GPS Trace of One Degree South

We have a secret weapon in our support guru Andrew Eddy. He has compiled our average speed from the GPS each of us had running on the One Degree South paddle & put it into a format understandable even to a maths tragic like me.
The trace shows a few interesting things, firstly the unforgiving slog of the first 5 windless hours into a head current, then the blast down to Geroa, & finally the dramatic slowdown as night fell & the Crookhaven Bight got, well…. crook!
We'll have a full report up some time next week but here's the trace to disseminate, for those of you interested in such things.

Thanks again to Andrew for the great spreadsheet.

A belated thanks also to another paddling mate Mick Martin, who drove from his home at Nowra all the way out to Currarong when he saw we were getting close. Mick brought along torches which were life savers in pointing the way through the surf for the landing, & then hung about to haul our boats back to car & help out with all the gear & sorting out. Thanks Mick!

One Degree Done….

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

One Degree Done….

We arrived in to Currarong last night at 10.25pm, after 14hrs 55mins paddling with half an hour on the pebbles at Bushrangers Cove. Total distance was 117km, & we did the 'one degree' at 9.30pm, so fourteen hours for any prospective idiots out there considering putting themselves through the same wringer any time soon.
A terrific, challenging & most satisfying paddle. Trip report to come.

Chris, Mark & Rob.

UPDATE - One Degree South Attempt Wednesday March 13

A blessed Nor easterly forecast has arrived, & we've targeted Wednesday as D-Day for our One Degree South paddle.

The winds aren't the epic strength we had hoped for, but they're the best on the offer since early January. It's testament to the wacky La Nina summer Sydney has experienced, when you consider we figured it was a shoe-in to have our pick of January Nor' Easters to ride south. Our greatest difficulty has been maintaining fitness 2 months longer than we had planned. Suffice to say all three of us have failed on that front!

We'll be leaving Cronulla at sun-up Wednesday, and our SPOT Tracker will be running from THIS LINK.

The route line you see above is a little longer than we're planning, as the EAC has moved in to about 10km offshore all the way down to Bass Point, which will give us about a knot of assistance, all going well. Unfortunately it's running north any further in to shore, so it will be a long stretch wide out to sea for most of the day.

Don't forget the trip is primarily to raise awareness for RUOK Day, a depression & suicide awareness charity that carries special significance for us. You can donate to RUOK Day HERE, but above all we'd like you to take the time to consider what they're all about.

**Overnight we had a very kind offer from sea kayaker & mate Andrew Eddy to be our ground crew. Andrew will tail us along the coast in case of a problem, possibly rendezvous at a pre-determined rest spot, meet us at Currarong (hopefully!) and then bring us back to Sydney. It's a much appreciated offer & the only real logistical worry we had solved in one fell swoop. Thanks Andrew, much appreciated.

The forecast has held overnight for NE winds from early, rising & turning northerly as we get into the Crookhaven Bight, so all good, if not a little lighter than we had hoped for.

The SPOT link is now live & will be tracking us from about 6am tomorrow.

Thanks to Carl from Illawarra Boat Charter for the golden advice on the currents off the coast. You can charter Carl's boats through his website HERE.

A couple of updated links to Spot pages
Mark's is here - http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0qEXcnDBmSrq8KWVhO8ZtvnMn6U837nQ7

Chris' is here - http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0I3Bq204XzkEM9JCXzlDNqHuVVKbp08Lk

Storm Swell

I was down at Cronulla on Saturday while my eldest daughter took part in a solar power promotion on the corso. Sydney was pounded by big swells on Friday & the lag was still apparent on Saturday arvo, with the added bonus for the surfers that a gentle morning onshore breeze had cleaned up the faces.  

While the beach was closed for swimmers, the lifeguards rightly recognising that water of this magnitude creates hydraulics that not many swimmers can counter, the surfers were out in force, & the clubbies were also out dancing around in the RIB's.

