Clubbing

After a long period of work & family inspired absence from any club-based instruction, I got back out on the water on Sunday with my club mates from the NSWSKC.
The event was an intro to sea skills weekend at the club's stalwart venue, Bundeena & its iconic Bonnie vale campground. I put my hand up to help out on the Sunday with some instructing, after checking that Nic was happy to look after the kids on one of her precious Sundays (thanks again darlin'...)
The NSW club was where it all began for me as a paddler back in 2002, turning up to yet another Bundeena weekend organised by Rob Mercer to do a - wait for it - intro to sea proficiency weekend. I clearly remember telling Rob, Nick Gill & Andrew Eddy about some of the things I'd been up to solo with my dodgy, Napoleon Dynamite skills, in combination with an over-endowment of confidence (hey what's changed...) and watching their experienced eyes roll in unanimous disapproval. These guys took safety & skills acquisition seriously, and there was none of the dressing shed celebration of recklessness that provided most of the entertainment when I was running around Coogee Oval. Clearly, my ambition was writing cheques that my ability couldn't cash....
Back then it was the sea proficiency award, and the skills taught have evolved almost to an unrecognisable format from those first experiences for me of formal instruction. 
What hasn't changed is the selfless volunteerism of the club, the eagerness of novice & guru alike to share experiences & take part in what is essentially a fantastic entity for meeting like-minded folk & sharing in this amazing sport we call sea kayaking. 

A broad church - Matt Leonard in his timber boat with stick, off Jibbon Beach

On Sunday I had a group of reasonably inexperienced paddlers who were clearly dedicated to turning themselves into sea kayakers. The inescapable thing about sea kayaking is that if you're not out on the sea, well, it's just kayaking. The joys & rewards of our sport are magnified in the challenging environment of open water, but with that come the risks to manage, the skills to garner & the mental attitude to get committed. I'm a big believer in the old euphemism that you truly get out what you're prepared to put in. If you want to be a true sea kayaker, be prepared that you'll have to earn your right to safely progress to a skill level where you're not going to be a liability to your own safety or the safety of your paddle mates. I reckon it's very liberating deciding you're going to do something properly, and then knuckling down to do it right from the beginning, & ticking off the boxes as you acquire your skills.
The sea skills award in it's current incarnation is a very comprehensive course. You need to present your boat to a sea-ready standard. You need to be able to competently handle surf & self rescue, perform rescues on others, carry & understand the necessary safety kit, understand the weather forecast & it's application to the area in which you're paddling, and log a couple of decent open water paddles. Some think it's an unnecessary bureaucratic set of hoops, but I see a list of essentials for any aspiring sea kayaker, who doesn't want to end up hanging out of a Westpac chopper or worse. At the end of the day it's skill, not gear, that gets you through.

Owen Walton keeping a close eye on a rescue demo

The eight paddlers in my group ran through some basics of good rotation in forward stroke, & how that skill learned properly then makes it very easy to translate to a paddling system of blended strokes, that rely on the power of your torso to control your boat. We worked on some dynamic low bracing techniques, and then covered the several approaches to rescues. It was about 12 degrees, and the water was not too much warmer, yet everyone threw themselves into the exercises, dunking themselves into the wintery water, practicing rescues as the rescuer & the victim, and generally pushing themselves to the magic tipping point.
We finished off with self rescues, of course in my opinion there is no such thing that works in dire straits better than a good roll, and I think the point was proven as less than half of the willing participants managed a cowboy scramble, or whatever it's called nowadays. 
This club based training is great for visually getting a consolidated idea of what constitutes good technique. It gives new paddlers an opportunity to get into a supportive environment & learn new skills, but in reality it really only gives you a tiny taste of what's really required. Every paddler I know who has graduated to be a really competent ocean kayaker has worked & worked on their skills in a variety of conditions to get to where they are. My own development as a kayaker was accelerated by one-on-one sessions with paddlers much better than me, asking live questions in live conditions & 'learning by immersion', if you get my drift. The onus is really on the individual to get stuck in & get committed to a high standard, with short guide lights like club weekends or good commercial instruction there to correct course. What my club, the NSW Sea Kayak Club has goes far beyond a 'service based' training program. I get annoyed by people who sign up for the 'free training' then bugger off after a year, but maybe that is the nature of a consumer culture where we are constantly asking 'what's in it for me'?
I actually think the most valuable thing you get from a club like the NSWSKC is not the training, but the opportunity to get out on the sea safely & with more experienced paddlers on their terrific trips calendar. All of my own instruction in recent times has been trips based, I've never been a big fan of the 'gather 'round little paddlers & watch me while I do this' method of instructing. On a trip, you get to make your own mistakes & work things out for yourself, within the parameters of the basics that a good formal instruction session will provide. A novice paddler with a few good sessions of expert commercial instruction would be off to a flying start in a club environment.
My club has a sense of community & common purpose, it's a place to find peers with shared goals in their own paddling, and has a long & distinguished history of making the sport safer. I've had mates interstate telling me about the great gains being made by the Tasmanian Sea Canoeists (if you're from Tassie you get to call yourself a sea canoeist...), the VSKC & the burgeoning Queensland Sea Kayak Club, so these organisations are out there wherever you may be, to join up to, learn from, & hopefully contribute toward in return.
I thoroughly enjoyed my day on the water, and regret that for the moment three kids under 6 and three equally demanding business leave me with little time to contribute to the club. Thanks to my bunch of paddlers for a great day.....

