Tiderace Demo Day this Sunday

Rob Mercer will have the full range of our Tiderace demo boats down at Vaucluse Bay from 10am this Sunday morning (September 9).
It's the first chance to paddle the Pace 18, Xplore & Xcite in local waters.
Please contact Rob direct (rob@expeditionkayaks.com) if you are coming along.

The Tiderace Pace 18

The buzz around the Tiderace range has been palpable, both Rob and I have been asked a lot of questions about the designs we've landed, the Xcite, Xplore and especially the Pace 18.
I'm sure the curiosity about the Pace is borne out of the long distance ocean touring we've been exploring in the past 12 months, in fast kayaks like the Rockpool Taran and the Epic 18X.
People are keen to know how they all compare, and what this new contender in the fast touring genre has to offer.

In my eyes there are a few things this latest generation of plum bow designs have to achieve in order to be considered as serious sea kayaks.
First of all, they have to be fast. By fast I mean capable of holding 9.5kmh on flat water without approaching terminal hull speed. A technically sound paddler with middling fitness should be able to maintain these sorts of speeds with nothing more strenuous than their 'exercise' output.
Second, they need to be stable, with sea manners and secondary stability which enables an average paddler to sort themselves out on the sea, without having to raft up. They should also get more stable with anything approaching an expedition load. 
And finally, they have to handle following seas in a predictable way. A sleek, low rockered profile is great for calm water, but what happens when it gets steeper, will the stern start to slew around as the bow invariably locks into the trough or the wave in front of the kayak?
I'm not one to stamp certainties onto a kayak design on the strength of a couple of paddles, but I can report on a pretty comprehensive test in the Pace 18 off Port Macquarie during the week.

I was in town for a morning to deliver some boats, and took the Pace with me on the chance that I'd get a chance for a sea paddle.

Staunch locals

Launching off the front beach alongside the break wall, I paddled a few minutes out into a building sea breeze, before turning and running back to the river mouth, just to get a feel for the hull. I then turned again and this time punched out for 20 minutes, running one last time back, this time with a fairly freshly developed sea running my way.
I carried on against a stiff tide up into the river and estuary, turning and coming back downstream, riding a few steep, almost standing waves on the bar before landing back through the surf at my start point. All up a tick over 10km.

Port Macquarie Marina

In the context of trying to get a feel for a boat, it was a pretty good microcosm of a bunch of different wave and sea patterns, a fresh breeze and then something we don't often get around Sydney, a strong wind-against-tide effect.
In summary, and using my own key indicators for these types of boats, I can offer the following.
Was it fast? Well hell yeah, probably the fastest decked ocean kayak I've paddled, with the exception of the Valley Rapier. It ran nicely into a breeze with a very low wind profile, shed the oncoming sea nicely and didn't stall over the small, mostly wind generated waves I was punching into.
Stability was above average in the context of these new fast boat designs. I stopped at my second turning point to photograph a beautiful adult Gannet and didn't think twice in the sloppy sea state about my stability. I paddle a wide range of kayaks & skis and as such I'm a poor judge of stability so please take that observation as you will.

An adult Gannet off Port Macquarie

Finally, downwind, the one thing I was hanging out to test. My trace shows that I spent 10 minutes sitting around the 12.5km mark running back. Unfortunately I didn't have my heart rate monitor on, which is really the indicator of boat glide or run, as it tells me how hard I was working to generate the speed. Suffice to say, and I think the video bears this out, I was cruising. The hull ran like a ski, with shorter fast strokes occasionally to keep me in the sweet spot of the wave. The seas were hardly monumental, but when I got the chance to drive the bow down into a deeper trough I did succeed in burying it to a small degree in the wave in front. You can see this on the video as spray around the low forward mounted camera. This was deliberate and something I was keen to test. If you think about the dynamics, the bow will generally begin to stall in the full body of water forward, the stern is still running hard, and lesser hull designs will tend to skate around once you over-reach the optimum spot on the wave.

