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After the Storm

It’s raining again this morning. Lovely, beautiful, thirst quenching rain on the land that has suffered 2 years of drought. It’s not enough to call it the “breaking of the drought” but it is certainly welcome. The only problem is that the storm that preceded the rain did a lot of damage to the foreshore and infrastructure. Beaches were scoured of sand, jetties were washed away and sea beds damaged.

But there is always a bright side. After the storm the wind would calm and the waves would be glassy. The swell had dropped but there was still some fun waves to be had.

The beach was deserted, except for a couple of dog walkers, and the sand had been scoured exposing lots of the under lying rock structure.

Three intrepid paddlers, wearing every bit of thermal clothing they owned, made their way down the cliff track and launched into a grey cloud covered ocean. There were nice sets of “overhead” height waves to be conquered.

Hopefully the rain will hold off
Seaweed Steve is the first out with Berny close behind
Seaweed Steve jumps on a small wave

Charles joins in with a nice wave choice.

Nice one Charles

Berny picks a nice one, getting in close to the breaking wave.

Then it was Charles’s turn to show his class act.

Nice boat lean Charles
OK, so that’s how it’s done
Berny having fun

After his sea bed inspection, Charles jumps on a clean wave.

Seaweed Steve is always happy when he’s on a wave.

Now you may ask how Seaweed Steve got his name. His helmet is always adorned with some sort of sea bed growth ! He’s a musician by trade, so we excuse him for all sorts of stuff.

Hope you have a great day, especially if you get on the water.

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Bruny Island Tasmania kayak trip

I was going through my photos and found these from a Tasmanian paddle with friends. I hope you like them. Quality is not great on some, but they were taken with a small “point and shoot” camera, either by me or Gavin.

Bruny Island Tasmania,  is a lovely paddling destination, although the weather can be fickle when your are this far south.

Robyn loops in the savage break

The shore break about to claim another victim

Adventure bay estuary

Calm landing

Entering the cave

Ian on the water soon after dawn

Craig enjoys the early morning views

Michael enjoys another easy landing

The walkers

Approaching storm clouds and rain

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Looking south

Rugged scenery looking towards mainland

Looking towards the mainland

The roar of the blowhole

Malcolm gets a little closer

Robyn paddling past rocky headland

Exploring rocky sea caves

Early morning start heading south from Adventure Bay

Crossing Adventure Bay

Craig investigates a narrow opening

Exploring large sea caves

Heading out into a gentle breeze

Ready to depart. The Neck Beach western side of Bruny Island

Look out from our campsite

Sailing back to camp on a light breeze

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Exploring the protected bays where the dense scrub comes down to the waterline

Rocks and driftwood

Rocky beaches

View from the cliffs

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Kayak Propagation

I was looking through a pile of old Canoe and Kayaking magazines and came across an article about Kayak Propagation, which I had never heard of before. The thought of producing my own kayak was certainly interesting and Spring was the right season to give it a try.

So with a few other vegetable plantings I tried the kayak propagation method in our backyard garden bed. Water was said to be super important to the kayak so I made sure I gave it a good daily immersion.

I added shade cloth over the whole bed as we moved into hot Australian summer, which made for a cool microclimate which was great for the vegetable as well as the kayak.

It was planned to be ready early in Autumn, but we left it to the 1st day of April to see the final result. It was exciting to see when we removed it from the garden bed and placed it in the sun where it was hoped it would ripen to a nice bright red/orange colour.

Although we had a few imperfection around the bow that needed attention, the result was very impressive. Why not give it a try yourself; it is a great home garden/kayaking project.

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Surf Kayak-maybe not today

We lounged around at the coffee shop, debating the correctness of the afternoon forecast. We had dodged any rain on our morning gravel ride along the Bass Coast of the Southern Ocean, however It was becoming overcast and somewhat sultry.

I checked the local surf break and was thinking of jumping in my Exo white water kayak to grab a few small waves, where I had seen the local surfers earlier.

There was a line of darker clouds on the horizon and the weather radar showed some rain expected later in the day. Anyway, I thought I might squeeze in a little fun before it arrived.

I decided to check out the beach launch area, with its rocky outcrops, which looked “interesting” and a couple of warning signs that gave me more of an idea

The wind was increasing and the dark cloud now seemed to be roaring towards us and I was a little unsure of the weather.

Robyn said I could paddle out on two conditions.

  1. She checked that my will was up to date.
  2. I signed over our investment portfolio into her name.

I took that as “decision made” and retreated to a comfortable ocean view and within 30 minutes I was watching a savage cold front hit.

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The Grumpies

Yes we are a little grumpy today. Despite my explicit instructions to the weather gods (c.c. to Elon) for light winds and big swells, we arrived to gusting winds and a fading swell.

The 4 grumpy paddlers decided to make the best of it and head out through the shore break and have a chat to the local dolphin pod. I suppose we shouldn’t be too grumpy as we at least surfed a few waves, and promised Robyn coffee and cake if she wielded the camera.

Anyway, here’s the results.

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Kayak Cross

It’s 8.30 a.m. on an overcast Sunday morning and I’m not sipping coffee or catching up on the News App as usual. I’m heading along a river path, passing a gaggle of kitted out young kayak paddlers, to collect my race bib.

It’s been a while: actually a long time since I lined up to collect any sort of race number so this feels rather odd, especially since there is no veteran or masters class available, You are either Junior or Open class and I’m over 70 !

The event was originally planned for the King River, but low flows prompted a change of venue, to a dam release river and a Kayak Cross style event. A 4 paddler heat launching off the bank, then negotiating around poles each side of the rapid, and finally crossing the rapid again to touch the finish line banner. Seems easy enough, except the river is flowing at around twice it’s normal volume.

My heat arrived and I made a slow start but was happy to get around all the gates, no capsize/roll and came in 3rd. That’s me in the Green Exo kayak.

In the starting position
Negotiating the top poles
dropping into the waves
stay upright !

I was next in the repechage, with the winner moving to the semi finals. I had a better run this time, but only managed a 4th place.

A little faster on the start this time
that water is cold
about to be passed
I was ahead going into the turn and behind coming out

That gave me time to watch the real paddlers, both junior and senior before preparing for the long course, mass start race. Here’s a few photos of the action.

The long course mass start was rather chaotic with wash from so many kayaks combined with the small rapids. Not only did I have all the others to contend with, but I still had to get around the gates used in the sprint course. Luckily I managed to stay upright and finished the course.

Some of the front runners

I had great fun, improved my skills and enjoyed being amongst fellow paddlers. Thanks to all the volunteers and officials who made this possible. The only downside was the 2000km round trip from home !