Sunday 28 August 2011

Our Current Stock of Used & Ex-Demo boats & some clearance deals.

We have the following boats available at present, both part-exchange boats & ex-demo boats:


River & Play Boats:
Pyranha Molan Medium - Lime/Yellow.
Excellent condition, very light use, taken as a P/X. £550



Jackson 2Fun - Purple
Ex-demo, has a few Stanley scratches from sitting in the eddy. It's a Cross-linked model with sweetcheeks & happy feet. £550


Wavesport 4-Play - Yellow/Orange
Another P/X boat, go old school with the extra length and cartwheel your heart out on Stanley £250


Wavesport Fuse 56 - Citrus 2010 Model WITHOUT the new white outfitting, it's just been sat around for too long, it needs a new home. Reduced from £799 to £639

Wavesport Diesel 60 - Citrus 2010 Model WITHOUT the new white outfitting, same again, it's been here gathering dust for too long, we've wiped it down so it's not dusty when we ship it out. Reduced from £849 to £679

Sea Kayaks:

P & H Capella 161, composite construction with green glitter deck, yellow trim, white hull. Ex-demo, well used some star cracks in places, but a bargain at £949. Drop us a line if you'd like to see more photos.


Wilderness Systems Zephyr 16.0, yellow. A part-exchange in stunning condition, includes a Yak Spray deck used a handful of times by the original owner who upgraded to a glass boat. £875



NDK/SKUK Explorer HV Red Deck, Black Trim, White Hull. Another part-exchange boat well used, but well maintained, it has a wire skeg and we've just replaced all the decklines. £1099



P & H Delphin 155, cosmetic seconds, just a couple left, one in Sunbeam & another in Electric Blue. RRP £1299, just £999 each.

Rockpool Alaw, Blue Deck with glitter & Kelp graphics, cosmetic second, some picking of the glass matting on the hull in the cockpit area. Just £1,995


Sit-on-Tops:

Feelfree Nomad (Mark One) these don't have the wheel in the keel, they're 2 years old taken in P/X for a double and are available at just £275 each.


We've a package deal on the Feelfree Mokken 10, one available in RED comes with a Stohlquist A-Sea PFD (£65) in Cactus, a Feelfree back rest (£35) and  Feelfree paddle (£55) for just £649.


Clothing & accessories:
We're offering the Peak UK Tourlite Hoody in Lime or Orange reduced from £109 to £80 while stocks last.


We've also got Peak UK Tourlite Shortsleeve cags in Red or Blue reduced from £65 to £45 while stocks last.

We have Rab Womens Microfleece in Sizes 8-16 in colours Cayenne, Lilac & Sage reduced from £40 to £30 while stocks last.

Nookie C1 Paddlebags suitable for paddles up to 56" (142cm) in length, Ideal for open canoe paddles & split touring paddles, reduced from £39.99 to £25.

We may have a few more clearance bargains to add in later this week, add us as a like on facebook for instant updates on our latest offers.







Thursday 25 August 2011

For whom the 'Bells' toll

Inspired by my efforts on the Menai Challenge the previous evening and despite my early start (I was on the road to Runcorn at 06:15 to collect more stock), I got a message from Baggy, did I fancy North Stack this evening. I did, so wheels were set in motion.

By 16:30 that afternoon, I was in two minds, feeling a bit tired, busy on the phone all afternoon and dealing with folk who were collecting boats. However, Baggy arrived just after 17:00 and it would have been rude to cry off.

So we loaded up, Ben was going to try out the NEW Delphin 150 from    P & H , I was going to take out the Xtreme from Tiderace, Baggy was planning to try the Romany Surf from SKUK , but unfortunately I'd been to busy to get one in time, so he had to 'make do' with an Xcite. He wasn't disappointed.


After much faffing (phone kept ringing, people kept calling in it's the curse of being an owner/operator, you don't just clock off  and lock the door) we eventually made our way to Soldiers Point and got on the water.

The Stena Seacat was just coming in, so as we left the bay we caught it's wake and things were a little lumpy. The wind was F4, south westerly and blowing steadily as we came out, so we headed across to the cliffs to get a little more shelter.

As we paddled out the combination of the amount of time I've spent in work recently, combined with my late night and early start began to take their toll and I really wasn't feeling it. I decided to become the official photographer for the evening and get some shots of Ben & Baggy, whooping it up (and Baggy was as he found the Xcite Xciting and fun to surf).
(I need to invest in a longer lens).

