Sunday Morning Pulbah Island Paddle.

With plenty on this weekend, I had only a few hours to fit in a paddle on Sunday morning. I was paddling with fellow Klanner Ben, who had responded to my last minute Friday night call for a paddling buddy. I hadn't paddled with Ben before and we opted for a paddle on Lake Macquarie.

We met up near Swansea caravan park at 8am and were on the water by 8:15. It was a beautiful morning with a light Northeasterly breeeze at Force 2-3 initially with the wind speed increasing to 3-4 as the morning got on. The southern end of the lake provides some shelter from Northerly winds so the conditions on the water were pretty well flat calm with small wavelets up to a foot high.

We headed across to Wangi Point and then went across to the eastern end of Pulbah Island. Happily on such a beautiful morning there were lots of boats out, and while this means that you can't really relax completely, the upside is that there are some nice little wakes to try and catch. It may be my imagination but I have the feeling that I'm starting to get a little better at catching them.

It was a warm morning and paddling in the shade on the weather shore (or in the lee) of the Island was quite welcome. The island has a rocky shoreline and there were some opportunities to weave among the rocks and play a little. Ben was paddling a Sea Bird Designs Expedition. A Norwegian designed, chinese built, plastic boat. He normally paddles an Assateague and this is usually his teenage son's boat. So it was a good opportunity for him to try out something a little different and I could see that he was liking it.

The Norwegians do a bit of Fjord paddling, where the swell and waves are less of an issue than wind funneled down the mountain valleys. The Expedition is pretty typical of their design philosophy, hard tracking with no rocker in the keel line (it actually looks as if the keel has negative rocker) and low decks with little windage. It's a swede form boat with the widest part of the boat aft of the centreline. Like my old Gecko, it has a very flat, wide back deck. I'm speculating here, but I suspect that this might make it a bit harder to roll than some other designs. It certainly weaved happily among the rocks though.

The wind picked up a little as we came out of the lee of the island and while we relished the cool of the breeze, we gritted our teeth for an upwind run back to Swansea, but the weather gods smiled on us and the wind dropped again. So instead of slogging along saving our breath for paddling we were able to relax and enjoy the simple pleasure of being on the water.

Pulbah Island is one of my favourite parts of the lake. It's in the deepest part and the water is usually quite clean. The name Pulbah (or Bulba) is a local aboriginal word meaning "island". It always amuses me that we have felt the need to tack on our own word for Island as well, but there we go Island Island is still one of my favourite spots for a lake paddle.

Thanks Ben for your company.

Saturday paddle: The Entrance to Bateau Bay Beach.

Saturday morning and Julie had the girls at dance practice  A few hours of freedom beckoned, the gentle rhythm of the ocean was calling and it would have taken a stronger man than I to resist.  Marty and I launched at the Entrance Channel and went out on the end of the rising tide.  It was a beautiful morning and the fishos were out in force.  There were lots of lines in the water for us to avoid; not an easy task with the rising sun in our eyes.  The channel is very shallow where it feeds into the sea and it dumps water out at an angle to the beach.  When it flows strongly this and the diffraction patterns of the waves reflecting and interfering with each other make for some quite confused water, particularly on the ebb.  As the swell was fairly small and the channel was flooding, we got out with no problems at all and turned south.

I used my euro paddle today, mainly because I don’t paddle enough anyway and I want to stay familiar with both my paddles. Being lucky enough to own two beautiful paddles, this is no hardship.  After using the wing on my last few paddles, I really noticed the difference in the catch and it took a few minutes to get back into the swing of things with the euro.

We got down to Toowoon Bay and decided to keep going past it and Blue Bay, past Shelleys Beach and have a break and a swim at Bateau Bay beach.  This is a beautiful sheltered beach tucked in on the Northern side of Crackneck and protected from Southerly swells.  The beach isn’t visible from the road and there are a few steps for people to negotiate so it seems to be a very quiet beach and while we didn’t have it all to ourselves, we certainly didn’t have to fight for space.

