Hamburg, Bornholm, Karlskrona
twenty days in the Alnes Ocean.

Alexander Keth paddles an NDK Pilgrim and knows exactly what he likes about it. This summer he took his own Alnes Ocean through twenty days of three very different trips: after-work paddles in the Port of Hamburg, surf sessions on the west coast of Bornholm, and rockhopping in the Swedish archipelago around Karlskrona. Then he wrote us a letter. These are his notes.

Club waters, container cranes, bridge pilings. Alex is straight about it: the Alnes is not a fast kayak, and at this length it cannot be. You notice it in a group that likes a brisk pace.

“That said, it isn't slow either. With good technique you can easily keep up with faster paddlers — you just have to put in a little more effort. Personally, I enjoyed that it makes trips a bit more athletic.”

The point, for him, is range: the touring side of the boat lets you reach the distant play spots that a dedicated surf kayak could never get to.

Bornholm is the family summer holiday, and from about Force 5 the exposed west coast builds a respectable, short-period wind swell. Pick your waves. Alex had those conditions several times.

“You almost forget you're paddling a sea kayak. The boat turns effortlessly on the spot — even in choppy waves and Force 7+. All that cumbersome effort simply disappears. It does exactly what you want it to do at all times.”

Then the moment every surfer knows: a wave mistimed, paddling far too late, the face steepening and breaking at cockpit level. A normal sea kayak buries its bow and goes vertical.

“The Alnes accelerated massively. Thanks to the huge volume in the bow and the pronounced rocker, the tip stayed above the water the entire time and I carved straight into the wave. An absolute adrenaline rush!”

Not rockhopping in the English or Welsh sense, Alex admits, but the outer belt of the Swedish archipelago is exposed to westerlies and seriously underrated. Inside it he scouted out vertical rock walls, one with a corner that reflects waves from several directions into a wedge. Half a metre of swell doubles against the rock.

“I spent 12 days pushing the boat to its limits every single day. Plenty of ‘joy marks’, as the Brits like to call them — but even a head-on collision with a rock wall left nothing more than a scrape. Excellent build quality!”

After the trip Alex was curious how his much-loved NDK Pilgrim would feel. Two things shocked him. The snug keyhole cockpit he had always appreciated suddenly felt claustrophobic in dynamic water. And the Pilgrim's edging, which he had always thought responsive, was nowhere near the same level.

“In a conventional sea kayak you suddenly feel as though you're travelling on rails. The playfulness of the Alnes is on an entirely different level — and to be honest, right now I don't know why I'd even want to paddle a conventional sea kayak anymore. Compared with the Alnes, it simply feels boring.”

His conclusion: stay open to something new. “Thanks to the Alnes Ocean, I've discovered what ocean play really means. And once you've experienced it, there's no going back.”