Rides bikes, paddles sea kayaks, takes pictures. Life on the road & my home in Cornwall.
Weather Window
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A brief respite from the relentless wind and rain, with spells of actual sunshine, afloat amongst the granite of the far west.
Opportunities for doing anything fun have been few and far between of late… coming up on six months of solid wind and rain, and with yet another severe weather warning having been wheeled out for the next three days there doesn’t seem much hope for anything different anytime soon as our climate trends towards its warmer normal. So much for April showers, try April monsoon; many of the roads around here have been flooded for so long that actual beaches have formed thanks to the wave action of passing vehicles… and bicycles ;-) My mate at the Environment Agency tells me that rivers are running at around 400% normal capacity at the moment, and depending on where you are, rainfall averages have been 300-370% normal. The impact on local farmers is too depressing to think about, so instead I try to focus on the slightly less depressing activity of wondering if dusty trails will actually be a thing at all this year…
Heading east near Penberth. I was paddling my trusty SKUK Romany, which I absolutely love in bouncy conditions. This however is an SKUK Echo. Sized for the more petite paddler it has lovely lines, and is a delight to paddle… I did have a go in one a couple of years ago.. my feet are too big and I didn’t have room to locate my legs properly, however it handled, and rolled beautifully… I’d only need to be a little bit smaller and it would make a terrific tool for Greenland rolling, imo.
Speaking of beaches however, a brief pause in the storm conveyor saw a bunch of sea kayaking friends congregating on the sand at Porthgwarra for a day amongst the granite of the far west. Conditions were pretty much perfect – winds around f3-f4 with a short period, occasionally breaking, swell of 1-1.5m. Absolutely ideal for some spirited paddling and play amongst the rocks, but without the heavy long period ground swell component that can make that reef-strewn coast too dangerous to approach in winter. There isn’t a story to tell as such however the recent absence of any pictures of a sea kayak flavour probably makes it worthwhile slinging a few up. The sun even came out, for a while. It did of course absolutely chuck it down with rain later in the day, but anything else would have just been weird at this point.
Some fabulous skies. Easter weekend often feels quite oppressive in Cornwall – the heightened risk of death by Range Rover while out riding, or the crowded roads and coast, and punitively expensive parking making doing anything other than hunkering down and waiting for it be over feel too onerous to bother.Making the effort to get up at 6am for a change (it’s been hard this winter …;-) helped, and a day out at sea away from all the silliness on shore was a much needed tonic after so many months of poor weather.Just needs the beady eye of basking shark peering up through that small area where my lens became submerged bottom right of the frame. Entirely unintentional but it does give me some ideas… should the weather offer another opportunity.April skies. I’m still using my trusty 11 year old x100s in a housing for on-water snapping.The wide angle lens can be quite limiting when conditions are such that I daren’t hang around in the ‘impact zone’, such as here (a quiet moment in between sets pictured) but the image quality is good, and it owes me nothing so I’ve not been inclined to open my wallet and experiment with more versatile solutions.This spot is near Lamorna Cove.Slightly out of sequence.. Tater Du light, Cornwall’s newest lighthouse, is just west of Lamorna. Built in 1965, as a consequence of the loss of the Juan Ferrer nearby, it has never been anything but automated. A 640-ton Spanish Coaster, the Juan Ferrer was lost, together with 11 of her crew of 15, early one stormy October morning in 1963 when she struck rocks at Boscawen Point before flooding and capsizing. The RNLI lifeboat that attended that rescue was the same Solomon Browne that was lost, with all her crew, nearby the same spot during that terrible night of 19 December 1981. It’s impossible to not reflect upon it every time I paddle here.Happy days amongst the granite.Splashy bits.This Dagger Stratos (I think) looks brilliant for this sort of ‘play the sea’ thing… being plastic rather than composite, encounters with the barnacled rocks are characterised by a bounce rather than a crunch, while still being a very capable rough water kayak.
Hi mate, great to see more images of the wild sea.
I have often thought of getting on of the x100 series cameras, the insane hype around them makes one hard to come across. I don’t really need one but seeing images such as these makes a great case for one. Although you craft great images with ease it seems.
The image you titled Splashy Bits is a great bit of composing added by great timing with your own “Great Wave off Kanagawa” popping up on time.
Hope the spring and summer are more kind weather wise.
haha, cheers! The x100 series cameras I think are fantastic, although not for everyone. The X100s I use on the water feels very clunky relative to the newer generations, the autofocus can be slow and it can be slow to turn on but it does produce excellent images and tbh 16mp is fine. As for my x100f (bought used), it’s now two-generations behind but is still a great camera and I don’t feel compelled to join the rush for the new, and expensive, X100vi. for sure the lens has been redesigned and, you know, 40mp, but the f was already very good. The lens in the f isn’t perfect, it does suffer a small amount of distortion and is soft when close focused but the former is easy to correct if it’s noticeable, and the latter just doesn’t happen for the kind of street shooting I do with it.
As for the weather, ha cheers.. the sun did come out a couple of days ago but back to rain and mist since.. I wish you dusty trails! Cheers!
Great photos and summary as usual.
Cheers Bob! Found a little inspiration to bother with a camera, it’s been in short supply this winter :-)
Hi mate, great to see more images of the wild sea.
I have often thought of getting on of the x100 series cameras, the insane hype around them makes one hard to come across. I don’t really need one but seeing images such as these makes a great case for one. Although you craft great images with ease it seems.
The image you titled Splashy Bits is a great bit of composing added by great timing with your own “Great Wave off Kanagawa” popping up on time.
Hope the spring and summer are more kind weather wise.
Cheers.
Stephen.
haha, cheers! The x100 series cameras I think are fantastic, although not for everyone. The X100s I use on the water feels very clunky relative to the newer generations, the autofocus can be slow and it can be slow to turn on but it does produce excellent images and tbh 16mp is fine. As for my x100f (bought used), it’s now two-generations behind but is still a great camera and I don’t feel compelled to join the rush for the new, and expensive, X100vi. for sure the lens has been redesigned and, you know, 40mp, but the f was already very good. The lens in the f isn’t perfect, it does suffer a small amount of distortion and is soft when close focused but the former is easy to correct if it’s noticeable, and the latter just doesn’t happen for the kind of street shooting I do with it.
As for the weather, ha cheers.. the sun did come out a couple of days ago but back to rain and mist since.. I wish you dusty trails! Cheers!