#133 - Environmental Conservation and the Rich Paddling Heritage of Ireland's Causeway Coast with Robin Ruddock

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Welcome to Paddling the Blue. With each episode, we talk with guests from the

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Great Lakes and around the globe who are doing cool things related to sea kayaking.

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I'm your host, my name is John Chase, and let's get started Paddling the Blue.

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Welcome to today's episode of Paddling the Blue.

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Robin Ruddock has dedicated his considerable time and talents to introducing

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more than 20,000 youth to paddling and to the history of the region in which they live.

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And by teaching them about the beauty that surrounds them, he's been successful

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in growing the next generation of stewards who are entrusted with serving the world around us.

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Join us today to learn what makes Robin such an amazing resource and what makes

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the Causeway Coast so rich in wildlife, history, folklore, and paddling beauty.

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Before we get to today's conversation with Robin, James and Simon at OnlineSeaKyaking.com

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Enjoy today's episode with Robin Ruddick.

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Hello, Robin. Thank you for joining Paddling the Blue today.

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Hello, you're very welcome. Yes, it's a pleasure to have a chance to get to talk to you.

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We have bantered back and forth by email now for probably a couple years now

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to try and get in touch with each other. And it's nice to finally make that connection.

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I like to make it hard for you.

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I live a very busy life, but now is the time. It's taken a while. I appreciate that.

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Well, thank you. I appreciate you. So tell us, you've been paddling,

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you've got quite a history paddling. So tell us a little bit about you and how

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you got your start as a paddler.

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My introduction to paddling actually didn't take place until I was about 17.

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So I was quite a late starter by modern standards.

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And I won a scholarship to go to an outward bound school in the Lake District

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in England. I live on the north coast of Ireland, currently up in Port Rush,

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up near the Giant's Causeway.

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At that stage, I was in school in Belfast. And my PE teacher recommended that

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I got the chance to go away.

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And it was actually with the Outward Bound School in Eskdale in the Lake District

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so that was my first introduction to kayaking which was,

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pretty rapid, isn't it? We went from raw beginners to paddling white water in

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the space of a couple of days.

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I'd always been interested in the sea. As a kid, when I was a young child in

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primary school, I actually grew up in the Republic of Ireland, in the south of Ireland.

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Our summer holidays were always spent on a beach swimming and snorkeling.

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I suppose an inspiration for me regarding kayaking was a godfather who had been

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in the Royal Navy during the Second World War.

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When he finished in the war, he came out and became a Church of Ireland minister.

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But he was a real wildcat and took up kayaking in a canvas kayak.

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And my memory is seeing him offshore in a leaking kayak, feeling it a cup, a tea cup.

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But little things like that actually stick in your memory.

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And it was influences like that and interesting to see that then when i got

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the opportunity to start kayaking with the outward bound folk as soon as i came

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back to northern ireland and i bought a second hand cyber glass one of the early

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designs a cyber glass kayak and that that got me started,

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that's that's great and you never stopped since no and what's interesting is

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that kayak came with a left-handed paddle and at that stage in my career i just

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assumed that's what you used,

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i started off so i'm quite ambidextrous now with kayak and i'm quite happy to

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paddle left or right i'm naturally right-handed but it's funny those little

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things that you just take for granted nowadays you know it was what you could

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pick up from a newspaper advert here this kayak came up for sale it was a kayak called a knox.

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People back in 50 years ago would recognize

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all right so now

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you mentioned that you you grew up in the in the south of ireland the

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republic of ireland and so now you're in northern ireland

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and you are in the the causeway coast area you mentioned port rush and near

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giants causeway so tell us a little bit about the the causeway coastline and

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why it's a must visit paddling destination now i've talked to many irish paddlers

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and we've rarely had a chance to talk about that north coast.

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Yeah, we have beautiful geology up here.

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We have limestone cliffs, I suppose like smaller versions of the Cliffs of Doher.

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So you have the white cliffs that cause the white rock.

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You have castles perched on cliff tops because this area was an integrated part of Scotland.

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Dalriada, a Scottish-Irish kingdom back in sort of Elizabethan times.

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On the geology side, We have then the contrast of jet black basalt rocks,

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which were volcanic, and that's the Giant's Causeway.

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We have Rathlin Island offshore, about four or five, three to five miles,

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depending on where you leave our coastline.

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We have tide races that are significant tide races.

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The tide can run up to five, seven knots at times at headlands.

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We're only at the shortest crossing we're 12 miles from Scotland to the Mullifkin

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Tower from Torhead and Islay the island of Islay which is famous for its distilleries

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and its whiskeys it's about 25 miles north of me,

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in my early short of sea kayaking career one of the journeys I did was across

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from Torhead to Islay and it was probably the first time in recent history that

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that had been kayaked back and I think it was about.

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1980 did that journey. So we were sort of involved in the early stages of sea

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kayaking expeditions and crossings.

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Not many crossings had taken place back at that stage when I was getting involved.

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But the geology of this coastline is just superb.

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You have sea caves, arches, sea stacks, all sorts of stuff along the coast,

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all in a very short distance. So in the space of 30 miles.

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You have an incredible variety of beautiful golden sandy beaches,

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which are brilliant for surf.

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You have the headlands and the offshore passages as well.

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So why do you suppose the area with its rich paddling resources doesn't get

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as much press, I guess, as the rest of Ireland?

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It's probably quite exposed because we're

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a very exposed coastline and there's not much

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shelter up here so to plan to

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come here that's very hit and miss you know you could

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travel a long way and find that you can't

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actually get on the water safely okay i guided

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sea kayaking when i left my job working in an outdoor center i did guide for

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a while but it was so difficult you know to get clients right along the coast

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because of the exposure to the North Atlantic and very little shelter.

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In the west of Ireland, there are many places where you would have alternatives.

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You know, you could paddle on the inside of an island chain or something like

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that, whereas we don't really have that.

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It's a very, as we would talk about in the past, an iron-bound coastline.

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So, you know, pretty steep cliffs and not much shelter in between passages.

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Okay, so a very committing coast.

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Yeah. Okay, all right. So tell us about some of your favorite paddles along the North Coast.

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Right on my doorstep, I live within walking distance of a beautiful beach in

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Portrush, so I can literally walk down to paddle.

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And from here, if I go east, it takes me along by the White Rocks.

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There's a chain of islands just off Portrush called the Skerrys,

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which is a Viking word for an offshore set of islands.

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So by the Skerrys Islands, you have seed colonies, bird colonies there.

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You then, in another mile or so, you're onto the White Rocks where you have

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caves and sea arches and tunnels that you can paddle through.

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And then on along towards the Giant's Causeway, you have obviously,

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it's a World Heritage Site.

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So you have the columnar basalt, the hexagonal stones that people travel from

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all over the world to come and visit.

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So that's literally on my doorstep, all within five or six miles.

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We have surf on our doorstep as well. We have some really good surf breaks.

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We have about five really good surf beaches along within 20 miles.

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And there are a couple of reef breaks as well. I would actually spend quite

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a bit of time surfing with surf kayaks.

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I have quite a collection of surf kayaks. But I find that to be paddling on

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the sea at any moderate to high level, Really,

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you need to be a competent surf

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kayaker or have those skills that you can transfer into your sea kayaking.

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Certainly, the headlands and the areas that we have here, you can end up in

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breaking surf waves off most of our headlands. Sure.

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So I know that many times when I've talked to folks who've circumnavigated Ireland,

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they've mentioned that the tide races and the commitment of that north coast can be a challenge.

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Yeah, you can use it to your advantage. I mean, obviously, if you work with

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the weather and the tides, and I like the fact that you have to do that in this

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area, you know, to be dictated to by nature. That's important to me.

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And I think it does come with experience, you know, to be able to make correct

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judgments. It's really all about judgments about when to paddle and where to paddle.

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Yeah. So we talked just a moment ago about the Giant's Causeway.

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And so tell us, so for those who might not be familiar with the area,

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tell us a little bit about what it is that makes that particular area so unique.

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The geology is such

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that about 65 million years ago when we

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had volcanic activity here very similar to Iceland

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today and you have an

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area the causeway itself is significant because

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there was a lake of lava formed cooled underground

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allowing it to cool very slowly so that

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allowed the basalt to form into these

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almost perfect hexagonal shapes and then when the surface is taken away by glaciers

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it exposed a very lovely pattern that is found on our coastline and replicated

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across in Scotland on the island on Staffa there's a cave there,

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Fingal's Cave where you find the same formation of rocks and that's where we

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get the legend and this area is steeped in legend as many,

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there's no part of Ireland you can go to that doesn't have it.

