Free Greenland Roling Day, March 3

We were overwhelmed by the reaction to our Greenland tuition at the National Symposium in Queensland late last year, where people who had previously considered the Greenland thread of our sport to be a black art came forward one by one & delighted in learning some new tricks. It was fun, hilarious fun even, and I have no doubt that many paddlers went away from the event with a renewed interest in the Greenland 'thing' & rolling in general.
So, for the first time in Sydney this summer, the water is warm, summer looks like it might have actually arrived in Sydney, & with the impending arrival of rolling gurus Cheri Perry & Turner Wilson we thought it an opportune time to put on a free rolling & Greenland rolling day. 
In partnership with Wayne & Mel Hanley from Greenland Downunder, we are holding an open rolling day on Saturday March 3 at the Yarra Bay Sailing Club, tucked inside the calm waters of Botany Bay (off Kooringai Ave, Yarra Bay. Map below). 

A full three hour program will kick off at 9am, featuring rolling demos from Mel Hanley, an intro to Greenland rolling instructed by Rob, Mel, Wayne & Mark, a crossover session to demonstrate the relevance of the Greenland styles to rough water paddling & a post event get together on the sand in front of the sailing club.
Wayne & Mel will be bringing along their range of Greenland gear including Joe O Paddles for demo & we'll have our selection of Greenland style boats on hand.
Numbers are strictly limited to 20, as we want a concentrated instructor-to-student ratio so everyone comes away with a very good chance of picking up some new skills. It's a chance to get some tips from Rob Mercer, as well as some Greenland specific instruction from Wayne & Mel, who have travelled the word attending various Greenland workshops & symposiums. They have seen first hand how the big Greenland get togethers work overseas & will be bringing this knowledge to our little event, so for the first time we'll get a glimpse into how it's done in parts of the world where Greenland rolling a little more mainstream.
If you'd like to attend, please contact Mark at mark@expeditionkayaks.com.
As a reminder of how simple these things can be to learn in the hands of the right instructor, here's a video from late last year of my first Greenland rolling lesson with Rob.

Friday from the Vault - Broughton Island Trip

This week's 'from the vault' post recalls the trip we took out to Broughton Island to celebrate both my & Stacka's fortieth birthdays, which fall on the same day.

It was an hilarious trip, drafting as we did our best mate The Adonis who had never paddled before, along with Rob to ride shotgun & come up with sensible ideas if anything went pear-shaped.

To cut a long story short, despite falling in  seven times, we managed to cajole, tow & intimidate Adrian the best part of 20km out to Broughton where we enjoyed a tired & emotional evening reflecting back on 40 years of existence….

To this day it's a story people will often ask me about 'hey has your mate ever paddled again, you know the bloke who fell out 17 times…?' Answer…? No. It was a Patrick Cummins like debut, streaking like a star across the sea kayaking landscape only to settle below the horizon never again to appear in the neoprene & lycra.

You can read the post, 'The Broughring Forties' HERE (or a more comprehensive report with extra pics HERE).

Broughton Island remains something of a rite of passage for sea kayakers in our area. It's far enough away from a non-surf landing to make it a good hike on the sea, the islands you thread to get out there produce a mix of clapotis & currents, and the prize when you arrive is a genuinely beautiful coastal island. On all but the most benign days you need a full set of skills to make the crossing, mess around in the amazing array of rock gardens & gauntlets you find on a lazy circumnavigation, 20km is too far to risk not getting your boat trim right etc. All up an achievable & worthwhile challenge for paddler wanting to experience the exposure of a crossing & a brilliant journey on the sea!

Rob & Sharon's Excellent WA Adventure

Rob & Sharon travelled across as guests of WA instructor Les Allen to help out on his inaugural WA Sea Kayak Symposium.
Rob's write up of the groundbreaking event is here:

The Balanced Boater - Rob Mercer

WA Inaugural Sea Kayak Symposium

Justine Curgenven's 'This is the Roll' DVD

Justine Curgenven, maker of the brilliant 'This is the Sea' & 'This is Canoeing' DVD series is about to release a new DVD featuring Turner Wilson & Cheri Perry called, 'This is the Roll'.

Justine emailed earlier this week to let me know that our copies will be on the way as soon as the final dubs are done, hopefully some time in late March/early April.

