Qajaq USA event and qajaq building class Vestfossen

Delmarva Paddlers Retreat - the big 30!

I've been so lucky to attend this wonderful Qajaq USA event for four times now and it just gets more and more fun to attend because you get to know people there so well. This year was the 30th ever Delmarva and number 18th of being a traditional Qajaq event only. There is a number of other Qajaq USA events and rumor has it that we are going to visit a hole new event next year.

Last year Jannie came with me, and this year we were lucky to be able to share it with my kids also. We got to stay two days in New York with Melanie and Milton before heading south, which was a great little adventure. At Delmarva Åsmund did a little mentoring and both Solveig and Sissel did some new rolls. And most important: we all got our seal of approval! 

Jannie had qajaq padding and strokes workshops and I did my first ever paddle making class in USA combined with a discussion panel and builders talking. This year the focus was on maker workshops and one could make mittens, seasocks, harpoons, floatbags or fit your qajaq/kayak or make paddles. 

Last my old mentor Svend Ulstrup attended also which gave me the chance to see him again. Svend build a new qajaq for the Qajaq USA fleet and everyone enjoyed and benefited from his large experience and number of good stories. 

Back home again I jumped right into a new building class. The last one in 2018. Seven handy people are working hard in this moment, to build a bunch of lovely skin on frames that should be finished at the end of this week.

Today the weather was very nice and warm for a fall day here in Norway So we decided to take a little break to give a short introduction to rolling and rescues in SOF Qajaqs.

Ooops... I almost forgot... there is a new paddle in the shop, Arnaq - a women's paddle. More on that one later. It deserves it's own blog post :)!