wind, swell, tidal tables and how the environment on the land next to where we are kayaking is going to look. For example, if a bay comes after a headland, the wind might get stronger around that corner.

But when you are paddling, you may find some things that you could not predict. The headlands, valleys, rocks, local weather, and how that affect the paddling conditions are sometimes complex. But the more trips you do and the more you try to understand your environment and compare your forecast to the nowcast, the better you will become at predicting how the sea conditions will be like when you are kayaking.

ONE WITH NATURE…

This may sound a bit cliche, but it’s true. Sitting in a sea kayak paddling along the coast, close to the cliffs with some water spraying over my spraydeck, makes me feel like I am one with nature. I feel the elements, the water caressing my fingers, the taste of salt water on my lips, and a bit of wind and sun on my face. I hear the waves gently crashing to the cliffs and the oystercatchers and seagulls screaming. One day we saw porpoises 50 metres away from us.

There is a place – Rhoscolyn Beacon where we have seen seals every time we have been there. You need to be respectful and not silently sneak up on the seals when kayaking because they might get afraid and hurt themselves on the cliffs. The seals have been curious. They swam close to our boats and popped their heads out to breathe, looking at us with their big brown eyes.

Sometimes they have even followed us for a while – a magical experience. Being in a kayak is almost like being in the water, making me feel like a marine animal. Compared to being in a boat, it makes me feel like I am a part of nature.

EXPERIENCE WITH LEADING/ COACHING A GROUP ON WATER…

After the dynamic water course, there were three days with university students going kayaking. Geth was guiding/coaching them, and Dario and I were assistant leaders. When I heard they were beginners, I thought we would only take it calmly and easy the whole day, stick to flat water and stroll along the coastline. But the students also wanted to get challenged, and Geth wanted to give them that.

When I saw two students going between two rocks with the swells from the waves making them go up and down and the white water was spraying around, I thought, “OMG, I would never have taken them there.” But as we continued, I understood better that it looked more dangerous than it was and that there was no risk of them being thrown up on a rock because of how the coastline was formed and reacted with the waves. Geth used the phrase, “Highly technical with low risk.” This means that if someone had capsized, it would have been easy and safe to do a rescue and get them into their
kayaks again.

I learned a lot from asking Geth how he chose his places to take them kayaking and how he evaluated the risk and the challenge. Seeing how the students developed their kayaking during the day was amazing. They started wobbly and unstable, barely knowing how to turn a kayak and finished the day by crossing tidal streams or kayaking in the foam from the waves between rocks. Wow!

During these days with the students, I coached them in doing a wet exit, paddling efficiently forwards, and manoeuvring the kayak. And of course, just being there, hanging out, chatting and being encouraging when someone is tired. I also got to be a part of coaching them on how to cross currents.

It was challenging since I am not used to leading groups on water, and I have never done it in streams before. Here I had to have my eyes open, so I could coach them on how to paddle before drifting away. I learned to be alert to spot if someone is on their way to unconsciously get caught in another flow of current and drift away from the group. I also learned to think about my positioning so that I always was downstream from the group, so if someone capsized, they would drift toward me.

Of course, playing in this current was a low risk, so nothing bad would have happened if someone had drifted away with the current a bit. Then it’s just for the group to stick together and get off the current together in a place where the current is less strong.

I learned a lot from being an assistant leader on those days, and being in a current with people puts an interesting aspect to group handling and the choice of environment. It’s not like skiing when you can tell your customer to stop and stay there. The customer sometimes wants to stop on the water, but they can’t because the elements are taking them elsewhere. As a guide/coach, you need to know where to find sheltered places where you can gather the group.

After the day on the current, I felt like paddling with a group in the Finnish or Swedish archipelago would be so easy. It was one of the most challenging days for me, and I was tired mentally after the day, but I learned so much from it. An experience I am delighted that I got. Now more practice and experience!

OTHER THINGS I GOT TO DO

Dario and another guy named Bill did their sea kayak leader assessments. I got to be a guinea pig on those two days. It was educational to see the tasks they got to do and how they handled them. There were a lot of rescues during those days. Rescues close to rocks involved towing rescues in a current involving a broken shoulder. Dario and Bill got questions about navigation and group handling.

During this weekend we also had a lot of fun. We ended the last day testing Dario (not included in the assessment, this was just for fun), so the whole group went crazy. One paddled away, and one went under his kayak to breathe the air in the cockpit. Bill grabbed my decklines, swung my boat from side to side, and tried to capsize me.