Customised Boat Deadline

Only a week left if you're after a customised Valley or Rockpool boat in our September shipment. 
Options with Rockpool include your own customised art complete with glitter & metallic 'jewel' paint, starfish, the excellent & innovative Rockpool electric pump system, or a slightly lighter exotic Vac 2 layup, an HT Pack, or even a 3 piece boat made by a true expert in the craft. Check out the Rockpool Options page for details. Or, you could be the second person in the country to own the much copied, but still original & best tideracer, the Alaw or it's smaller sibling the Alaw Bach.

With Valley you're able to have a customised bulkhead & foot pump pre-installed, the bombproof Aerospace Vacuum Infused Carbon-Kevlar layup, and a colour scheme to match your Landrover, all made by the original British boat manufacturer....

Drop either Rob or myself a line before Friday if you'd like your own British boat custom built & here in time for the coming paddling season.

The Paddle to Seattle

This is one unusual sea kayaking DVD. Josh Thomas and J.J. Kelley are a pair of guys clearly taking the p-ss on most things as they set out to paddle the inside passage, 1200miles from Alaska to Seattle. They're not super skilful, experienced paddlers, their 'learn to roll' session and general skills during the movie demonstrate this, but theydecided on this adventure, built their own strip built boats & have made one of the funniest films I've seen for a long time. 
They weave the story of the small fishing communities they visit on the way through a very worthy trip full of sea life & amazing scenery. Their sense of humour is part self deprecating, Flight of the Conchords, part IT nerd in the outdoors, but clearly they are not inexperienced in being in the wild. Any trip of this length in this climate is a serious endeavour.
You know you're in for something when the first 3 minutes of the film are a monologue about what they wanted to call the film - Who's the Boss is taken, so is Everyone Loves Raymond, then they get the inspirational title 'Paddle to Seattle'. You get the drift....
The film has won about 100 awards at all of the North American film festivals on the circuit, and is a great way for paddlers to kill a couple of mid-winter hours in front of the telly.
You can order the DVD direct from these guys, it's only $20 and it arives about 4 days after you order.
In the mould of Beau Miles & his adventures these are two blokes worth supporting. If you buy enough of their DVD's they might make a sequel.
Their website is www.paddletoseattle.com

View from the Cliff Tops

A few months ago I took Geoff & Lynn Murray out for a paddle off Sydney Heads. One of Geoff's mates had a zoom lens & was busy snapping away from the top of the cliffs on North Head & Geoff has sent me a few of the pics. 

Geoff & Lynn Murray

Lynn, Mark & Geoff running along North Head

Lynn by a half head....

Chasing the wind waves

The water level photos look like this, a moderate day with the odd overhead wind swell of sea & some confused water, but from up above it all looks decidedly tame. It's a fair lesson to check things out from the water before you head around a headland if in doubt, the birds-eye view tends to moderate things a lot! 
(I think the snapper was Bob, so thanks again Geoff for sending through Bob's camera work...)