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But the legend was that a Scottish giant and Irish giants in Macauld fell out

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and built this causeway to war with each other.

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And this area has been in conflict ever since.

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But it really was, because of the importance of the area, on some of the first

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maps of the world, Rathlin Island and this part of Ireland is marked on some

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of the earliest maps of the world.

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We had visitors coming here from the Middle East,

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from the Norse Viking settlers and invaders, and then constant toing and froing

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between Scotland and Ireland,

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as far as who owned the Grafland Island in particular, but also this corner of Ireland.

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So now we have a very rich history, a lot of evidence of it too,

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with castles on significant headlands all the way along this coast.

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So it's lovely when you're on a journey, you know, to come round the headlands

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and to find now they're in ruins. They're not livable.

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And most of them were destroyed back at the time of the Elizabethan Wars and so on here.

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So go back 500, 600 years, you know, and any place you could live was basically

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knocked to the ground. Yeah.

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So that's, I live here in the U.S. in the Great Lakes area. We don't have any castles.

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So that's not something that we see very often at all, I should say.

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And it must just be fascinating to be able to see that and experience that kind

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of heritage. It is, but there's also an earlier heritage, as you have in America as well.

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We had the indigenous people that lived here.

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So my crossing across from Islay, or from Torhead to Islay and back,

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was only in modern times.

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The first settlers that came into Ireland came in onto this coastline.

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And what's lovely is there's the archaeology there from that period as well.

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So if we go back about 9,000 years, you have the caves on the sea caves on the

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coast that we're settled in.

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You'll still find evidence of flint tools because in the limestone,

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you have nodules of flint.

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And from that, they fashioned their knives and their arrowheads and so on.

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And I use kayaking and I've used canoeing in my work to introduce both young

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people and adults to the whole archaeology. the area,

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and obviously the geology as well, because that's so evident.

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So I suppose this is maybe digressing a bit, but my passion with kayaking and

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other water-based activities has been about, I suppose, exploring,

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beachcombing, and introducing others to our natural history and our actual history,

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but also in this part of the world about bringing people together.

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A lot of what I have done in my life has actually been about bringing the community,

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using adventure activities, a whole range of adventure activities,

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but canoeing and kayaking in particular, to build bridges between our communities

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that have been divided at times.

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Yeah. So tell us a little bit more about that work.

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I suppose one thing that came out of my kayaking was that I developed a real

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interest in our skin boats.

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In Ireland, we have a unique type of craft called a curragh that is basically

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very similar to the Inuit Umayak.

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It's an ocean-going or coastal rowing craft.

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And back in 1997, there was a significant anniversary of St.

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Columba, who should really have been the patron saint of Ireland, St. Patrick.

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He was a migrant, but Columba was born in Donegal, and eventually ended up moving

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across to Iona, one of the Scottish islands.

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But back in 1997, it was the 1400th anniversary of his death.

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And I had had a couple of Currucks made since I got a special one,

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a big 38-foot Currack, and 12 of us, mostly sea kayakers, actually crewed that

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across North Channel and up to the island of Iona, a journey of around 100 miles.

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But that was a terrific opportunity to bring people from all different faith backgrounds.

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My crew was made up of people from Protestant, Catholic, non-believers,

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and really reflected, I suppose, what diversity of people in Ireland is today.

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So I've used projects like that and other traditional boat projects as well

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as canoeing and kayaking.

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But what I love about the Irish sea kayaking scene is it's a terrific community

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that borders don't exist.

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For us, there's a technical border between the North of Ireland and the Republic

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of Ireland, but really as far as sea kayaking goes, it cuts across all those barriers.

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This little country of ours is highlighted on the news for, but quite often

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when you dig behind what's going on in the media, there's an awful lot of positives.

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Kayaking and canoeing has been a big part of that. Yeah, it certainly does bring people together.

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Tell me about your professional life prior to retiring.

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My first full-time job was as a teacher of physical education in a high school.

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And in that job I saw that,

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you know, I obviously taught a range of sports but I also built Canadian canoes

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with open Canadian canoes and we had general purpose sort of kayaks in the school

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and to give you an idea of where I started with canoeing there were no Canadian

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canoes open Canadian canoes in the province really,

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maybe one or two so what we did was we bought a kit plywood,

00:18:21.047 --> 00:18:24.547
made a KL canoe took a

00:18:24.547 --> 00:18:27.887
mold off that and then started fabricating fleets

00:18:27.887 --> 00:18:30.627
of these things to get that sport started in the

00:18:30.627 --> 00:18:33.987
province and with that you know we did quite

00:18:33.987 --> 00:18:37.127
good expeditions we have beautiful inland waters as

00:18:37.127 --> 00:18:44.407
well here in in Ireland so the lock iron system and so on and the major rivers

00:18:44.407 --> 00:18:50.147
with the school kids I did a lot of work with that but after four years then

00:18:50.147 --> 00:18:53.987
I left that job and managed to get a job in an outdoor education,

00:18:54.087 --> 00:18:56.227
outdoor pursuit center in Bushmills,

00:18:56.507 --> 00:18:58.867
which is again renowned for its whiskey.

00:19:00.127 --> 00:19:04.087
But no, in Bushmills, then I worked there for about 40 years.

00:19:04.447 --> 00:19:09.327
And with a range of activities, I mean, it covered pretty much everything.

00:19:09.507 --> 00:19:15.927
We sailed, we rock climbed, did archery, orienteering, kayaking and canoeing.

00:19:15.927 --> 00:19:21.867
And with canoes, I probably introduced, I think I worked it out one time,

00:19:22.067 --> 00:19:28.787
something like 20,000 young people to trips down the River Ban,

00:19:29.087 --> 00:19:33.187
visiting the first settlement site in Ireland and using the canoes to look at

00:19:33.187 --> 00:19:37.167
the history of the river and through the town of Coleraine primarily,

00:19:37.587 --> 00:19:40.307
but obviously much wider afield as well.

00:19:40.307 --> 00:19:47.647
And then we also ran sea kayaking expeditions for teenagers up in Donegal and Guidoar.

00:19:48.320 --> 00:19:54.580
And that area is just absolutely outstanding, you know, for any visitor to come across.

00:19:54.800 --> 00:19:59.100
It's just beautiful to explore the islands and to camp and live on them, camp wild.

00:19:59.700 --> 00:20:04.780
I also then taught many teachers and youth workers through training courses

00:20:04.780 --> 00:20:08.260
that they could then work with their kids back at source.

00:20:08.260 --> 00:20:12.360
Because obviously one person can only do so much, but if you teach other people

00:20:12.360 --> 00:20:16.840
to teach, then it spreads the word much wider.

00:20:16.840 --> 00:20:25.560
So I did that for about 40 years and probably hundreds of teachers and youth

00:20:25.560 --> 00:20:30.960
workers were trained up to a basic to a moderate level to get other folk on the water.

00:20:31.640 --> 00:20:39.440
But what I did John through most of what I was involved in I also promoted and

00:20:39.440 --> 00:20:46.020
I would say as well in the national coaching scheme I would have promoted the environmental aspect.

00:20:47.000 --> 00:20:51.160
Of adventure sports of, you know, within canoeing particular,

00:20:51.540 --> 00:20:54.920
kayaking but also in the mountain and mountaineering

00:20:54.920 --> 00:20:57.800
the value of if you bring

00:20:57.800 --> 00:21:00.940
people out into the environment to understand

00:21:00.940 --> 00:21:03.920
as a coach for you to be able to explain what

00:21:03.920 --> 00:21:06.760
people are seeing but also to

00:21:06.760 --> 00:21:10.040
develop in them an interest and a love of the environment so

00:21:10.040 --> 00:21:13.960
that they in the future look after it and conserve

00:21:13.960 --> 00:21:17.860
it for you know the following generations and i've

00:21:17.860 --> 00:21:20.800
been involved in a couple of national schemes to do

00:21:20.800 --> 00:21:23.940
with that as well we have a scheme for

00:21:23.940 --> 00:21:27.160
boat operators or people who go in the ocean to care

00:21:27.160 --> 00:21:33.860
for wildlife called the wise scheme so it's wildlife safe eco-tourism and when

00:21:33.860 --> 00:21:40.380
you encounter dolphins or whales or basking sharks which we have locally seabirds

00:21:40.380 --> 00:21:46.900
and seals as to how to interact with them so that you're not causing major disturbance.

00:21:47.000 --> 00:21:52.220
It's impossible not to have some effect on them, but it's how do you minimize

00:21:52.220 --> 00:21:54.480
that and yet still get the best of it.