Port Macquarie from the sea

We had noticed it the day previous in smaller, slower waves on Botany Bay, but it was amplified in longer ocean waves, that the Pace 18 holds a hard line when this awkward stall occurs. Watching the entire video of the run back I didn't use a single correcting or braking stroke, sweep or stern rudder to bring the boat back online. It didn't broach or behave with any unpredictability, just ran straight and true with ruthless efficiency. 
In the mouth of the river the bar was starting to produce some steep waves that were brilliant to surf along on, although it's pretty wacky when you are firing down the face of a wave and your GPS says you're only going 9kmh! Perhaps because of the volume of water running at me I wasn't able to bury the bow in these steeper waves, despite several attempts, but I suspect in breaking beach surf it wouldn't be so hard. Again I emphasise that I can't pass true judgement on downwind performance until I get it out in some big, fast and steep stuff, but what I experienced on Wednesday was very encouraging.

The trace from my short paddle, some good runs, some stuffing around, but good numbers when I had it working the way I wanted.

Landing again on the beach I got a pretty good thump from a wave and was able to pre-empt my broach and bongo slide into the the beach in a high brace, no surprises there (but this boat is not likely to feature among the quarter finalists in the surfing sea kayaks league table).
So far I'm really impressed, again we seem to have landed an innovative design that brings more to the water than we had expected. 
I'll be paddling the boat in the Hawkesbury Classic, and sadly won't have an excuse for going slow other than not being good enough!
There is a demo day this Sunday at Vaucluse Bay where we'll have the full range of Tiderace boats to try. Stay tuned to the blog and Facebook page for times etc.

**note, everything I describe about this kayak relates to hull performance, the aspect of a boat design that we think is 98.5% of what matters. I don't mention comfort, seats, foot pegs or any of the ancillary things as I believe they are perceived so subjectively it's ridiculous to speak about them in anything resembling a review. The exception of course will be the day I can be confident that there are similar bum shapes to mine lurking out there in paddler land (hopefully there aren't too many!)

Kids in the Tiderace Candy Shop

 

Our first shipment of Tiderace kayaks arrived on Tuesday, perfectly packed in separate full length cartons inside the container.

Johnny arrives in the trusty delivery rig.

Pre-orders awaiting pick up.

We had several pre-orders, and opened each box to inspect the boats & check out the features up to now we've only been able to read about.

The Xcite

The Xplore

After unloading & allocating the orders to go out around the country Rob & I decided we should make sure they were seaworthy.

Colour co-ordinated roof candy

A decent Nor Easter was blowing at Dolls Point, perfect crappy, short & sharp conditions to get a feel for what these much vaunted hull shapes have to offer.

The latest addition to the fast ocean tourer genre.

We swapped between the Xplore, Xcite & Pace 18, running out into the bay into the wind & chop, across the conditions, & then back downwind. It was a great way to get an initial feel for the boats, & we came away satisfied that Tiderace have delivered the performance they promised. Here's a short video of the pair of us hooning around, kids in the Tiderace candy shop….

Anyone watching our stock page will have noticed that the numbers available in the Tiderace range have instantly halved, and interest in the boats has been most encouraging.

Stay tuned for details of a demo day in the Sydney area, but in the meantime get in touch if you'd like to take one for spin with either of Rob or myself alongside.

Tiderace Has Landed…!

Our first shipment of the innovative Tiderace Sea Kayaks is here. We have the following range of boats remaining from the first container:

We'll be holding a demo day in the Sydney region within the next couple of weeks, but in the meantime get in touch if you'd like to take one for a spin one-on-one with either of Rob or myself.

Officially Entered - Hawkesbury Classic 2012

I've just confiormed my entry into this year's Hawkesbury Classic, being run on October 27/28. I've got 9 weeks left to train & hope to give it a good shake.
The race raises money for the Arrow Bone Marrow Transplant Foundation, and all donations/sponsorships are welcome. 

You can sponsor me through my paddler page on THIS LINK.
Think of it as a small fee to pay to ensure I endure some pain & suffering…. 

