Thursday Morning Fitness Paddle

We've been doing our Thursday morning fitness paddle now for about 4 months, & more & more people are starting to tag along as regulars. The route is a flat water 12.5km along the shoreline of Botany Bay in Sydney, which we aim to do in our sea kayaks in about 80 minutes, averaging about 8.5-9km/h. This is pretty good workout pace for most sea kayak designs, & improves accelaration, as well as fitness, and also allows a paddler to get an idea of how fast they actually go over an extended time, rather than simply guessing. This is an important peice of safety knowledge for sea kayakers, as it greatly assists navigation if you have a decent idea of how quickly you can cover ground, especially when you need to....
Here are a few scenes from today's paddle, the last one before Xmas, 2008.

As always it was a beautiful Sydney morning. We're lucky to live in such a great paddling city.

The Rapier 20 - First Impressions

Roger Boardman putting the Rapier 20 through it's paces.

Rob brought his shiny Rapier 20 down to our demo day at Ramsgate Beach yesterday, so I took the opportunity to take it for a bit of a spin, seeing as I've got my own one arriving in a couple of weeks. It's is definitely something out of the box, 20 feet long, 42cm wide, very aptly named considering it looks as close to a deadly weapon as you could imagine a kayak looking, and fast. The initial stability was a concern for me, with no background whatsoever in surf ski paddling, and everyone considering the Rapier 20 to be akin to a surf ski with a deck. Where it differs greatly from a surf ski however, is in the chine profile, which offers a reasonable amount of secondary stability. We're not talking eat your sandwich while taking a photo & sending a text message secondary stability here, but for something capable of the speed the Rapier 20 manages, it's pretty good. The close catch is something a sea kayaker would need a bit of time & adjustment to get used to, as you really do feel like you're planting your blade on top of your feet, but the response when you get your stroke right is something else. This thing absolutely flies........

I realise now that I am going to have to be a bit more dedicated to this kayak than just about anything else I've paddled, but what's life without a challenge. The idea of riding some big ocean swells out at sea in the Rapier is the gold at the end of the rainbow.........

Sydney Demo Day, Saturday, December 13

Following the great success of our demo day at Currumbin prior to the Queensland Sea Kayak Symposium, we're offerring an opportunity for Sydney paddlers to come along & try out our range of kayaks & Mitchell Blades. We will have available on the beach the NDK Explorer, the Valley Nordkapp, Nordkapp LV, Aquanaut, Aquanaut LV & Aquanaut HV, as well as the Rapier 20, and from the Impex range the Assateague, Montauk & Force 5.
We'll be on the beach from 7.30am, this coming Saturday, December 13, and will be offering instruction on rudderless paddling, as well as individual forward paddling tips for those on the water in the demo boats. The venue is Ramsgate beach on Botany Bay, entrance to the beach via the car park opposite Florence St (GPS Ref. 33°, 58’, 56.82S; 151°, 08’, 53.95E). If you’re travelling south along Grand Pde from the city, the car park is 4.1km from the Cooks River bridge, on the left. If you’re travelling north along Grand Pde, the car park is 1.25 from the beginning of the Grand Pde at Dolls Pt. For a more detailed overview click HERE. It's a great opportunity to pick up a well deserved Xmas pressie......! If you intend on coming along along, please register your interest with me on 0417-924-478, or at mark@expeditionkayaks.com.

Tasmania Sea Kayaking Weekend

The Tasmanian Sea Canoeing Club have announced a new annual symposium style event for February next year, the inaugural White Bay Weekend. With the success of the long established New South Wales Sea Kayak Club's Rock & Roll Weekend, and the well received National Sea Kayak Symposium held in November this year in Queensland, it is a terrific addition to the calendar. I think it's another step towards establishing an annual event calendar for sea kayakers such as those which keep everyone busy in the US & Europe. Those great symposium weekends are something of which I've always been pretty jealous, considering the introverted nature of sea kayaking in Australia. Listening to Nigel Dennis describe his famous Anglesea symposium was rivetting, especially when you consider that attendees are lucky enough to be able to rock hop, surf a tidal race, do a cruisy cliffline paddle & some flat water coaching all on the one day within about 5 miles!

