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.
The wind is swirling around the trees, coming from all directions at once. The heat of the morning causes air currents to rush between the hot land and cool water, giving me a hard time controlling the kayak in the cross winds. Then it increases and turns head on as I cross towards the finish, giving me a final work out.
It’s mid Summer in southern Australia so you expect hot dry northerly winds to pop up unexpectedly. We get the dry conditions whilst northern Australia get torrential rain, with cyclone Sean threatening the north west coast. I think I choose the dry rather than the wet.
My training session started well with calm conditions and intentions of a 10km steady cadence paddle and finish with short sprints. It’s been 30 odd years since I paddled a K1 race kayak. What was I thinking when I decided to get back into a fast, unstable racer and try Wild Water Kayak Racing ?. The experts say you need to keep active as the years creep up and I’m certainly feeling the activity this morning, with lots of power needed in the sprints as well as core strength to keep this damn thing upright.
Some of the locals came down to investigate as I launched the kayak.
It was quite calm early in the paddle and I even relaxed a little to take in the scenery. Passing close to the old tower was interesting, however, I hadn’t counted on the swirling current at its base.
The tower has a little lean but the weather vain still works. It has been underwater since 1897 when the small village was flooded to create water storage.
Here’s the Tower before inundation
Training finished. So now we can concentrate on coffee and cake and showing off my great heart rate and speed stats from my smart watch. Oh bugger, I pressed the wrong button, again. “Session deleted”. I need glasses !
The only rough water training I’ve had lately is playing around in the surf, which I hope will help me when I hit the rapids later in the year. Here’s a short video of our small surf fun.
Have a great mid Summer day.
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.
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.
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.
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 !
Still life photography is a genre of photography used for the depiction of inanimate subject matter, typically a small group of objects. Similar to still life painting, it is the application of photography to the still life artistic style. (Wikipedia)
That’s the Wikipedia definition , however, our definition is “depiction of subject matter, typically a small group of objects, often in an outdoor environment”, which gives us a lot more scope when we are travelling the countryside.
Of course it may just be a solitary object.
Not always in the traditional presentation, but certainly outdoors. Taken in a different mode the trees take on an eerie feel and depict the density of the forest.
Certainly Still Life, under our definition, doesn’t have to be inanimate objects.
Definition: adjective. not animate; lifeless. Synonyms: dead, inert, mineral, vegetable, inorganic. spiritless; sluggish; dull.
I’ve been called a few names, but I hope inanimate is not one of them. After more than a month banging around the Mountain Bike Parks we return home to catch some more Still Life, actually more like Frozen than Still. Frozen that moment in time and Frozen because it was damn cold on the water.
We call it Still Life Outdoors, which can take many forms, although don’t stay Still for too long or you will become another one of Berny’s “hit and run” victims.
“Busted flat in Baton Rouge , waitin’ for a train.
When I’s feelin’ near as faded as my jeans.”
Janis Joplin 1943-1970
Sometimes a song just jumps out of the shadows and into your head. There is no stopping it, no getting rid of it, no stopping the urge to hum it and no respite from the only lines you remember.
It was mid-morning and the fog had lifted enough to see the track more than a few metres ahead. Janis was banging around in my head, at least until I nearly rode off the leaf covered track and into a tree. That smartened things up a bit.
We were riding the Old Beechy Rail Trail in Victoria, a 40km mountain bike trail along the disused rail corridor. Camped at Gellibrand we were riding out and back towards Colac to avoid logging work that had closed part of the trail.
The morning started a little above freezing and stayed there for most of the ride. The fog was like soup for the first hour and then lifted enough to admire the view across the ranges. Janis was back to replace the fog.
There were minor creek crossings and lots of climbing to reach the 103 mile marker on the train line. Great views on either side of the track and a few startled kangaroos who jumped out in front of us. Anyone would think they had never seen a bike rider before. Actually, we didn’t see any other bike riders either.
We did come across two local women walking their dogs along the trail, wrapped in long down jackets, beanies and scarves half covering their face. The women that is, not the dogs; they were au natural.
We slowly warmed as the sun hit the trail and we enjoyed the ride and the views.
What goes up must come down, so we certainly enjoyed the return mainly downhill run, although my frozen toes didn’t seem happy. Back in Gellibrand we raided the General Store for coffee and apple pie and later wandered around the old train station and small town.
“Feelin’ good in Gellibrand, waitin’ for a train.”
Apologisies to Janis
It’s weird when you get a song stuck in your head. Well actually in your brain to be more specific, but you know what I mean. How does that actually happen ? Maybe Mr Google can give me some answers although I’m not sure I can wade through all the advertising to find the answer.
Anyway, moving on I’ve been plagued by this one song recently. “I’m living in the Seventies” by Skyhooks and it was released , funnily enough, in the seventies, 1974 to be exact. Then I started thinking about the reasons it’s embedded in my brain. Well, I was definitely living in the 70’s and apparently survived unscathed despite the Magic Mushrooms, Flared Pants, Body Shirts and Platform Shoes, and it was the era when I moved water sports from Scuba Diving and Freediving to Kayaking. Maybe it’s because I’m now Living in the Seventies in another way. Yes, you guessed it, in birthdays.
Just in case you’re not fully informed in the category of 70’s music here’s a link to Skyhooks Live on Countdown TV show.
Ok, back to reality of some sort, here’s a short video of what Living in the Seventies paddlers get up to.
It’s “Park and Play” which suits more when you only have a hour or two available as the Coffee and Bun is calling. Sea kayaking will be missed this week as the wind is forecast to increase and we also need to fit in a couple of Mountain Bike sessions.
Have a great day.
Ian and “the others”.
PADDLING SOUTH 