Caithness Kayak Club was set up in the first six months or so of the year 1977, with a constitution brought together by Dennis Mann, Bill Bruce, Graham Robertson, Willie Watt and Rob Christie among others. The aims of the club were to promote canoeing in Caithness and to provide a continuing opportunity for young people to pursue the sport after leaving school. This has succeeded down through the years, even although school activities are now severely limited. Some of the old faces are still around, although in more modern boats.

The first record of a club exhibition in existing records is on the 23^rd of July 1977, when twelve paddlers covered the stretch from Dunbeath to Lybster. They paddled in two groups, which included Graham Robertson, Willie Watt, Wilson Gove, Bill Bruce and Iain Baikie.

The club then organised to sponsored paddles to raise money for equipment and such. Wick to Duncansby, which was planned for the August of 1997, was aborted due to extreme winds at Noss. However, Loch More to Thurso (a river trip) was successful in the spring of 1978.

On the 3^rd of September 1977, we visited Eilean nan Ronin. Later that year, in November, we were still building KW7’s. 1978 was a year of continued river and sea paddling, with Snipe riverboats being moulded in the autumn.

The spring of 1979 was cut short by bad weather and the summer that followed wasn’t any better. Although in April three paddlers, Bill Bruce, Wilson Gove and Willie Watt, managed to paddle the River Naver from the loch to the sea. Bill Bruce stated in his log in 1979 "Most unsettled summer I can recall, lucky to have canoed at all".

In September 1980 we made our classic trip from Scrabster to John o’ Groats, hitting the fog bank off Dunnet Head and paddling east for two hours until the Stroma horn unnerved us and sent us in to the shore off Mey. On this trip we paddled for 5 ½ hours, 7 in the party, with a mixture of KW7’s, skuas and Bill Bruce’s Baidarka. Looking back it seems incredible to have completed such trip in a motley collection of boats.

1981 into '82 saw similar paddles. Between the 31^st of August and 5^th of September 1982 we purchased a sectional garage from Georgemas station and re-erected it at the shore at Ackergill, courtesy of Angie Macaulay, where we still keep our boats and equipment. To celebrate this, sixteen of the club paddlers had a windy trip around the bay.

Surfing was popular from the very early days, initially in vintage SL3’s, then KW7’s and on into Snipes. In 1983 Robert Christie and Richie Gunn moulded the first surf shoes and they began to surf the Thurso East and Sewage Pipe breaks. Surf skis began to appear at competitions there in 1984 and were soon popular with some club members.

In 1984 the club split into two, with the newly spawned off Pentland Canoe Club operating on the north side of the county, while Caithness Kayak Club continued to be Wick based. A certain amount of friendly rivalry was evident from the early stages, but both clubs shared meets, something that has continued to this day.

Regular expeditions became a feature of the clubs programme. These included midsummer trips like the Dunbeath to Wick in 1980. Landing at Clyth around midnight to camp; and Huna to Wick sleeping on the rock shelf at Aukingill in 1981, with Robert Christie super keen to get us up to see the sunrise at a very early, and not so popular hour! Eilean nan Roinn was a popular autumn venue.

As the eighties moved on we became more active in the Pentland Firth and expeditions to Orkney became a feature of the annual calendar. The circumnavigation of Stroma was a regular challenge. The programme was drawn up each February and well publicised. The club rounded Cape Wrath eastwards in 1988, then westwards in 1995. Orkney expeditions took place in 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1994, and 1995. Bad weather in 1992 and 1998 forced us to paddle the north Coast instead, camping overnight on Eilean Nan Roinn and then paddling east around Strathy Point to Portskerra.

Membership has fluctuated over the years. The early nineties saw the most paddlers out regularly. The 1990 expedition to Suilven saw 16 paddlers in open canoes and kayaks paddle up Loch Veyatie and reach the summit. The climax of that day was not the paddling but KC’s sudden announcement he was going to parachute back to the loch side! Out came a paraglider, and there was absolute silence as the wind caught his rig, seemed to push him backward, and then away he went, soaring like an eagle. He landed 50 metres from the boats, about 45 minutes before we got back down.

In 1992 we had 44 paddlers involved in one event, and trips were well attended as at Stroma in 1995. The Club regatta in 1993 saw 30 paddlers partaking of a buffet lunch at the shed and enjoying competitions in the Bay.

In the early 90’s there were 50 paid up members, including a healthy family membership. Barbecues were always popular and this tradition has been continued with a 2001 event on the day of tarring the shed, and a popular 2002 one at Aukengill linked to the annual SCA Cruising Meet.

