Custom & Intensive Sea Kayak Guide/Training Courses in Jersey

We can arrange custom sea kayak guide courses in Jersey. Recently, Peter from Kola kayaking in Hanko Finland visited to undertake our custom intensive sea kayak guide training course. Peter’s aim was to gather a few BC sea kayak awards so that he and his wife could offer more sea kayak adventure activities in Finland.

February and March might not seem the best time to undertake a sea kayak training course and to also bring a young family (2 and 4 years) over for 8 weeks. All ended up having a great time and were on the beach building sand castles most days no matter what the weather. The children came with some super winter/waterproof clothing which allowed us to take a 4 year old sea kayaking on a damp February day in a mini drysuit.

Compared to many UK sea kayaking destinations Jersey’s usually milder climate makes it possible to undertake a lot of sea kayaking around the coast. Add a few extra layers -or a drysuit (we can supply these to our clients) if you really plan to get wet- and Jersey has plenty of varied sea kayaking on offer.

Father and son with matching drysuits

For Peter and Sanna a bonus was that we had daylight and no snow. “After the first month of snow and darkness in Finland we’re had enough” said Peter. Within days of Peter leaving Jersey we were under the thickest blanket of snow seen in many years!

If you are looking at developing your sea kayak and leadership skills the BCU 4 star training and assessment course is a great opportunity. I can arrange these on custom dates. Add this into a personal kayaking development plan and it is possible to wisely spend your money getting a selection of BCU and other awards. Over the years we have had ‘long stay’ clients from Mauritius, Finland, Abu Dharbi, Oman and the UK using the winter months to ‘beef up’ their training with UK awards which are recognised as some of the best around for sea kayak guiding/coaching and skills benchmarks.

On his return to Finland Peter wrote this article about his sea kayaking activities in Jersey. It’s all Finnish to me. Download a copy or read it here.

Derek Hairon

Tags: Adventure activities in Jersey, BCU 4 star sea assessment, sea kayak coaching

About derek

Derek Hairon is a British Canoeing level 5 coach (sea) and sea kayak leader guide and assessor.
Derek is the first nationally endorsed British Canoeing accredited guide in Jersey. The British Canoeing kayak guide endorsement supports and recognises the additional skills required when fulfilling a guiding role on sea kayak tours and expeditions worldwide.
Over 49 years of sea kayaking experience. Expeditions to circumnavigate Ireland by kayak, Outer Hebrides, Aland Islands, Faeroe Islands and Alaska. Plus, lots of sea and surf kayaking in the UK. White water-kayaking expeditions in Nepal to paddle the Tamur and Marsyandi Rivers.
Derek wrote Sit-on-top Kayak. A Beginner’s Manual (Pesda Press). It is now in its second reprint and is also translated into French. He is the author of the Channel Island and South East Coast Sea Kayaking guidebook (Pesda Press).