It made me laugh; it was so fun to play around like children. Then I jumped out of the boat and threw my kayak and paddle away. Dave then clipped his tow line to Dario’s kayak and started towing him away from us – it was mayhem. But Dario sorted the situation out, and even he had fun!

Then there were two days with a private booking. On the first day, I kayaked with Geth and Mike, who wanted to get into sea kayaking. The other day I kayaked with Paul and Charlotte, who had kayaked plenty before and wanted to take it up again.

On the first day with Mike:, we started with planning the day together and looking at the forecast. Out on the water, we used the eddie current to take us down southeast. We had lunch on a beach with some guy playing 80s music in the backyard of a house. So now we call it karaoke beach. On the way back, we explored the caves and rocks along the coastline. During the day, we gave Mike some tips about forward paddling and different strokes to turn and break the boat. In the afternoon, we practised rescues and towing.

On the second day, there were swells creating rock hopping opportunities. Charlotte and I agreed that it’s difficult to time the waves. Because when rock hopping, you want to be between the rocks when it’s the most water there. We also agreed that it’s a bit scary when you have looked at the rocks and how the sets are coming for a while, and you think it’s okay, and then a big set with waves comes in, and suddenly it looks like, “Oh I don’t want to be there.” That’s why it’s so important to look at where you will play for a while, so you have seen it when it is at its worst.

We had interesting discussions with Paul about rock hopping and what to think about. This time we wanted to time it so that we started paddling when the water between the rocks was at its lowest because at the time we were between the rocks, another wave would have come and filled the gap. This timing depends from time to time on how long the period is between the waves.

Then we kayaked out to Rhoscollyn beacon and had a ‘seal safari’. Then we had lunch on the karaoke beach again. After lunch, we kayaked along the cliffs using only one side of the paddle. Then Paul taught us some new handy, cool strokes. I got a bit confused and still need to practice doing them. I realized how good it is to have many strokes to choose from and get better at putting one stroke together with the next one. This was so useful for me to practice! I also tried out how far I could edge and capsized twice. Then Paul and Charlotte got to practice rescues. A nice day!

It came to my last day (for now) out on the water in Anglesey. Geth and I had an introduction course with four people, and we shared the group’s leadership. And when we kayaked back, he paddled away with a part of the group, and I stayed with one guy. It felt good that Geth trusted me. The water was calm, but I also knew I could have handled it if something had happened. After my ten days there, it was nice to feel confident that I knew what I was doing and that Geth could see it too. After kayaking together for some days, we know each other and how we work.

FOR YOU WHO WANT TO GO TO ANGLESEY FOR KAYAKING…

• Anglesey is excellent for kayaking; if you are into kayaking, you should put this place on your bucket list! Since Anglesey is an island, you can always find shelter from the wind and the swells. Here you can find kayaking that suits everyone, from beginners to advanced for the ones that want to explore and have many breaks or for the adrenalin junkies. You can choose your conditions, and you will find small and kind tideraces and big crazy tideraces like South Stack in the right conditions. Knowing where and how to find these conditions takes a bit of knowledge and planning.
• A great way to meet other kayakers is staying at Anglesey Outdoors. While staying at the hostel, I met many kayakers from all around the UK. It was such a friendly atmosphere, and we discussed our days out on the water or our plans for tomorrow in the evenings. I also got invited to go and kayak with a group. At the hostel, there is a bar called ‘Paddlers return’, a great place to have a beer and a good time.
• Another great way is doing a course. You will probably meet other kayakers that you can go out kayaking with!
• Sea Kayaking Wales offers various courses where you can get more confidence in planning trips in tidal water. Also, if you like, you get the opportunity to challenge yourself in a more demanding condition than you have before. And ask a lot of questions! The teams of guides are happy to answer!
• Every year on the first weekend in May, the Anglesey Sea Kayaking Symposium is happening! (gather to drink is the translation) Coaches, guides, and kayakers from around the world come here to paddle together and have courses! It’s a great event to join, get new contacts, and meet new kayaker friends. People that met here years ago keep coming every year to meet their friends and gather!
• Also, at the last weekend in April, there is another event named Kayaking Essentials. That event, as I have heard, is great to get to paddle with experienced coaches and learn more.
• If you come without a kayak, Summit to Sea rents out kayaks. Or, if you take a course, the kayak is usually included! But of course, bringing your own kayak would be the best if you want to make your own trips.
• If you are studying at an outdoor guide school and have some experience with kayaking, apply for an internship at Sea Kayaking Wales (SKW). I got much out of it!