Lots of new courses and expeditions for 2012 including – Ecology for sea kayakers, a guide to the marine environment by sea kayaks. Family sea kayak expeditions, an overnight sea kayak adventure for budding ocean explorers. 4 star training weeks, with the opportunity to work with mock students. Going it alone courses, aimed to help people make a safe next step from paddling with a group, club or instructor to getting out exploring under their own steam. We also have a fantastic expedition to the east coast of Greenland. Also we have launched our schools adventure elements website http://schools.adventureelements.com/ .

See you all on the water soon.

Well its been a very busy summer so far for us. Lots of great folk on our Discover sea kayaking courses aswell as a some fantastic overnight trips on our Introduction to expedition paddling course. Our new base is proving to be a real success with people enjoy the benefits of our lovely drying room.

Got a busy month ahead. We are just heading to whitehaven to provide safety support and advice for the adidas terrex coast 2 coast race, back from there then up to Scotland for our Outer Hebrides expedition with George, Phil, Steve, Mike, Gill and Jim (fingers crossed for good weather). Back from Scotland then off to Iceland for a week to run some 4 star trainings and assessments with Simon from Sea Kayaking Cornwall then straight down to Weymouth for our D of E gold Jurrasic coast sea kayak Expedition.

In between all that we stil have a few of our Discover and Improver Sea kayak courses running some still with places available.

To keep up with the action on the water visit and LIKE our face book page http://www.facebook.com/pages/Adventure-Elements/130402297014022

Sunday the 22^nd of May saw Adventure Elements Sea Kayaking and Open Adventure host the first Anglesey Ocean Kayak Race. The race, which had disciplines for single sea kayaks, double sea kayaks as well as skis, turned out to be a great event for all that entered and for those who came down to spectate. With high winds forecast the days before it was decided that the Menai Straits would be the venue. Racers completed an exciting downwind, down tide, 20km paddle from the Anglesey Sea Zoo too Gallows point near Beaumaris. The race took paddlers through the Swellies where competitors could avoid time penalties by completing a buoyed course which had racers eddy hoping back up through the Swellies to check points. Great atmosphere with lots of big smiles at the finish.

Big thanks to all that entered and helped on the day.

For full results and details of this years and next years race have a look at www.oceankayakrace.com

For more photos go to our Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/Adventure-Elements/130402297014022

1^st Place Male Sea Kayak – John Willacy

1^st Place Women’s Sea Kayak – Justine Curgenven

1^st Place Male Ski – Nigel Jones

1^st Place Double Sea Kayak – Stuart Lynch/Fiona McBryde

It feels like spring is offically here, lots of nice sunny weather and great conditions on the sea around Anglesey. March has been really busy, the nice weather gets everybody outside. We started off with a few days advanced coaching with Jamie and Matt looking at advanced boat handling skills, we had great force 4-5 conditions at Rhoscolyn for the guys to get stuck into. We have also had 5 days working with Grant and some of his staff at Anglesey Adventures looking at 3 star skills and then 4 star leadership training. Beautiful weather for the whole 5 days with the wind barely blowing above a 3 all week, fantastic paddling conditions but unfortunately not so great for teaching leadership in rougher water.

Quite a few private courses in March aswell with a couple of groups spending some time brushing up on rescues and incident managment. Nice sunny days but the sea is still very cold. Also a fantastic paddle out to Ynys Dulas with Matt on a private course, the seals were on good form getting really close to our boats.

Myself and Phil Clegg have just finished running a 2 star and 3 star training weekend for a group of adventure racers. Really great crowd with a fantastic wind over tide surf session on Sunday morining in the menai straits.

Just getting ready to get on the water again, another great forecast, light winds and sunny skies. The group have planned an afternoon trip out to the skerries, fantastic.

Having trouble uploading photos at the moment but will get some images up as soon as possible.

Private days coaching with Matt today. Windy day but found nice sheltered conditions to work on basic boat handling skills in Bull Bay on the North Coast. Matt was doing well getting to grips with edging, support strokes and some rescue practice!! Nice day out on the water allthough the sea is still blooming cold!!

Matt took some awesome video footage of us paddling using his GO Pro camera mounted to the deck. Once he has edited it all we will get a clip on here.

Coastal Navigation and theory course for Graham, Jen, Rich and Athol tomorrow and then 4 star training at the weekend (hope the sea warms up a bit).

Over the last few days we have been out with Jamie, Matt, Gill and Keith running a 4 star sea leaders training course. The first day was spent in the classroom covering the coastal navigation and theory element of the course where the group got to grips with trip planning, tides, interpretting the weather and more.

For the second day we got out in Treardaur Bay in some great Force 4 conditions to look at rescues, towing, rolling and self rescues. Great day where the group got stuck in with some exciting rescues in the rough stuff.

The wind blew up on the last day so the group stayed to the Menai Straits where they looked at leadership and on the water navigation.

Heading out from Oban with Mull in the background

Jim, Sally, Johnothan, Russ and Martin all joined Adventure Elements for a 5 day sea kayak expedition with the aim of Paddling from Oban and out to Explore the Slate Isles and the Garvellachs. On arriving at Oban the 5 day forcast was a bit up and down with Force 8 winds forcast on a couple of the days. Although we did have a few very windy days we still managed to complete an amazing trip visiting the islands of Shuna, Seil,Kerrera and paddled under the bridge over the Atlantic. Only one evening of rain meant the group got to enjoy some fantastic camp spots with a nice fire every evening. An absoloutey brilliant trip which I really enjoyed and the group are still raving about. Below are some pics.

Autumn is a beautiful time of year to be out on the water and last month we were busy out with groups showing them the delights of North Wales this time of year

At the beginning of October Bridget, Rhiannon and Caroline enjoyed a fantastic two day private course. A gentle introduction to the sea kayaks on the menai straits on the first day then an awesome paddle in calm conditions out of Rhoscolyn on the second day.

Shrewsbury school joined us for a four day Duke of Edinburgh course where the aim was to train the group up for an expedition next year to Croatia. A mixed bag of weather but a really good and keen group meant we got stuck in boat handling skill, rescues and even managed an overnight camp on Aber Menai Point.

The weekend of the 9th and 10th I was working at Sea Kayaking Cornwalls symposium based in Falmouth. Great weekend with a good turn out. I ran a improvers Surf Session at St Ives on the Saturday and then lead an Intermediate trip out of Swampool beach in Falmouth, for this we had big swells which made for an interesting landing at the end of the day. Met some great folk including sea kayak  coach Russel Farrow from the states. Russel is a great guitar player and me and him enjoyed a bit of a jam on the Saturday night.

We also had a great Introduction to sea kayaking weekend, where the group got to paddle around Puffin island on the East of Anglesey, as well as a fantastic 5 day Improvers course. Here are some pictures form the courses.