Sea Kayaking

Friday, May 17, 2013

Expedition Time

Barnabas and I will attempt to paddle from Bemm River to Eden. You can follow our progress via Barnabas's SPOT TRACKER

This should be a good test paddle for my new PACE 17!

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Fish

Bonito off South Head. Photo Graham Brown

Fishing has been good latley. Lots of big Bonito about. This is one of two I pulled in on a recent Watto's to Coogee and back paddle.

Bonito off Dover Heights Photo Graham Brown

Photo Graham Brown

So the two of us landed at Bondi Beach on this glorious sunny day. All the beautiful bondi people were out, the locals go early before the proliterate arrive from the burbs. I like pulling up at Bondi in my sea kayak with my manky kayaking gear and briney odour but this morning it was even better as I got out of my kayak and hit the pump to eject the couple of litres of fish blood that was sloshing about. One parent grabbed his toddler as I asked Graham what beach he thought we'd landed on.

Now you could never do that on a surf ski!

Friday, March 22, 2013

Rock n Roll 2013

Saturday we went out past Boondelbah and then around Cabbage Tree and back around Fingal Head

Campbell, Mark, Nigel and me

Saturdays strong group

windy conditions on Sunday didn't stop my group from getting to the other side

On Sunday Mark Sundin and I decided to have a race to see which was quicker - a sea kayak with sail (Hybrid 550) or a Ski (Epic V10 ). I'd barely come ashore from a trip with my group after doing countless 360 turns around a marker bouy, rolls and drills and then slugging into the teeth of the wind to land at Shoal Bay on the other side before racing back at full pelt when I spied Sundin and reminded him of our "race". Whilst up until this morning I thought the whole thing was in good jest and didn't think too much of it Marks statement that "Unfortunately he lost" needs some clarification. Firstly I was ahead of Mark the whole way out. Yes the upwind leg does count! I had to ignore the voice behind that kept on yelling out "stop". "Thats far enough". I told him we should go all the way accross as that would make it a proper race but he wan't going to hear any of it. As I turned and raised my sail (no easy task in 30 Knots) he took off, I still hadn't even clinched my lines! No bother, I started gaining on him and kept on gaining on him until we hit the beach at the same time ON THE SAME WAVE! If his getting off the ski versus me getting out of my cockpit was the clincher then I'm not having any of it.

Thankfully for me I have a witness who watched the whole thing unfold through binoculars. Can't wait to hear his version . . . . .

Nigel Foster talks

Bronwyn, Nigel & Roy


The Legendary Nigel Foster - bow draws never did it for me until I saw Nigel using them to great effect in 25-30 KNOTS! Well done to Campbell and the NSWSKC Committee on a fantastic Rock n Roll. Together with new club member and qualified Sea Guide Josh Andrews we led three trips, Saturday we went around Boondelbah, accross Cabbage tree along Yaccabah head and back in. Sunday we did lots of excercises in the wind before slugging it accross to the other side where we landed for a snack. Monday we went to Fingal spit for a bit of a play before sailing back. Josh was the only one who dared enter the slots when there was such big long period swell about.

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Broughton Island - Up close

Four of us went to Broughton for three days. Fernando really raises the bar when it comes to rock gardening and surfing and its great to have someone along who likes to push the boundaries.

Monday, February 4, 2013

Recent Paddles

01/02/13 Matt, Beat Hausammann and Rob Mercer just before heading our of Malabar in winds to 34 knots. At one stage Beat and I crested a wave only to have the bows catch the wind and move us almost 90 degrees! A capsize and roll followed by a broach ride into the beach was a fitting end to this short but intense session.

03/02/13 Ferando, Raewyn Duffy and me went from Frenchmans Beach to Botany Bay in some pretty big seas. I'd be lieing if I said I wasn't anxious as I was almost capsized a couple of times when caught out with braking waves on top of big swells. Total trip time was 3.5 hours beach to beach.

Dragomir catches the rebound off one of my favourite bits of cliff just south of Diamond Bay (club trip 3/11/12)

On a "calm" day I rode the surge over a rock into a little pool on the other side just to the north of North Head. Rob snapped this first attempt. It was on going in at another spot that my bow got caught in a little ledge and caused me to endo into the rock garden that you can see Fernando already in. Lucky I didn't snap the bow off my boat!