Sunset off White Beach, Nubeena

Rob Mercer & I are heading down to the White Beach weekend do three days of instruction, & hoping to pick up some different perspectives on paddling from the Tasmanians, who are mostly paddling in very challenging & cold water, compared to what we on the mainland are used to. Organiser Greg Simson has organised a great venue, the White Beach Tourist Park at Nubeena, just south of Hobart, where there is a good variety of water & excellent facilities. I reckon it's a great opportunity for people who have always wanted to do some paddling in Tassie, but weren't sure of where to go or who to talk to, to make some contacts, enjoy the company of our southern cousins, & have a fun weekend to boot.

The fee for the event is $30, including all on water activities, instruction & entertainment, some guest speakers on the Saturday night & dinner. Value straight from the 1950's if you ask me....!

If you're interested in attending you can contact Greg on (03 62353534) or simson.greg@abc.net.au.

Rumblin' in Currumbin

I've just returned from the terrific Australian Sea Kayak Symposium in Currumbin, on Queensland's Gold Coast. The event was a great start towards establishing an event that will hopefully become a part of the kayaking calendar for years to come. The weekend began for Rob & I with a 13 hour drive up from Sydney on the Thursday, so we were set up for the demo day we held on the Friday morning.
The demo day was an unqualified success, with Brian & Deb McCarthy ordering a shiny new Aquanaut each, & Brooke & Eddie paddling & then buying the awesome little Avocet. Several other paddlers turned up to try out our designs & attempt to get their heads aorund rudderless paddling. With a great new customised boat trailer, we will be doing plenty more of these demo days around the place, so keep an eye on our website for dates. Of course, we'll also take you out to demo paddle any of our boats, at a time to suit.

The venue for the show was the Currumbin State High School, where the opening honours were done by Christine Smith, ALP member for Burleigh.

Proving that everyone has one, MP for Burleigh Christine Smith, gives her opinion on the Nordkapp.....

We set up our stand & showed off our shiny boats & Mitchell Blades, along with the other unique gear from our previously only online store.

The Saturday had a pretty solid lineup of speakers & workshops and a short paddle in the afternoon, while the Sunday involved a full day on the water for the 100+ participants. While skills instruction was pretty basic in comparison to something like the iconic NSWSKC Rock & Roll Weekend, it was understandable given the lack of a generic grading system, and the fact that this was the first event of it's kind in the state. I'm sure everyone came away with a new tool in the skills armoury regardless of their level of competence.

After the instruction morning, paddlers were free to demo paddle the range of boats from the many retailers in attendance.

Queensland sea kayaking is definitely defined by the paddling opportunities available around the South East of the state. The open ocean is rarely accessible other than through a breaking river bar or tidal narrow, or of course through the teeth of a long beach break, and the sort of big water we get used to in the southern states around headlands, & with long period southern swell is generally absent in all but the biggest weather days. So, like all things in Queensland, people tend to take it a bit easy - all very admirable! If you want to see a paddling community smelling the roses, enjoying the true relaxation our sport can offer, go no further than the litany of 'pods' who paddle together up & down the Gold Coast, Brisbane & Moreton Bay, & the Sunshine Coast. To boot, there are awesome moving water stretches, without the 'consequences' of getting it wrong in the surf trying to surf your kayak at a beach break around Sydney. All in all, I was very jealous of the weather, water temperature & bar breaks available to Queensland paddlers. The folks at Queensland Canoeing are to be commended for having a go & pulling off such a successful event. If you can make it along next year, it's well worth the effort.

Leading Queensland instructor Craig McSween taking his little boy for a paddle in his brand new Outasea design.

