My friend Trent moved to Scotland and when I visited him in April (to paddle surfski) I also got to meet and paddle with Lena Kraus, a German paddler living just outside Edinburgh. We both shared the passion for surfski and training, intervalls, pulse curves, competing, beautiful nature and nice food. She seemed to be a bit lonely in her training so I invited her to beautiful Sweden to come and train with us and to learn some more about surfing and waves. It came to be one of the best surfski weeks ever with a great mix of beautiful and mighty downwinds and sessions in magic summer weather. Both Lena and I (we both like writing) felt that this is an experience we have to share and to remember.

From Lena’s blog post:

Emma, Chloe and I met briefly before the Westcoast Downwinder at the Shaw & Partners WA Race Week in Australia, just before Worlds last year. Around the same time, Trent moved from where they live in Sweden to where I live in Scotland, and we started training together. When Emma came to visit Trent, I got to show her some of my favourite spots near North Berwick and further along the East coast of Scotland. We shared some lovely paddles and great food and conversations, and Emma invited me to visit her in Sweden. Life got busy with UK selection races and some stressful months at work, and I very nearly missed this opportunity. Luckily, Emma checked back in (‘I’m assuming you won’t be here on Monday because I haven’t heard anything?’), leading to us discovering a miscommunication and me actually showing up three days later on a very spontaneously-booked flight. I worked like crazy over the weekend to finish off a project and make this happen, and it was SO worth it – I had the best paddling week ever.  Despite the unofficial theme song of the week, we spent most of our time ON the sea, starting with a gentle paddle near the summer house, stopping to jump off some rocks. Trent had generously lent me his boat (an NK Nitro 600) for the week, which was fantastic as this is the boat I will be using for world championships in Madeira this year. To have a chance to get used to it beforehand was invaluable. The sea was smooth and we played around with some remounts/re-entries and 360s – I still struggled a bit in the unfamiliar craft.

On Tuesday, I had to put in another full workday, finishing off a second project. Chloe planned the timings perfectly so I could have a swim with her and Emma before lunch. In the evening, I got to experience the Jontis-Training and Surfski-Fika I had so often seen on Emma’s Instagram. She leads a training session on the fjord there each Tuesday evening, and participants all bring something for a picnic afterwards. I really loved the session, some tough intervals. During the last set, Emma made us do remounts between efforts (this meant we had 20 seconds for each), which was perfect to help me get more confident remounting the Nitro: I was a little too slow on the first, just in time for the second and easily in time for the last. Especially as I usually train on my own, I enjoyed this session with a big group so much. Everybody was lovely, and the Fika was, of course, delicious.

On Wednesday, we had mellow downwind conditions (9m/s avg), perfect for a longer paddle! Emma, Chloe and I set off from Varberg, Emma paddled to Jontis to shuttle by bike and train (Thank you!) so Chloe and I could paddle back home to the summer house. We had a lovely 36km downwind with great runs and some bigger waves in between. I learned some fantastic Surfski games from Chloe, as well as receiving some feedback that really improved my downwind paddling (about how to paddle down bigger waves to link them up better).

On Thursday, Chloe and I were joined by Ullis for another interval session and some more games and remounts. This was, of course, followed by fika and lovely chats. Always great to meet other dedicated sportswomen!

Friday gave us the perfect wind conditions for a fjord downwind finishing at Jontis, which we did twice (Anki kindly shuttled the car for us for the second round, which made the day much easier – wind around 15 m/s from the South and very gusty. We had torrential rain for most of it and perfect, beautiful waves to paddle, especially for round two. I was able to put what I’d learned on Wednesday into practice and was super comfortable in the Nitro by then. This was probably my favourite downwind I’ve done so far. I’ve been focussing on strength training lately and could feel how my increased core strength gave me so much stability and flexibility on the waves. I also noticed how much of a difference it made that the water was so warm compared to Scotland – the fjord felt like the perfect playground and I loved every minute. On the way back, we were thinking about how lucky we are to have something this fun to do with a rainy day. What a treat to try lax och potatis for dinner that day after warming up with several rounds of sauna! 

Saturday was another two-downwind day (how lucky were we with the conditions! 12 m/s from the West and sunny again). We drove to Marstrand and I got the chance to tourist for a bit with Emma, before we met up with Örjan, Daniel, Anki and Johanna (Happy Birthday!) for a downwind on Älgfjorden followed by two kinds of cake, tea and coffee. Örjan shuttled Emma’s car for us so we could go for round 2, I was in the NK double with Emma which was just lovely (we only had one brief interruption to our paddling flow when a little fish got scooped up into the front bucket when we paddled down a bigger wave). It was so nice for me to sit in the back of the double and follow Emma’s lead – our coordination got better and better during the run as I learned her paddling patterns.

Sunday – if I had to decide – was probably the highlight of the week. Chloe and Emma organised a test race to trial a new timing and tracking system on a downwind from Arild to Ängelholm. It was amazing to race with a group of strong paddlers in the biggest conditions I’ve been in so far: quite a few waves were about 2.5m in height and very steep (wind: 12 m/s). I tried my best and am super happy with how I did in the race, but I did get frustrated around the middle of it when it felt like I just couldn’t link anything, was always racing down a wave and then being almost stationary before I got to catch the next one. I felt better about it when I heard the others had felt similarly after the race. I really enjoyed the shore break, but fell in just before I reached the beach when the waves were already quite small. I must have lost my focus and was a little bit annoyed about it at the time. In hindsight, it’s funny, and a good reminder to hold onto the ski with my feet, another thing I learned during this week. Emma went to fetch her car (thank you!) while I joined Leif, Otto and Leo for fika in the sun.

I’m so grateful to Emma for inviting me, and to her and Chloe for giving me the gift of such an amazing week. It has been one of the best paddling weeks of my life. The great conditions helped, of course, but the people were the most important. It’s so beautiful how the paddling community helps each other out with kit when we visit different places. I felt so welcome and included with everybody I met, at Jonttis, for the downwinds, and for the test race. This week has given me such a boost, I feel much less alone in my paddling and much better prepared for worlds in Madeira. How lovely to spend time with other (mildly?) obsessed paddlers and discuss technique, training and statistics over yummy dinners.

//Lena Kraus

Curious about downwinds on the Swedish westcoast? Check out my downwind guide here!

Some more pictures from the week