00:21:55.280 --> 00:21:58.520
I mean, I have had some incredible encounters with wildlife,

00:21:58.720 --> 00:22:03.200
a paddling career, particularly with dolphins on our coastline.

00:22:03.340 --> 00:22:08.020
We have common dolphins, bottlenose dolphins, and more recently,

00:22:08.420 --> 00:22:10.500
a lot of whale activity on our coastline.

00:22:10.500 --> 00:22:16.440
We're getting thin whales, humpback whales much more regularly so that's sort

00:22:16.440 --> 00:22:23.020
of getting off to the subject again but from a professional point of view I did that and then.

00:22:24.041 --> 00:22:29.241
In there, sadly, the government closed down the centre that I worked in only

00:22:29.241 --> 00:22:31.881
a year or two before I left.

00:22:32.081 --> 00:22:37.841
I just couldn't bear to see the work that I had done and other people had done

00:22:37.841 --> 00:22:42.821
over the years to develop a fantastic resource where young people could come

00:22:42.821 --> 00:22:48.061
and stay for a week at a time and explore this area, this beautiful part of Ireland,

00:22:48.341 --> 00:22:50.701
and learn about it and learn to live together.

00:22:50.701 --> 00:22:56.561
So I actually resigned rather than wait until they closed the place.

00:22:57.401 --> 00:22:59.901
And I'm in sort of semi-retirement.

00:23:02.581 --> 00:23:08.621
A friend and I set up a company to continue that sort of work so that young

00:23:08.621 --> 00:23:10.641
people would still get that opportunity locally.

00:23:11.141 --> 00:23:16.401
So it's not quite as easy for them or for us, but at least we're continuing

00:23:16.401 --> 00:23:17.621
with that work for the minute.

00:23:17.901 --> 00:23:22.361
Well, that's great work. And you mentioned that, I think you said it's kind

00:23:22.361 --> 00:23:25.141
of off topic, but I don't think it's off topic at all.

00:23:25.381 --> 00:23:30.141
I mean, the opportunity to use paddling and use other adventure sports to introduce

00:23:30.141 --> 00:23:34.381
over 20,000 youth to canoeing in the history of the area and teach them to love

00:23:34.381 --> 00:23:39.981
and conserve the natural resources about them, that's amazing.

00:23:39.981 --> 00:23:41.141
That's a good pursuit.

00:23:41.561 --> 00:23:45.981
And then to also extend that to hundreds of teachers and youth workers,

00:23:46.361 --> 00:23:47.821
that's quite a contribution.

00:23:47.821 --> 00:23:52.341
So thank you very much for your contribution to the sport and to preserving

00:23:52.341 --> 00:24:00.541
nature. Back in 1998, there was a very interesting sequence of events took place.

00:24:00.881 --> 00:24:05.401
A gentleman from Argentina, from Patagonia, came across.

00:24:05.821 --> 00:24:11.181
His father was, just to introduce this, his father was an admiral in the Argentine Navy.

00:24:11.978 --> 00:24:17.018
And had retired before all the terrible activities were taking place in Argentina,

00:24:17.698 --> 00:24:20.438
you know, where people were being disappeared and so on.

00:24:20.558 --> 00:24:26.418
But anyway, this lad, Marcos Oliva Day, came across Ireland. He was a sea kayaker.

00:24:26.918 --> 00:24:33.118
He met Ossian Hallisey down at Strangford Lock, down south of me in County Down.

00:24:34.018 --> 00:24:38.378
He knew that he was coming. He was coming up to visit the Ends Causeway,

00:24:38.538 --> 00:24:42.598
and Ossian, who is a well-renowned sea kayaker in Ireland, He said,

00:24:42.638 --> 00:24:45.218
look, if you're up on the North Coast, look, Robin Ruddocko.

00:24:45.518 --> 00:24:53.218
So in February of 1998, this knock came to a window where I worked of this gentleman from Argentina.

00:24:53.478 --> 00:24:55.538
And he had traveled over with his wife.

00:24:56.018 --> 00:25:03.238
But Marcos, I found afterwards, he came to me as an environmentalist,

00:25:03.338 --> 00:25:07.638
as a sea kayaker, as somebody who was having a huge effect on the life of young

00:25:07.638 --> 00:25:10.998
people in Patagonia, down in Argentina.

00:25:10.998 --> 00:25:13.778
And I realised what he was doing in

00:25:13.778 --> 00:25:16.898
Argentina was basically very similar

00:25:16.898 --> 00:25:19.578
to what I was trying to achieve here up on the

00:25:19.578 --> 00:25:22.758
north coast of Ireland and with that

00:25:22.758 --> 00:25:29.318
he invited me to go out to Patagonia and I applied then for Winston Churchill

00:25:29.318 --> 00:25:35.038
a travelling fellowship which I was awarded and that gave me the funding to

00:25:35.038 --> 00:25:40.318
spend a month down in Patagonia teaching the children in Argentina what I knew.

00:25:40.998 --> 00:25:45.598
And to be honest, they taught me more than I could ever learn.

00:25:45.718 --> 00:25:51.318
But what they had was a beautiful scheme called getting to know your home or knowing your home.

00:25:51.458 --> 00:25:53.918
And this was Marcos's brainchild.

00:25:54.238 --> 00:26:02.078
He had actually paddled Cape Horn back with a group of teenagers back in probably the 1970s.

00:26:02.638 --> 00:26:05.438
And those teenagers then went

00:26:05.438 --> 00:26:10.198
on with him to form this kayak group in Patagonia in Puerto de Seattle.

00:26:10.318 --> 00:26:16.238
And what I loved was the teenagers taught the primary school children how to

00:26:16.238 --> 00:26:21.018
kayak but also taught them all about the local penguin colonies geology,

00:26:21.438 --> 00:26:24.618
the indigenous people those primary school

00:26:24.618 --> 00:26:28.618
children when they became teenagers then went back into their primary schools

00:26:28.618 --> 00:26:34.238
and they taught the next generation and this had been going on for 30 or 40

00:26:34.238 --> 00:26:40.118
years such that the local politicians had all come through that kayak club The

00:26:40.118 --> 00:26:42.038
local fishermen had come through it.

00:26:42.703 --> 00:26:48.483
The local guys were now making a living taking foreign visitors out and explaining

00:26:48.483 --> 00:26:52.763
all about the local wildlife and the history of the area and so on.

00:26:53.223 --> 00:26:56.403
And to me, it was just a perfect model to follow.

00:26:56.563 --> 00:27:00.563
And we have been following that model ever since of knowing your home.

00:27:01.403 --> 00:27:07.443
Working with, I still go into primary schools and do talks and so on about the

00:27:07.443 --> 00:27:13.243
local wildlife and the history of the area and try to keep that ethos going. Yeah.

00:27:13.643 --> 00:27:19.143
Yeah. I mean, you've proved that if you teach people to love the area that they're

00:27:19.143 --> 00:27:25.203
in, that they will in turn share that with others and find ways to preserve it and protect it.

00:27:25.663 --> 00:27:27.963
Yeah. Yeah. Wonderful work.

00:27:29.703 --> 00:27:34.783
No, I'm not, I'm not setting myself. I just do what I believe I'm meant to be.

00:27:35.523 --> 00:27:38.423
You know, I don't do it for any, to be honest, I don't.

00:27:38.563 --> 00:27:41.703
What I've done has been, I think,

00:27:41.803 --> 00:27:44.803
to be honest, because I grew up in Belfast I started my

00:27:44.803 --> 00:27:47.803
life up to the age of 10 in the south of Ireland and that

00:27:47.803 --> 00:27:50.903
was a very different life to coming up and living in Belfast my

00:27:50.903 --> 00:27:54.303
father came to the north because of work and

00:27:54.303 --> 00:27:57.483
also for education he realized that

00:27:57.483 --> 00:28:01.183
to give us the best opportunities for education

00:28:01.183 --> 00:28:04.003
he brought us up to Belfast and we

00:28:04.003 --> 00:28:06.963
actually grew up during the worst of the troubled period when

00:28:06.963 --> 00:28:12.163
bombs and killings and so on were at their worst and that has always formed

00:28:12.163 --> 00:28:18.463
in me a desire to work as hard as I can to break down those barriers and through

00:28:18.463 --> 00:28:24.843
that you know through adventure that has been my way of doing it so that's been my motivation and,

00:28:25.563 --> 00:28:30.903
But I've also enjoyed, I mean, it's not all about serious things either.

