Rock & Roll 2017

Each year in March the NSW Sea Kayak Club convenes at a spot along the coast to mark their one big event of the year, the Rock & Roll weekend.

Spot the beer & pizza. No chance...

As a sponsor of the event since 2007 when we began to be, it's a rare chance for us to get along to a weekend where near enough to 150 dead-set sea kayakers are in attendance, with the overriding goal of going for a paddle on the ocean. We enjoy the opportunity to put something back into the community of which we have been a part for so many years.

The welcome to RnR speech

This year the weather gods smiled, slotting Rock & Roll in between an East Coast Low that closed out most of the NSW coast in thew week prior, and monsoonal rain event that subsequently soaked it silly. We had some big residual groundswell on the Saturday & a building sea breeze both days, but the protected launch spot at Batehaven meant that the getting out bit was mostly achieved without incident.

Setting out for the distant Tollgate Islands.

Friday night kicks off with the Beer & Pizza Party, our major contribution to the weekend, and partygoers trucked their way through an astonishing number of pizzas in an even more astonishingly short time. I think everyone must starve themselves on the way to the bay, in anticipation of the frenzy....

It was a morning to keep well clear of the Bombies.

My Saturday trip was pencilled in as a trip out to the spectacular Tollgate Islands & back, but my group got out there so fast we decided to head over to the diminutive outcrop further south known as Black Rock as well. The big swells kept us well clear of the close-quartering mischief we have enjoyed at previous Rock & Rolls, but provided their own dramatic backdrop as we rolled over some very impressive walls of water. 

Peter powering past the Tollgates

It was also incredibly sharky, as many as five toothy friends spotted weaving in & out of our pod over the course of the morning. I spotted a big Mako, as well as a small Hammerhead & (we reckon) his Mum, curious majestic animals cruising by for a look at our strange craft. I love seeing sharks out on the open water, it tells me all is well with the ocean. 

Stephen in the trough.

We were lucky to have Ken Bellette along with us, a surf lifesaving legend in the area who is getting back into sea kayaking, and he navigated some judicious lines around lurking bomboras as well as being a general tour guide to the features & history of this beautiful waterway. 

Smooth lumps almost obscuring the Tollgate Islands.

On the Saturday arvo I took the double ski down to the beach & pulled a few unsuspecting RnR'ers off the beach for a go in the little sea that had developed next to Snapper Island. For entertainment, it was 10/10, especially my favourite paddler of all time, who I think was actually trying to jump out of the ski on one big run we cracked!

Tom up on top of some foamy swell

Rob ran his brilliant rescue challenge in the arvo, with a big cast of participants, and as always it was really well received. The winners were spotted improvising a hand-paddle home to take the yellow jersey!

Jenny Walker - last year she was the one being inspired, this year she was doing all of the inspiring herself.

On Saturday night we were treated to a talk from Sandy Robson, doing her best to fit a five year Germany to Australia sojourn into an hour long presentation. Raffles run & a buffet banquet put away, there were some very weary bones dragging themselves off to their tents for the night.

19km Big Swell Tour of the Bateman's Islands.

Again with Ken giving us the local weather and local knowledge, we decided all would be right to run a downwind paddle from South Durras to Bateman's Bay. 

South Durras briefing

Launching from the protected boat ramp at Durras we paddled out past the break & swung south, for an hour of the cleanest, steepest little runners you'd ever hope to paddle. 

Audax smokin'....

The one & only David Slattery in his beautiful timber boat.

Ronaldo looking relaxed.

Kenny looking very Clint.

The group paddled with tremendous cohesion, the fast guys blasting through & waiting, the slower paddlers using the seas for a cruisy ride  back to Bateman's, always within shouting distance over the entire 16km journey.

Rob & Mark taking in the pearls of wisdom from local legend Ken Bellette.

Safely back on the beach after a rollicking run down the coast.

On Sunday arvo Rob ran his paddle workshop, which curiously seems to always finish with about twice the number of participants start. In the evening the famous Pogies are contested, the short film festival for sea kayakers with more than it's fair share of controversy & high drama over the years. This year the quality of entries were just brilliant, like watching the Discovery Channel (!), but I think everyone agreed that Mark, Roddy & Davlin's Bass Strait video was a worthy winner (the link to the video is HERE).

Rob's paddle workshop.

Rob, Sharon & I came into this year's Rock & Roll with an extra incentive, and no small amount of trepidation, as it was our first chance for mass engagement for our new boat design, the Audax. Whilst we're very confident we've come up with a design that has wide appeal as well as high performance, nevertheless over the weekend we listened intently to the 40+ paddlers who gave our demo boats a thorough workout, mostly in pretty lively conditions.

