The Tiderace Pace 17 Tour

Four more sleeps 'til we get the brand new Tiderace Pace 17 Tour, the most anticipated expedition kayak since the revolutionary Rockpool Taran, onto the water.
The Tiderace guys have just sent us some pics from the first paddle, designer Aled Williams taking the boat for a spin in his home waters off Anglesey.

Why are we so excited about this design? We think the Pace 17 will broaden the appeal of the fast touring kayak, with a more rockered hull shape that promises a far more sympathetic ride, good gear carrying capacity, rough water handling and speed (and therefore expedition range).

We will have stock on Monday, and look forward to getting the boat out into as much mess & bother as we can find, whilst also encouraging others to try it & see if it's going to be the breakthrough expedition kayak design we expect it to be.

The Deep End

I've had a couple of paddles recently where I've been inspired by people going way over their comfort levels in an attempt to kick start a new element of their paddling.
Over Xmas, I organised a paddle out from Port Hacking into a building summer Nor 'Easter with Steve, who was taking his V10L ski out for the first time into a decent sea. Steve is an accomplished racing paddler & regularly surfs his ski, but has had limited experience on the ocean in genuine downwind conditions.
We bashed our way out past the headland of Cape Solander, about 3-4km offshore.
As we turned beam onto the seas to run home I gave Steve some very vague advice about not backing off & staying aggressive, even when everything is screaming at him to brace or throw in a stern rudder, and off we went.
With the wind now pushing 20 knots and seas running at fast boat speed we then ran back all the way past Jibbon Head in our excitement (a bit further than we had ideally planned)!
Steve was tentative for about two minutes, then gradually started to relax and let the boat go. By the time we risked annihilation on the Jibbon Bombora he was looking really solid.

John by contrast has only had his ski for a month, a more stable V10S, and has had it out on the river trying to adapt his fast evolving rough water paddling in his Nordkapp LV to the intermediate ski.
John has a background in cycling, keeps himself fit & motivated and has a history of attacking new challenges. He bought a Nordkapp LV knowing it would be a steeper learning curve, but hopefully with greater rewards once he'd found his bearings. He became a regular on Rob's Tuesday paddles, making that adaption we've all made from one of the guys who gets rescued a lot, to becoming the one who is looking for someone to rescue, over a year or so of constant rough water paddling, with a competent and strong set of peers.
On Thursday we met at Doll's Pt and in the face of another strong Nor Easter building by the minute, resolved to paddling 40 minutes out into it, and then running the 20 or so minutes back as our reward for toil. John mounted his ski in the shore break at Dolls Pt & promptly fell out. The wind waves were steep enough to make him doubt the validity of this idea, but he managed to get himself set again & followed me out into the bay.
We had to grind it out into some really strong wind, with John getting used to the lack of stability endemic to a ski that has no thigh bracing.
We rounded a channel marker after about half an hour & then ran back. Again I blurted out some generalist advice on staying positive, easier said than done, and off he went.
Despite rating his anxiety levels at '9' John slotted into the following waves and made it all the way back without looking like taking a swim, a top effort. There is a short video below showing John running along, a stirling effort in some challenging conditions for a first timer, for sure.

He later described it as 'running that line between fear & exhilaration'.
A fine line indeed.

I have done a similar thing recently, getting Gazza to ride shotgun in his Taran while I took on a paddle around Noosa in a V10 that had sections of coast providing wave action that I couldn't have responsibly taken on by myself.

In both instances we'd planned a paddle that despite being designed to challenge, had us blowing back to a lee shore (OK, with Steve & I that ended up potentially being a very hard, tall lee shore…) We had deigned to keep an eye on one another (remember I'm no expert on a ski) and also felt competent in assisted rescue techniques in the event of someone being unable to remount. We were all strong swimmers, all reasonably fit. In other words, we'd identified & managed the risks that could turn a paddle of this sort, in winds of this strength, into something that could turn ugly.

The rewards? Exposure to 'the deep end' removes many of it's fearful secrets.

Valley Gemini Surfing

As the storm systems dovetailing off Tropical Cyclone Oswald reached Sydney, they've generated a decent easterly swell, and yesterday Rob took the opportunity to head to the bar at Bundeena with the promise of a fat & chunky break.
On arrival it was a full tide so the waves were long & fast, but as the tide began to run out they steepened up into some great overhead waves which provided another dimension for our latest toy, the Valley Gemini SP.
Rob's cheery report on the three hour session was muffled, I think he was a bit buggered, but the general feedback was that as the waves got bigger & faster, so did the Gemini start doing more & more exciting things. 
We've steadily churned through our stock of this mighty little play boat, selling it about equally between those who want to 'go big' and those who like the idea of a shorter, lighter, nimble tourer for gentler waters, made with the care & attention you expect from Valley (for under $3000).

I had it out on a Tuesday night paddle earlier this month & lapped up the playfulness of the boat in some nice little following seas off Sydney. Because it's so short, it slots into the chop & kicks around from steep section to steep section, whipping along & following the alignment of your shoulders to the next fast bit. Conditions were pretty ideal, but I had no trouble scooting alongside John in his Taran, offering some advice & tips on catching the runners.