After a swim and a drink we headed back to the north, hugging the coast. We stopped in at Toowoon Bay where a host of stand up paddle boarders had congregated just off the shallows near the rocks.  They were there to catch the same wave that I would have had my eye on.  Looking in at the forest of human skittles, I thought better of it and went in to the beach to do a few rolls.  As luck would have it the strap on my mask snapped so my sinuses got a pretty good flushing out.  Just the thing to get rid of all the paint fumes from the last few nights.

After a few rolls, we headed north again and made our way back into the channel.  The ebb was flowing quite strongly now and although the waves weren’t big they were standing up and seemed to have a bit of punch.  We frolicked there for a while and both had a wet exit.  Clearly more practice is needed to get that roll in the surf completely bomb proof.  The paddle back up the channel was pretty hard going, I decided to cheat and walk up the bank towing the boat on the tow line.  As the bank was quite steep and sandy this turned out to be harder work than paddling.  If the other bank hadn’t been chock full of anglers, I would have had an easier time of it there, but that would have meant disrupting about twenty people with lines in the water.

We managed to run the fishing line gauntlet back to the car park with only one muttered comment about “people trying to fish here”.  Considering that the guy didn’t even have a line in the water at the time, I thought that was a pretty good laugh.  I always try to give fishermen a wide berth but as a few of them seem to own the entire width of any waterway that they drop a line in, you can’t please all of them all the time.  All up a great way to spend a sunny morning and thanks Marty for posting the event.

HKK paddle - Swansea to the Caves

Steve, Werner (visiting from Noosa), Robin and myself put in at Swansea Channel at 9am. Conditions were pretty damn good. Blue skies, light breeze, sea below a metre and 1-1.5 m of swell. Steve, Werner and I launched at the boat sheds and met up with Robin at Swansea Head Beach. Then we headed south, going inside Moon Island and heading direct for Spoon Rocks.

Steve is the proud owner of a beautiful carbon fibre greenland paddle and he was kind enough to lend it to me for a play. I'm not very comfortable with the forward stroke with a greenland paddle but I can never resist having a roll if someone hands me one. This one did that job very well. After a few minutes of forward paddling I started to feel as if I was getting the hang of it, but there was something wrong with my technique as I was starting to get quite sore in the shoulder. Discretion being the better part of valour, I handed it back.

We stopped and had a bite to eat and caught up with Phil and Deb who had been to the caves and were heading back. Back on the water, we got down to the Caves, we stayed out of the northernmost cave,  it looked a bit messy. The bigger swells were coming into the cave at an angle and breaking inside, thumping into the walls, reflecting and interfering with each other. The next cave south was fine and we got in for a pleasant speleological interlude.

Then we ducked around the corner and into the Shark Hole. The entrance was nice and messy going in with waves and rebound. I ploughed straight through and arrived inside with a few piles of foam still sitting on the deck. Once inside it was tranquil and we all got to explore the slot. A new experience paddling backwards in a narrow slot with the wing. It worked well enough. We then had a choice of heading further south to Catherine Hill Bay or going back to Swansea. As I had some time restrictions we decided to head back north and stop again at Spoon Rocks as Steve needed to change his camera battery. A muesli bar and a drink and we got back on the water again.

We headed back keeping closer inshore than on the way down. There were some bigger sets coming through and we all seemed to feel it prudent to stay a little bit clear of the rocks though. It wasn't a congee squeezing day. Once we reached Swansea, Steve, Werner and Robin went to do a loop round Moon Island, I had to get back to painting duties, so I made sure that Werner knew I was peeling off and headed in. The timing was about right for me, the antiinflammatory was wearing off and I was starting to get sore. Still clearly a long way to go to get my fitness back up to where it should be.

Another beautiful day of paddle therapy and best of all, a day on the water and water with some rebound and a little swell and I didn't barf on a single boat.

