Delivery! I wonder what could be in that long blue package??

Last year I decided to take on the 111km Hawkesbury Canoe Classic ultra-marathon in a fourteen foot canoe, a slow wide boat perfect for family day trips, but not really a racer. I had a bucketload of fun both during the race and in the training leading up to it, and totally fell in love with canoe paddling in general. I started to make a few enquiries with North American canoe companies about the availability of their boats in Australia, particularly the more performance oriented varieties, but without much luck. Then as fate would have, I learnt of a new business starting up in Australia to do exactly that – bring in quality canoes from the well known We-no-nah canoe company. To cut a long story short, I made sure that the first container load contained a canoe never to have graced Australia’s shores before – a We-no-nah Encounter solo. Last weekend, Travis from Paddle & Portage Canoes delivered it and took me and fellow Team Fat Paddler member Nat out for a paddle at Berowra Waters.

The blue package, ready to be unwrapped.

Unwrapped - the Wenonah Encounter - so red and sooo sexy!

Look at those lines - long, sleek, asymmetrical. And fast!

If first impressions are anything to go by, I fell totally in love. Forget how it performed, the boat was just so damn sexy to look at that I couldn’t wait to get in. The three of us quickly got ready and pushed our boats out through the busy Easter boat traffic and into the waters of the Hawkesbury.

Two beautiful Wenonah canoes cruising NSW waters

The boat felt fantastic. It’s curved hull gives it great secondary stability so I was expecting it to be a little twitchy on the flat, but the included footbrace allows you to brace the canoe with your knees much like you would a kayak, giving incredible boat control. Within minutes I felt myself starting to control her like my kayak, leaning at different angles to test how far it would heal over and how the leans affected its steering. I also found myself copping plenty of boat wash from passing cruisers and ski boats and felt the boat easily ride through and with the waves. At no stage at all did I feel like stability was an issue, so I started to experiment with boat wake to see if I could surf it. Sure enough, with enough speed and some stern ruddering the canoe would pick up boat wash and ride the waves just like a kayak (albeit a very large barge-like kayak!).

Unbelievably, the canoe picks up boat wake. Yeeeehaaaaw!

In all our excitement trying to catch wake, Travis had a little spill in his canoe and he was able to talk me through a canoe on canoe rescue, which was great to see/do first-hand. I’m pretty sure he took the spill on purpose just to show me this skill…. didn’t you Trav?? Either way, it was great to see how easy it was to do the rescue without falling out of my own canoe.

Travis in his Wenonah Rendezvous (whitewater canoe) dries out in the sun

We spent the rest of the morning playing around in the boats before stopping at a little beach for breakfast, where we shared Travis’ wife’s muffins and brownies as well as hotdogs I cooked up on the Trangia. Travis demonstrated some technical canoe skills for us using my Badger Paddle before we packed up for our return trip back.

Break time on a little hidden beach in the bush.

Hmmmm, the sweet smell of cooking sausages...

On the way back I tried a number of different paddles, feeling the difference between various traditional wooden paddles and a range of bent carbon-fibre racing paddles. I love timber and usually prefer traditional paddles, with my Badger Paddle being a stand-out, but I had to admit that the ultra-light carbon marathon paddles were great for going hard and fast.

Even Nat on his ski gave the canoe paddles a trial, with amazing success!

The range of different paddles on show - traditional, bent and white-water

When we finally returned I was ecstatic at the amazing performance and feel of the Encounter. Clearly the Wenonah canoes are a step above the standard plastic barges used by tour guides and scouts here in Australia, and will redefine what canoe paddling is about for those willing to try them out. I have no doubt I’ll be spending a lot more time in mine going forward!

FP demonstrating just how strong he is - or how light the Encounter is.

A big thanks to Travis from Paddle & Portage Canoes for his advice and help on choosing the right boat, for delivering it and for taking us out for a paddle. He’s a canoe guide, instructor and all round canoe-fanatic, so if you’re thinking about canoeing in any form, feel free to visit his site and drop him note. Cheers – FP

Travis with his canoe transporter - cheers Trav!

Tags: Paddle & Portage Canoes, Paddle and Portage Canoes, We-no-nah, We-no-nah Encounter, Wenonah, Wenonah Encounter

FP in the shiny new Wenonah Encounter at Berowra Waters

I took delivery of the first We-no-nah Encounter to ever land on Australia’s shores last weekend, care of new Aussie canoe business Paddle & Portage Canoes. I’ll write up the full story soon but here’s a little taste of the fun we had on her maiden voyage. Cheers – FP

Tags: Paddle and Portage Canoes, We-no-nah, We-no-nah Encounter, Wenonah, Wenonah Encounter

Lt Cmdr Jones gets ready for the Bridge to Beach paddle/swim event - haha!

Team Fat Paddler started gathering at Blues Point a little after 5.30am. After the wettest April day in about 20 years the day before, the skies looked remarkably clear and the waters calm. A sure sign that the weather was going to turn nasty!

Once all six paddlers arrived the car shuffle began – unload boats, drive to Manly, park cars, return via Sydney Harbour Kayaks to pick up more boats, and then return to Blues Point with 20 minutes to spare.

Lt Burns makes a long awaited return to the paddle. 20mths in fact!