Paddling the Pentland Firth was always a challenge for the sea enthusiasts and various routes were popular including rounding Dunnet Head, visiting Stroma, circumnavigating Stroma and the even more challenging visits to Swona and the Pentland Skerries. The latter is the ultimate" prize", not always attainable, as it requires immaculate planning and favourable weather. Trips there took place in 1991 (twice) and 1998. One of the 1991 trips included the coveted" triangle" of Stroma, Swona and the Skerries. In 2002 a small group from the SCA cruising meet were beaten back by adverse tides. Club folklore talks of a Glenmore Lodge group who had to be rescued by the Pentland Venture when swept onto the Skerries while on a trip to Orkney!

In the late nineties a small group of adventurous club members took up "rodeo" paddling in the tide race on the ebb at the Knee of Duncansby. The well defined "Rispie Race" was accessed from Sannick Bay in river boats and provided some exciting paddling for Rob, Robbie, Gordon, Neil and others. On the cruising meet in 2000 part of the group ran the race in full flow in sea kayaks.

The club began to organise SCA cruising meets in the early nineties, first by Bill B, then by Bob S. To begin with there were few paddlers from the south who made the effort to join us. Those who did enjoyed the exploration of the East Coast cliffs and trips in the Firth, including Stroma. From 2000 onwards we began to get many more south based paddlers. 2002 saw 17 paddlers run the Firth west bound and round Dunnet head. Of these only six were north kayakers.

In 2000 the Bruce’s came back from Canada very enthusiastic about the double kayak paddling they had done there. In 2001 they imported, after much use of the Internet, a Hyak double by Nimbus Kayaks of BC. They paddled over 500 km, including Fort William to Inverness and on up the coast to Scrabster in the first season.

Each autumn and winter we had pool training, practising techniques best learnt in warm water. For many years we did this in the small pool at Wick High School with 4 or 5 boats, then we moved to the larger Wick Swimming Pool with the scope of up to 8 boats. We regularly applied to the local sports council for grants for equipment and coaching and were always well supported. We usually had a delegate representing water sports on the executive committee, although attending these lengthy meetings was never a popular part of paddling!

More recent history 2004 onwards

With a very healthy membership of over 60 the club was starting to struggle with our now outdated equipment. A concerted effort to raise funds to help purchase new boats was instigated with a sponsored paddle arranged to run the wick river, however due to poor weather and unsuitable water levels we had to reconvene at loch Watten for a still water paddle. Some family groups and young members enthusiastically set of round the loch in a motley collection of boats from short river boats to the larger open Canadian canoes. This successfully raised us several hundred pounds. We also managed a day bag packing shopping at the local safeways supermarket, again several hundred pounds were collected. With donations from local employers Rockwater UKAEA and Rolls Royce this brought our total up to £1500. When you consider the price of a new sea kayak starts at around the £1000 mark we realised that we would need some serious help with the task ahead. This is where the National lottery came in to play. After finding out about the possibility of an awards for all grant we discovered that we might be eligible for up  to £5000. This made our task a lot easier and our goal became closer to reality. So by the summer of 2005 we saw the arrival of 4 new sea kayaks, 4 river boats and 2 junior kayaks along with the associated spray decks and paddles. These new boats saw the first club outing at Loch Watten for one of the clubs family days and a further family outing at Dunbeath.

Since then the boats have been well used by junior, youth and adult members in the pool for training, on the sea, in the surf and on some of the local rivers. This was great, a healthy club membership with new modern design boats, The new equipment very quickly highlighted how poor and outdated our old equipment was. With the coming outdoor season approaching I can see these new boats will be in great demand. So far the new boats have helped some of our members achieve the 3 star BCU award and we hope to get some members up through the qualification process and then we will have some new club coaches. We are now in the position to offer the star training to all club members and we will be pursuing this program throughout the coming season. The club would like to thank Awards for All for making this possible www.awardsforall.org.uk

2006

With new members and new boats we realised that we would need a renewed fundraising effort would be required to update and replace some of our older boats. We were very pleased to receive a cheque for £500 from the Liam Henderson memorial fund

We have also had another successful bag packing at Summerfield's supermarket and raised £588
The Caithness Partnership have given us £470 This will help us purchase new junior and pool boats.

This May saw the club take a trip out to Eilan Nan Ron. With adult and youth members heading out for an overnight camp with a trip to Neeve Island on the way back on saturday. Challenging seas were well handled with our new Capella sea kayaks. This trip would not have been possible in our older boats as they would not have been fit for the prevailing conditions. We now hope to up the fundraising to increase our fleet of modern boats allowing more members access to such trips.