I made the mistake - once - of looking out at this sort of swell & thinking I could foot it in my kayak, about 10 years ago further up the beach at Wanda. I fluked a lull & ended up out the back while some seriously big waves rolled through, sat out there for about half an hour wondering when the next lull was coming - it wasn't - and then finally got impatient & picked a smaller wave for the glory run back to the sand. 
I had one helluva ride, right up to the point that the wave closed out & I then spent about 4 minutes underwater (it felt like 4 minutes) getting the sort of chiropractic manipulation you'd pay thousands of dollars for from a professional. Somehow I rolled, because back then it wasn't an automatic skill, & then got one final flogging which tore me from my boat & landed my whole sorry mess on the beach.
Lesson learned…..

Fridays from the Vault - Surfing Bundeena Bar

By popular request - thanks TK - here's a video from 2010 of Rob surfing some nice little waves on the Bundeena Bar. Years of matching great days on the bar to corresponding surf reports, swell direction & period, and the crucial tide swings have given us a pretty good idea of when the bar is going to 'go off'. While this video doesn't exactly show the bar in an epic mood, it was still a good day. How can you tell the power of the waves? Count the seconds that the thrashing lasts, there is no busting off the top of a fragile lip here when the one decent wave grabs hold of Rob's boat. If you get nailed, you go for a long ride sideways….

As an aside, anyone heading down to the bar around lunchtime today can expect conditions much like this, steeper than usual, plenty of punch & consequences when you get it wrong.

Rollin' Rollin' Rollin'…..

Yarra Bay - pic by Rob Mercer

We teamed up with Wayne & Mel Hanley from Greenland Downunder on Saturday to host a free Greenland rolling day, at an overcast & rainswept Yarra Bay.
We had a great turnout, with more than 20 paddlers registered, ranging in ability from very accomplished in the Greenland arts, to 'just rollers' wanting to explore.

Demo - pic by Rob Mercer

Mel kicked off the day with a polished demonstration of a range of Greenland rolls, rattling off a selection of the competition rolls as well as some of the 'non approved moves'.

Mel Hanley, textbook positioning - pic by Rob Mercer

We then split into two groups, roughly along the lines of 'looking to really finetune' and 'looking for a refresh on the basics'.

Mel - pic by Rob Mercer

Rob & I took the group who were after some basics, as we felt we had these covered from an instructor's perspective, while Mel & Wayne looked after the diverse bunch of more advanced rollers.
It was fun, many of the people present cracked a roll they hadn't previously managed, & there was plenty of loud applause & cheers as one after the other a debut butterfly roll or reverse sweep or hand roll was achieved by a smiling paddler.

pic by Rob Mercer

Having not previously instructed the Greenland stuff in a specific & concentrated way like this, it struck me how similar it really is to teaching the standard combat rolls we have honed over the years. Good body mechanics are good body mechanics, & rotation is really the key to good rolling, or good Greenland rolling for that matter.
Once everyone had managed to blow out their energy on the exhausting effort of learning rolls, contorting themselves into all sorts of bizarre positions, we hopped into our boats & fart-arsed around for an hour swapping tips & tricks.

Kitting up - pic by Rob Mercer

Dave, Ian, Shawn & I exchanged theories on a few of the rolls, then Rob paddled out & tried to get us all doing the Storm roll (another one that looks mysterious but is ridiculously easy once you get your head around the mechanics).
Mel tried every trick she had to get me balance bracing, but alas the consensus seems to be that I'm just not very buoyant. For a graceful looking, peaceful manoeuvre when I watch someone else doing it, once I start twisting my own frame into the textbook balanced brace shape it feels more like water torture….
My personal goal is to be able to do all of the Greenland rolls I can do with a stick, just as well with my standard paddle, without extending my grip or changing my hand position on the paddle. Although my range is pretty small, maybe 8 rolls according to the book, so far I'm able to do it, which means effectively I'm able to transfer some of the powerful forward-finishing rolls into my rough water & surf paddling. The forward finishing rolls are especially strong & 'safe' for combat situations, & make it possible to roll like the whitewater guys, basically 'from anywhere' without having to go through a laborious set up underwater. One tip for successfully transferring the rolls from the surety of a buoyant & unfeathered GP to a feathered & clunky Euro blade, just forget it's a Euro blade. Use it the same way & rely on your body mechanics & you'll find the rolls work the same, even with a diving feather angle being the most logical outcome in your head. Like most of this stuff it's really a head game….
The gang then adjourned to the excellent Yarra Bay Saling Club for a cold beer & a burger, & swapped tall stories well into the arvo.
A top morning on the water & a precursor to what Cheri Perry & Turner Wilson with their very broad & inclusive instruction might provide when they're here in a few weeks.
Thanks to Wayne & Mel for coming along & to all who attended.
There is a great little video on Ian Vaille's blog Waterlines, which you can see HERE.

