North Shore now really famous....

I had the slightly surreal experience of taking part in a photo shoot for Lexus this arvo at the Toyota ad agency. They needed a premium quality sea kayak to show off their newest Lexus, & asked me if they could borrow one of our stock North Shore Atlantic's as the 'talent'. In a photo studio the size of a tennis court, with whited out walls that made it impossible to distinguish wall from roof from floor, photographer Bill took a few well aimed shots. Look out for the North Shore on the roof of the new Lexus, on a billboard coming to you....! Unfortunately you don't get a free one when you buy your Lexus, but the most famous sea kayak in the country is still available from stock for anyone interested....

Thursday Morning Paddle - now on Fridays...!

I've had to move the Thursday morning fitness paddle from Thursday's to Friday's from now on. My youngest daughter has started pre-school & Thursday was our only choice. Same venue, Kyeemagh Boat Ramp, same kick off time, 7am sharp. Numbers have been good lately, get along if you're looking for a good workout, but maybe not good conversation (heads are down & there's a lot of grunting).....
12.5km return trip, about 80-90 minutes of just-above-comfort-zone paddling.

Click HERE for a map of the launch point.

A Night with the Hoff.

Freya Hoffmeister, Sharon Betteridge, Rob Mercer & I enjoying a few pre-circumnavigation drinks.

I had the great pleasure of spending an evening with Freya Hoffmeister, the famed lady in black, who is about to attempt to emulate Paul Caffyn & circumnavigate Australia. This Sunday, all going well, she will depart Queenscliff in Victoria & paddle anti-clockwise 20000+km around the continent. Most Europeans have a vague notion about the size of our wide brown land, but Freya is under no illusions about the scale of her odyssey. Breaking her trip into sections, you can just barely get an idea of what she will face. Starting with a 2500km stretch from Victoria up through the East Coast surf zone where just about every single day you will have a very serious surf landing & exit with a fully loaded boat. Factor in the afternoon Nor'easterlies that predominate through the 2 months of her journey north, & her goal of 60km + per day, & she will have very early starts & a very solid pace to beat the demoralising headwinds. Then the 'pleasure' of the protected reef zone, with the onset of the trade winds, 25-30 knot daily winds which produce technical, almost surfing following paddling conditions. Then the vast loneliness of the top end, with the crocs, huge tidal zones, heat & humidity, & the lack of regular re-stock. Consider that this stretches right across the top of the continent, eventually giving way to the rugged WA coast, with it's unbroken cliffs stretching as far as 130km at a time. Clear that & you hit probably the biggest surf zone in the country, down through Margaret River & Esperance, where 16 second wave periods create miles of unlandable surf, then turn the corner to the Great Australian Bight for the 'run home'. Don't be surprised if this lady has a go at a 'complete' circumnavigation if she makes it as far as western Victoria. I'll leave it to the Einstein’s to work out what that might entail....
So, from being a bit skeptical about this attempt, I now think she has as good a chance as anyone I have come across to pull it off. Her apprenticeship looping the South Island of NZ was a microcosm of the sorts of paddling she can expect in Australian waters. If experience, drive, determination & out & out focus (hate that word…) count for anything, I reckon she will give this thing a bloody good shake. Keep an eye on her journey through her blog.
Go Freya….!

Paddling with the Fire'ies

I took a couple of local firemen out for a paddle this morning in the Valley RM boats. Peter Lewis plans to paddle 2200km from the Albury to the sea in SA in April, & Trent Brown, a former Roosters & Wests Tigers rugby league pllayer, is trying to work out a way to tag along for some of the trip. Both of them picked up the gist of good paddling technique pretty fast as you can see from their excellent high angle forward strokes......
Here's a short clip of the morning's paddle - another beautiful day in Sydney.