The guys came into the eddy I'd been sat in snapping away in, Baggy practised his rolls and his self-rescue techniques for a little while and we became aware of some noise, which I'd attributed to a seal on the other side of the eddy, but it was a little more human sounding than that. We looked around and spotted an unnatural colour and shaped object about 70 feet above us on the cliff. After a minute or two we decided it was a person and they weren't responding to our calls. Baggy climbed up the relatively easy ground to the left to check on the casualty. I spotted something bobbing in the water directly below the casualty, it was there along with some tufts of grass that had been dislodged, as I got closer I realised it was a bottle. A bottle of Bells, almost empty, despite being in the sea.


I shouted this to Baggy, who approached the casualty and got a response asking him to "Go away".

We decided that the best course of action was to call the Coastguard & get the cliff rescue team to secure him and escort him to somewhere safer.

The Inshore Lifeboat was the first on the scene, and shortly after it arrived as the saying goes, we made our excuses and left. We didn't need to be there, we couldn't offer any further assistance all we would achieve was getting in the way and paddling back to Soldiers Point in even less light. We don't know whether he had a headache this morning, but it's logged on the RNLI site report 27.

It was dark when we landed, a quick call into the Coastguard to let them know we were safe and then calls home to wives were made as they were aware of another more serious & tragic incident being reported about a search elsewhere on the island.

I hope that in some small way our actions prevented the incident we were involved in from having a similar tragic outcome and would like to offer my condolences to the friends and family of the two men missing in the Cable Bay incident.




Wednesday 24 August 2011

Slower than my previous effort...

Last night I made my second attempt on the Menai Challenge, the plan was to be on the water for 18:30 at Gallows Point, things didn't go quite as planned and we had a bigger turnout than expected. I paddled with John Willacy of Rockpool Kayaks, Pascale Eichenmuller, Aled Williams of Tiderace and Marcus Demuth of legendary expedition paddling exploits and current leader of the challenge. Barry Shaw & award winning film-maker Justine Curgenven had been paddling earlier in the day & met us at the start but decided that it wasn't the night for them to do it. Forgive me for name dropping all these folk, but I've seen a lesser schedule of speakers at some symposia in the past, I was impressed by the company I was keeping, it was like a chapter of the Who's Who of the North Wales Sea Kayak scene.

I'd done this in the Cetus MV on the previous attempt, this time I was determined to try one of the new boats we're stocking and took the Tiderace Xcape. Aled was using his Ski, the others all paddled the Rockpool Taran.

When I looked at the rest of the field, I decided rather than keeping everyone waiting for at least 45 minutes at the end, I'd simply undertake the shorter course again and if I was lucky, I might get to the end without keeping them waiting too long.

Using a handicap system, we set off at one minute intervals from Gallows Point, as the most handicapped paddler there, I went first. I set myself a goal, the biggest one of the evening, could I reach Bangor Pier just over 2km from the start before anyone else caught me. After 13 minutes, I reached the pier JUST ahead of Pascal & Marcus. It wasn't long after that that everyone had passed me. Another 3.5 Km saw me passing under Menai Bridge about five or six hundred metres behind Pascale. I dug in pressing hard on my footpegs the stopwatch was counting down and my next goal for the evening was to get there in under thirty three minutes, I blew it 33:06.

There was a lone figure stood in the middle of Menai Bridge, watching as I paddled under, years of living in London & Liverpool made me wary anticipating a dropped spit-bomb, brick or worse. All of a sudden I heard a cheery shout of "Hi Pete", it was Barry. Knowing that I wasn't about to be bricked (despite his accent) and with his words of encouragement ringing in my ears,  I picked up my pace and set myself another goal, could I reach Ynys Gored Goch before everyone else turned & began paddling up from below Pont Britannia. I managed this, just. John was already on the return leg, Aled close behind, Marcus and Pascale were just under the bridge. Another goal achieved, I was going reasonably well, but not as well as I had last time. However my motivation was high, I hadn't been paddling since my attempt on the 15th July and I was enjoying myself. I tipped my hat (metaphorically) to Lord Nelson and continued on to Plas Newydd. Moel y Don appeared and the bright lights of Y Felinheli appeared on my left, the wind picked up and slowed me a little more. My previous effort had been on a big 9.2m tide with a 25-30mph tailwind.

I paddled past Y Felinheli, on towards Plas Menai and the bright lights of Caernarfon, the wind dropped, the sun was dipping and in the last few hundred metres became aware that John was hard on my tail.

I didn't get to sit for long basking in the glory of my slower time (down by 10 minutes) before John caught up with me, and I became aware that he'd paddled 9km further than me a couple of minutes quicker, but as I explained at the time, I wasn't that bothered by my slower time, it meant that I'd had an extra 10 minutes on the water and with the amount of time I've spent on the water since my last attempt (none) that was 10 precious minutes of pure paddling pleasure, just lost in my thoughts and paddlestrokes and work was a long way from them.

