Or take a saw with you? Little cut every time you come up against the branch. You’ll be through by the end of the summer! 
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8 boats on the Thames in Henley. Had a fantastic time. Think I paddled 3km in total with my 9 year old.
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Pah, you guys have some work to do if you want to impress me more than this paddler…
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How would you get back in that if you fell out 
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He looks hollowed out.
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It’s some achievement isn’t it? I imagine his centre point of balance was incredibly difficult to find & once he did find that sweetspot he was stuck like that for 11hrs.
I like his between the knees bottle holder he chiselled out.
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@jorgan - Why inflatable then? No roof rack to buy? Or that I’d be in canals and supervised lakes mainly? (Too scared of rivers and miles away from the sea)
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Convenience factor. How much do you think you’d be using it? A proper kayak is much nicer to use, but there is the storage & transportation to consider.
If you think you’d be using it weekly during the Spring/Summer, it could be worth looking at investing in a solid boat, plus roof rack. But 2-person kayaks/canoes are pretty heavy, and hard to manhandle on your own without a bit of potential damage to car/boat
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If you’re happy to accept it for what it is (a kayak shaped dingy) then they’re fine.
The problem comes if you try and treat it as a kayak, they get blown around a lot which can be an issue in bigger bodies of water (sea/lake) and they’ll rip/puncture if you go near any rocks or anything a bit rough.
From what you’ve said neither of the above sound like an issue so they might be ideal for you.
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I’m thinking of going for a bit of a paddle in the river tomorrow but have only been in hot weather before.
I generally just wear a pair of shorts and barefoot in the kayak but not sure if that will be enough.
Does the inside of the kayak warm up as it’s an enclosed space or the fact the whole thing is sat in cold water mean it stays pretty cold?
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River water will still be very cold this time of year, especially after all the rain. I’d wear something warm on your legs; I’d wear my drysuit or wetsuit just in case I took a dip
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A question… we have a Perception Scooter sit on top basic kayak which gets used a handful of times a year on the sea (south coast). I’ve only ever used it in flat conditions. The paddle has an elastic leash that attaches to the kayak.
So my question… I went out on it briefly this week in a rough sea and coming back to shore tried to catch a wave (2-3 foot high max) to ride into the beach. It’s not a surf kayak and I’ve no idea how best (if at all) to steer it (I guess using the paddles) but close to the beach the kayak went side on to the wave and flipped. It then found its own way to the beach with me no longer attached to it. The was was about 3ft deep at this point and about 30ft from the beach. All was good.
Oh yes, my question… if going out in conditions (windy or rough) where it’s possible/likely to get separated from the kayak would a leash (leg leash) be appropriate here or should I just stick to flat water gentle pottering about?
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The dreaded Severn Bridge trip that a friend had been talking about and I’d been avoiding for a year. What could go wrong? Actually quite a lot, as the margins for error are very small and the chances of not ending up where you started are great, due to the tides and currents; the Severn yesterday was a 12m tide (it’s the world’s 3rd biggest). I had a look at the Strava ‘heatmap’ and there are almost no traces of a trip across the river mouth under the bridge; they are all along the banks. Wonder why.
He never did a good job of selling it; always talking about the mud, the tides, the wind in that “it might be a little ambitious” way. You have to remember that the river is a mile wide under the old bridge, and if you come a cropper, you can’t just swim back to shore as it might be 800m away and you’re being slowly swept up/down river as you try to get out of the brown water. I had visions of the ignominy of the Severn Rescue coming out to extract us….that was the worst thing!
We launched by the old Aust Ferry Jetty, aiming to start about 30 mins before high tide and make use of the limited ‘slack tide’ window; going across to Beachley Slipway and back. As it was, we started too soon (55 mins before high tide) and headed off paddling out toward the Second Crossing, and before long we were predictably passing under the M48 Bridge with the incoming tide. We were going to be propelled way upstream from Beachley! Matey boy suggests it’s a ‘bust’ and we turn to head back into it - even before high tide – well great. The problem is that to make the crossing, you have to paddle across the flow, and usually being hit from the side by a breeze. But wait, it gets better….
Even nearing high tide, the rocks under the surface cause all sorts of freaky stuff; we head back through water that is like a hot brown cauldron, bubbling, swirling, boiling and whirlpooling. There is cement in my stomach; I really don’t want to fall in this, so far from the shore. After what feels like ages (maybe 10-15 mins) we finally make it back towards the eastern bank and the water flattens out and the wind seems to have somehow disappeared. I take some pics for posterity. We then head south about 200m off shore, into the wind and the tide which STILL hasn’t stopped coming in! Matey boy is built like a POW, so we have to stop behind one of the smaller pillars for 5 mins, so he can rest his arms! Finally we make headway under the bridge, then under the Power line pontoon and back to the safety of Aust jetty, which is now practically underwater. Now it’s high tide! We power the kayaks onto the grass and sit there for 15 mins for a post mortem. By the time we jump out, the water has already dropped about 18 inches on the jetty!
Lesson: MASSIVE planning (and a little luck) is needed if you want to do a crossing on a single tide back to your start point; you need to be a very strong paddler too as you don’t have long.
Through the worse of it, freakily calm:
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Sounds utterly mental!!!
And incredibly dangerous to boot
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You need to choose your kayaking mates better! I love a good danger trip, but you’ve got to have faith in your crew!
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Not that it was ever on the list, but I’ll be sure to cross that off the list of things to try in my little blue bathtub. If you can’t do it in that blade, god only knows where I’d end up.
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It can be done; but not many attempt it, because it needs some luck as well as being a very good paddler who’s done their homework. The time window is very short for a round-trip. My mate did it years ago; he’s been paddling for 30+ years, but I think he forgot the complexities of it.
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Is there any way of getting back in the boat if you capsize?
Sculling at high tide was always a bit dicey because the water was always rougher and if you fell in the water was on the embankment walls and you couldn’t easily get out.
It was theoretically possible to get back in the boat in deep water though and we did capsize drills in one of the local pools. It’s difficult to do in practice though when you’re in cold water and being swept downstream
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Beautiful weather on the south coast this week and with high tide and a light northerly wind the sea is incredibly calm. So this morning I got the kayak out for a little 30 minute relaxing paddle.
Would be absolutely perfect for swimming as well - although we have a seal that’s been making it’s annual appearance recently and he came nearby this morning (hopefully terrible quality video will appear below!).
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Spectacular.
More for the weather thread but there’s a weird corridor of perfect weather over the channel at the moment. Us in the north continue with grey and rain patches and it doesn’t look like the rain will ever stop in the south of mainland Europe 
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