Rock & Roll 2009

Not a Woodstock for kayakers, but rather the premier Australian sea kayaking event on the calendar. This year being held at Umina beach, about 60km north of Sydney, at a venue which allows everything from serious ocean paddling & coastal exploration, to calm river cruises, & the most sea kayak-friendly surf breaks to be found anywhere. The NSW Sea Kayak Club takes safety very seriously, so you'll need to be either a member or a member of an affiliated club to attend, but I can't imagine a more comprehensive three-day dedicated weekend of all things sea kayaking. A keen paddler could do as many as 5 half day trips with qualified sea leaders, guides & instructors, and still have time to take in a forward stroke instructional session, a photography seminar, paddle more demo boats than you can throw a Greenland paddle at, as well as have two rip-roaring nights of socialising, listening to guest speakers & making some new paddling friends. We'll be there exhibiting our range of gear, & will have every single one of our demo kayaks on hand for paddlers to take out to paddle for a few minutes, or on one of the trips if they so desire. As the Platinum sponsor, both Expedition Kayaks & Rob Mercer's Balanced Boater are offerring prizes ranging from a Reed Chillcheater pack, to a Valley Storm Surf Kayak. Whether you're new to the sport & don't really know which way to jump, or are a salty old paddler who has maybe not ever been bothered with these sorts of soirees, I can't recommend Rock & Roll highly enough. Click on the funky dolphin graphic above to find out more or to register.

North Shore Atlantic

I got to have a brief paddle over the weekend in our newest arrival, the North Shore Atlantic. Touted as a more user-friendly rudderless kayak, suitable for a broader skill level than some of the more advanced boats, I found the reality to be little more impressive. On first appearance the Atlantic has the sporty look of the famous NDK Romany, although a full foot longer, for a higher top touring speed. Out in some 1-2m wind waves off Bare Island on Botany Bay, the boat performs every bit as I have always expected something like the Romany to perform, having seen Romany's & Avocet's (which I can't bloody well fit into...) on the tide race videos carving it up. Once planing on a wave, the Atlantic takes off, bouncing along the face beautifully, but with the very reassuring feeling of a buoyant soft secondary chine. I couldn’t imagine a better kayak for someone who maybe already has a long waterline expedition boat, but who is starting to get bored/jealous watching their mates play around in higher performance boats, and is starting to think about a better boat for the fun stuff. For a beginner, it has a similar bouncy secondary stability to the Impex boats, but in the hands of a paddler seeking out moving water it is a fun machine up there with the best of them. The extra waterline length gives the paddler a good burst of speed not always available with designated play kayaks, and the build & construction are top-notch, being Valley manufactured with the North Shore brand. They are also very light, laid up with the brand new Aeronautical Vacuum infusion technology, and the new moulds produce a clean, mirror-like impressive finish.
We have just two of these boats left, after the first 2 went within a week of them landing, so be quick if you want to organise a test paddle.
(all photo's Rob Mercer & Sharon Betteridge).

Riding the Nor'easter

Sydney sweltered yesterday with temperatures in the high 30's, and the BOM forecast was predicting our saviour sea breeze to come in early & reach 25 knots. On a slow work day - you've gotta love the first couple of weeks of January when everyone is still pretty relaxed, even in a big town like Sydney - we decided to do a car shuffle from Watson's Bay to La Perouse & have a bit of a blast down the coast. The predicted wind & a sea rising to 2.5m would have made for a pretty exhilarating run down the 20km of open coast between Sydney Harbour & Botany Bay, but alas the Bureau got it wrong & the strongest gusts we had to push us along were only about 20 knots. The remnants of a good southerly blow from the night before made the sea state a bit confused, further hampering the 'perfect wave' we had envisaged, but we nonetheless had a great time on a dramatic looking afternoon, bustling past the millions of dollars of prime real estate that line Sydney's Eastern Suburbs cliffs.

Rob & I were were both in our Aquanauts, which are complete bliss on this sort of half surfing, borderline technical paddling trip. We made pretty good time - South Head to Cape Banks in a little less than 2 hours, and both soaked up the opportunity to go out on the open sea & enjoy the brilliant conditions.
A thousand thank you's to Sharon for driving us to Watto's Bay & then picking up Rob at the end of the paddle so I didn't have to drive him home....