Rob cruising south in the Audax Elite

The feedback was very reassuring, the speed and acceleration was evident & I guess people figure is a given, but the rave reviews were for the stability and the manoeuvrability. I have noticed people looking at fast plumb bow boats since they became popular with some suspicion, prejudging them to be too unstable, 'something that looks that fast must be hard to paddle', and there have been events we've been to over the years where they've barely even been tried. The Audax seems to have generated a lot of interest however, and paddlers were queueing up for a go, and almost universally coming back to us with a cheerful tale affirming how easy the boat is to paddle. 

Sunday night dinner put on by the Triathlete Cabin (pic by Ken Collins).

The Rock & Roll weekend was organised by Simon Swift, ably supported by his man on the ground at Bateman's, Neil Gow, along with Selim, Phil & a bunch of others silently making the cogs turn. They did a hell of a job, numbers were up, the organisation was seamless, and you almost got tired of seeing people throwing their heads back & having a laugh, sharing their combined passion for this wonderful sport of ours. 

We extend a hearty thanks to these guys, as well as to our club mates who stopped by to say G'day & swap a yarn or two. If you haven't managed to get along to a Rock & Roll weekend, and you're a sea kayaker anywhere, let alone in our coastal waters, you don't know what you're missing.

Review - Long Span Y-Racks

A local manufacturer has come up with a very clever and well designed car topping rack system which we have been busy using & road testing for the past 6 months.

The Long Span Y-Rack system is designed to lengthen the span of your tie-points, thus reducing the torque on rack mounted cradles that are very close together. Car manufacturers seem if anything to be narrowing the distance between roof rack mounting positions, which can be a problem for paddlers transporting boats up to 7m long on highways & in high winds. The Long Span Y Racks offer 2.1m of spread from cradle to cradle.

Spread is one of the most important factors in securely transporting your kayak on roof racks. The wider you can get your boat supports, the less likely it will be influenced by side winds & destabilisation.

I've travelled more than 4000km with my set, the lightweight version, carrying light ocean skis, big doubles and heavy sea kayaks, everywhere from the from the inland sand tracks of Fraser Island to the 110kmh highways between Sydney & Melbourne. I was a little worried after bouncing around Fraser Island with a 14kg, 6.1m long Think Evo on the roof that I may have damaged the ski, but the soft padded nylon footing protected the hull from the negligence of my off-road driving!

These long-span Y racks convert even the shortest hatchback rack span to a width more typical on a big SUV, via a brilliant design which is light, secure & simple to fit. The 'Y' cradles are paddled with a  smooth nylon so you boat will slide, the fixture plates have a thin rubber coating to prevent the bars sliding, and you can clip the Y fitting out when you're not carrying your kayak. 

There is also now a stiffer, slightly heavier bar which you would choose if you had to offset the longitudinal bars on a hatchback, or if you have a very long double to transport.

Considering the cost of a standard set of basic cradles has climbed to around $230, these also represent great value at just $320 for the full set up.

You can order this great locally designed & manufactured product though our online store via this LINK.

A Daring Adventure, in an Afternoon...

'Because life is a daring adventure, or nothing at all'.

Inspiring words from a great friend, but not meant to be a call for an epic Shackleton-esque adventure, just a reminder about having an adventurous attitude.

Living in Sydney we can be swept away by the traffic congestion, over stimulation of constant crowds in one of the world's busiest cities, but adventure is right there on the fringes, especially for us paddlers, where the sea interacts with the coast.

On Tuesday I made it along to the annual Tuesday night Xmas paddle, usually a short paddle followed by a long celebratory picnic. This year the crew that assembled at Vaucluse Bay was strong & keen, and the sea breeze was building from the Nor East, so Rob decided were heading out past North Head to give ourselves a long & fast run home to our picnic venue on Ronaldo Island.

We ground our way past the nude dudes on Lady Jane Beach to South Head where Kenny nearly had his afternoon curtailed in spectacular fashion. As we traversed to North Head the winds picked up, accelerating over the cliffs and slowing us down appreciably. 

Regrouping in the shadow of the buttress the guys then plotted a line into the wind as far north as Bluefish Point.

These guys are well organised and capable, arranging a staggered start for the long downwind section so as to have everyone paddling within eyeshot despite the wild water making it hard too stick too close. The paddle back was fast, bouncy, fast, bouncy & fast. Yee haaa....

Detouring across the harbour to another little beach full of perplexed nude dudes, we then climbed the cliffs to say G'day to our mate Chris, at a secret spot that is close to his and his family's heart.