Wing Lift, Flat Blade Control - the Spoonbill Hybrid Paddle

Wing blades make you go faster, no question. Combined with a good high angle stroke a good wing blade will also train you very quickly to rotate properly & achieve an efficient, powerful forward stroke. But, and for sea kayakers it's a big but, even a big butt.....You really do need to apply yourself to learning the forward-of-the-boat strokes if you're going with a wing for all of your paddling, and you are much more likely to get a 'surprise' in the surf with technical strokes like bracing.
An elegant bow draw isn't impossible with a wing, but you have to be prepared to work a lot harder to get the knack of it using a blade shape that is designed primarily to catch & propel, rather than manoeuvre.

Rob & I are both huge believers in owning a good wing paddle to help develop good forward paddling technique, but also of course will always turn to a slalom shaped sea kayaking blade like a Bombora for any technical paddling we're likely to do. So, at a recent trade event we got very excited when our mate & forward stroke guru Amanda Rankin showed us the Spoonbill from Feather Paddles. It's a hybrid wing/flat design, moulded in a carbon graphite structure with a foam core, created to incorporate the excellent grip and forward propulsion of a wing paddle, but without the unpredictability when bracing or sculling. It has a strange looking lip on the 'catching edge' which gives the paddle wing-style lift, but retains enough of a forgiving flat surface to allow the more technical strokes that we use constantly in blending strokes whilst sea paddling. 

I have used the paddle now a couple of times & on the flat it gives a very authentic wing performance. In choppy water & manoeuvring at close quarters it doesn't quite have the superior grip that the Bombora offers, but it definitely doesn't misbehave the way my Mid Wing does if I'm careless with my blade placement. 

I've paddled with the old Lendal Kinetic Wing, which for years was the paddle I always thought would be my ultimate hybrid, and I think this Spoonbill has it covered in several directions, including wing performance, and a big one, weight (in the excellent carbon/graphite layup). 

We have a demo available for paddling, and stock on the shelf at $449.00.

Review - The Zegul 550

It's now been more than a month since we landed the exciting new Zegul range of boats from Tahe Marine. Of most interest to Rob & I has been the Zegul 550, a boat with so many of our 'ideal' boxes ticked that we have been hanging out to get our hands on one & really find out what it's capable of.
So, in the past month we've been getting the Zegul 550 out in as many & varied conditions as we can, and also handing our demo around to a wide range of paddlers to get their valued feedback & impressions.
While we haven't had the boat out 'in the middle of hell' yet, something we like to do with all of our boats to get a feel for the performance of the hull at the true pointy end of things, we do feel that we're now able to provide an accurate & honest appraisal of what the Zegul 550 can do, and of course, what it can't.

First & foremost, this boat is fast. I don't mean fast as in the typical Sea Kayaker review where you read that it can maintain 6 knots over a 200m burst, I mean a fast as in a genuine 9.5kmh cruiser over 12.5km. That puts it in the range of the two or three very fastest sea kayaks out there, including our own Wind 585, all of which are a full foot longer than the 550. The foredeck is very narrow & allows a great close catch, so a nice efficient forward stroke allows seriously powerful paddle drive, while the Swede hull form mirrors other performance speed kayaks like the QCC700 & other similar shapes. 
It's also the hardest tracking, lowest windage skeg boat that Rob & I have ever paddled. Born in the fiords of Scandinavia, where wind is the greatest danger, it is so neutral in the wind as to make the skeg an almost unnecessary inclusion. Thus far in testing we've been in winds topping 20 knots in lump & bump, and also on flatter water with less breeze, where most skeg boats can be annoying without a little skeg deployed. The Zegul tracks like an arrow, but happily requires only very small adjustments to edges when knocked off the rhumb line by a wave or current. A lot of stiff tracking boats are a real bugger to get back on line when shifted, not so the Zegul.

The rather innovative hull design, with a hard chine running from forward of the aft hatch to halfway between the seat & forward bulkhead makes the boat very stable. Even in confused seas & serious rebound, the Zegul is a 'photo snapper', one of those hulls that looks after you well enough to allow some challenging-water photography. The chines give way very quickly to an ultra sleek bow & stern profile which is the source of the super terminal hull speed, but most definitely the Zegul is one of the rare designs with a narrow beam, a great burst of speed & stability way above the average.
As far as build quality goes, the Zegul is a beautifully put together craft. The hull is a full carbon kevlar layup, constructed with cutting edge aerospace vacuum infusion technology, with a GRP deck. So keen were Zegul to manufacture something that was pleasing to the eye, they commissioned a consultant more versed in the arts of visual aesthetics to stylise the deck, and the results show, with nice lines accentuating several practical features. When was the last time you saw a clear carbon kevlar panel through a deck, with a de-bossed boat logo? No drama attracting attention when this little baby goes onto the roof racks!
Now, we've spent the past 3 years encouraging people into boats that have manoeuvrability as the key to their performance, so it is a definite anomaly to have a boat in our range that rests more comfortably on the fast-stable-hard tracking tripod. We've been busy laying our alms at the foot of the God of Playfulness, and the Zegul is something different to the types of Brit boats that we have enjoyed paddling so much since we began importing them in 2007. 


