Kayaking Isle of Man - Douglas.

I've never paddled out of Douglas before. Perhaps it has been the stories of roof racked kayaks overhanging the pavement which earned threats of parking tickets for their owners, which put me off! It may be my imagination but the 2 hour traffic zones do seem to have grown recently. Despite all this, Ian and myself decided to risk the wrath of the Douglas parking attendants, and paddled from Douglas around to the Groudle. The brisk winds slowed us down on the outward trip, but propelled us homeward at breakneck speed. There was even time for a pint in the Queens pub and no parking tickets were earned, although "lifting and handling" guidelines may have been compromised!
www.KAYAK.im

Isle of Man Kayaking - New Kayaking Directory.

I've been messing around with databases and directories. It's been part of my attempt to teach myself PHP and SQL. To help me learn how to do this I've created a kayaking directory and then added some basic search options. These new found skills are designed to be used on a bigger, better www.KAYAK.im which will arrive in a few months time. But in the meantime I've added the simple directory to the current site. On the new site the search facilities will be somewhat more sophisticated but at present you can just search the database by country. There are 101 commercial kayaking outlets in there, although some of the details I have entered may not be quite up to scratch, especially when they are not in English! I've emailed all those entered to let them know I will make any changes they may want, or to delete them if they wish. You can find the directory here, and if you want to input your kayaking operation, then you can do it here.
www.KAYAK.im

Isle of Man Kayaking - Sinking Feeling.

Just a few pictures from this weekends paddles around the Calf and in the Sound. But yes, Ian is still in his kayak!?
www.KAYAK.im

Isle of Man Kayaking - Cluttered!

My mind is as cluttered as my garage at the moment. The car was long ago expelled outside to make way for my 5 kayaks and multiple sets of gear. It's been a combination of work issues and web development that's responsible for my mental turmoil. The former is always negative but the latter offers "green shoots" of hope. You may have noticed the "login" which has appeared on KAYAK. Behind this are a series of forms feeding, working and extracting from a couple of databases. And it all seems to be working now. The last few days were spent sorting out the security. I really don't want to get my site hacked, or to be inundated by offers of instant, fabulous wealth if I would only send my credit card details to Nigeria! The former issue has been partly solved by separating the servers. If when the data input forms go live I do acquire a nasty little virus most of the site will remain immune, as the two servers are now 5000 miles apart.
So what's all this in aid of. Well, KAYAK will change a bit soon. There's a new design on the way which is a progression of the current design, but which utilizes precious web real estate more efficiently. The site will maintain and in fact increase it's Manx content, but in addition there will be more general kayaking pages. I hope to make it a source of more general kayaking and equipment knowledge. Of course the latter takes time and there will be some opportunity for readers to add comments or reviews, hence the databases. There will also be up to date kayaking news with live feeds to the home page. This will take time however, and in the meantime the current site will have to do.
www.KAYAK.im

Isle of Man Kayaking - White Emulsion.

Don't get me wrong, I love my new Mega surf boat. It's as lite as a feather. It surfs like a dream. I really like the visible Kevlar. The red cockpit rim sets off the awesome marbled body beautifully. All I'm saying is that it's amazing what you can achieve with an old paint brush and a tin of white emulsion! (lower photograph of black and white marble effect)
www.KAYAK.im

Isle of Man Kayaking - 200!

I guess this is a milestone. It's the 200th posting on Isle of Man Kayakblog!
Sarah, Jess, Ian and myself headed out of Port St Mary on Saturday. It really wasn't easy to know where to set off from. You could choose your own weather, as few of the meteorological web sites agreed. As it was we had an awkward Southerly wind at force 5 creating some quite large rollers and breakers as we headed down to the Sound. Wet work followed, not all of it intentional it has to be said. Boy is that water cold. It was also great to catch up with Jan, Terry and Jenny.
www.KAYAK.im

Isle of Man Kayaking - MySQL!

My brain is full of MySQL, php, asp, xml, APACHE and more. I'm trying to figure out data bases and dynamic web sites! So far it's going well, but it does make your brain hurt! I've achieved every thing I've tried to so far but at the same time I've achieved nothing. It's a bit like building your own car from scratch. You may well construct the engine, wheels and body but if you can't make the steering wheel then it's useless. Building dynamic web sites certainly involves many hurdles, and all have to be achieved for these "clever" web pages to work properly. Still, if my car analogy is anything to go by I would guess that if I can build the engine, then making a steering wheel should be a cinch! Only a few more things to figure out .......
www.KAYAK.im