00:28:31.323 --> 00:28:37.303
No, I've enjoyed developing, particularly because of my interest in the Irish

00:28:37.303 --> 00:28:42.303
boats, the skin boats and so on, and also the boats that we have in this area

00:28:42.303 --> 00:28:45.243
derived from Viking, basically from Viking boats.

00:28:46.143 --> 00:28:51.703
I've always been interested in the Inuit kayak and the skin-on-frame kayaks.

00:28:51.703 --> 00:28:56.223
And it's only recently that I've been able to realize my dream to actually make

00:28:56.223 --> 00:29:03.983
one and paddle it and I get probably the most satisfaction now out of paddling that kayak.

00:29:05.783 --> 00:29:09.743
For years I have studied about these boats,

00:29:10.123 --> 00:29:15.183
I have been to museums and it may be of interest to some of your listeners that

00:29:15.183 --> 00:29:20.763
there's a very good example of a Ninyat kayak and reserve collection of the

00:29:20.763 --> 00:29:22.163
Belfast, the Ulster Museum.

00:29:22.883 --> 00:29:27.583
And it would be from the Labrador-Baffin region, which was on her,

00:29:27.743 --> 00:29:31.183
you know, nobody knew about this, but we discovered that that was in storage.

00:29:31.703 --> 00:29:36.643
And more recently, we've come across three beautiful examples of kayaks in the

00:29:36.643 --> 00:29:40.443
National Museum of Ireland in their storage.

00:29:40.443 --> 00:29:44.763
So we're in the process of getting those surveyed and, you know,

00:29:44.803 --> 00:29:49.163
try to find out exactly where they were made and what region they came from.

00:29:50.723 --> 00:29:54.603
But with my interest in that element of kayaking,

00:29:54.983 --> 00:29:59.303
there's a local friend of mine, John Wilkinson, who's very skilled with his

00:29:59.303 --> 00:30:04.883
hands, and he actually now manufactures commercially and you had Kayak,

00:30:05.123 --> 00:30:06.403
Greenland-style kayaks,

00:30:07.063 --> 00:30:11.963
Valkyrie craft, and he also makes open Canadian canoes in the traditional fashion.

00:30:12.483 --> 00:30:20.423
So it's lovely having a craftsman in the area. I never had the ability to do that.

00:30:21.269 --> 00:30:25.469
I would have had an element of inspiring John to do this sort of work where

00:30:25.469 --> 00:30:31.369
he has the hands to do it, such that his son Hamish was probably one of the

00:30:31.369 --> 00:30:33.309
youngest people to circumnavigate Ireland.

00:30:33.649 --> 00:30:38.109
And he did it. Hamish did it in a skin on frame in a new style kayak.

00:30:38.689 --> 00:30:43.749
Then when I had the opportunity to make mine, John guided me through the building process.

00:30:44.389 --> 00:30:50.669
So I feel I have as authentic a boat, you know, a kayak as you probably could have.

00:30:51.269 --> 00:30:55.689
And it's absolutely delightful to paddle, you know, until you paddle a boat

00:30:55.689 --> 00:30:58.189
like that or a kayak like that.

00:30:58.809 --> 00:31:06.909
Paddling hardshell kayaks is one thing, but you feel so much more in tune with

00:31:06.909 --> 00:31:08.749
the ocean when you're in that boat.

00:31:09.689 --> 00:31:15.629
I also have feathercraft Cazzolano, which I had that for, you know,

00:31:15.689 --> 00:31:18.409
I've had that for a good few years and enjoyed paddling it.

00:31:18.409 --> 00:31:21.689
So then to go ahead and build with

00:31:21.689 --> 00:31:24.469
my own hands literally every part of

00:31:24.469 --> 00:31:27.569
this kayak there's something unique and special

00:31:27.569 --> 00:31:33.969
about that yeah when uh never having paddled a skin on frame myself what tell

00:31:33.969 --> 00:31:37.989
me tell us about that connection that you feel and then how that's how you feel

00:31:37.989 --> 00:31:43.189
that connection yeah i think because it's so directly connected to the roots

00:31:43.189 --> 00:31:45.549
of what we know of as kayaking.

00:31:45.849 --> 00:31:51.509
I like that and the fact that I have studied and read so much about it but until

00:31:51.509 --> 00:31:57.209
you actually feel it the different you cannot it's hard to explain it's one

00:31:57.209 --> 00:32:02.029
of these things that you actually need to experience to really understand it's silent,

00:32:02.109 --> 00:32:04.389
it moves with the sea, it,

00:32:05.164 --> 00:32:10.764
it's almost like a stealth kayak you know, you do feel like you can actually

00:32:10.764 --> 00:32:12.464
approach maybe wildlife,

00:32:13.104 --> 00:32:20.424
my kayak is black and it tones in with the ocean with our coastline it tones

00:32:20.424 --> 00:32:25.044
in colour wise, it tones in with the rocks that we paddle along and so on,

00:32:25.984 --> 00:32:32.044
but I don't know I just find it lovely it's light as well as you get older.

00:32:33.904 --> 00:32:37.044
It's easier to put on the roof and take off the roof,

00:32:38.084 --> 00:32:41.284
it changes with the temperature you know

00:32:41.284 --> 00:32:44.944
whenever it tightens when it gets hot

00:32:44.944 --> 00:32:48.324
and it slackens when it gets cold and there's

00:32:48.324 --> 00:32:55.464
just something organic about it yeah so you mentioned Ulster and you mentioned

00:32:55.464 --> 00:33:01.624
that history and you were bestowed with an honorary doctorate from Ulster University

00:33:01.624 --> 00:33:08.304
for your contributions to the community and environmental conservation and marine history.

00:33:08.464 --> 00:33:10.464
Tell us a little bit about that, Otter. Congratulations.

00:33:12.284 --> 00:33:18.524
Over the years, whenever I started working up here on the North Coast,

00:33:18.684 --> 00:33:22.384
I actually formed a kayak club called the Causeway Coast Kayak Association.

00:33:23.344 --> 00:33:28.764
And that was a way to keep local coaches and people and push their limits a

00:33:28.764 --> 00:33:37.164
bit so that folks weren't taking risks when they had children or young people under their watch.

00:33:37.564 --> 00:33:41.604
With that group too, we also did an awful lot of community work where we did

00:33:41.604 --> 00:33:47.124
coastal cleanups in remote areas into caves and storm beaches and things.

00:33:47.444 --> 00:33:50.324
We would have provided safety cover for.

00:33:51.373 --> 00:33:54.353
Fundraiser events like with a local raft race

00:33:54.353 --> 00:33:57.113
for the lifeboat association things like that

00:33:57.113 --> 00:34:01.233
we've been doing that for 50 years things

00:34:01.233 --> 00:34:04.653
like triathlons you know coastal triathlons providing

00:34:04.653 --> 00:34:07.533
safety cover we also provide safety cover

00:34:07.533 --> 00:34:10.933
for long-distance swimmers we had a dozen swimmers

00:34:10.933 --> 00:34:13.733
swim to rathlon and like that was quite

00:34:13.733 --> 00:34:16.853
a major you know commitment safety wise

00:34:16.853 --> 00:34:20.393
but there's been all that sort of thing going on as

00:34:20.393 --> 00:34:24.273
well as my interest in local wildlife cetaceans

00:34:24.273 --> 00:34:27.693
whales dolphins porpses and so on i suppose

00:34:27.693 --> 00:34:30.993
it was a nice recognition to get whenever

00:34:30.993 --> 00:34:34.173
i finished with training as a teacher i i

00:34:34.173 --> 00:34:37.733
said to my wife like i'm never going to go any further with academic

00:34:37.733 --> 00:34:40.553
qualifications i just want to spend my time

00:34:40.553 --> 00:34:43.633
doing things and i suppose

00:34:43.633 --> 00:34:46.913
to the the pilgrimage we did to Iona on

00:34:46.913 --> 00:34:50.593
the big cura and developing traditional sailing

00:34:50.593 --> 00:34:57.233
skills locally things like that they all pile up and it was really nice for

00:34:57.233 --> 00:35:03.173
somebody local to be given that accolade you know it's actually handy at times

00:35:03.173 --> 00:35:08.893
sadly to be able to use the title doctor when you're dealing with authority.

00:35:10.353 --> 00:35:15.853
They do actually sit up and take a bit more notice I treat you with a bit more respect.

00:35:16.473 --> 00:35:20.853
Well, it's well-deserved for your contributions. So you mentioned the Causeway

00:35:20.853 --> 00:35:22.733
Coastline Kayak Association.

00:35:23.773 --> 00:35:26.793
And tell us about the North Coast Sea Kayak Trail.

00:35:27.353 --> 00:35:34.153
Yeah, back in 1985, when I did my coach award, you had to do a project.