With an imposing pair of thunderstorms converging from north and south we paddled hard across the harbour to Ronaldo Cove, where we set up a modest picnic ground & sat down to enjoy a lot of cheese, some prawns and a couple of cold libations. I'm glad I quite like cheese.

On the way across the 'Voyager of the Sea' steamed past, juxtaposing the nine of us having a wonderful adventure on the sea, with the 9000 (or is 90,000) on board the Voyager about to head out for another kind of adventure on the sea...! Oh man if only they knew....

As the sun set the city lights sparked up, the Xmas party boats started their scenic loops of the harbour and we soaked it all up from our humble vantage.

To top off an afternoon of howling winds, steep breaking seas which sent us rollicking along at tremendous speed, a thunderstorm light show out to sea which went for hours, an eerie calm descending in time for us to have clear skies for our picnic, we then paddled in the dark back to Vaucluse Bay with a bioluminescent light show in the water that lit up each paddle stroke like a sparkler. 

All up 20km of as varied a set of water, wave, wind & atmospheric conditions as you could hope to encounter in a month, let alone a couple of hours within a 15 square kilometre patch of the earth.

What a great finish to a brilliant year of paddling, thanks to Nick, Kenny, Andrew, Tim, Davlin, Kevin & Rob for letting me tag along.

Merry Xmas...!

A Week in the South

An invitation from the Victorian Sea Kayak Club to return for a second year to their Blue Water Weekend & AGM at the Wonthaggi Surf Club on the beach opposite Cape Patterson had us planning a trip south since September.

The sad passing of our great mate Mick MacRobb on the Sunday prior to the event meant a slightly rushed pack & departure, so we could be at the service to commemorate Mick's life, in Paynesville, just around the corner from his home in Eagle Point.

Mick out where he loved to be, with his sail flying.

Despite the desperate sadness of Mick's loss, both Rob & I were very humbled to be asked by Mick's partner Lyn & his Dad Graham to speak at the funeral, and to shine a light on his contribution to the paddling world. A eulogy is no easy thing to deliver, but it's an honour you try your best to fulfil.

The paddling world that Mick had such a giant influence over was there in force, with huge numbers attending from his own Victorian Sea Kayak Club, and others he'd spent time paddling alongside over the years. It was a reminder of the tremendous community to which we are all very privileged to belong.

Mourners at Micks' funeral raise a guard of honour.

Tim, Sarah, Bob, Rob & I then had our own little celebration of Mick's life in the evening, a night with a few tears & a lot of laughs, just the sort of evening we'd wiled away with Mick countless times over the years.

The following day we bid our goodbyes to Lyn & Mick's family & headed for the Bass Coast and Cape Paterson. This is a stunning part of the world, clear, cold blue water & on the day we arrived the sunshine revealed a craggy coastline of white sandy beaches & rocky headlands. 

We had two coaching sessions booked in for the Friday at the nearby coastal village of Inverloch, a morning clinic on boat control with a twist, and an afternoon where we crafted the coaching around the consensus of the participants, and were lucky to have Tim Pearse come along to help us out.

Tim presenting to the morning session.

Both were well attended, and despite a building breeze that reduced our usable seaway at times to a couple of hundred metres, both groups were willing & adventurous & had their boats moving in ways that many hadn't thought possible!

As we got off the water the wind shifted sharply to the west and the temperature dropped alarmingly. Although this wasn't the big system that was forecast for the weekend it was still a stark reminder of how quickly things can change in this part of the world.

We grabbed a quick meal at the excellent nearby tavern & then headed for the surf club for the opening session of the Vic's weekend. Bob Fergie presented a terrific slideshow based around his catch cry - 'Capsize is inevitable, but recovery is possible'. Bob is one helluva big character who has overcome his fair share of setbacks to even get out on the water, let alone being the beacon of positivity & inclusiveness that he is. He's about to start his own paddling enterprise 'White Dog Kayaking', aimed at using kayaking to overcome mental illness and depression, so keep an eye out for that when it launches.

As we were making our way back to cabin the front finally hit. It sounded like an A380 taking off over our roof, such was the ferocity of the wind & rain squalls. At Wilson's prom the winds were raging over 50 knots, and we were pretty keen to get down to the beach the next morning to see what it looked like!

Saturday dawned pretty bleak, howling winds, seas that were off the richter, and nothing to suggest it was going to ease any time soon. I had booked in to go on a paddle with Peter Costello, and he'd abandoned any ideas of an ocean paddle in favour of a downwind paddle on the Powlett River.

