Few thinks rocket you into summer faster than a journey south. Our whirlwind tour took us first to Venice, Italy, where we took part in the flamboyant festival called the Vogalonga. A rally rather than race, this long standing annual event begins in the canals of Venice, and is routed out into the lagoon to loop through the island towns of Burano and Merano, returning to the Venice canals to finish by traveling the length of grand Canal. With more than 6,000 participants in 1,600 paddle or oar powered boats, the lighthearted chaos was predictable. The sun shone down on dragon boats, gondolas, canoes and rowing sculls, kayaks and rowing barges... a fantastic multinational event with costumes and classy rigs... a clash of oars here and there in the bottleneck into Grand Canal... and an evening cruise back to the put-in! I highly recommend this one! Check my blog... kayaking stuff

After Vogalonga Kristin and I remained in Italy for a week of classes, fine and visiting old cities such as Padova, with the connecting river to the lagoon lined with the summer palaces of the former Venician society figures... including royalty. See Bibione Kayak's web-site for details of next years event!

Summer moves north. We did too... as far as Stockholm Sweden in the first hop... to connect with Point65 and teach some classes from Pampas Kayak's wonderful central Stockholm on-the-water location. For the occasion, the gates were lowered on the sluice beside the locks that fall to salt-ish water to the east side of the city. We shot the resulting rapids in sea kayaks and played in the currents below... quite a special experience in mid-city.

Njord runs a sea kayak symposium west of Bergen Norway this time of year. We stopped in overnight and watched Justine Curvingen and Barry's presentation about their trip around South Island New Zealand.. a popular destination for circumnavigating this year. After the talk in the old boathouse a local band played traditional music while the young kayaking crowd danced till the wee hours, boots clomping the dust from the wooden floors, and the breeze blowing through the building from the fjord.

Sadly we had to leave next morning to catch the ferry to the Faroe Islands... a day and overnight, arriving early morning. We were to have the whole day on the islands. I can't say it's changed much since I was there last... a bit more development, and the streets still sleepy yet showing signs of the last night's revelry. Nothing much happens early morning. We had to wait a few hours before we were able to get coffee and breakfast. But with drizzle settling in, we caught a bus across the island to visit a couple of historical museums, and walked through the parks and gardens of Thorshavn. Even from the city you can see the tide racing off the points and the surface erupting into white breaking waves of tide races and overfalls. The Faroe Islands have the most magical sea kayak playspots I can imagine. It's mostly the western cliffs I think of when I reminisce, but I recall one day paddling across from Thorshavn to Nolsoy, and finding a dead whale floating in the harbor. On another visit four of us spent a night in persistent rain on the hill of Nolsoy watching the storm petrels, and the few shearwaters, returning to their nests under cover of darkness... and we almost missed the ferry next morning.

It was Kristin's first visit to the islands and she loved it there. You'll find some of her impressions on her blog. We were there this time just for one day before the ferry left again for Iceland with us on board....

It seems as if snow is on the menu for Seattle this year! Having left town once again for the south I heard that Seattle had acquired a half-inch layer of snow, which rapidly threatened to fill the tulips already in bloom!

Florida was warm and sunny as I rode with Russell (Sweetwater Kayaks) to Charleston South Carolina. I've contributed to the East Coast Canoe and Kayak Festival for more years than any other event in USA, and I keep returning because of the wonderful hospitality, relaxed atmosphere and enthusiastic participants. But this year, not counting the wonderful contribution by Karen Knight and Bob Foote, there seemed to be a radical absence of canoes. There were none of the previous lines of open canoes. What's going on in the canoe world?

Thanks Wendy Wicke, Josh and Steve and all the many staff and volunteers that made the event a success once again!

After the event Wendy treated us to a gentle tour of historic Charleston; a truly relaxing day that made me renew my vow to always take some time to "chill" between events. "Sometimes I just sit and think. Sometimes I just sit."