 The Valley Gemini ST, arriving early April 2013

In April we land the touring version, the Gemini ST, one we hadn't really contemplated until we saw how innovative the little SP is.

Video - Gazza & Sundo Paddle Noosa

A short video sampling the variety of great paddling on a 16km cruise along the Noosa National Park coastline.
Gary Forrest is in his Rockpool Taran, I'm in my borrowed Epic V10 Elite.
I hope it looks like we were having as much fun as we actually were, a top day.

Another Paddle with the Forrest

This year was our turn to do the pilgrimage up to Noosa to hang out with Nicole's parents, tough gig!
Like thousands of Australian families we pack the car with kids & summer toys & head north to the golden sands & sunshine of the north.
I was lucky enough this year to wangle a loaner V10 from Tony at Epic in Sydney, a black elite carbon layup, like the one you see on the posters. I haven't paddled a V10 before, having developed my ski paddling over the past couple of years in my trusty V10 Sport, so I was pretty happy to get my hands on one to test out on the clear & varied waters that characterise Noosa Heads.

Another little tradition when I come up here is to organise a paddle with my mate Gary Forrest, the top instructor up on the Sunshine Coast and one of the few to have done the crossing out to Lady Elliot Island. Gary runs an instruction business out of his home waters in Moolloolaba, and is a rough water paddler of the highest calibre.

This year we met up on the river with the intention of breaking out over the bar, and paddling along the National Park coastline and into Alexandra Bay, a 16km return trip with enough fun features and point breaks to amuse us.
Gary took along his Rockpool Taran, the one he, err, bought off me for a rather low price, three quarters of the way through a lively night at the Currumbin Surf Club. It was no longer purple with yellow starfish, instead now in Gazza's customary all white colour way. It looked crap...
Punching out through the bar was so uneventful we decided to turn around & catch a wave back inside & do it again, second time around we very nearly got thumped.

The paddle out into Laguna Bay is one of life's pleasures, azure waters, warm almost to the point of not being refreshing, a brilliant sunny day & the volcanic headlands that on their day present some of the world's finest point breaks.

We turned the corner at Hell's Gates where a small rebound was chopping up the water surface, enough to make life tougher for me in my new ski. I was grateful to clear the mess & turn & catch a great little wave into the beach at 'A-Bay'.
After a short breather we broke out again, this time watching a few big sets out the back before picking a lull & scootling back out to sea.
We then ran back along the cliffs riding runner after runner, poking our noses into the famous breaks at Tea Tree, Car Park & Main Beach along the way, before one last long ride through the bar.
A great paddle with a great fella, I wish I could do it every day. I've cut a fun video which you can see below.

The Botany Bay Game

Our warehouse here in Marrickville is only 10 minutes drive from the shores of Botany Bay, a wide open Bay in the heart of Sydney open to all manner of wind & conditions.

A favourtite game of mine is to watch the forecasts for a coming southerly front, head down to the bay when I see the weaher stations just south of Sydney starting to cop it, paddle across to the south as far as I can in what is usually either a tailwind or reasonably benign stuff, then gun it back across the bay with the frontal system up my hooter.

When I get it right, the southerly buster will whip up enough of a sea to let me sit on wave after steep, short wave and ride clean across the few miles to my launch spot in no time.

It's not the sea, so the waves don't have any power or ocean speed to them, but if the wind is strong enough, and southerlies usually hit my part of Sydney like a freight train, it produces steep little runners that are a technical test as you zig zag around from face to face.

Yesterday was one of the hottest days recorded in Sydney, at one stage my car thermo measured 45C, with brutal westerlies drawing the inferno in the west of the continent down on us urban softies.

A big 'buster' was forecast for the early hours of this morning, so even though I wouldn't be able to play my game of getting a free ride in both directions, the bay would still be pretty lively for a slog out & a blast back.

So it proved, obs during the hour I was out ranged from 20-26 knots, the sea state on the bay was short, steep & fun, and the forty minutes spent grafting out to my turnaround was roundly justified by the 20 minutes of downwind bliss which brought me home. The speed graph is below, never underestimate what a 25 knot breeze does to your boat speed!

The bay provides a reasonably safe environment for learning the art of downwind paddling, with a lee shore no more than five or six kilometres away and waves that rarely get above head height. This is my typical surf ski paddle, a short sharp hour, usually pretty opportunistic, plenty of sweat, but equal amounts of cheers….
The trace of my paddle is HERE

The Greenland T Returns….

We've just taken delivery of a new shipment of Greenland T's, in the brand new Red/White colourway (with a white hull).
There are just two available, a fantastic 'smile on the dial' kayak that has broad appeal, oodles of stabilty and looks that turn heads, for $2990.
Here's a video from last year showcasing some of the capabilities of this boat, both out on the ocean and messing around with some rolling.
We have a demo Greenland T if you would like to arrange a test paddle.