We arranged a car shuffle, and set out through the mud & cow dung to blaze a trail towards the highway. This was some experience, we were blown along at 7kmh without paddling, simply by fluttering our paddles to catch the tempest raging behind us. We enjoyed it so much that we headed past the car shuffle point & went as far down as we could before the thickets stopped us from progressing. Then we had to earn our hot chocolates punching back into an incredibly strong wind for a kilometre or so.

In the arvo I ran a forward stroke clinic on the ergo machine which was meant to go for an hour but ended up going for nearly three, maybe because it was about the only safe way to get a paddle in!

Mark with eight year old Arieta - the best student of them all!

The club arranges a locally catered dinner for the Saturday evening & it did feel a bit like an Alaskan hunting lodge, with the weather raging outside & a good hearty meal on our plates. Mark Thurgood opened many eyes to the endless possibilities of paddling Moreton Bay in his evening presentation. John Woolard, one of Mick's oldest mates, stood up & gave a most beautiful tribute, something I'm sure everyone present will cherish. Once the formalities were over we got down too the less-serious business of catching up with old mates & telling a few lies.

On the Sunday morning the weather again wiped out any suggestions of an open water paddle, so various clinics were offered in & around the surf club. Rob ran a session on paddle selection, which picked up numbers as it went on & passers by realised just how complex and multi faceted the nuances of each of the Greenland, Flat & Wing paddles actually are. If Rob runs this workshop at an event you're at, make sure you get along, it's a beauty.

We bid our farewell to the Vics after another lovely lunch in the surf club, & headed north. 

We'd been speaking with Tim during the week about his plans to get back to Sydney from Cape Paterson, and he mentioned that he'd promised to take Mick out for a paddle to Honesuckle Point, and the lava rocks off Eden, when he recovered. 

It was a paddle the two of them had done before & Tim was mesmerised by Mick's knowledge of the area & the geology and was keen to throw that up as incentive to his friend.

Sadly that paddle never eventuated, but Tim was determined to go anyways, and Rob & I thought it might be a fitting way to say our own quiet goodbyes to our old mate & tagged along. You couldn't imagine a more beautiful sunrise, we had humpbacks breaching out to sea and several pods of dolphins escorting us along the way. An amazing place.

Our little paddle rounded off an emotional week, where at every turn we were surrounded by paddlers, many of whom were hurting just as we were in the wake of Mick's tragic passing. We both want to thank the Victorian Sea Kayakers for their welcoming ways & the hospitality we were shown, and look forward to getting back down again in 2017.

Mark & Rob Paddle the Classic

Just over a week has passed since the 40th Anniversary of the Hawkesbury Classic, Sydney's own iconic 111km race overnight from the foot of the Blue Mountains to within smelling distance of the ocean.

Both Rob & I had managed to get our hands on Greg Slade's specialist long-distance racing kayak, the SLR1, and to varying degrees had spent a few weeks getting ourselves into Classic mode.

We were both eyeing off a time in the low 10 hour range, but as that's substantially faster than either of us had managed previously we weren't thinking too far ahead.

Posing with Roddy who smoked a 10.03 in his second attempt at the race

I had battled with the seating position in the race kayak in comparison to my skis, never quite managing to get it dead comfortable, but after a pain-free 20km the weekend before with my Sutherland club mates I figured I was right. The drawback, both a blessing & a curse, was that to get to a good position I was sitting really high, incredibly destabilising but also great from the perspective of getting over my stroke and generating more power. 

Swapping yarns with Irishman David Horkan who added a 9 hour Classic to his long list of open water achievements.

Rob's apprehension was centred around his legendary poor night vision, so he had Steve Dawson download a very accurate race trace onto his GPS and was set to follow the little yellow line all the way down the river. Little did he realise that we were paddling into a night that would become legendary because it was so dark it created an entire field of paddlers with poor night vision!

Lined up at the start

The hype around the anniversary running of the event attracted a big field, up around 500 paddlers, including Dragon Boats, and also the much less intimidating option of a 65km 'dash' to Wiseman's Ferry, rather than the whole shebang.

For the first time the great majority of competitive classes started together at 5pm. This is a little earlier than we're used to, and with the opportunity to wash ride a whole armada of slightly faster boats, the first 5km after the gun were absolutely hectic.

Rob left, me right as we approach the Windsor Bridge

I saw Rob disappearing off into the distance safely embedded on the wash of a few big doubles, and settled into a steady speed alongside David Little in his K1.

Hangin' with David over the daylight section of the course

My backside was feeling good over the first 25km and I was prematurely self congratulatory about my pulling off a great escape, fluking a perfect seating set up on the night, even though I hadn't really managed it up to that point in all my training.