Rob & Sharon's Holiday Cruise

Rob & Sharon are currently ambling their way up the coast from Lucinda in Tropical North Queensland. They've made their way up the spectacular Hinchinbrook Island, and have been slowly hopping north from island to island on their way to 'maybe Innisfail, maybe Cairns, we'll see….'

There are no Tarans & massive open water distances on this trip, just a nice opportunity for the guys to get away & enjoy a cruisy week or so on the water. 

Rob is paddling the Valley Etain 17'7, while Sharon is in her 17'3, and both report excellent handling under full loads & good speeds.

I'm expecting them back some time next week, hopefully in time to help me unload the Tiderace container!

Back to the Hawkesbury Classic

I've discovered over the past few years that withdrawal from competitive sport has left me constantly in need of a goal. Without something to aim at, I find myself wandering a bit with my paddling, fitness, motivation, you name it. I no longer have to beat someone else to feel satisfied (thankfully), but I still have an urge to keep pushing boundaries & limits & find new things to take me out of my comfort zone.
Over the past year I've been lucky enough to have a couple of good ones to shoot for, and the preparation for those two big paddles has been absorbing & tremendously rewarding.
August has arrived in Sydney & the weather is starting to look more inviting, so I decided that this year I'll have another crack at the Hawkesbury Classic.

For those who don't know, this is an iconic race held over the night of the full moon in late October, along a river that winds from the foothills of the Blue Mountains at Windsor, 111km near enough to the mouth at Brooklyn. It started out as a bunch of of mates looking to organise a paddle down the Hawkesbury & raise some money some 35 years ago, and has built into a much anticipated event for paddlers of all abilities, craft & motivation, which regularly has a starting field of 500 paddlers.
I first did the race in 2001, in my first kayak, an Old Town Nantucket. It was 14'10" of pure thoroughbred, with a top speed of somewhere in the vicinity of 7kmh, and I can still hear the salesman telling me it was an ideal choice for the sea & the Hawkesbury race. 

The Old Town Nantucket (or Bucket…)

You wonder why I'm so careful about making boat suggestions to our customers!
I trained a couple of mornings a week on the harbour between home at Annandale & Darling Harbour, and felt I was right raring to go come race day.

Setting off on my first Classic in 2001

17hrs 53minutes later I crossed the line at Brooklyn, in a paddling feat that to this day remains the hardest thing I've ever done.
Here is a photo of me finishing in '01 with my thermal wrapped around my head, shirtless, smiling and completely rooted….

The following year I realised I'd better change boats if I wanted to go faster, so I upgraded to another elite speed machine, the Current Designs Storm (another great sales jobby, you'd think I would have learned…) This time with some sea miles under my belt, a little bit of club instruction from my new-mate-who-talked-too-much Rob Mercer, I managed to knock four & a half hours off my time.

Coming back a third year, this time with a shiny new purple fibreglass & kevlar Greenlander Pro that I'd paddled twice in the lead up week to the race, I got down to 12hrs 13mins, a time I was happy enough with considering my trials of 2001!
From 2003 the kids arrived and my attention turned squarely to paddling on the sea, where it has remained ever since. Even though I'm fitter & technically much better than I was back then, I'm still acutely aware that flat water paddling requires fitness above all else to cover big distances, whereas sea paddling gives you the luxury of using your skill in the waves. It might not be easier, but it's way more engaging & the time seems to pass faster, as do the miles, for me at least.
Regardless, with a welter of fast boats now positioned under the EK banner, I figured 10 or so weeks of targeted training and a proper crack at the race was in order. A week into it I'm feeling motivated, have already dropped a few kegs, and I'm pondering whether to use the Taran, Rapier 20, Epic 18X or the Pace 18. None of them have quite as much character as the Old Town Nantucket, but they have a few more wheels.
While finishing is always the goal of anyone who enters the Hawkesbury, a paddle that clocks about 100km's is not to be sneezed at after all, I would like to try & do a good time, I figure a shorter Classic has got to be easier than a long Classic, & I should know!
You can enter the race through the Hawkesbury Canoe Classic website HERE. Proceeds from the race go to the Arrow Bone Marrow Foundation.