kayaking

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The Final Fling

No, not my Final Fling; well hopefully not anyway. It’s a kayak race on the Mitchell River in Victoria , Australia. “King of the Fling Extreme Kayak Race.”

Saturday I joined a group of club paddlers, organised by Dita Pahl of Canoes Plus Racing Team, (yes I’m a rather slow member) for a 9km paddle down the Mitchell River, from the Den of Nargun rapid to the Final Fling rapid. The first task is carrying your kayak down the 700 metre path into the gorge then across the Iguana creek. I admit dragging my kayak the last bit of the descent.

Dita and the crew . Photo Facebook CPRT

The landscape is stunning as are the many grade 2 and 3 rapids. I apologise for the lack of photos of the rapids, however, I was otherwise occupied at those moments.

The Gorge

We had time to play on some of the smaller waves

Having a little fun on the way down

Arriving at the Final Fling rapid it was time to work out my line and have a practice run for tomorrows race.

View of the top section

I lined up the left side drop and tried to get over to the centre. Not far enough to the centre obviously as I ended up running the large hole towards the bottom of the 200 metre rapid. Still I was pretty happy with just getting down in one piece.

That’s me. Past the hardest section but heading for another big hit

Then it was a 200 metre carry back up the rapid to the carpark. No path, just a drag across the rocks and undergrowth.

Back at Echo Bend campsite it was a BBQ and meetup for the group. A great night of fun and games.

Race Day dawned to sunshine and a balmy 4 degrees C in the carpark.

The format was 4 or 5 paddlers starting together up stream of the main rapid, finding their way down the course to touch a banner attached to a rock at the bottom. Sounds easy enough, except the bit about getting down the rather pushy Grade 3 rapid in one piece.

Here’s a few photos to give you an idea of the course.

I was in the Masters category, and certainly the oldest by a long shot. We formed up in the starting position and then off on starters orders.

That’s me number 20 Photo Facebook CPRT

The top section is moving water with a few rocks and I managed that fairly well. Next came the drop into the main rapid. I was planning to keep left then head to the centre, avoiding some of the larger sections.

That was the cunning plan anyway. I hit the first drop a little bit off course, but thought I could recover. Into the next wave I got even more off line and sideways. I thought, “this is serious” just as the next wave smashed me over.

Not what I had planned

I tucked into my roll position, and swept the paddle into position just as my body smacked a rock and the paddle impacted another rock and I lost my grip. Upside down,  no paddle, my race was over, except for a rough swim into the hands of the rescue crew. Thanks guys, I appreciated your help.

So “I Flung the Fling and then the Fling Flung me”

Fantastic river trip. Broken paddle. Bruised ego.

As luck would have it, I won a new Werner paddle in the competitors Prize Draw.

Was it worth the 2000km round trip ? Hell yeah !!!.

Thanks to everyone who helped organise the event, volunteered their time and a special thanks to Roy and Dita at Canoes Plus.

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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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It’s mid Summer

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 started out such a nice morning paddle

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.

Hey what’s this guy up to ?
Calm conditions early in the session

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

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.

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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 !

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Welcome Winter

Winter is with us again. Those sunny days of Autumn are gone. No more lazing around in shorts and T shirts, it’s back to fleece jackets and beanies.

We have been travelling for a couple of months, paddling sea kayaks, bush walking and riding mountain bikes as well as some photography sessions. If you missed the sea kayak article it’s here and bike riding in the northern Flinders Ranges is here.

Our latest attempts in photography try to capture the landscape in a more abstract way . What do you think ?

Back home for a while I drag out the playboat and head out for a short session.

The beach is deserted except for a couple of dogs chasing a ball. No one else in the water today, probably because it’s chilly and only us retirees get “Fridays free time”. The swell has also deserted the beach but I still manage a few rides and get my head wet.

I find Steve (King of England) had the same idea and was already on the waves.

Robyn managed to get some video of the small wave session. We enjoyed our first winter session and hope to fit in many more between sea kayaking, mountain biking and coffee and croissants.

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Celebrate the Morning

Celebrate the Morning with a kayak paddle.
This is the view Sir Rodney (our senior paddler) has just before he launches and messes up the reflections.

Sir Rodney’s view of West Lakes at dawn every morning.

Greet the sun with Sir Rodney. Greet the dolphins and seals with Steve and Ian. Enjoy the seascape and Autumn calm waters because soon Winter will be upon us.  The only consolation is that there might be some waves along our local surf haunts as we move into the colder weather.

But in the meantime, here’s a little of our local coastline and friends.