00:35:34.473 --> 00:35:38.873
And I actually rode up a kayak trail for the whole North Coast back then.

00:35:39.053 --> 00:35:43.693
But more recently then, the Countryside Access Activities Network.

00:35:44.653 --> 00:35:50.093
They formalized that and produced a lovely brochure, and you can look it up

00:35:50.093 --> 00:35:53.473
online, along with a number of other trails.

00:35:53.713 --> 00:35:56.773
We have a trail on the East Coast, we have a trail on the Foyle,

00:35:57.093 --> 00:35:59.733
which takes you up into the city of Derry, London Derry.

00:36:00.313 --> 00:36:03.913
And there are a number of inland trails as well. So, you know,

00:36:03.953 --> 00:36:07.673
there are great opportunities for people to do research. It makes it an awful

00:36:07.673 --> 00:36:11.333
lot easier for visitors coming across here.

00:36:13.464 --> 00:36:18.444
But the trail, you could paddle our coastline. People circumnavigating Ireland,

00:36:18.584 --> 00:36:20.744
obviously they pass this way.

00:36:21.824 --> 00:36:25.984
Some of them will do the entire causeway coastline in a day,

00:36:26.684 --> 00:36:31.524
but you could actually divide it up into probably a two-day trip nicely,

00:36:31.804 --> 00:36:33.344
taking a break halfway along.

00:36:33.344 --> 00:36:38.964
If you want to explore the beauty of the area, then to explore the caves and

00:36:38.964 --> 00:36:41.484
the sea arches and so on and get close to the coast.

00:36:42.304 --> 00:36:47.744
I would allow two days, really, to do this bit of coast from McGilligan Point

00:36:47.744 --> 00:36:52.744
at the entrance of Loch Fowl around as far as the glens of Antrim.

00:36:53.024 --> 00:36:58.504
So you would be paddling the north coast and the northeast corner of Ireland.

00:36:58.824 --> 00:37:02.484
If you wanted to take in Rathlin, then you would allow a day,

00:37:02.584 --> 00:37:06.824
really, to explore Rathlin properly, to circumnavigate Rathlin.

00:37:06.824 --> 00:37:13.484
But it's quite funny I would encounter most of the circumnavigators in this

00:37:13.484 --> 00:37:17.864
area and you'll try and say don't miss seeing the cave,

00:37:18.064 --> 00:37:25.484
the castle and the beauty and they nod and they acknowledge your advice they

00:37:25.484 --> 00:37:31.384
are happy to get your title maybe title information but then they'll just go out,

00:37:32.344 --> 00:37:37.904
directly offshore and go like a rocket to not even see the coastline yeah.

00:37:39.059 --> 00:37:43.059
But, you know, it's quite interesting. It is an interesting enough area to explore.

00:37:43.419 --> 00:37:46.179
Yeah, from what you've described, you know, you mentioned you could do it in

00:37:46.179 --> 00:37:49.439
one day, you could do it in two, and it sounds like you could do,

00:37:49.579 --> 00:37:53.779
you could take weeks and not experience the same thing in any one of those paddles.

00:37:54.439 --> 00:37:58.539
Yeah, no, you definitely could easily spend a week up here, you know,

00:37:58.599 --> 00:37:59.999
to do each area properly.

00:38:00.419 --> 00:38:04.039
And also then to spend time, you know, you could vary your paddling.

00:38:04.179 --> 00:38:07.419
If the weather was too bad to do a section of coastline, you could always surf,

00:38:07.939 --> 00:38:10.279
spend a half a day or a day in the surf.

00:38:11.419 --> 00:38:15.999
So there's plenty to be doing. Yeah, it's funny when I've talked to folks that

00:38:15.999 --> 00:38:17.739
have circumnavigated, I often

00:38:17.739 --> 00:38:20.499
ask the question, what would you do different if you would do it again?

00:38:20.659 --> 00:38:25.079
And the most common answer to that question is I would slow down.

00:38:25.259 --> 00:38:30.139
I would take more time and really experience the coastline. Yeah, yeah.

00:38:31.219 --> 00:38:36.999
It's always been a dream of mine to circumnavigate, But I have so many different

00:38:36.999 --> 00:38:39.899
things that I suppose I put ahead of paddling.

00:38:40.759 --> 00:38:46.339
You know, ideally, I could have paddled all over the world and explored so many different places.

00:38:46.639 --> 00:38:49.399
But I also put family as a priority.

00:38:50.679 --> 00:38:55.179
And I've been able to do a lot. I've explored a lot of the west coast of Ireland.

00:38:55.479 --> 00:39:01.479
And, you know, I love to get out onto the islands on the west coast and Connemar and Donegal and so on.

00:39:01.479 --> 00:39:06.699
But it's also important for me, for the next generation for my grandchildren,

00:39:06.839 --> 00:39:08.599
my children had the opportunity,

00:39:08.939 --> 00:39:16.539
now my grandchildren are getting the opportunities and I want to share as much with them to do that.

00:39:17.699 --> 00:39:22.379
I have also other things going on in my life regarding the sea you know,

00:39:22.459 --> 00:39:27.899
I keep an active group of traditional boat folk going, we call them dronthem

00:39:27.899 --> 00:39:30.959
boats, they're a Norwegian designer boat, so,

00:39:31.848 --> 00:39:37.848
Back about 20 years ago, they were going to be in decline and really forgotten about.

00:39:38.508 --> 00:39:44.008
And I realized, having seen wrecks of them on some of the islands in Donegal,

00:39:44.528 --> 00:39:48.608
that this was probably a whole history that was coming to an end.

00:39:49.208 --> 00:39:54.908
And I managed to get permission off an old fisherman to take his wreck of a

00:39:54.908 --> 00:39:59.708
boat. and a friend who builds kayaks took a mould off that boat,

00:39:59.788 --> 00:40:02.328
a 22-foot open rowing sailing boat.

00:40:02.948 --> 00:40:06.448
And now we have, I think there's 17 of them in existence.

00:40:06.908 --> 00:40:13.928
So had we not taken a step back then, over 20 years ago, that particular type

00:40:13.928 --> 00:40:15.888
of historic boat would have probably disappeared.

00:40:16.468 --> 00:40:22.068
So I'm involved in projects like that and of an old sailing vessel,

00:40:22.068 --> 00:40:29.288
so quite a famous yacht that was built in 1936, and I was given permission to salvage her.

00:40:30.188 --> 00:40:34.808
And she's actually part of the maritime history of Ireland, in that books the

00:40:34.808 --> 00:40:41.188
previous owner circumnavigated had written books about the coastline of Ireland and so on.

00:40:41.608 --> 00:40:47.168
And when Boris Yeltsin was in power in Russia,

00:40:47.488 --> 00:40:50.548
and Russia was starting to open up to the west a bit,

00:40:50.548 --> 00:40:56.568
This man actually got permission to take the yacht from the White Sea north

00:40:56.568 --> 00:41:03.168
of Norway through the canals and lakes and rivers of Russia into the White Sea,

00:41:03.348 --> 00:41:07.748
or sorry, from the White Sea to the Black Sea, and then on back round to Ireland.

00:41:08.228 --> 00:41:12.848
So after that voyage, this yacht actually foundered on our coastline,

00:41:13.028 --> 00:41:15.628
and I was given permission to raise her.

00:41:15.828 --> 00:41:20.208
So quite a few things going on.

00:41:21.468 --> 00:41:24.808
Regarding the ocean. Now, do you sail that boat often?

00:41:25.328 --> 00:41:29.528
I do. I use her to keep up contacts with the folk in Scotland.

00:41:30.128 --> 00:41:33.828
I would have a lot of connections up in the islands in Scotland.

00:41:34.288 --> 00:41:39.468
And again, I love that because in the past, there were terrific connections

00:41:39.468 --> 00:41:43.168
between the islands of Scotland and this part of Ireland.

00:41:43.488 --> 00:41:46.948
And it's a way of keeping those connections alive.

00:41:47.608 --> 00:41:49.748
It's quite a classic old yacht.

00:41:50.548 --> 00:41:55.628
Yeah. You mentioned keeping those connections alive and inspiring the next generation

00:41:55.628 --> 00:41:59.548
to love the environment and protect what's around them.

00:41:59.668 --> 00:42:03.348
Now, how do you continue to do that with the sailing craft as well?

00:42:03.828 --> 00:42:06.848
I'd say with the traditional boats we have, the fishing boats,

00:42:07.068 --> 00:42:10.868
tronthons, that's a great way of keeping up those connections.