So to performance.....


In reasonably challenging water - 20kn+ & 2-3m of confused swell & sea - the Zegul is a low-fuss cruiser that gets on with the job of moving ahead without giving the high octane return of an Aquanaut or Nordkapp LV. In a head sea it has sufficient bow volume to ride over oncoming water & ease into the trough without slamming, and the usual stalling that this incurs. Speed into a headwind is barely compromised, with the low deck volume & windage combining nicely with the distribution of bow volume to neutralise opposing conditions. Down sea, the boat doesn't give the feedback of the British boats, but boy does it go fast. I first experienced this on a paddle with a guy in a Nordkapp, another great down sea performer. In a 15kn tailwind & moderately steep 2m following seas, I felt like I was just cruising along with the waves without getting the usual charging acceleration I get in my Aquanaut. I looked around to pass on my observation to the Nordkapp paddler & was surprised to see him about 200m behind me, giving it a good go. My conclusion? The Zegul was just getting on with the job of going forward at a great rate, without the technical joys required in other boat designs.

Rob has paddled the boat extensively in & around the harbour & has commented on it's no fuss handling. He considers it to be a fantastic harbour tourer or fitness boat for a paddler with an eye to distance touring & expeditions. In longer swell, the hull unleashes and can motor with the best of them, giving a very surf-ski like run without the demanding balance required to keep a ski upright.
It's suited to paddlers from about 60kg upwards, probably topping out at 95-100kg depending on the size of the paddlers' legs. I'm 95kg with big thighs & fit comfortably enough, and could easily paddle the boat for a day without any discomfort, but you wouldn't want to be proportioned any more umm, amply than me! The Zegul fits the bill for any paddlers looking for a speed machine for the Hawkesbury Classic (Medium Rec Division). While the volume is fairly low - about the same as a Nordkapp LV - a good packer would get ample gear into the hatches for an extended trip.
In conclusion, if the loose tracking responsiveness of the Brit boats is not to your taste and you want a kayak that holds its heading with real tenacity in a range of conditions then the Zegul is definitely worth adding to your shortlist. The build quality is something to behold, and at just $3790 it offers unparalleled value in the market for a kayak made to these lofty specs.
We have a few boats remaining from our first shipment, and a demo available for a test paddle.

Valley Smiles in the Sunshine State

Graham Dredge has sent us down a bunch of pics from a recent day out on the water around the Sunshine Coast, where some of the brighter Valley boats were on display. Geoff Pender (above left) & Shane Reeve (left) are shown in their Tangerine/Grey Nordkapp, & Traffic Yellow/Grey Nordkapp LV respectively, lighting up the waterways of the coast...!

Brett Dominick has a 'very red' Nordkapp LV with a contrast yellow trim, excellent high vis. colour-ways for & venturing around the busy waterways and for expeditioning. I actually had to dull this pic down a few shades to prevent any glare injuries from unsuspecting readers....

Geoff's boat is a work of art. Custom built by the Valley gurus, it is a full carbon kevlar layup in a custom high vis colour, with a contrasting grey trim & keel strip. All Valley boats are built to last, but this one is definitely something special and Geoff is looking forward to learning the nuances of the new Nordkapp design over coming months.
And... a late entry from Gary Tischer in his new Nordkapp LV. Gary says 'Maybe we like yellow boats because they are like huge bananas .... and what Qlder doesn't love bananas?'

We'll be finalising our next shipments from Valley & Rockpool over the next 2-3 weeks for an early Spring delivery. If you'd like a custom built boat made in your own colours & with any extras that don't come as standard, please give us a yell some time in June.
Thanks Dredgy for the pics, and make sure you're wearing your sunnies if you run into any of these dudes on the water around Brissie....
The Queensland Sea Kayak Club has just launched a Youtube channel which you can see by cliking on the graphic below. It's worth a look for some of the beautiful paddling destinations these folks get out to.