Jen Kleck's SW sea kayak symposium offered a great opportunity to escape what seemed to be a late sprinkle of snow in Seattle. Arriving in time to meet up with Sean Morley (who circumnavigated UK and other things before finding himself, like me, a Brit growing accustomed to life in the USA) and his van-load of VCP surf kayaks.), there was opportunity to play a little in the waves before the classes began. With typical sun, showers and breeze across Mission Bay for the symposium itself, we gathered in the evening around a roaring fire-pit to play guitar and sing, with Brent Reitze bending the notes on his blues harmonica until rain stopped play.
Jen's after-event play-time consists of a quick trip south across the border into Mexico (yes... brought the passport!) to thread between the rocks of a really pleasing rocky coast. My new kayak, the Whisky16, arrived in San Diego in time for us to take it with us.... it's the only one in USA right now! And it was awesome in the narrow channels! Easy to be precise when holding position in the foamy stuff, quick to slide away on a wave, and extremely nimble around the corners and through the tunnels! Great! Can't wait to use it more! Of course it is designed for just that kind of water, although it performed just fine on the calm waters of Mission Bay also, with paddlers from almost beginner up.

Bob Burnett and his crew from Seattle Raft and Kayak joined us for a day of "directional control" on the Puget Sound on Saturday. In keeping with typical Seattle stereotype weather we arrived at Golden Gardens to a cloudscape across the Sound with crisp chunks of brilliant white showing through the gaps. It might have been easy to mistake this for cloud, but the darker bits were definitely rock and a second glance revealed the Olympic Mountains plastered in snow and draped in cloud. The water was oily-calm and reflective, clear to the bottom and.... cool.
While we wandered the waters, scribing our signature turns across the silky surfaces the sky darkened for a gray shower or two. Several in the group decided to flip upside-down to shelter from the rain. But please! there is another way! Retreat to the Seattle cave system! Here there is an extensive amount of shelter and a good place for practicing that directional control!.... Here are a few images from "down-under".

There was a very brief entry on my little brother's blog "David J Foster Runs" on March 9th titled "Hey Bro!" and saying in total " 'nuff said? " The key to this cryptic entry aimed at me (his slightly older bro) was a photograph of the headstock of a guitar... a Gibson Les Paul Studio... the image showed enough of the fretboard for me to see dark wood...
That still left a few questions... such as which color? And did you pick up an amp for it yet? And where did you buy it? And how wide is your smile now?
"Wine red" answered the first. Wine red... which reminds me of an unfortunate incident in his previous life of his when a close friend of his tripped a glass of red wine in a stripe across ten feet of carpet, over a seat and up the wall and curtain almost to the top! Not a big deal really when you look at the big picture. White carpet. White furniture. White wall. White curtain. White ceiling. People who choose a totally white background in readiness for red wine stains deserve to find out what the big picture will look like. Wine-red is the "new white".
Since then David has moved house and his new living room does feature a certain amount of red, suggesting that unlike the Henry Art Gallery in Seattle, which offers a choice of only white wine or beer at it's social events, David has not abandoned red wine. I might wonder whether the wine-red color of the new Les Paul Studio guitar was chosen with particular care... or not?
The amp? "Not yet." I discovered. David is playing through a little box that offers all kinds of rhythms and amp effects and can listen in the privacy of his own head through headphones. Any suggestions out there for the perfect amp for a Gibson Les Paul Studio? (please no comments beginning with "it depends....")
The answer to the third was at the place on North Road in Brighton that Kristin and I checked out last time we were there... and yes, they do have a huge selection of guitars. It took Kristin a couple of days to pry me free... and I was only looking...
And finally... the smile.... for some reason Cheshire springs to mind... they make good cheese there, but that's not what I was thinking of. No, I was thinking of one of the most curious things Alice saw in all her life... the Cat, finally vanishing quite slowly, beginning with the end of its tail, and ending with the grin, which remained some time after the rest of it had gone. After talking to David on Skype and seeing and hearing his new instrument on video, I turned off my computer. I swear the smile remained embedded on the screen!