00:42:10.868 --> 00:42:15.488
And because it was in boats like that, that the fishermen literally,

00:42:15.888 --> 00:42:20.248
you know, if a gale came, quite often the boats from the north coast of Ireland

00:42:20.248 --> 00:42:26.508
would get driven across to Scottish islands and people would stay with the islanders.

00:42:27.842 --> 00:42:32.142
They would stay with the folks in Scotland and vice versa, so that as Scottish

00:42:32.142 --> 00:42:37.862
men or Donegal folk, so out to the west of us as well, that often happened.

00:42:38.082 --> 00:42:42.702
If there was a westerly gale, which was quite common, boats would get blown

00:42:42.702 --> 00:42:44.242
across onto our coastline.

00:42:44.862 --> 00:42:49.482
Families would take care of the fishermen until the weather settled enough that

00:42:49.482 --> 00:42:51.062
they could go back to their own community.

00:42:51.962 --> 00:42:56.002
So there's like a triangle. You talk about the Bermuda Triangle.

00:42:57.002 --> 00:43:01.682
We have the North Channel triangle where, you know, you have Donegal to the

00:43:01.682 --> 00:43:04.922
west, you have the north coast of Ireland, and you have the south,

00:43:05.122 --> 00:43:08.942
the islands and the inner Hebrides to the north of us.

00:43:09.222 --> 00:43:15.562
And that triangle is actually very strong because the connections within that

00:43:15.562 --> 00:43:17.562
historically are very strong.

00:43:17.842 --> 00:43:22.262
And in a way, I sort of feel like we're keeping those connections alive.

00:43:23.402 --> 00:43:26.322
During the troubles those connections were broken

00:43:26.322 --> 00:43:29.422
because it was just a risk who

00:43:29.422 --> 00:43:32.382
was going to come here you know from scotland you avoided the

00:43:32.382 --> 00:43:37.322
place people from the south of the republic of ireland didn't come north because

00:43:37.322 --> 00:43:43.122
of fear basically and now we're in a situation thankfully in the last sort of

00:43:43.122 --> 00:43:51.262
20 years for that has settled and we're we're able to work below the radar that's what i I like is that,

00:43:51.302 --> 00:43:53.802
you know, you don't have to make a song and dance about it.

00:43:53.962 --> 00:43:59.522
You just quietly get on with building those connections and keeping those links alive.

00:44:00.002 --> 00:44:04.922
And what's lovely is where the sea in the past was seen as a barrier.

00:44:05.762 --> 00:44:09.042
In actual fact, it's a connection, it's a bridge.

00:44:09.242 --> 00:44:14.302
And all you need is a kayak or a boat or a car to, you know,

00:44:14.362 --> 00:44:15.722
to make use of that bridge.

00:44:16.282 --> 00:44:21.462
Speaking of connections you had mentioned folklore earlier and some of the rich

00:44:21.462 --> 00:44:26.082
folklore in the area and i think you'd mentioned finn mccool well tell us tell us that story.

00:44:26.987 --> 00:44:33.787
Yep, back whenever, and it would be before written history in Ireland,

00:44:34.267 --> 00:44:41.347
really writing only came and recording of events only came with the advent of Christianity.

00:44:42.107 --> 00:44:45.367
And that took place about 1400, 1500 years ago.

00:44:45.527 --> 00:44:51.747
So anything before that was kept in lore in the oral tradition.

00:44:51.747 --> 00:44:57.047
And the tradition was that the Scottish giant was jealous, Ben and Donner in

00:44:57.047 --> 00:45:03.247
Scotland was jealous of Finn McCool across in Ireland so in order to come and

00:45:03.247 --> 00:45:05.687
fight him he built the causeway,

00:45:06.007 --> 00:45:12.367
a footpath across the ocean over the 30 miles and whenever Ben and Donner came

00:45:12.367 --> 00:45:18.627
across on the causeway Finn's wife Una And in Ireland, we revere our women.

00:45:20.107 --> 00:45:25.347
Una, being why, saw that Ben and Donner was twice the size of Finn,

00:45:25.707 --> 00:45:28.467
her husband, the Irish giant.

00:45:28.727 --> 00:45:34.547
So what she did was got him to get into the cot, the bed of the baby,

00:45:34.747 --> 00:45:37.907
and pretended that Finn was her baby.

00:45:37.907 --> 00:45:43.967
So when Ben and Donner came and saw the size of the baby of Finn McCool who

00:45:43.967 --> 00:45:49.427
was actually thin he then hightailed it back off to Scotland, he didn't want to fight,

00:45:50.069 --> 00:45:54.989
father, and he tore up the causeway link between Ireland and Scotland.

00:45:55.249 --> 00:45:59.049
So that's the local sort of gen on him.

00:45:59.249 --> 00:46:05.149
But there are many different... Finn was attributed with creating the Isle of Man.

00:46:05.349 --> 00:46:09.969
We have a large lake in the middle of Ulster called Loch Ney,

00:46:10.109 --> 00:46:14.989
and it's almost exactly the same shape and outline as the Isle of Man.

00:46:15.229 --> 00:46:19.529
The legend, again, attributed to that is that Finn lifted it up.

00:46:20.289 --> 00:46:27.969
He lifted the shot of Ulster and threw it over towards Britain and it landed as the Isle of Man.

00:46:28.249 --> 00:46:31.229
So he was quite a powerful giant not to be messed with.

00:46:32.769 --> 00:46:37.229
Well, while that causeway may have been torn up, it certainly doesn't sound

00:46:37.229 --> 00:46:41.629
like the relationships between the people were torn up.

00:46:42.209 --> 00:46:46.629
So thank you for the effort that you've made in continuing those connections

00:46:46.629 --> 00:46:48.249
and continuing those relationships.

00:46:48.549 --> 00:46:50.849
You had mentioned wildlife earlier.

00:46:51.569 --> 00:46:57.169
Tell us a little bit about the wildlife in the area. Yeah, we have on Rathlin

00:46:57.169 --> 00:47:04.329
in particular, on the west end of Rathlin Island, there are superb colonies of seabirds.

00:47:04.629 --> 00:47:09.989
And it's as good as you would see anywhere in the world, where you have razorbills,

00:47:10.309 --> 00:47:15.009
guillemots, and puffin colonies, kittywakes, and fulmer.

00:47:15.429 --> 00:47:22.689
So we have about five major species of seabirds that in springtime,

00:47:22.809 --> 00:47:26.489
in another month or so now, they'll be starting to come back in off the ocean

00:47:26.489 --> 00:47:28.189
and gather on the cliffs.

00:47:28.409 --> 00:47:31.329
And that's as good as you will see anywhere in the world.

00:47:31.989 --> 00:47:35.609
Dotted along the coastline, again, we have kittawake colonies.

00:47:36.584 --> 00:47:42.324
Guillemots and razorbills. There's a unique sort of situation at Carrick or

00:47:42.324 --> 00:47:46.324
Reed Island, which is a fishery. It's an old salmon fishery.

00:47:46.504 --> 00:47:51.784
So this coastline would have been very famous in the past for salmon fishing,

00:47:52.024 --> 00:47:55.364
where the fish coming back from

00:47:55.364 --> 00:48:00.084
Greenland, where they fed to find their rivers that they were born in,

00:48:00.504 --> 00:48:02.584
they were netted along the coastline.

00:48:02.584 --> 00:48:05.964
And in the last sort of 15 years

00:48:05.964 --> 00:48:09.664
that fishery actually has had to close because the numbers

00:48:09.664 --> 00:48:13.144
were in decline to such an extent that the wild

00:48:13.144 --> 00:48:19.264
salmon the wild Irish salmon was under threat but certainly in the past salmon

00:48:19.264 --> 00:48:26.164
and eels the other significant I suppose marine species will have in a way is

00:48:26.164 --> 00:48:32.784
the European eel and that lake I talked about Loch Nye that Finn Macool made.

00:48:34.104 --> 00:48:39.084
There's a very thriving eel fishery there, but the incredible lifestyle of the

00:48:39.084 --> 00:48:47.124
eel is such that it then goes off into the ocean and crosses to the Sargasso to breed.

00:48:47.124 --> 00:48:53.484
So it goes almost across to the Caribbean from Ireland to hay eggs,

00:48:53.624 --> 00:48:59.464
and the elvers then make their way back across the ocean to come back into the

00:48:59.464 --> 00:49:04.844
rivers and up in the lakes of Ireland and of Europe, which is an incredible journey.