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Night of the birds

Last night three of us hit the sea off North Head to find thousands if not tens of thousands of shearwaters, gulls and even some prijons in a massive feeding frenzy.


David Linco gets amongst it


Mark Hempel got his fair share of the action - don't buy a 2nd hand PFD from this man!

Lots of tiny fish around the 5 cm mark were at the centre of the frenzy. These tiny fish were being smashed by mackeral and the birds were getting their share by ducking under for the scraps or taking stunned fish from just below the surface.

Birds from Matt Bezzina on Vimeo.

Monday, May 28, 2012

Andre's Pics from Tuesday Night

The Briefing

Big Boat Little Boats - Rob putst he group through a series of complex rescue drills

Fernando

Chirs

Neil & Anne

Paul & Megan

Rear Deck Carry

Rear Deck & Front Deck Carry

Mark, Matt & Fernando

A quick blast down the coast and back in the dark tops off another excellent Tuesday Night.

All 11 photographs taken by Andre Janecki

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Tuesday Night Pics

Some of Rob Mercers Pics and one of Andrew Eddys. Its good to paddle with people who are good on water photographers!

Fernando

Having fun on Tuesday Arvo - as always

Just North of Blue Fish Point is a great little blow hole that can knock an unsuspecting paddler clean over

Note the fine lines and exquisite detail of this beautiful kayak!

Mark Hempel showing his good side - nice roll in there Mark!

Most photos here have been copied from Robs Blog

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Hybrid 550 1 year on

A lot can happen during the first year of a relationship. Initial attractions give way to more meaningful and deeper characteristics.

Even little nuances are now no more than a distant memory. Things like a balanced carry - the Hybrid balances perfectly on the shoulder and is easy to solo carry. Initially I had issues keeping the boat straight in following seas and down waves but I suspect that was because the Mirage 530 has such an efficient rudder that I relied on it far too much. With the Hybrid the rudder is only for fine tuning slight directional changes when underway, its not for turning or manoeuvring over close quarters. For this its big fat edge is brought into service to edge and lean into incredibly tight turns. I have no problem doing 360 degree on the spot turns.

The Hybrid is strong and well built. I mounted a sail on it and even when a 40 knot wind bent my mast and mangled the stainless steel universal joint bolted to the deck the laminate was unaffected apart from a few hairline cracks in the gelcoat.

The boat is incredibly stable. In really rough conditions I feel comfortable and the boat is predictable and secure. Even with a sail reefing violently it still doesn’t go over. In flat water I can paddle it like a stand up paddle board! Impressive for a boat only 53cm wide.

I regularly do a 40 km paddle and have always made it a rule not to plan anything on those nights as I’ll most likely nod off. I am simply less fatigued than I used to be in my previous boat. When loaded with overnight camping gear it maintains its liveliness and manoeuvrability. I have now done four overnighters with the Hybrid and on one trip purposely overloaded the boat just to see how it would feel if I had three weeks worth of gear. I finished a 35 km day into a 15 knot headwind feeling only slightly more tired than I would have in an empty boat. I still maintain the Mirage 530 is a great sea kayak but it behaves very differently when loaded. The significantly increased volume of the Hybrid probably has something to do with its load carrying advantage.

Skills that I always struggled with have now come easy. I can roll better than before and can do a high brace recovery with ease. For a flexible person layback rolls should be no problem as the rear deck is nice and low. I’ve been told that the Hybrid has made me a better paddler.

The deck layout is functional and the front day hatch useful. I did change the ergonomic toggles because although they looked great and may have been revolutionary most people complained of them slipping through the hand and I find regular toggles are simply more comfortable.

Other points worth considering are its epoxy construction. As this is primarily an expedition boat I like the idea that a tube of araldite is all I need to effect a repair or mount saddles etc.

I’m looking forward to the next 12 months and beyond and dreaming of a big trip which will be great in the Hybrid 550.

Happy paddling the Hybrid 550

The only benefit I got from Andre when I purchased the boat was a free spraydeck, which I believe everyone else who bought one got as well! See the HYBRiD website to arrange a test paddle.