Paddle in Peace Eric Soares

I was saddened today to hear that one of the true paddling legends, Eric Soares, has passed on. He had been tapped on the shoulder by the man with scythe before and bore the zipper like scar of open heart surgery but while he took more care, he never let it stop him from living his life. His positive outlook and drive to live life to the fullest were truly inspirational. Sadly another aortic aneurism has taken him away to paddle the big break where the ether surges and foams around the rocks of the spirit.

I didn't know Eric personally but we had traded comments on our blogs and I had hoped to get the opportunity to meet him in person. I will be raising a glass to his memory tonight and toasting his exploits with Gage Roads Purest Atomic Pale Ale. Somewhere out there Eric is showing Neptune just what a Tsunami X15 can do.

My deepest condolences to the Soares family, Eric's many freinds and to Jim Kakuk and the Tsunami Rangers.

An alternative River Grading System

I've had a hankering to do some white water paddling as cross training for sea paddling for a while now. Here on the Central Coast there isn't a great deal of close and convenient white water, surf is alot easier to get to, but I keep thinking about going down to the Penrith white water stadium to play or even over to UNZUD, AKA The Land of the Long White Rivers where some excellent courses are available on real rivers.

Not really being au fait with the terminology, I've been checking out grading systems on the UK Rivers Guide Book site, where I  found Dave Petterson's alternative river grading system...........................written from a swimmer's perspective.

If you haven't seen it before then do check it out, you'll like it.

http://www.ukriversguidebook.co.uk/reports/general/alternative-grading

Wyong River

With the weather a bit threatening and being on my own, I opted for a short outing on Wyong River. I spent about three hours on the water; paddling up to the weir before turning round and paddling back down to South Tacoma then back up to the launch point. Total distance for the trip was about 15 km, with a diversion into Porters Creek which had a nice little flow going. I thought it might be interesting to see how far I could push an 18 foot sea kayak upstream in a narrow flowing creek using a wing paddle.  Answer, not very far, but it was fun trying and even more fun running back with the current. I might have to get myself up to Barrington River or down to the Penrith White Water stadium sometime.

I spent a fair bit of time playing with my wing paddle to see what it would do with a bow rudder or a cross bow rudder. The cross bow rudder was a far better option as the shape of the aerofoil (hydrofoil ?) works with the turn to pull the blade away from the boat allowing a tighter turn. I had best success with the bow rudder by turning the paddle round, this is cumbersome at best and when the cross-bow rudder works better, why would you bother. There was also more braking force in the rudder stroke compared to a conventional blade. Not too surprising I suppose given the increased cross-sectional area of the wing blade.

Yarra Bay to Cronulla

Finally got around to posting about the club paddle from Yarra Bay.  This was a dummy assessment, in my case in more senses than one, so I was expecting to find out what things I needed to work on. I went into it knowing that my fitness was poor, my back is a bit dodgy and that lifting boats and towing might be an issue for me. I also tend to get sea sick when practising rescues and self rescues. In fact I have a long history of motion sickness but have found kayaks to be the least problematic boats for me. Most of the time I do OK.
So how did it go ? Well it could have been better but I was actually surprised that I went as well as I did.

Fitness
Fitness wise, I wasn't the slowest there but still clearly need to improve.
Strokes
Against my own better judgement I used my wing paddle................. and it was great. I really felt comfortable with it in the rebound from the sea cliffs and it was fine getting in and out off the beach. Some of the other strokes need more work with it but overall I was really happy. It was actually the first time I'd used the wing on water with a bit of texture to it, so I expected to struggle and I just didn't.

Balance
The exercise I was most nervous about was putting on or taking off a cag on the water. I had visions of thrashing around upside down with the cag over my head and one arm stuck in a sleave or something, but it never eventuated. I had my Reed top handy in the day hatch and whipped off my PFD, pulled on the top, put the PFD back on, done, no problem. Note: I used my Reed top, not my semi dry top with the latex wrist gaskets and neoprene tube neck ! Mainly because I thought I'd get hot and while it's easy enough to get into, Houdini himself would struggle to get out of it while bobbing around in a boat.