00:49:05.823 --> 00:49:10.723
So in a way it's almost the reverse of the salmon what the eel does is in its

00:49:10.723 --> 00:49:16.443
adult form it's in the lake and as its egg stage,

00:49:16.683 --> 00:49:22.983
larval stage it's in the ocean the salmon is the opposite the salmon is born

00:49:22.983 --> 00:49:27.663
in the mountain streams and then goes to the ocean to become an adult and to

00:49:27.663 --> 00:49:32.023
grow in size but the other,

00:49:32.263 --> 00:49:35.883
I suppose on marine cetaceans We have porpoises,

00:49:36.743 --> 00:49:37.723
the harbour porpoise.

00:49:37.863 --> 00:49:40.943
We have a local colony of those.

00:49:41.163 --> 00:49:46.903
We have bottlenose dolphins that have been coming back to the area now regularly.

00:49:47.523 --> 00:49:51.383
And, you know, all summer you have a good chance of encountering dolphins.

00:49:52.523 --> 00:49:56.003
The other part, we get gannets.

00:49:56.343 --> 00:50:01.043
The gannet comes from Scotland. There's a colony of gannets about 50 miles away.

00:50:01.043 --> 00:50:04.743
And we get them on our coastline all summer.

00:50:04.903 --> 00:50:10.763
When the weather is particularly bad, the gannets will come across a seed along our shoreline.

00:50:11.003 --> 00:50:15.123
So we see those very spectacular bird plunge diving.

00:50:15.543 --> 00:50:21.403
They'll go into a glide, hover, and then crash into the sea very spectacularly.

00:50:22.343 --> 00:50:27.903
So those would be the main marine end of things. Of course, we have common seals,

00:50:28.543 --> 00:50:30.083
the harbour seal or common seal.

00:50:31.043 --> 00:50:37.363
And grey, the Atlantic grey as well. On Rathland, there would be quite a lot of Atlantic grey seals.

00:50:38.003 --> 00:50:41.303
Locally on the Skerry Islands, we would have common seals.

00:50:42.391 --> 00:50:47.631
So you've got cliffs, you've got surf beaches, you've got sand,

00:50:47.911 --> 00:50:51.971
you've got castles, you've got bird life, you've got marine life.

00:50:52.191 --> 00:50:53.871
What else could you ask for there?

00:50:55.071 --> 00:50:58.511
In the history of the area. In the history of the area, yeah.

00:50:58.951 --> 00:51:01.871
And amazing geology. Sounds like a wonderful place.

00:51:02.411 --> 00:51:07.671
It is, yeah. I could do it a few more islands offshore to break the swell day

00:51:07.671 --> 00:51:09.431
on time, but you can't have everything.

00:51:09.431 --> 00:51:17.151
I mean, where I live, Donegal is only an hour and a half away to drive to some

00:51:17.151 --> 00:51:20.851
of the most, I honestly think, from a sea kayaker's point of view,

00:51:21.071 --> 00:51:25.091
it probably is the Mecca, where you have fjords,

00:51:25.491 --> 00:51:29.371
basically you have sea locks, big sea locks that are full of interest.

00:51:29.711 --> 00:51:35.811
You have committing headlands, you have offshore islands, and you have the wildlife

00:51:35.811 --> 00:51:39.571
and the history as well, but that's only a few hours away.

00:51:40.591 --> 00:51:47.691
So now we're up in quite an exposed area here, but you do have sheltered water

00:51:47.691 --> 00:51:50.851
not that far away or more sheltered water, yeah.

00:51:51.211 --> 00:51:55.731
So if someone were coming to the area, what resources might you recommend that

00:51:55.731 --> 00:52:00.711
someone check into or are there numerous guide services in the area that can

00:52:00.711 --> 00:52:03.331
help folks out and have them really experience the area?

00:52:04.031 --> 00:52:09.131
Yeah, probably the easiest way is there are folks I have finished with guiding,

00:52:09.411 --> 00:52:12.251
but there are others have taken on the responsibility.

00:52:12.671 --> 00:52:18.231
So there's at least one local operator, Paddle North, a lad who's in the kayak

00:52:18.231 --> 00:52:20.231
club with us, Steve Smith.

00:52:20.491 --> 00:52:26.211
So for somebody wanting to paddle locally, he's probably the best contact on this coastline.

00:52:26.331 --> 00:52:30.131
This is his home ground, and he knows it intimately.

00:52:31.071 --> 00:52:36.671
And the same with Donegal, who's James O'Donnell. I forget the name of the company

00:52:36.671 --> 00:52:42.431
that he works with, but he has his own business as well for guiding up and around Donegal.

00:52:44.031 --> 00:52:51.111
And tragically, we lost one of our top paddlers to a cruel disease, motor neurone disease.

00:52:52.431 --> 00:52:58.351
Adrian Harkin, who you may have come across. Adrian would have been probably

00:52:58.351 --> 00:53:01.011
the most able of any of the guides up in this area.

00:53:01.011 --> 00:53:06.111
But sadly he lost his life a few years ago just to that cruel disease,

00:53:06.811 --> 00:53:14.271
but one positive if I just put this in that came out of that is that his friends and his brother,

00:53:14.531 --> 00:53:22.931
his family we arranged to circumnavigate Ireland in a day but it was actually a terrific,

00:53:23.611 --> 00:53:29.391
way of bringing everybody together and we did successfully complete that for

00:53:29.391 --> 00:53:35.351
every bit of the coastline of Ireland was paddled within a 24 hour period and

00:53:35.351 --> 00:53:39.551
we linked up and a lot of money was raised for that,

00:53:40.213 --> 00:53:44.873
the Mother Neuron Society or whatever of Ireland out of that.

00:53:45.113 --> 00:53:49.133
But no, a tragic loss, cruel, cruel disease. We lost Adrian.

00:53:50.213 --> 00:53:54.953
That was a great effort. And I wished I had the opportunity to speak with him.

00:53:55.033 --> 00:54:00.813
We were trying to connect and we did not have time, unfortunately, to put that together.

00:54:02.313 --> 00:54:07.013
Well, we'll put some of those links to resources, including the North Coast

00:54:07.013 --> 00:54:11.093
Sea Kayak Trail and Causeway Coast Club. and we'll put those in the show notes

00:54:11.093 --> 00:54:15.973
so folks can find that information and make their own connections to the area.

00:54:17.393 --> 00:54:22.393
So how can listeners connect with you? Probably through Messenger.

00:54:22.753 --> 00:54:30.153
I'm of an era where either through email or probably through Facebook Messenger or something.

00:54:30.433 --> 00:54:35.773
I do have a Facebook page. I did have a website, but to be honest,

00:54:35.773 --> 00:54:42.253
I closed that down because it was just becoming, in a way, you know, it's quite a tie.

00:54:42.493 --> 00:54:45.913
I know at this stage of my life, value every day.

00:54:47.913 --> 00:54:52.713
And I didn't want to be tied down to commitments to guiding and so on at the

00:54:52.713 --> 00:54:58.013
time of year that now I could be sailing or, you know, taking my family out on the ocean.

00:54:58.893 --> 00:55:03.753
So I've sort of stepped aside. I'm quite happy to give advice to folks.

00:55:03.753 --> 00:55:09.673
Somebody was really stuck for a kayak or something, although most of my kayaks,

00:55:09.753 --> 00:55:15.853
I have a collection of early sea kayaks, which I've gathered up over the years.

00:55:16.093 --> 00:55:21.833
So almost like the first model of each of the family of kayaks that were produced

00:55:21.833 --> 00:55:24.653
in fiberglass, they have a collection of those.

00:55:24.873 --> 00:55:30.273
So they're not that suitable. They're all quite, you know, ocean cockpit and that side.

00:55:30.273 --> 00:55:35.193
The kayaks that I used for guiding I actually sold off which would have been

00:55:35.193 --> 00:55:39.813
more suitable for people to borrow but no, quite an interesting collection of boats,

00:55:39.913 --> 00:55:48.453
what will happen when I go I don't know but even down to early skin on frame Percy Blandford,

00:55:49.073 --> 00:55:53.993
kayaks, I have shingles and doubles of those, I have plywood shingle kayaks

00:55:53.993 --> 00:56:00.233
and doubles I have a number of folding kayaks that were either donated to me or that I rescued.

00:56:01.253 --> 00:56:05.933
And one particularly interesting one I'll just say to you is that a family gave

00:56:05.933 --> 00:56:09.473
me a double folding kayak, an East German design.

00:56:10.053 --> 00:56:15.633
And about 10 years after they donated it, they asked me, would I put it together

00:56:15.633 --> 00:56:18.213
and take out an elderly lady in it?