Rob looking comfortable at the 12.5km mark.

As the sun set I started to go numb in my right bum cheek, and that was the last moment in the race that I was free of pain. I had a quick stop just before Sackville to add a blow up cushion that had got me through the Myall Classic with a few wobbles, then again at Sackville to install a slither of foam that John Denyer handed over to me when he saw me struggling.

The into-the-tide stretch to Wiseman's was a tough one, as it always is. You have to be up close to the banks to get out of the current coming at you, but in the pitch black, moonless night you literally couldn't see your paddle hitting the water, let alone an overhanging branch or hazard.

At about 45km I ducked under a branch that my cyalume light illuminated dull green moments before it would have coat-hangered me, and on the other side of the tree there was a boat stopped dead. In fact it didn't even look like it was floating. I asked the paddler if he was OK, and he said 'actually not really'.
The conversation from there went like this:

Mark 'Can I help you'
Paddler 'Yes, I think you'll have to, I'm stuck hard in a tree'
Mark 'Have you tried back paddling'
Paddler 'Yes but I'm too far up between the branches'
Mark 'OK, I'll come alongside & see if I can free you up'

I pulled along one gunwale & the tree blocked me from getting closer, so backed up & came along the opposite side.

Mark (in best I'm-in-charge-now-mate-do-as-I-say voice) 'OK, I'm going to lean over your deck & try & prise your boat out backwards'
Paddler 'Who is this?'
Mark 'I'm Mark'
Paddler (chuckling) 'Mr Sundin!'
Mark 'Who's this'
Paddler 'It's Rob!'

A healthy dose of hilarity ensued, firstly because it was so dark we couldn't see one another, and secondly because we were so bloody frazzled by near enough to 50km of effort that we didn't even recognise one another's voices! It just goes to show you where the race takes you mentally. Eventually we freed Rob's bow from the oversized slingshot frame he'd perfectly bisected, and took off together to make up lost time, after I reminded him that those seven minutes he'd lost, I was gonna get back on recourse for assisting a stricken paddler!

I love this pic, the two of us pulling into Wiseman's side by side, looking a little frazzled.

At Wiseman's we pulled in together for a short rest, I jumped out & tried every single bum & hammy stretch I knew to try & release the tennis ball knot that had formed in my right buttock, while Rob sorted out his water change.

I got back on the water first & headed for home, delighted that the tide was releasing & the speed was starting to reach into the 11-12kmh range. For the first time in eight Classics I pulled over at the Low Tide Pit Stop, where a gregarious bunch of dudes dragged me from my boat & offered me all sorts of incentives to stay. Sadly I spent 5 minutes doing nothing more exciting than stretching & swearing, before I remounted for the final 25km home.

My GPS had me on track for a time very close to 10 hours, but the tennis ball and the easing of the ebb flow saw that blow out to 10.15 by the time I reached the bridge at Brooklyn. 

My finish - yes I know where the camera guy is after 8 Classics!

Rob had an entirely different adventure on the home stretch. He became a little obsessed with staring at the GPS track, and noticing how as the tide started to crank, his arrival or finish time began to dip below 10 hours. The screen was telling him he had 40 minutes to paddle 7km to the end whilst moving at 13kmh, to get under the magic 10 hour mark, when he looked up in the darkness & BANG! was shoulder charged by a jetty bollard! Upside down in a racing kayak he decided to have a crack at rolling, but couldn't manage to get any purchase solid enough to prevent his backside floating free. Exasperated he swam the boat to shore minus his hat, GPS & drink system, emptied it out & set off once again. He crossed the line 40 seconds faster than me in 10.15.19. The irony of following Steve's dead-eye track was that the jetty was a recent installation, & everyone, including Steve, who was dutifully following his line had a near-miss story to tell. Except Rob.....

Rob finishes, dripping wet, no hat, no GPS and just the tube from his Camelback!

So, in the grand scheme of things a pretty decent set of times in the Classic for a pair of sea kayakers, by our count 13th & 14th single paddlers home, but we've now got that malaise typical of Hawkesbury paddlers, the 'geez if only I'd done this, this & this it could've been a really fast one...!'

My Mum Suzanne had her responsibilities double for the night with Rob's inclusion, but as always handled the pressure with a throw-your-head-back laugh & her brilliant laid-back efficiency. That's eight Classics for Mum now, she's starting to talk to the greenhorn crews with some authority when she's asked!

A last pic with our crew, my Mum Suzanne.

Thanks to Dave, Louisa & Rosy for generously sponsoring my race, and well done to everyone who had a crack, the Classic remains one of the few extraordinary challenges that an ordinary person can conquer.