Sunrise looking out through the Heads to the Tasman Sea

Got up at 4am this morning to get my new Valley Aquanaut out for the first time, managing to get out on the water for  sunrise. I can’t stress this enough, if you haven’t been out for a sunrise on the Harbour, do yourself a favour and get out there one morning. It may be early, but it is one hell of a sight!

Watching the sun come up - magnificent

Early morning kayak side-profile - it still looks so sexy!

Needless to say the first paddle was gentle but fun, with the occassional stop for coffee and sausage sangers (thanks Sydney Harbour Kayaks!). More about the boat later, but for now a couple of quick pics. – FP

A recreation of a good forward stroke, just for the camera!

It's true, I DID need a tub of Vaseline and a shoe-horn to get in!

Now where the hell did my paddle go???

My new Valley Aquanaut HV RM

Too excited to write! Hopefully the pictures will tell tell enough of the story. Cheers – FP

Split Mitchell Greenland Paddle & Silva compass on the front deck

Daughter Ella (20mths) studying daddy's new kayak

Daughter Grace (3 years) checking the cockpit fit

Fat Paddlers three girls - Ella, Bec & Grace. My turn to play in the kayak please!

Fast, sleek and sexy. Words not usually associated with the Fat Paddler!

Tags: greenland paddle, kayak, mitchell greenland paddle, mitchell paddles, split greenland paddle, valley aquanaut, Valley Sea Kayaks

Woohoo! Paddler take off! (Image Credit: www.wozthatyou.com )

My mate Doug from WozThatYou.com hit the beach at Dee Why this morning and captured some brilliant shots of  a mad paddle-surfer carving up the early-morning waves. According to Doug, even the stand-up surfers were cheering the incredible spectacle of this crazy dude carving up the waves. Big thanks to WozThatYou.com for allowing me to use the pics – if you like surfing photos, please check out his site. – FP

Nasty high brace as he drops in on the wave (Image Credit: www.wozthatyou.com )

The drop - yeeehaw!! (Image Credit: www.wozthatyou.com )

Owning the wave (Image Credit: www.wozthatyou.com )

Tags: dee why, surf paddler, surf paddling, wozthatyou, wozthatyou.com

Cayenne - cleaned & loaded for final delivery. Bye old girl!

When I decided to sell Cayenne, my Boréal Design Nanook, I thought it would take a while.  After all, she’s a high class girl and doesn’t come cheap. But in fact she sold within 7 days of listing, so I didn’t even get the time for a final paddle before it was time to give her a final clean and deliver her to her new owner. It was all over so quickly I barely had time to reflect on our time together.

So to send her off I’ve waded through a few thousand photos and selected a couple to show the journey we’ve taken together, culminating in the 111km Hawkesbury Canoe Classic. Thanks for the memories old girl, and I hope you have many more happy paddling adventures with your new owner Martin. – FP

Cayenne in front of the Sydney Opera House at sunrise

Cayenne at Bradleys Head for another glorious Sydney sunrise

Cayenne and the Endeavour, Darling Harbour

Cayenne at Lavender Bay overlooking the Sydney Harbour Bridge

Cayenne looking out over Avoca Beach at sunset

Cayenne out amongst the sails, Balmoral Beach

Cayenne on the Wyong River at night

Cayenne and Ella's Pink Lady, days before it set off round the world

Cayenne finishing the 111km Hawkesbury Canoe Classic

Tags: BD Nanook

Nadgee Solo Kayak

I dropped into Sydney Harbour Kayaks for a trial of the new Nadgee Solo composite sea kayak that they recently added to their stock.  The Nadgee is a beautiful, locally-made composite expedition kayak designed for hard-core sea paddlers. I was actually a little hesitant to get in for the test run!

The first thing that was quite apparent is that I was simply too big for it.  Squished into its cockpit, I looked on the water suspiciously like a paddling muffin – way too much overhang for anyone’s viewing pleasure. The seat itself is carved foam and felt quite comfortable, but in terms of leg room and cockpit size, I was wedged in tighter than a fishies’ bottom!

On the water the Nadgee paddles beautifully. I quickly picked up speed and noticed that even under my considerable weight, there was hardly a ripple from the bow as it cut smoothly through the water. With a bit of a V-bottom on it, the boat is a little bit twitchy, which would no doubt work well in big ocean waters. On the flat waters of early morning Sydney Harbour however, I found myself getting the occasional speed-wobbles as I tried to keep it upright.

As the morning progressed I took the Nadgee into some small ocean swell coming through the Heads into Balmoral, but found my lack of core balance with the boat made the ride pretty scary. So I decided to head up into Middle Harbour instead, where the conditions would be a little bit calmer (or so I thought).

What I wasn’t aware of was the building 25-30 knot  southerly wind which was throwing up following wind waves behind me. Again this made the paddling quite challenging, until I turned around and paddled back into the wind for the trip back to the The Spit.

In summary, the Nadgee is a truly beautiful well-designed and well-built sea kayak ideal for intermediate to advanced paddlers. It is not for beginners, as it’s twitchiness would have many novice paddlers spending much of their paddling time swimming instead.  Likewise, I would not recommend this boat for the bigger man – after 2 hours in the kayak paddling I was suffering from pretty bad cramps. But for more reasonably sized experienced paddlers I can see why the boat is so highly rated – it is fast, fun and a very serious kayak for ocean paddlers.

Tags: Kayak Review, Nadgee Kayaks, nadgee solo, sea kayaks