Sea Kayak Rescues with Gordon Brown - the Trailer

Here's the trailer for the latest Gordon Brown DVD. The production values & sheer art in the trailer have certainly whet my appetite for the full movie, it looks fantastic. Stock is due around October 25.

NRS Gear for Spring

From time to time the good folks at NRS send us out a few samples to play around with, and this forms the basis of the products of theirs that we include in our online store. The weather is starting to warm up, we're noticing people making queries about the more immersion-centric elements of the sport (rolling, skills instruction that involve capsize & rescues etc), so we have been on the lookout for products to enliven the barmy water most of us are about to start paddling around in (sorry to the Sea Canoeists in Tassie, I know it probably feels warm to you in summer but….)
The latest range of testing gear included four products that we're rapt with, and they're now either in stock or about to be in stock for the coming warmer months.
The first one is the Endurance Paddling Jacket.

One of the big successes kit-wise on the North Reef Trip was a lightweight paddling jacket that Chris used instead of a heavier cag. When we'd stop on the water in the wind, or pull up in the late arvo he would throw it on over the top of his paddling gear & PFD and it provided a breathable shell against the wind & wet & kept him from cooling down. I didn't have this option in my gear & twice landed after a long day in the wet & windy environment a bit too cold for comfort. We have tested this Endurance jacket over the past month & found it to be exactly what we wanted in the range to provide an option like Chris had utilised to such effect on our expedition. It's light, wind & waterproof, breathable, visible & only $109. A great piece of kit as the warmer months approach.
The fun addition is the very cool Propulsion Gloves. You can't say we don't cater to niches, even if the niche is so small it might only be me! What the hell, if your best excuse for including products in your own store is that you just want one, I'm sure there is no commercial law against that!

These are webbed paddle gloves designed to help you make the transition to some of the trickier hand rolls in the Greenland repertoire. I have personally had a lot of fun using these gloves, pretty much cracking a 'cheating' hand roll the first time I had a go, after some good instruction of course (see below)!

They've got a flexible plastic shim between each finger for rigidity, but are still supple enough to allow me to miss a roll & reach for the stowed paddle & recover. They pack such a punch we're contemplating heading out in some gentle surf wearing only the gloves & seeing how long we last, but please don't try this at home. These will be available next week for $40.

In keeping with our premise that the hull is the single most important feature of any kayak design, we're now offering The Padz Deluxe Kayak Outfitting Pack, a  comprehensive outfitting foam pack for paddlers wanting to adapt idiosyncratic seat & comfort to their boat. 

This pack features a set of hip pads & shims, a seat pad, a sheet for ankle/heel paddling, two thigh pads & two thigh risers. It takes the headaches out of making that small adjustment to your boat. The full kit sells for $55.


Finally we've added a paddling glove in a more budget conscious price range, the NRS Guide Glove.

This is a nicely made half-finger design with a textured palm for grip & a very durable Terraprene backing. They're great value for money & have the typical NRS cool good looks.

The NEW Epic 18X, Now in Stock

The first of the brand new freshly designed Epic 18X's have touched down. We have stock on the shelf for $3990, ready to roll out. If you want to know what's new on this iconic sea kayak design my review of the updated 18X is HERE.

Sea Kayak with Gordon Brown - Rescues DVD

Simon Willis has just sent us through the pre-release info on his upcoming sequel to the hugely popular Sea Kayak with Gordon Brown DVD. The trailer alone (which is now online HERE) gives a hint to the spectacular production values that have gone into this epic 2 hour instructional DVD.

With the beautiful islands of St Kilda as the backdrop, Gordon Brown takes us through a series of rescue & emergency scenarios, from assisted rescues in rough water to contact tows to seal landings & even a brilliant sequence where he lands his Etain through breaking seas onto a rock platform by swimming it all in.

There is a lovely piece in the middle of the feature about Hamish Gow, who together with his wife Anne were the first to paddle the 40 miles out to the remote islands of St Kilda in 1965. There were no wing paddles, fast kayaks or hand-held GPS back then, and their tale is worth the price of the DVD alone. There is a some great historical footage of this pioneering trip as well as an interview with Hamish.

There are a series of reviews of the DVD which you can read below:

PaddlingInstructor.com

Canoe & Kayak Magazine

SeaKayakPhoto.com

KayakQuixotica

Our stock is on the way & will be available from our online store from October 25. You can pre-order your copy now for $39 including freight nationally.