A lot of my kayaking friends are also musicians. Sweetwater Kayaks owner Russell Farrow is one. In a previous life he was a musician and sold vintage guitars. Recently in Florida for the Sweetwater Kayaks Gulf Coast Sea Kayaking symposium, a crowd of my friends jumped in the van and took off for Dunedin. Dunedin is a quirky little town on the waterfront a little north of St Petersburg, with some Scottish associations. It was in Dunedin church that Russell and Claudia got married, Russell clad in a Scottish kilt and Claudia in a magnificent dress she had created herself. Musician friends of Russell were hopping up on-stage at the reception, jamming together as if they'd had a lifetime of playing in the same band together.
This time we headed into the Dunedin brew pub, with a backdrop of copper vats and deep dark spaces. An open-mike evening, we listened through a variety of performers until  the tight-knit foursome of the Paul Sizewell Band roared into action, grabbing the attention of everyone in the hall. Russell had selected his vintage black Gibson Les Paul Custom guitar with maple binding and a matching skull-and-crossbones hat...
With a mix of Paul's own songs and well known classic rock the set was over all-too soon but it was an invigorating taster of what the band can pull together. next day Russell was back in his other mode; on the water in a kayak.

All photos by Joel Rogers

Weekends are never "weak" ends. Friday afternoon we drove up to see our friends Gene and Nadine in Bellingham, where we stayed the night. Breakfast with Gene Chris Mitchell, who reps "Reed" clothing and accessories in USA; (he was on his way south to Oregon by train) before meeting the"WAKE" kayak group on Lake Padden for a day class on directional control. It was a rainless day with some afternoon breaks in the cloud and some welcome sun, yet not as warm as Florida....
Our evening "task" was to reach the Seattle Opera House in time to watch a performance of Tosca. A wonderful performance and great seats! (Thanks Richard and Alice!) and the usual fascination of people-watching through the intervals. Of course the theme of Tosca is the classic tragic tale, where all the main characters are in love or in lust and are either murdered, executed or commit suicide. And then there was Sunday, getting up an hour later than expected due to the change to "summer-time" and not really minding at all!

In February I typically visit Florida for the Sweetwater Kayaks Gulf Coast Sea Kayak Symposium. This year was it's 12th year. Held at the Fort Desoto Park, the location where I filmed my sea kayaking instructional video series, it is a confidence-building symposium for kayakers of all ability levels. Warm water, highly skilled kayak coaches from across the world, and bright sand beaches make for a relaxed learning experience, and on or in-water learning is what this symposium is all about.
A week of courses build up to the weekend the symposium, but the fun need not finish there. This year we spent a few more days with Swedish friends Roland and Britta Johansson, Seattle photographer Joel Rogers, and our Florida friends Russell and Claudia Farrow exploring the local rivers and canoe trails, hiking the woods and hitting the city.
Considering the lack of altitude in Florida, the excitement of river paddling does not come from white-water! Instead it comes from close encounters with 10-foot alligators, lazy manatees in crystal clear water, flocks of bright coral pink roseate spoonbills, and schools of dolphins. It is the wildlife that keeps you engrossed. February is winter even in Florida so it's a good idea to bring warm clothing for when the cold fronts move through, but there is always the warmth of sun that we just don't get in Seattle yet to bring some color to pale cheeks. I've posted some manatee and alligator photos on my web-site... nigelkayaks.com Check it out... you might be tempted down to sunny Florida yourself for a spring break!

Everyone smiles and says "Hi!" in Seattle when it's sunny, like today! The perfect crisp clear morning, early sunlight gleaming on the snow-covered ridges of the Olympic Mountains, and Green Lake placid and reflective, if a little dulled by wind-chop in places. Once afloat we realized it was not wind but ice that dulled the surface, crystallized in fern-frond patterns. My canoe and Kristin's kayak ploughed noisily into the ice edge sending out small swells that spurted water up through cracks and holes in the ice ahead. A group of gulls stood motionless on the surface, reflected perfectly in the ice, but the ducks and coots stuck to the open water around the lake edges. Seattle winter mornings can be a treat!