Fridays from the Vault - If the Boat Fits, Wear It….

Probably the most commented on blog post we've written was Rob's contribution on the importance of boat fit. It continues to be read widely & we get emails from parts far-flung asking advice on paddler weight with relevance to boat design & performance.

The blog is reproduced below from Rob's Balanced Boater blog, where it was first posted in September 2009:

If the Boat Fits, Wear It

Imagine walking into a specialist outdoor store looking for walking boots and finding there are only two sizes. Then imagine asking why there are only size 9 and 13 and being told that these sizes fit "most people"(read large males). Finally imagine the helpful store person explaining to your smaller companion with size 5 feet that the size 9 is is perfect for her as long as she is willing to wear enough socks.

I think kayaks and shoes have a lot in common and no amount of closed cell foam and wishful thinking will make a small paddler feel connected in a medium to large boat any more than a dozen pairs of socks will make big shoes fit smaller feet.

A few years ago there really was no choice in Australia for smaller paddlers but to follow the "wear more socks" principle. With very few imports and a small market it made economic sense to build kayaks that suited the male dominated sport: i.e. expedition ready boats that performed adequately for medium to large men when empty. Unfortunately because everyone smaller than this would fit into these larger craft, it was assumed the boats fitted them.

Trying a boat for size:

• It is possible to have too much stability. It is tiring to edge, maneuver and brace an oversize boat, particularly if there is so much initial stability that it prevents you from heeling the kayak easily and precisely. A wide boat that responds well for a heavier paddler with a high centre of gravity may simply simply feel like a barge to individuals shorter and lighter in the torso.
• The Hip Test: When the boat is tilted the coaming and deck should not interfere with elbows or ribs. If you want to edge and roll the kayak you need to wear it so that the coaming is approximately aligned with the top of the hips.
• Longer isn't always faster: Although a longer waterline equals higher potential speed this potential is only realised if you can produce enough power to overcome the drag generated by the extra wetted area. A scaled down boat may be a little shorter but the reduced waterline beam and wetted area will often more than offset reduced waterline length.
• Weight: All other factors being equal, the lower volume (LV) boat will be lighter than standard or HV equivalents. Lighter boats accelerate faster on the water and are easier to handle off the water.
• Beam: A reduced beam and height amidships allows shorter legs to engage the deck without straining into a very wide ''frog position". A narrower foredeck also allows a closer catch without overreaching, making it easier to roll as well as paddle.
• Bulkheads: A scaled down cockpit area and closer spacing of bulkheads reduces the floodable area in the cockpit, and makes the boat easier to manage if it is swamped and easier to empty if it is capsized.

About 10 years ago with all this in mind and a complete lack of local options my wife, Sharon,

made her own plywood kayak: a ''Baidarka" built from plans that had been scaled down to give her a boat that would provide the same proportional fit as the larger composite craft that I had always found easy to paddle. Her boat control skills improved dramatically and she handled the challenging maiden voyage from Sydney to Jervis Bay in challenging conditions with new found confidence. These days there are options in the low volume market. Her regular kayak is an Impex Force 3 and she has her eye on an Avocet LV to add to the fleet in the future.

As sea kayakers have become more aware of the connection between boat fit and performance the number of LV models has steadily grown and new LV paddlers seem to be vindicating this move by learning faster and paddling better than ever before.

A spin off from the "Low Volume Revolution" has been the number of medium sized paddlers who have found these general purpose LV tourers make excellent play-boats. But, if you usually paddle a standard kayak don't expect any offers for a test paddle from the LV crew. They will be too busy ''getting amongst it" and won't happily sit on the beach watching you have all the fun.