Surf Ski Remount with Oscar Chalupsky

A skill I have about 90% mastered on my V12, and one essential for all ski paddlers, especially now that the market has been opened up by stable beginer boats like the V8. Here's Oscar Chalupsky demonstrating a textbook remount with a very clear step by step technique.

The first thing you should do when you buy your new ski is head down to the bay & practice this skill.

Video - Greenland Paddling Around Sydney Harbour

Following on from Friday's post about our relaxing morning paddling the Tahe Greenland boats, here's a video with some of the pics & movies.
Special mention to Rob for his fantastic photography. Obviously all of the pics of me in this little video are taken by him, and he really has become a brilliant on-water kayak photographer. I had to cut out another 15 photos that were perfectly composed.
You can see how much fun the NRS paddle gloves add to the exercise. Next up I'll have a crack at the hand rolling without them…..
Music from Michael Franti, suitably relaxed in keeping with this gentle morning cruise.

Greenland Paddling in & around Sydney Harbour

Sitting on the beach after landing at Hummocky Island on our recent expedition, with just one day's paddling left, and so many months previous spent preparing for the challenge of the trip, I asked Rob how you get over the 'post expedition blues'. He said the secret was to start planning the next challenge as soon as you get back, even if it's not likely to happen for a good deal of time.
The time demands of a trip like we did means another one like it cannot really be on my radar now for a while, so I have spent the last month or so trying to work out what to do with my paddling without a clear challenge on the horizon.
Thinking it was a bit silly to have the Greenland boats in our range & not really have any handle on how they work, I have filled my lost motivation nicely by having a crack at the art of Greenland rolling.

Today was a beautiful Sydney spring day, with a warm northerly wind in the morning & a bouncy but pretty tame sea running outside. After an early demo paddle Rob met me down at Watson's Bay & we took the two Greenland boats in the Tahe range, the Greenland & the Greenland T out for a trundle along the cliffs. As we left the heads dressed in black, in our black boats, a dude paddling past asked us what we were going to go & secretly bomb. No calls from ASIO yet so hopefully he accepted our lame excuse for looking so silly…

The spectacular scenery of the Sydney cliffline is highlighted in the morning sunshine, and it's a beautiful time of day to get out & around the sandstone formations of the infamous Gap.
Being relatively inexperienced with a Greenland paddle, the rebound & confused water is definitely something to concentrate on a bit harder. Even so I soon settled into a rhythm, essentially by waiting a fraction longer for the stick to 'bite', rather than feeling the power at the catch as you do with a flat blade. It takes a little while to adjust to the 'different' predictability of the stick, and remembering to keep your hands low when you need a bit of extra support, which is quite counter-intuitive to my normal dynamic water paddling.
We messed around up against the cliffs, washing in & out on the surges & generally having a relaxing time in among the rebound & chop.

With a big change forecast we struck out for the harbour & spent an hour or so doing some rolling in the calm of the bay. NRS sent us some webbed gloves to try out & the extra lift from them soon had me doing some hand rolls, while Rob was almost able to crack a forward finishing hand roll.

I then lined up for a go at my first forward finishing or reverse sweep roll & managed to do a couple of them, much to my own amusement. This is an amazing roll to perform, & I can't honestly say I have my head completely around how to position myself. It's also a very late recovering roll which is something to get used to when my combat roll is snappy & instant. The number of twists & convulsions you seem to perform upside down are quite disconcerting, but with a little bit of extra rotation suddenly you're upright again. Too funny.

These Greenland boats themselves are such a pleasure to paddle. While we had the little Greenland boat out in conditions that are probably at it's limit, at least for a paddler of Rob's weight (& therefore free board), I had no end of fun in the higher volume Greenland T. It's a smile on the dial boat if ever there was one. It skips along in the flat water & turns & dances around in the gentle clapotis, importantly responding perfectly to properly applied technique. The little one is definitely the king of rollers though, even though the T rolls like a dream, it's smaller sibling is almost a self roller. If rolling is your thing, then this specialised boat just has to be on the list, it's a dream...

We rounded off the morning with lunch on the waterfront back in Watson's Bay (at 'Rob's Office for those of you familiar with his hospitality set-up). We got some good still & moving pics of the paddle which are now up online HERE….