00:56:18.513 --> 00:56:23.813
And it turned out to be a fascinating story. This woman who had owned this kayak

00:56:23.813 --> 00:56:28.673
with her husband, she had grown up in Germany during the Second World War.

00:56:29.173 --> 00:56:32.713
Her husband was a British soldier. After the war she married,

00:56:32.873 --> 00:56:35.793
she was a nurse in Germany as a young teenager.

00:56:36.846 --> 00:56:39.986
As in her teenage years and early adulthood.

00:56:40.926 --> 00:56:45.266
And after the war, she married a British soldier. She came to live in Northern Ireland.

00:56:45.586 --> 00:56:51.546
But with this kayak, she had paddled in the lakes of Poland, probably in her 70s.

00:56:51.846 --> 00:56:58.066
On her 90th birthday, I took her kayaking locally in the kayak.

00:56:58.306 --> 00:57:03.346
And she had thought that the kayak had been destroyed. She didn't know that I had it.

00:57:04.026 --> 00:57:09.006
And the family brought her to our harbour where I was sitting with her kayak

00:57:09.006 --> 00:57:15.286
built up ready to go in the harbour they brought her down and she couldn't believe

00:57:15.286 --> 00:57:16.566
it she nearly had a heart attack.

00:57:17.726 --> 00:57:22.546
She couldn't believe that her kayak was still on the go but what's fascinating

00:57:22.546 --> 00:57:30.166
is she wrote a diary as a young German girl growing up under the Third Reich which she then,

00:57:30.306 --> 00:57:33.846
the family gave me a copy of her diary which I treasure,

00:57:34.206 --> 00:57:40.326
but it's almost like the mirror image of the Anne Frank diary,

00:57:40.426 --> 00:57:43.046
which many people will be aware of.

00:57:43.266 --> 00:57:48.306
Now, I think that lady, this is about 15 years ago. She's probably dead now.

00:57:48.466 --> 00:57:52.006
I'm sure she's passed away. But it's really interesting, you know,

00:57:52.046 --> 00:57:54.346
to have something like that. I'll bet.

00:57:55.126 --> 00:57:58.386
Yeah, a story, and to have met somebody like that, you know. Yeah.

00:57:59.006 --> 00:58:04.546
And, and for you to have been able to, to recreate that experience for her is wonderful.

00:58:07.927 --> 00:58:10.647
One final question that i have for you who else would

00:58:10.647 --> 00:58:16.647
you like to hear as a future guest on paddling the blue there's a

00:58:16.647 --> 00:58:20.407
couple of people that i have in mind who i would need to get their permission

00:58:20.407 --> 00:58:27.887
but i would love to hear or to have there's a local kayak raymond rowe who worked

00:58:27.887 --> 00:58:31.487
in the national outdoor centre in Wales, Plaza Brennan.

00:58:32.287 --> 00:58:40.247
Raymond had a huge influence back in the 1980s through the 90s on the development

00:58:40.247 --> 00:58:42.187
of safety features in kayaks.

00:58:42.467 --> 00:58:50.427
He was also a very capable, competitive racing paddler, expedition paddler.

00:58:50.667 --> 00:59:00.647
He also edited the coaching handbook for kayaking in Britain and so on and so

00:59:00.647 --> 00:59:04.027
Raymond would be one that would have a terrific story to tell.

00:59:04.687 --> 00:59:07.867
There's another lad, Howard Jeff, who lives in Nottingham.

00:59:08.027 --> 00:59:14.207
Howard worked with Valley Canoe Products and other canoe building companies

00:59:14.207 --> 00:59:21.507
but also designed and developed his own kayaks and wrote guides to sea kayaking.

00:59:22.327 --> 00:59:25.827
So Howard would be another, you know, from the whole fabrication sort of point

00:59:25.827 --> 00:59:29.107
of view and development of sea kayaking design.

00:59:29.647 --> 00:59:33.747
And then locally, there's a lady, Sonia Keeney.

00:59:33.887 --> 00:59:37.787
Sonia circumnavigated a number of years ago, and I would have,

00:59:37.867 --> 00:59:40.347
you know, known Sonia before that.

00:59:40.587 --> 00:59:47.147
But also to get the story of a female, you know, very capable lady paddler.

00:59:47.147 --> 00:59:52.347
And not just these people are not just paddlers but they're also good people,

00:59:53.027 --> 00:59:57.807
and you know I wouldn't recommend anybody that I didn't feel no but you know

00:59:57.807 --> 01:00:02.247
what I mean that they have real character and have contributed a huge amount

01:00:02.247 --> 01:00:06.927
to the whole development of something that I I love and

01:00:07.364 --> 01:00:11.604
That's fantastic. Thank you. Thanks for the referral. So I'll work with you

01:00:11.604 --> 01:00:15.584
and we'll make connections with Raymond, with Sonia and Howard.

01:00:17.144 --> 01:00:20.604
This has been wonderful. Thank you for the opportunity to hear from you and

01:00:20.604 --> 01:00:24.564
to learn your history and your contributions to the sport. Congratulations on

01:00:24.564 --> 01:00:25.724
making those contributions.

01:00:26.304 --> 01:00:29.624
And thank you for that. And thank you for the years to come.

01:00:30.344 --> 01:00:37.104
I do appreciate the effort that you put in to generating these podcasts.

01:00:37.364 --> 01:00:42.364
And there are stories that need to be retained and told.

01:00:42.724 --> 01:00:46.524
And sadly, we have lost so much in the past.

01:00:46.764 --> 01:00:53.924
I had the privilege, because of the period that I was coming through and seeing

01:00:53.924 --> 01:00:58.244
almost a progression from canvas kayaks through to plywood,

01:00:58.684 --> 01:01:04.564
through to cyber glass, through to plastic, through now back to canvas again.

01:01:05.504 --> 01:01:10.464
But also I had the privilege of meeting people like Oliver Cock who was one

01:01:10.464 --> 01:01:16.324
of the founders of canoeing in Britain and so on I actually have a,

01:01:17.084 --> 01:01:22.944
Rob Roy kayak that I managed to get that was going to be destroyed from a castle

01:01:22.944 --> 01:01:29.024
down in County Antrim and somebody managed to save that from being destroyed

01:01:29.024 --> 01:01:33.204
and passed it on to me and that was made back in 1890,

01:01:34.084 --> 01:01:35.264
literally about 1890.

01:01:36.124 --> 01:01:40.944
So I have that that I want to restore. It needs to be fixed a bit,

01:01:41.064 --> 01:01:44.044
but it's pretty much 99% intact.

01:01:44.684 --> 01:01:49.784
But all those characters, you know, through the years and the whole development

01:01:49.784 --> 01:01:52.184
of sea kayaking in Britain and Ireland,

01:01:52.484 --> 01:01:57.944
it's been a real privilege to meet folks that are now, you only see their names

01:01:57.944 --> 01:02:01.824
on books, you know, like literally the history of kayaking and so on.

01:02:02.024 --> 01:02:06.064
Yeah. Yeah, for me, that's really been a fun part of this entire process is

01:02:06.064 --> 01:02:10.464
documenting that history and making sure that those stories are all heard.

01:02:10.884 --> 01:02:12.864
Yeah. Okay. Awesome. Thank you.

01:02:13.904 --> 01:02:17.764
If you want to be a stronger and more efficient paddler, Power to the Paddle

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The concept and exercises in this book have helped me become a better paddler,

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So visit PaddlingExercises.com to get the book and companion DVD.

01:03:00.469 --> 01:03:03.789
Thank you, Dr. Robin Riddick, for your contributions to the sport of kayaking,

01:03:04.069 --> 01:03:08.549
your community, marine history and conservation, and for your family-first approach.

01:03:08.849 --> 01:03:11.929
Visit the show notes for links to the North Coast Sea Kayak Trail,

01:03:12.269 --> 01:03:15.669
the Causeway Coast Kayak Club, Giants Causeway, and more.

01:03:15.949 --> 01:03:21.369
And thanks again to our partners at OnlineSeaKayaking.com and now OnlineWhitewater.com

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01:03:32.929 --> 01:03:35.949
Until next time, thanks again for listening, and I look forward to bringing

01:03:35.949 --> 01:03:38.329
you the next episode of Paddling the Blue.

01:03:39.289 --> 01:03:42.849
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01:03:42.849 --> 01:03:48.149
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01:03:48.329 --> 01:03:51.289
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01:03:51.449 --> 01:03:53.149
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01:03:53.329 --> 01:03:56.589
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01:03:56.729 --> 01:04:02.349
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01:04:02.429 --> 01:04:05.629
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01:04:06.800 --> 01:04:11.829
Music.