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Sunday 27 July 2008

The Complete Mudeford Demo Weekend 25-27/07/08

What a weekend! A few weeks back I emailed Richi to see if I was coming to this – he said he hoped so and so I checked with Andrew who asked if I wanted to. Of course I did! The attraction of meeting up with old friends, making new ones, playing with the different kayaks and of course the fishing was enough for me to gladly volunteer. I knew that a lot of hard work, long hours and a long drive with a trailer and van filled with yaks was going to be the balance for the fun aspects but as it turned out it was all pleasant enough.

I took Thursday off. My girls had asked me to take them to the airshow at the end of our road and as I’d be away all weekend I really wanted to spend some time with them. We had a great time and around 5pm I grabbed the last of my gear and headed for the office to pick up the fishing kayak demo trailer – the van already loaded the night before, crammed to the gills with even the passenger seats full of kit.

A long drive followed and I got to my hotel at Winchester around 10:30. I’d be missing breakfast as I had to be at the slipway by 8:30 after dropping off some stock at Crazywater en-route.

I parked up; I was then robbed for parking a van and trailer for 24 hours. The wind was blowing quite fiercely and the paddle across to the spit with 4 yaks towed behind, plus paddles, PFD’s, accessories etc was not relished. Here I met John, Crazywater’s owner, along with Toby and Simon. We had twenty yaks between us and poor old Toby had never paddled one before. We sat him in a Prowler 13 and John gave him some quick instruction and he was off.

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What a way to begin kayaking!

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I was last to launch and began with the Kinetic Wing. I changed to my Enchantment carbon halfway across though as I found I couldn’t use it for power strokes and the wind was making it hard work. I wasn’t particularly sleek!

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Once across we got things set up, kayaks on the beach, other kit put in place and almost straight away we had people there. A lot of mums with children were there, being a work day and school holidays and consequently I spent most of the day on the water, patrolling to keep an eye on things. I didn’t use the camera as my batteries were showing as low and frankly I was busy. My new Palm towline came into use a few times too – once to tow a small girl in a Kea who was too young to paddle (her smile made the drive worthwhile alone) and another time to bring back a small girl who handled the Kea well but couldn’t handle the higher-sided Frenzy when the wind got up. She was only six, and quite slight.

Mid-afternoon Lozz arrived and helped out and by around 6pm we paddled the kayaks down to the storage point where we chained them up and put all the rest of the kit away. A quick paddle back to the car park and I loaded up the Scupper Pro I’d borrowed (we needed transport across and I’d fallen in love with this during the day) and the pair of us set off for my hotel to drop the empty trailer, check me in and head off fishing.

Disaster! The booking had gone wrong and it was full so I was booked in at Bournemouth Central instead. Trouble was I couldn’t take the trailer there and so it was then driven around and abandoned in the driveway of Baz, the Crazywater shop manager. A quick portion of the worst haddock and chips I’ve ever eaten followed and we finally headed off to fish for Smoothounds a few miles away. Separate thread here:

http://anglersafloat.proboards107.com/index.cgi?board=catchreports&action=display&thread=3199

Back on the beach we headed into Bournemouth for the hotel. Disaster again! The one I was under the impression of being re-booked into was full and had no record of the booking – instead I was at another one nearby. This was impossible to find and at 1:30am I phoned up, cancelled both nights and made sure I wouldn’t be billed. We headed instead straight for Mudeford Quay again and in a sleeping bag borrowed from Lozz I kipped in the cab of the van (A Frenzy was in the back so I had little choice). Like an idiot I forgot to remove the nicotine patch on my arm and slept even worse than otherwise might have been the case.

Bright and early we awaited the Crazywater team again and paddled over to the spit. We then unchained the yaks and got them to the water, paddled them up to the demo area and then walked all the other kit over. I’d had enough by now and went into the cafĂ© for two strong coffees and a cracking fried breakfast that set me up for the day. I now felt superhuman and was ready to go again. Richi was about as well and things began to get busy.

I flitted between kayaks, paddling most of them, between aiding John and his team, chatting with the various forum members as they arrived and taking people out on various boats. It was very enjoyable work and with the arrival of Andrew I was able to get some photographs with his camera before he lent me his spare battery. Here’s a bunch of them (sorry for the amount and the time it’ll take to download them all but I’m sure John and his team would like to see them and its because of him we were all there):

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Doggy:

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I was amazed at the carrying capacity of the Prowler 13 as Noel Edmond’s old sidekick stripped off the pink spotty suit and had a paddle:

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(Back to normal again)

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Then an old fart turned up and had a play at standing up

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Then, like the child he is, he had a try in the Kea

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Even the dogs seemed happy to go aboard

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It was great to see all the kids having such fun too

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It got quite crowded out there at times

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And Richi even took one person out for a fish

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Remember Quint, the character in Jaws?

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Helen got to grips with plenty of different kayaks and tried all sorts of things on them – standing:

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Bracing:

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Falling Out:

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And I narrowly avoided a repeat of a day on the Nene:

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And then it was time to pack up, get kitted up and head off fishing again:

http://anglersafloat.proboards107.com/index.cgi?board=catchreports&action=display&thread=3209

Sunday saw the arrival of our beloved Fuhrer, Starvinmarvin.
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Followed by his daughter, Tratty and Luckyrich

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Tratty arrived on the first Elite in the UK

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And then had a play with my Pacific Action sail (on a Big game as there was no room for my yak)

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And then tried standing up – he’d never done it before

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He even mastered paddling like that

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Later on the Red Arrows came over a couple of times and then a Hunter tore up the beach

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Starvin’s boy tried something I haven’t done yet:

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And Richi went off for a paddle in his Scupper Pro

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The time, as with both previous days, had flown and it was time to depart, heading back in to help with the returning of the yaks to the quay and respective trailers. Fortunately a lot of the demo fleet had been sold by John and there was less to tow back and load up. He also sold a few other items including my paddle once and Starvin’s children’s’ Kea! Cheeky sod. The final photograph from my camera (I’ll post Andrews tonight when I’ve sorted them out) is suitably the one showing the guy who brought us lot into the frame – Richi.

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The long drive home followed and I crawled into bed at 1:30. I’d had a great weekend of demoing, paddling, trialling kayaks, chatting to the public, having a laugh with friends, meeting new faces from the forum and being looked after by the guys from Crazywater. It’s nice to know that a retailer is as passionate about the yakking as he is about the customers…so, thanks to John and the Crazywater team for putting it on, Richi for getting the forums involved, everyone who attended and whoever booked the weather!

On Saturday there was this Welshman, see. Tim is our Agent for the Southwest and a kayak surfing champion I believe. He thinks we're all mad. When he first met me he said 'oh God, you're one of those are you?'

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Looking at this lot I wonder if he may have been right after all. He was aghast that I was sleeping in the van too. "But how will you have a shower?" I just replied that I'd jump in the sea again...

On Saturday there was this Welshman, see. Tim is our Agent for the Southwest and a kayak surfing champion I believe. He thinks we're all mad. When he first met me he said 'oh God, you're one of those are you?'

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Some more to be going on with:

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Lozz

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Lagachette

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Overrun

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Stumulletman

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Paul71pc being shown the Lendal Kinetic Wing by me. Caption: "Yeah, this bit here in the middle is another £40".

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Helen on the Kea

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Beach Bums

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The cat dragged this in

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Paddling Georgia style

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Paddling Georgina style

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And that, as they say, is that.