The trailer of the DVD is above, & it has extra relevance for us on the East Coast as Cheri & Turner will be here around the release date giveing a series of instruction days in Tassie, Victoria, NSW & finally Queensland.

The boom in Greenland style rolling over the past year or so is palpable, not only is it way easier than it looks with the right instruction, it offers a tangent to other threads of the sport which complement sea skills. It's also a lot of fun…

You can pre-order the DVD through our online store  for $34.95 including freight nationally.

Valley Hatches - the original & still the best

Prompted by a bit of feedback from paddle mates & customers, it seems there is a small but noisy back channel campaign being run against the iconic Valley hatch here in Australia. We're not surprised about the source of most of the misinformation, but I thought I would set the record straight in a public way. As always when negative information is spun about a product, ask yourself the question, who benefits from any damage done to the brand? 

When sea kayaks were first mass produced, watertight bulkheads were a revolutionary safety feature but only as good as the hatch that was exposed to the full force of the elements. Valley  embraced  a pioneering idea employing a custom-built rim & hatch together, engineered with a unique 'double seal' as the best chance of maintaining a water tight compartment.
A kayak at sea is being pitched & rolled, sometimes at the same time, & a hatch needs to have some flexibility built into the design to accommodate this tremendous contrasting force. So successful is the Valley design at providing this seal that it's necessary to drill breather holes in the bulkheads to alleviate the air pressure within the compartment & prevent the hot air from within the cavity 'blowing' the hatch on a hot day. Of course no hatch system is perfect & it's folly to suggest that any one will remain intact for eternity, especially in the dynamic environment of the ocean.
The hatches are a rubber blend which has  undergone a number of subtle ingredient mix changes down the years aimed at combating the tendency of any form of rubber to succumb to UV light & degradation. Despite what is being pedalled, the current incarnation of the Valley hatch cover is the most UV stable Valley hatch produced to date.  If you hear that they have made a change to the mix which makes them more susceptible to UV, please consider it nothing more than a bit of malevolent mischief. Seriously, can you imagine a company with such lasting integrity making a decision to weaken an industry leading product? 

When we sell a Valley boat, we recommend a liberal application of a plasticiser like Armorall or T303 once every couple of  months to ensure the hatches live out a long & functional life. If you don't take this small maintenance precaution, you'll likely be facing a replacement far sooner. 

If you have a Valley hatch that seems to degrade prematurely, it's most likely an old hatch. Ask your manufacturer about the production date, because even when not exposed to UV, storage in hot warehouse conditions will create a shelf life for these & any other rubber based product.

As with all mass produced products, there have been the rare batch down through the years where one or two hatches seem to have degraded prematurely, but our experience with Valley since 2008, selling many hundreds of boats, would suggest this is less than 1%. It's sure isn't a replacement rate that has us questioning the integrity of the product, & is dead in line with rates of replacment due to UV degradation & other issues like delamination on the other hatch system we supply.

Our responses to negative industry campaigns are always the same. We won't ever be drawn into the double negative of berating another product to try to elevate our own, instead reinforcing the positive aspects of a particular craft or accessory, based on our own experiences of using these products in the most demanding environment of all, the sea.
If you'd like more detailed information about the Valley hatch system, please get in touch with Rob or Mark.

Fridays from the Vault - Downwind on the Epic V10 Sport

My little stats page on Blogger clocked over to 300 posts last week. I noted the milestone & then spent a couple of hours during the day scrolling back through the posts from years gone by, seeing how much my own perception on some things has changed, & also how similar it is today to when I first started on other things.
The first post was a welcome in January 2008, about six months after we began as Expedition Kayaks. Back then I was an avid surf kayaker, paddled the Impex Currituck (a boat I still enjoy whenever I can get into a rare specimen), figured surf skis were for clubbies & too tippy, Greenland rolling was for beardie weirdies, and with a busy family life couldn't envisage getting away for that shining light on the hill, the one 'big' trip.
In the years since my interests have broadened considerably and I'm probably unrecognisable as a paddler from the one who got out a couple of times a month back in '08. It makes me wonder what I'll be into in four years time….
There were more than a few blog posts that brought a wry smile, so I thought I would put up a weekly reminder of some of the articles that I particularly enjoyed writing up.
The first of these comes from March 2010, and documents my first ever paddle on the open sea in my new Epic V10 Sport. My mate Stacka & I decided to take out skis out for two 'out-and-backs' from La Perouse, in some moderate seas whipped up by a couple of days of southerlies. Watching it with a discrening eye now it was pretty clearly a crash or burn experince, I'm pretty shaky, my stroke turns to all arms once the heat goes on, and there are about half a dozen safety trailing braces that save me from a swim, and my expression betrays my anxiety levels! But, you really only learn how to do this sort of paddling my doing…..this sort of paddling..!
The post is HERE, and the video from the paddle is below, this was one helluva fun ride….