Rescues
I forgot to instruct the swimmer to "Grab your boat, grab your paddle" so she artfully discarded both and swam around smugly. I managed to get my "victim" back in the boat, pumped out and spray deck on before barfing all over her boat. Chunky bits just don't wash out of the compass recess that easily. I was still very chairy about hurting my back and it did feel tender but I can see light at the end of the tunnel. Practise, practise, practise.

Motion Sickness
As for the motion sickness, while I was sick, my perseverance seems to be paying off. I appear to be improving, as I was able to paddle on after getting sick this time, but got sick again later, and paddled on after a short tow to shore and a break. Finally needing a longer tow on the third bout. I'm told my colour was reasonably healthy right through and while that sounds silly, it is a significant development for me.

Why did I get sick? Probably a bit of a combination, I usually use Sea Bands and ginger.  The Sea Bands, which have been so good for me in the past, had stretched in the wash and applied no pressure where it was needed. They will be replaced with Bio Bands that have velcro straps and don't rely on elastic. I didn't find the ginger effective on its own although it may well have helped me recover quicker afterwards. I took a Stugeron tablet at lunch time. This didn't really have time to get into my system and the only effect I noticed was that I felt slow, my reaction times were a little out of whack and I felt I was always late responding to conditions so I felt wobbly although I don't think I was in any danger of going over. This could also have been an effect of the motion sickness as I was sick again on the way back to Yarra Bay but in the past I've found antihistamine based products knock me about nearly as much as the motion sickness. I remember sitting upside down in the boat at Umina once looking up at the surface and trying hard to motivate myself to roll. I did but all I really wanted to do was go to sleep.

Towing
Well I provided the towing practice after my third bout of barfing and was in an excellent position to see what did and didn't work. So I will be making some changes to my set up and doing some testing to make sure that it's free of the glitches that I observed in other peoples systems. There was clearly alot of drag in some parts of the system, tow systems failed, paddlers struggled, gear came adrift and progress was very slow. In the end the assessor took over the tow, so I'd say that's a pretty clear NYC for all concerned. Thanks all for your towing efforts, now lets get out and practice some more.

Surf
Well I'm no surf guru, but I'm comfortable enough to get in and out and stay upright or roll as required. After turning myself inside out before lunch I was feeling a bit flat so I sat out most of the surf session but did a landing and launch and put myself in position to do a few braces on the way out. The surf was pretty small so there was no real challenge there.

Self Rescue
The rolling component is fine, but the other self rescue techniques need a brush up and some additional balance training wouldn't hurt either. Particularly I need to practice with both paddles and practice paddling swamped.

Fun Factor
Well we had a beautiful dolphin encounter in the morning, the scenery was superb, the water was clean and warm and I got to enjoy breakfast, morning tea and lunch in both directions. I also discovered that the high energy gel shots actually taste better on the way back up, which made me laugh in spite of myself. So in spite of the barf fest it was a good day, for me anyway, probably not so good for the poor beggars doing the towing/supporting  and trying to avoid the technicolour yawns. It finished up with the club Christmas party at the Yarra Bay sailing club which was fun, too. A very nice meal and the only meal of the day that had a one way ticket, shame I had to drive home and so skipped a nice glass of wine to wash it down with.

The day was topped off with a fascinating Q&A session where Stuart Truman answered questions on his trip around Australia. His comments on co-existing with crocodiles particularly fascinated me. I don't mind sharks that much, but crocs worry me. There are huge sections of the coast that I would love to see but would have worried about paddling until hearing Stu's strategy for avoiding them. As during his trip he successfully avoided every croc residing on mainland Australia as well as some of the island based ones his strategy obviously works. There was actually a solid insight into crocodile behaviour behind his strategy by the way which largely changed my thoughts on tropical paddling.