In the rough - Clontarf to Pittwater in a Howling Southerly

Mark Schroeder, Andrew Eddy, Ian Vaile and me decided we would test ourselves in big seas.

Forecast winds were 20-30 Knots Southerly with 2-3 metre seas and a 2-3 metre Southerly swell.

That forecast defintiely got my attention but it wasn't until we rounded South Head after starting at Clontarf that the conditions really hit us.

Observations obtained later put winds at 30+ knots gusting to 45 and wave heights during the time we were out peaked at a whopping 7.2 metres! It looks like the wave rider buoy got knocked out itself around midnight.

I told myself more than once during the day to stop looking behind as it was simply scary to see such big swells baring down on us, especially since the tops were sometimes breaking away.

We tried to sail but three out of the four sails got damaged. Ian's mast step snapped away from the tiller extension arm. Mark's has a plastic ring which connects the stays and it got stretched and slipped down and my mast bent like a banana. At least mine still worked though and had me not too far behind Andrew Eddy who is a very experienced sailor and has a demonstrably bomb proof set up.

Due to Marks broken rudder cable (broke where some webbing was riveted to the peddle)and Ians damaged mast we pulled into Collaroy where it was decided that only Andrew and I would continue around into Pittwater as planned.

We all decided there is no place for rivets on sea kayaks.

On route, we paddled past a massive old seal just wallowing in the rough as if he was sleeping on a water bed! Unfortuntley I simply couldn't get my hands off the paddle for a shot.

Andrew and I made it back to our car after 43km which took us 5 hours on the water, partly due to rescues, repairs and detours.

Shaan Gresser and Paul Layton set off from Shelly a couple of hours before us and dealt with a number of capsizes before hitting Palm Beach in 4 hours.

Here are a few scenes from what was probably the roughest sustained paddle I've done to date.


In The Rough from Matt Bezzina on Vimeo.

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This pic was taken by Rob Mercer on Tuesday afternoon when Wendy Stevenson, Mark Sundin, Rob Mercer and I used a 20 knot Nor Easter to blast our way to Malabar from Watsons Bay in two and a quarter hours.

With a bit of wild weather around latley I have noticed there are two ways you can paddle in the rough: Defensively or Offensively. When confronted with breaking seas, particularly following seas, the defensive paddler tends to let the waves pass under them or in a breaking sea braces into the waves. The Offensive paddler simply goes for it, paddling hard to catch every bit of movement in the water, big or small and apart from all the subtle control manouveres like edging and leaning rarely does anything other than the good old forward stroke. Paddling like this will occasionally have you reach a speed equal to that of the bigger waves and inevitably if you keep up the hard work you'll get an almighty ride that can be surprisingly long and fast, especially if you keep paddling throughout.

Admittedly it takes a lot of puff to keep paddling offensively so I wouldn't use such a high rate if I was facing a very big day. A sail can help in this regard as it can keep your speed up so only a few starter strokes are required to catch the rides - but beware, sail or not, once you do catch a big wave theres no getting off - its a classic case of eyes dead ahead, focus on where you want to be and go for it. I ususally aim to get shot out in front of the wave so fast that a few more strokes will get me onto the next wave, and the next, and the next again.