Check back each Friday for more EK posts 'from the Vault'.

The Bay to Beach - Finally an Ocean Race for Sea Kayakers!

A couple of years ago I enquired about entering one of the Ocean Races in my Valley Rapier, a design that is essentially an elite surf ski with a deck. I was told that they no longer allowed sea kayakers to enter after a slew of safety incidents over the years & a perception that sea kayakers were less skilled in rough water, needed rescues etc etc. 

Having listened to a couple of famous ocean race stories involving sea kayakers, without agreeing entirely with their conclusion I have to say I completely understood their viewpoint & figured instead I'd see what all the fuss was about with surf skis, inspired by the brilliant videos that Rambo shoots around the world of these high octane events.

I got to learn a new skill set & love paddling my ski, but those of us sea kayakers with the skills & intent to run a real blue water race have been left to invent our own private paddles downwind at sea, and look on at the Ocean Series like a kid who got a Cabbage Patch doll instead of the Lightning McQueen race car for Xmas…

There are the harbour races, & more & more of these flat water events are popping up, enriching the local paddling scene as they appear. I entered one a couple of years back & quickly worked out that without sea conditions to read, ride & use to my advantage, my fitness meant that a flat water race was just an hour of grunting hard with none of the rewards that the sea provides for your efforts (that is big long rides where you can suck in some big ones & don't have to paddle!)

Local paddling identity & founder of the Southern Districts Ocean Paddlers Steve Newsome, told me last year he was planning to reinvigorate the grand old 'Caltex Bridge to Beach' race, a surf club challenge that had first been run back in 1984. He asked how we could get sea kayakers back into the mix. Rob suggested a pairs event whereby they could enter as a team of two, and their finishing time would be the time when the last of the pair crossed the line. The logic was that a pair of sea kayakers racing together would be able to help one another out in the event of a problem, and it also fits better with the ethos of our sport being a more collegial one than other paddlesports with a competitive base. 

Steve agreed and for the first time in many years there will be an open ocean race run in which us sea kayakers are welcome. Yay!

The 2012 Bay to Beach will be run on February 25, starting at Bonna Reserve at the western end of Silver Beach at Kurnell, head out through the heads of Botany Bay past Cape Solander & Boat Harbour, across the expanse of Bate Bay, around the headland at South Cronulla & into Gunamatta Bay & the finish. It's 18km which will take you from the calm of the Bay, through the invariably confused water of the southern cliff line around Cape Solander, out into unbroken open water with the prospect of a Nor Easterly tailwind all the way along the Cronulla beachfront, then around into the lee of Port Hacking. It's hard to imagine a course with such a great variety of water & the prospect of summer sea breezes & fast running seas.

Sea kayakers wishing to enter should consider several aspects. First, there is about 5km of unlandable cliff from Cooks Landing all the way to Boat Harbour. The water around here in a Nor Easter is confused & multidirectional, but nothing like the sort of genuinely big conditions you get around the Royal National Park or several other headlands along the Sydney cliffline. You should be well versed & practiced in the art of assisted rescues in rough water, and some experience in big open water conditions would be almost a pre-requisite. 

Steve has enlisted the local surf clubs to patrol the course in support boats & RIB's, so the safety margin is way higher, but by the same token it's not quite as easy to get a kayak on board a support boat if there is a big problem, so it's a good idea to be sure of your skills.

We are sponsoring the sea kayaking side of the race and will be offering a generous prize pool, because basically we want to race in the event & do everything within our power to ensure it continues to be a race in which we can participate! Who knows, if the concept is a success we might see pairs of sea kayakers admitted back into the Ocean Race series.

You can enter the race HERE - entry is $45 which includes a race singlet & a BBQ lunch at the presentation party afterwards. It would be great to see a huge sea kayaking field, & to maybe see this race turn into our annual event for blue water racing as well as a classic for the coean racing ski & OC1 guys.