Hi all, I have been asked to and detail to edmunds accounts of our Coastering and kayaking weekend, so here goes.

After a Very early start and a drive to Newquay we all went and got kited out with our wet suits (An early start, exercise and looking like a tit, great eh!) and headed down to the beach. Where we were presented with our helmets and our Life preserves.

We then spent the next four hours scrambling, climbing and swearing around the rocks of
Newquay bay (from the little beachy bit top left of the pic to the little jutty bit bottom right was our route).

But what a laugh! Loads of high rocks to jump off, caves to explore and even a Cornish seal nosing around one of the inlets. I must just add at this point that Edmunds mum, Sue was the star of the morning after a slip on the muscle encrusted rocks sliced her fingers and almost put here out of the game.

But after a great laugh we clambered back up to the road way and headed back to the car park, trying to decide who was going on the afternoon "Extreme" Coasteering. Unfortunately for me having injured my knee a couple of days previously in a mild Brushcutter accident It wasn't much fun twatting it against a rock while mucking about in the water so I wasn't much up for it, but after a brief discussion it was decided that Sea Kayaking after lunch would be a better way to end the day.

So off we went to a lovely little pub in Holywell, where a friend of ours works, for a nice lunch and then on to Crantock for sea kayaking. After carrying our kayaks from the car park to the beach (No small feat in itself) we had a paddle up the river for a little ways to do some basic skills before heading for open water.

This is where I feel my problems began as my Kayak seemed to have a life of it's own and insisted in always pulling to the left which was a little annoying.
It was only when heading down the river towards the sea against the tide that this became an issue as I had to paddle the whole way only using my left arm as that seemed to be the only way to get the thing to go in a straight line.

So out we paddled into the 4ft swells and headed out of the bay to the island. It was great fun and a little hairy in places especially near the rocks. By the time I reached the island (rather a way behind everyone else) my arm had totally gone numb but after a little rest and the guide attaching a drag to the rear of my kayak (which seemed to actually solve the problem) we were ready to head back in.

With the tide.

And the wind.

And the swells, no wait a min, breakers.

The swells that we had traveled out through had now become 5-6ft breakers, This was going to be fun.

Paddling hell for leather I was nicely carried along with the first breaker, relaxed as I felt the swell pull for the next....

I remember looking behind and thinking "hmmmm that's a little bigger than the last, never mind." And going for it....

This is where it all goes into slow motion, as I was lifted onto the wave I saw Helouise on the breaker in front of me (which had grown somewhat being nearer the shore) go over and into the water, closely followed by the guide (we were all right in the surf zone).

Unfortunately this distracted me from my paddling and the wave caught me at it's apex and flipped me. I surfaced, still holding my paddle and managed to grab my kayak by the drag line, I looked around to see what was happening.

Helouise and the guide had managed to right here Kayak and she was heading off to shore, The guide was still in the water but ok so I decided to see how the others were doing and managed to catch Julian's bid for glory, powering down a 6ft breaker, all was looking good right up until he ran out of water....
The nose of his kayak dug into the sandy bottom while the rear, borne by the wave continued on it's course, with Julian somewhere in the middle. Needless to say Julian, Kayak and paddle were separated by rather a large distance.
There was however another brave adventurer, asbarrelingelling down the wave behind tried to ride the tube with very expected results, He did however manage to miss Julian and surfaced a little way off.

At this point I was distracted by a large wave full in my face and a short drag behind my upturned kayak, this did however draw my attention to Edmund sat a few yards away in his Kayak, which was still the right way up.

With Helouise heading towards shore and the mini Lifeboat heading towards Julian and Kim, Edmund and I set about flipping over my kayak and me climbing back in. Unfortunately with me ending up the wrong way around and having to jump back in and start again.
I did however get back in and set about bailing out some of the water only to end up back in again after about 30secs, at which point the lifeboat had deposited Julian and kim on the beach and came to ask if I needed help and I relented, getting a lift to shore with a rather attractive lady lifeguard.

Our guide stayed out and went after the lost kayaks and Edmund paddled supremely towards the shore only failing slightly in his mastery of the sea by capsizing 12ft from the beach.

WHAT A LAUGH!