As many of you will know, for many years Kari-Tek's Geoff Turner has run a December sea kayak trip on Loch Etive. The trip is described as a "grade A paddle involving grade C camping", includes an overnight camp at the lochside and is the end of season social event!

In previous years this trip has been run by Geoff under the auspices of the Scottish Canoe Association (SCA) Touring Calendar, but this year was the first in which the trip was run as an independent trip by Geoff.

The trip was a great success with 22 paddlers braving the winter chill to be rewarded by fantastic views of the snow covered Etive hills, a great campsite and a memorable evening.

"Bright sunshine, lovely, cold and dry and a fair wind to push us up and down the loch! Scottish Sea Kayak Touring as it should be". "A very enjoyable weekend.  ...spectacular scenery and a roaring fire...most enjoyable" . "A wonderful trip, and I totally recommend it! A family trip! Its on every year so you have no excuse". "Enticing 20+ paddlers away from the central heating out onto the water in December- masterful!!!"

You can see Flickr gallery of images here - thanks to all the contributors. We look forward to seeing you all again next year!

Kari-Tek 's wire skeg design has been selected tor use by all three team members of the 2011 attempt to kayak from Scotland to Norway, following the route of the wartime "Shetland Bus".

As team member Patrick Winterton explains: "Skeg: no argument here. We've all gone for the Karitek wire skeg. Deep, strong, easily operated even with frozen fingers and most importantly of all you seldom have to take two consecutive strokes on the same side. Whatever the wind aspect it helps you track as direct as a gannet's dive and that includes Force 6 and up where so many other skegs fail."

We were also delighted that the team chose our Flat Earth kayak sails to be a critical part of the expedition. "We’ve tested them in force 6 in the tide-races off Anglesey and although we need to tweak the rigging and decrease the stretch on the stays we had great results. No capsize, no problem with breaking waves and bags full of adrenalin." Read more about the expedition here.

You can find out more about our Skeg Systems here and about our Flat Earth kayak sails here. And of course you can see and try them out for yourself at our Ayrshire showroom.

We expect to be able to supply spare parts for the Hydro-Skeg - in the unlikely event that they are needed - for the forseeable future.

Our full range of wire and rope operated skegs continues to be available. Sharing the same blade and cassette design as the Hydro-Skeg, the unique Kari-Tek designs give class-leading performance and offer excellent value. The wire skeg gives nearly the same precision and "feel" as the Hydro-Skeg and is immune to wire kinks and glider jams. The entry level rope system beats other rope skegs hands down in terms of responsiveness and feedback.

It's no surprise that Kari-Tek's wire skeg was selected as the skeg of choice for the 2011 attempt to be the first to kayak from Scotland to Norway (see above) and continues to be chosen by other top paddlers. You know that you can continue to rely on Kari-Tek for when you need a skeg that works! More details>

Karitek's first Mid West Sea Kayak Symposium proved to be a great success. We're already planning a repeat for 2012 - watch this space for details.

Our Symposium, targetted at beginners and novices/improvers, gives a much more personal experience than you might find elsewhere. Our aim is for you to thoroughly enjoy the weekend and to come away with a new or much improved set of kayaking skills.

Symposium places are strictly limited and must be pre-booked. You can read more at the Mid West Sea Kayak Symposium website www.midwestsymposium.co.uk

Karitek are delighted to now be European distributor for Flat Earth Sails from Australia. Flat Earth sails are shaped, battened sails specially designed by professional sailmakers for sea kayaks.

The result is a lightweight, responsive sail that is a joy to use and will change the way you think about sea kayak sailing. It’s robust, simple to deploy or store and doesn’t get in the way of your paddling. The kit comes with easy-to-follow fitting instructions and you can transfer the sail between kayaks.

Flat Earth Sails have been extensively tested in Scottish waters by well-known kayaker Douglas Wilcox. He says “Mick’s design is absolutely stunning. It’s a proper sail, made by an expert sailmaker. I have literally been blown away by these sails.” Read Douglas’ product review at seakayakphoto.blogspot.com.

Take a look at the new sails in our Ayrshire showroom, or try them for yourselves in our demo fleet. They're available online now at a special introductory price: click for details.

We're proud to announce the arrival of two new names at Kari-Tek. The P&H Delphin and the Rockpool Taran are both now available in our demo fleet.

The Delphin turns traditional sea kayak design on its head with the cockpit moved backwards and the stern squared off so the bow just kisses the water, making for a super manoeuverable boat that still tracks well.

The Taran is an innovative and ground breaking super fast touring kayak, designed to break records. It has already taken 2 hours off the best time for an Isle of Man circumnavigation.

You can take a look at the new arrivals in our Ayrshire shop or try them for yourselves at our demo days.

We've a new range of T shirts in stock this summer specially designed for kayakers and canoeists by Ayrshire company Fresh Fish Clothing. With fun designs and a range of colours, these good quality tee shirts come at a good price - from £15 +pp. We took them to the Anglesey Symposium in May and they went down a storm! Perfect for wearing off the water with eye-catching designs for sea paddlers, whitewater enthusiasts and open canoeists alike. Available in our Ayrshire shop.

2010 will see an exciting new development in sea kayaks. For the first time, you will be able to buy a British designed sea kayak made from the revolutionary Carbonlite2000 material.

Rockpool's popular, high performance, touring sea kayak the Alaw Bach is now available in Carbonlite. This amazing material is perfect for sea kayaks, bringing all the advantages of fibreglass at a significant price saving.

Carbonlite has the same glossy look and feel as fibreglass, and gives the same excellent performance on the water. It's extremely tough, yet, like fibreglass, it can be repaired easily and scratches are readily polished out. Weight wise, there is little difference between the Carbonlite Alaw Bach and its fibreglass sister. There's more on this new material below.

As Scottish agent for Rockpool, Kari-Tek are delighted to be taking orders now for this exciting new development. The Carbonlite Alaw Bach will be available with deck in one of 4 colours or white, all with a white hull. Price is from £1850 (collected from our Ayrshire base), delivery expected Feb 2010 - in perfect time for next year's paddling season!

The Carbonlite Alaw Bachs will be in-store from Saturday 17 April. Stocks from this first batch are strictly limited - come along to our Ayrshire showroom to take a look!

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