This photo, scanned from an old print, shows me in a kayak aged about 10 years old (1987 if I am correct about the date of the photograph). The kayak belonged to a second cousin and it was at a family reunion. We were camping in a field, bordering the Llangollen Canal.
(Subsequently dated to 1986 from a song I remember of the time - Diana Ross - Chain Reaction, making me 9 years old)
From there, my paddling experiences revolved around school outings to the Portsmouth Outdoor Centre and paddling slalom kayaks and Canadian canoes in Langstone Harbour and Ports Creek.
This led a school friend Keith to acquire a slalom kayak (possibly belonging to one of his older brothers). I recall it had a deep V'ed hull and had low stability. As teenagers, we once carried this kayak nearly two miles from his house to Ports Creek, including crossing two foot bridges over a railway! Negotiating the tight turns involved some rather dodgy dangling of the kayak, which in hind sight may not have been very wise....
From there, I bought a second hand Granta kayak, light blue in colour and very high volume, with an enormous cockpit, so large that I braced my knees outwards against the rim of the cockpit. By this time, I also had a driving license and access to my dad's car. Problem solved.
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