Australian Sea Kayak Symposium

We're pretty excited about next week's inaugural Australian Sea Kayak Symposium, organised & run by Queensland Canoeing on the Sunshine Coast. Head honcho Mark Thurgood has done a terrific job pulling together an event that promises much, as an annual get-together of salty sea paddlers.
They have a good range of speakers & workshops, some basic instruction for all participants on both the Saturday & Sunday, and from all reports a good pre-registered roster. Rob & I will be there from Friday morning, and will run a demo paddling session on the Currmbin Creek from 10am to 3pm, in order to allow our loyal Queensland customers a chance to get out in some of our newer designs. We'll be in the water with the demo paddlers, offering our customary tips & tricks on how to handle rudderless kayaks, as well as having our Reed gear, This is the Sea DVD's & other store goodies for purchase.
Sunday at the Symposium offers much the same experience, with a bunch or retailers & importers offering their demo boats for all to try. It is a rare opportunity to try, compare & contrast different craft head to head.
To register your attendance, click HERE

Paddling with a Paddy

I had the great pleasure of paddling on Saturday with the NSWSKC, on a trip led by Peter Osman, with a guest from Ireland, David Carraher.

David Carraher, Irish Sea Instructor & all round good fella.....Photo Dee Ratcliffe

We had a good mix in the group, with two sea instructors, Peter aiming to re-register as a Sea Leader, a couple of Sea Skills qualified paddlers & a reasonably new kayaker. Our trip was intended to run from the protected waterway of Middle Harbour, through the outer harbour between Sydney Heads, & around the long stretch of cliffs between North Head & Manly. The forecast swung around like the Aussie dollar in the days prior, & even as late as Friday it looked like conditions might be too demanding for the group, but a settled Saturday morning outlook saw us depart for our original trip on schedule. This pre-match process highlighted to me the importance of paddling with a club or experienced group when you're intending to paddle on the sea. There was much emailed correspondence in the days prior to the paddle, as several experienced kayakers analysed the meaning of the forecast, in relation to the stretch of water to be covered. I've heard much denigration over the years of the concept of risk management, but this to me was a terrific example of a group of experienced paddlers figuring out a weather forecast, along a route, keeping in mind the abilities of the group, & then deciding the risks would be worth the experience. Top marks to trip leader Peter Osman for co-ordinating the preliminaries!
Paddling with our guest paddy, Dave, was a real pleasure. He is one of the leading instructors in Ireland, & has a resume as long as your Mitchell Blade of great expeditions, ranging from West Greenland to direct crossings from Ireland to The Isle of Man, to the tide races of Northern Ireland & Wales. One of the great differences between the way true sea kayaking is taught in Ireland & here in Australia is due to the hazards which predominate. Paddling around Ireland, you need to know your tides, navigation in limited visibility & have good moving water (ie tidal) skills, whereas here our emphasis is much more heavily on surf & it's associated risks. What I wouldn't give to have a crack at one of those awesome tide races that figure so prominently in the This is the Sea & Pacific Horizons DVD's!

David Carraher cracks a wave on Fairy Bower Photo Dee Ratcliffe

The paddle progressed out & around North Head & down the cliff line to Manly, with a moderate nor' westerly cutting up the top of the water & making things reasonably challenging along this notoriously bouncy stretch. There were a couple of good small waves which provided some entertainment at Fairy Bower , followed by a cup of coffee on the sand at Shelley Beach. We met up with Mark Schroeder & Matt Bezzina - author of the world famous "Matt's Blog" & they joined in for the trip back to the heads. New paddler Wendy Stevenson - the lady who blitzed me in the Montauk if you read back in the blog to my 'Speed' entry, was in her new Avocet LV & gradually got a feel for this awesome little boat. For small framed paddlers, this little beauty is a god-send, keeping things in proportion for the larger-than-you-think percentage of the paddling community who can rarely find a sea kayak which fits.

Wendy Stevenson showing picture-perfect poise in her Avocet LV

The trip back was assisted greatly by the current which runs south along the cliff line, & we were then entertained by Mark & Matt slowly delaminating their hulls on the Cungewoi reefs around North Head.

Mark Schroeder getting a bit of a splash from the North Head sandstone.

Back at Clontarf there was a bit of rolling practice & some demo paddling for Peter O & Dee Ratcliffe, before the last paddlers standing adjourned to Skiffies for a couple of beers & some tall tales.

Peter Osman dropping his skirt in the soup.

All up, an awesome day out with mixed conditions, good company & some proper sea kayaking. Thanks to Peter O, Dee, Wendy, Bruce, John, Matt, Mark & David for making it such a great day out.