If I can do it, then it goes to show that's more than in the realms of us mere mortals and not just for these paddling legends, it's a time trial, so the reality is that you're competing against yourself, but as I found out last night, you can still have fun even when you lose. Give it a go, it's better than reading about what other people have done.

Tonight, it's sunny but breezy and North Stack is running, time to try out another of our wonderful products, the Tiderace Xtreme.

Monday 22 August 2011

Menai Challenge

Tomorrow night we'll be closing on time, sorry, but I'm going paddling.

I'm going to do the Menai Challenge  it's a time trial dreamt up by local activist, record breaker & all round good egg John Willacy. Click through the link for more details.

It's worth a look and as it's a time trial event, you only have to compete with yourself.







Sunday 21 August 2011

Light & Warm - A solution that doesn't require a compromise

New in, the Synmat UL 7 S is a warm (rated down to -4C) insulated air mattress. It weighs just 430g and packs down to 23 x 9cm. 

At 7cm deep it provides real comfort for a good nights rest while on your expedition.

At just £75, they're phenomenal value.



Thursday 18 August 2011

More Tiderace boats in Stock

We've just taken another delivery of Tiderace Sea Kayaks and have the following boats available from stock at present:

Xplore
Xcite
Xcape

Drop us a line if you're looking for one?



Monday 15 August 2011

Demo Weekend -THIS weekend


We've got three spaces left on the demo weekend we're holding this weekend.

There are opportunities to try boats from: P & H, SKUK , Tiderace & Venture Kayaks

Paddles from Mitchell Blades & Lendal

Cags, decks & PFD's from Peak UK

VHF Radios from Standard Horizon

and of course you get the opportunity to call in and see ALL of the other products we stock.

Lighting from Petzl, Stoves from Jetboil, Compasses from Silva, GPS from Memory Map complete with Marine Charts, Typhoon Drysuits, Kelly Kettles, tents from Vango, Sleeping bags & clothing from Rab , Greenland paddles from Anglesey Stickand so much more!!


Sunday 14 August 2011

Bargain Sea Kayaks & Accessories

We've a few bargains to be had at the moment, some cosmetic seconds, a few ex-demo boats, some unusual imports and some boats that have just come into stock.

Have a look at the list below:

Boreal Epsilon 200 - RM sea kayak with rigid hatch rims & soft rubber covers, great seat and backrest, rudder fitted. RRP £1, 730 on offer at £1,250.


Length
17’
5.18m
Width
23.5”
59.7cm
Cockpit Dimensions
16 x 31”
41 x 79cm
Volume
110 Gallons (US)
415 Litres
Weight
64lb
29kg
Recommended Weight Range for paddler (min/max)
140/225lbs
64/102kg
Recommended load limit
295lbs
134kg

P&H Delphin 155 - Cosmetic seconds RRP £1,299 Just £999 each

Ex-Demo Capella 161, standard diolen construction with green glitter deck, white hull & Yellow trim. £1,250

NDK Explorer HV, P/X boat, Red deck, black trim, White hull £1,200

NEW Standard Horizon HX500E VHF radios, with 1400 mAh NiMh battery and car charger included RRP £139.99 just £110

NEW Standard Horizon HX750E VHF Radio, floating unit identical to the HX751E bar the luminescent strip RRP £149.95 Just £120

Peak UK Tourlite Hoody Cag RRP £109, just £85

Peak UK Tourlite Shortsleeve just £50

Nookie Paddle bag suitable for Splits (2010 model) £25

Celtic Paddles Archipelago 1 piece £79

Just call us or call in to see us, there's a lot more on offer than this.

You can also check out our facebook page

Happy Paddling!
Pete




Saturday 13 August 2011

Reed Chillcheater goodies on Sunshine Island


They've finally arrived. We've got Reed cags, deckbags, spraydecks, replacement hatch covers and more all available in store on sunshine island (admittedly a little grey today, but dry in the main).




15 litres, waterproof and tough PU coated nylon deck bag. Six point deck attachment. Fully taped seams just £28. You couldn't do it yourself for that price.


Tuesday 2 August 2011

25% off Rab Womens Fleece

We have the Rab Womens Micro-fleece pull on, RRP £40, on offer at £30.


All sizes from 8-16 are currently available, in three colours: Cayenne, Lilac & Sage.

Drop us a line or give us a call on +44(0)1407 740963