About

• Axel Schoevers
• the Netherlands
• this website
• copyright

About Axel Schoevers

BCU Level 4 Sea Coach / Assessor 4 Sea / 5* Sea NKB Hoofdinstructeur Zeekajakvaren

After extensive solo backpacking trips in the western and north-western states of the USA, Canada and Alaska between 1988 and 1993 Axel took up kayaking in 1994. In that year he paddled from his home town of Rijswijk all the way to the tidal harbour of Noordpolderzijl in the northeast along inland waterways; a 21 day and 650 km solo trip.

In 1995 he started sea kayaking with the national Peddelpraat (translates as "Paddle Talk") club and attended their annual sea camps ever since.

From 1997 he organised his own trips and expeditions with friends to Isle of Mull (1997), Shetland (1998), West coast of Chichagof and Yakobi Island in Alaska (1999), German Bight (2000), Islay (2001), Outer Hebrides (2002) and Faroe Islands (2004). In 2003 he paddled around the Netherlands by sea kayak; 1241 km in 28 days.

By assisting at sea camps and club trips he got into coaching and guiding. He became a Dutch sea kayaking instructor in 2001. At about the same time, during visits to the Anglesey Sea Symposium, he entered the BCU coaching scheme to become an Aspirant Level-5/A4 sea coach holding 5-star sea. In 2004 he gained the ACA Advanced Open Water Coastal Kayak Instructor qualification. He is a member of the Peddelpraat and NKB sea kayaking committees and the NKB coaching committee. He guides trips in Wales and Scotland.

He likes photography and he wrote articles for Peddelpraat, NKB and Sea Kayaker Magazine and gives lectures about his trips, and among them, at the "Op Pad" national outdoor show. Many of his trip reports and pictures are now on-line on this web-site.

Check out Axel's Web Journal for his latest adventures!

About the Netherlands

The western and northern shores of the Netherlands face the North Sea. Germany is on the eastern border and Belgium is in the south. The southwest (Zeeland estuaries) and the north (Waddenzee) are prime sea kayaking areas. Planning a trip there involves taking tides, currents and the weather into consideration. Apart from the natural beauty, paddling in these areas is therefore a navigational challenge and requires good judgment of ones own ability. The Netherlands has numerous lakes, rivers and canals that offer interesting and scenic routes along the cultural, historic and industrial heritage of the Netherlands.

Check out information on the Netherlands.

About this website

Over the years I have made many sea kayaking trips. I keep a diary or log on most of my trips. A number of the trip reports resulted in articles for the club newsletter "Peddelpraat".

The trip reports are now on-line and are organized chronologically; from recent to old. Recent trip reports are in Englisch language, older ones are in Dutch language.

A chosen trip report is shown in the main browser window. The website menu can be made available again by clicking the "Back" (Terug) link. The text is shown in the right-hand-side frame. Pictures are shown in the left-hand-side frame; one at the time and preloading the next. Some pictures are shown automatically after a 10-second interval (slide-show). Pictures and text are sometimes interlinked. Clicking on a paragraph link in the text frame will show the accompanying picture in the picture frame. Clicking through the pictures with "Previous" (Vorige), "First" (Eerste) or "Next" (Volgende) links might jump to the accompanying paragraph in the text. Clicking on a picture will show a high resolution picture in a separate window. Clicking on the "Index" link will show thumbnails of all pictures in a separate window. Because of webspace considerations not all high resolution pictures are available on-line.

The required screen resolution is '800 by 600 pixels' with at least 256 colours. The trip reports are optimized for a screen resolution of '1024 by 768 pixels' and '16-bit color'.

The web layout makes use of frames en JavaScript™.

All information is also available without the use of frames and/or JavaScript™.

JavaScript™ is used for:
- Displaying an arrow on 'MouseOver' events in menu frames.
- Displaying "date last modified" below documents.
- Displaying moon phase (made by James Thiele).
- Displaying moving sea kayak (IE6 en NS6).
- Displaying random buoyage, overfall and "Robbie".
- Preloading next picture.
- Special effects on showing pictures (IE6).
- Showing pictures in menu, logbook and photo gallery pages.
- Returning to previous page link.

JavaScript™ is required for:
- Forms.

There is no use of 'cookies'.

The sea kayak background image is an original design by Shawna Franklin.

About copyright

The copyright of all trip reports and pictures belongs to A.M. Schoevers, unless stated otherwise. None of the trip reports and pictures may be copied, reproduced, or linked to through the internet, without prior written permission of the copyright holder.