1st UK Storm Gathering Isle of Mull/ Scotland

I had the blast to be a guest coach

on one of the greatest symposium of the UK.

Thanks for inviting me, Mark!

To read more about the 1st UK Storm Gathering on the Isle of Mull/ Scotland,

please click here.

a stormy combination...

coming home, after a hard day's work...

other links:

http://www.ukriversguidebook.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=18233 (my favourite... :-)) )

http://www.edgeofadventure.com/forum.htm

New Rolling Class Info..

Just to get your attention on what kind of rolling classes and demos I do have to offer, click here to get to my rolling Classes website.

The "Rockpool Underground"

www.rockpoolkayaks.com

...sorry, no pictures yet anywhere...but not top secret any more...

... Rockpool and I will launch

a new Greenland style fibreglass kayak next spring ...

I have been touring around with my Qaanaaq SS the last year, and lots of people would have loved to get one...but there is no importer or dealer in the US or Europe (besides Thomas Ahlberg from Orust kayaks, www.orust-kajak.se, who has imported 10 boats of the bigger model Qaanaaq 512 ).

This means your chances to get your special custom made choice of a Qaanaaq SS (or even 512)to a reasonable price were pretty low - if you didn't want to fly over to Japan and pick up a 4-pieces and dealing around customs, tax and paperwork then...


My new "Rockpool Underground" signature kayak will be a low volume, slim and sexy Greenland style kayak, coming in 3 pieces only, that means easy shipping to any corner of the world...

It will be available in two sizes, and both models will be having enough low volume for easy rolling fun, but will be comfortable and exciting on a day trip, too.

For easy water this will be a pretty fast slim kayak, but it might require some paddling skills in rougher conditions.

A perfect fun machine!

And for sure the special Rockpool glitter design will make the whole "Pretty Baby"...but the tastes are different, so pick your own choice of color and design!


Kayak no. 1 and 2 in BLACK GLITTER will b for me, travelling around the world and promoting them on symposien, kayak no. 3 was pre-ordered by Alun two weeks ago already, no. 4 goes to Derrick (sorry, Derrick, no. 4 only... :-) )... Aled, Webbie & co will be busy!


Thanks to Aled Williams, coming up with the idea making a me special G-style kayak, matching my and lots of other people's needs!


And a special thanks to Chris Reed, www.chillcheater.com , making me a matching tuilik and summer akusiliaq, he had a big part in creating the "myth" of the "Woman in Black", manufacturing the great slicky black stuff I still love to wear not only on the water :-)) - maybe there will be a fancy Reed Chillcheater DRESS for me soon??? :-))

I hope to be able to post some first pics soon... (nudge, nudge, Aled :-)) )

Grey Dogs - Falls of Freya and Lora

I was working hard to handle the little advanced rough stuff :-))
To read the whole story and see more pictures click here

The Underground World

Is there anybody in there?

a paddle...

an arm...

better have a closer look...

confusing...

The destiny of my Viviane "Duo Infernalis"

I recently decided to sell my 5,80 m kiddytransporter, as my son grew out of the back hatch - and hoped to find someone who might want to use the idea of transporting a passenger in the back hatch...

My son Helge and I, 3 years ago...

See, what the back seater is looking like now :-)) !

Kira in the back seat, trying her new spray deck...

Hans-Peter Müller with Kira, who decided to go better without spraydeck :-)

They both seem to be quite happy with the Viviane, making the new "Duo Infernalis", but too bad Kira is trained to point on (water) birds... :-), so paddling *and* hunting ducks might be the solution?

I don't have any idea if Peter ever tried, but just in case, better try out first Harvey Golden's kayak shooting range - sitting on a balance board and firing off an airgun with heaps of little yellow plastic bullet balls...

(too bad I didn't take a picture of that when Iwas visiting him in Seattle, this was too cute, Harvey!...)

Qajaq Treffen Netherlands

...ok, sorry guys, some good things need to be written a bit later, but you'll have to excuse me, I'm working *a bit* in between my frequent travels - actually everything needs to be done in just a shorter period of time for which I used to take way longer - so workdays of 16 hrs or so in between are not unusual for me, and updating my blog is not really on my mind the :-)

What I was doing right now? I was setting up the change from my ice cream shop to the x-mas shop again, as every year, and this is a lot of (enjoyable) work with 5000 items on 100 x 100 m. The move was done in one night only right after I was back from Scotland…


But back to the Qajaq Treffen in Holland -
Tom Steenbergen and Dick van Zanten, two very engaged guys behind Qajaq NL, invited me to teach rolls on their annual qajaq meeting in Holland, based on the weekend of the Veluwe Ralley.

As may van already knows the way on its own to Holland (taking the ferry to GB from there...), I was driving again 8 hrs, same way as four days before, and a week later, too, having three rolling kayaks on my roof...

I was happy to meet Tom and Dick again on Friday night, as well as my good paddling friends Axel Schoevers and Nico Middelkoop, who were part of the local club organizing the Veluwe Ralley.
All five of us couldn't resist getting wet already on Friday night, and we were rolling in a beautiful sunset until it was getting dark, with Tom's and Dick's pretty handmade SOF and Baidarka, with my SOFreya, my folding rolling kayak and my Qaanaaq SS.

sunset balance brace

sunset headstand

Next day it was a "hard" working day for me, standing in the water as usual from 9-5, ½ hr each guy, making a few people happy with their first rolls, or improving and smoothing out on what they’ve got already.

coaching Arnold

The hard days’s work ended with a rolling demo, together with my most talented student of the day, Peter Renkema, who easily picked up a whole bunch of rolls in his one on one training before.

Peter and I, behind the back roll

Some good talks on Saturday night, and Nico got honoured by his club for his 50th birthday (which he actually had on the Isle of Man already :-) )

"reverse sweep cross arm roll"

And again “rolling out” with Tom, Dick and Axel on Sunday morning, until I was on my way back home already…a short, but very nice and successful visit in Holland.

Thanks to Axels Schoevers, all pictures taken by him.