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.