With ten minutes to go paddlers rushed the foreshore to make their way down the single set of stairs to the water. With it being high-tide there was no beach to speak of, so numerous paddlers fell into the drink as they tried various styles of floating mounts for their craft. Those of us with plastic boats simply lowered them over the side of the sea wall and jumped in after them, getting a bit wet in the process but managing to get away through the pack and out to the start line near the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Lt Gelo posing for the ladies as usual. He was insistent on this particular angle

As the racing skis and kayaks jostled for position the gun fired and we were off. Ski paddlers like Sub-Lt Bradford and fast kayakers like Lt Cmdr Jones raced away from the slower kayakers like myself, but I enjoyed the view of the Opera House and Harbour Bridge as I bounced around in the chopped up water.

My concentration was broken by a noise off to starboard. A ski paddler was stationary in the water staring at his paddle in disbelief – his expensive carbon fibre paddle had literally just snapped mid stroke! I had a spare Greenland paddle on deck but knowing no ski paddler would be caught dead racing with one, we organised for Lt Burnsie to hand over the H2O euro to the ski racer, before accepting my spare GP for himself. With a thanks the paddler raced away, promising to return the paddle at the end.

I turned back towards the race, now in the last section of the pack. But somewhere off to my port bow Cmdr Grumm was also having problems. Out of control, his boat veered off to one side cutting off another paddler who promptly rammed Grumm’s boat, tipping him in. As I watched him flounder I couldn’t believe it – we hadn’t even made it to the official starting line (the Bridge) and already he was swimming!

A few of the lads at the start, mere minutes before Grumm fell in.

I turned my kayak around and paddled over to him. The Surf Lifesaving zodiac had also come up behind him and attempted to steady his boat as he managed some sort of barely-graceful paddle-float re-entry. Once he caught his breath, he grabbed his pump and over the next few minutes, emptied the water out of his boat.

Once finished Grumm was away, racing off in his fast boat as I was left to face the fact I was now in dead last position. Lt’s Gelo and Burnsie were now 500 metres ahead of me and I faced the task of trying to catch up. Over the next four kilometres I paddled hard, passing a few dozen slower paddlers and stopping occasionally to help paddlers who had fallen off their boats. I finally caught Burnsie as he rounded Bradley’s Head where we stopped for a quick drink. From then on the water became really choppy and difficult, as wind chop hit us beam on whilst ferry wake and rebound took us from all other sides.  As we paddled on towards Middle Head we came across more and more swimming paddlers, with many of the ski brigade having never paddled anything but flat water. This was no doubt going to be a tough day at the office for them!

When we finally made it to Middle Head the ocean swell coming through the Heads was massive. Towering waves were smashing the south side of North Head sending plumes of spray hundreds of feet into the air. As Burnsie and I struggled in the massive swell, we came across a now familiar site – Grumm being helped back into his boat by the Surf Lifesaver zodiac crew. Burnsie kept going on his course as I veered over to where Grumm was struggling. As I arrived, the zodiac crew were turning him around to face the right direction (that boat of his really needs a rudder!!). Then with a push he set off, taking no more than two strokes before slowly toppling sideways, a guttural expletive exploding out across the water as he rolled in.

The lifesavers had more problems to contend with, with paddlers falling out all about us. Promising to return, they sped away to help other paddlers as I steadied Grumms boat against the waves. We chatted casually about how tough it was and Grumm explained something about a foot-pedal failing, making it impossible to brace. With his boat now barely functional, he’d made the decision to throw in the towel and get a tow back.

When the clubbies returned they hauled Grumm and his boat onto the zodiac and were then away, leaving me again at the back of the pack to deal with the remaining few kilometres. Ordinarily this would have been fine, but the southerly swell was getting worse the closer to Manly I paddled, and the now huge waves were starting to scare me as I attempted to paddle parallel to them. With some waves jacking up to almost breaking point, I fought in my kayak against a constant feeling of tipping, at times flying over the crests of the waves so fast I actually got airborne, landing with a slap on the back of the waves.

After battling the huge swell for 30 minutes or so it slowly started to decrease and I was able to start catching the odd reasonable sized runner or two. I was exhausted from all the bracing and my hips and legs were screaming at me, but riding the swell was helping me to get closer to the finish. Finally, catching a little surf on a baby wave, I slid up onto the beach at Manly and wandered the last 150metres up the beach to the finish line.

Two thirds of Team Fat Paddler at the end. Three of us had stayed dry - haha!

Once I caught up with the boys I got a further update on how the race had gone. Both Lt Cmdr Jones and Sub Lt Bradford had gone swimming like Cmdr Grumm, meaning all paddlers in composite boats had fallen out. All the Tupperware riders, myself included, had managed to stay in our boats. It was a resounding win for the plastic platoon! In terms of placings, Sub Lt Bradford had come in first but Lt Cmdr Jones had been out-sprinted over the last twenty metres by a rampaging Lt Gelo, who was clearly already thinking about impressing the ladies at the finish line. Lt Burnsie had come in next followed by yours truly, with Grumm registering a DNF.

Breakfast of Champions. Coffee, egg & bacon McMuffins, and Belgian beer.

We gathered at the Belgian beer cafe for an event debrief when the paddler who we’d lent our H2O paddle to earlier turned up, insisting on buying us a round of beer for the help during the race. It was still quite early but we all agreed we’d earned the beer and with a table full of McDonalds breakfast and coffees, proceeded to tell our stories of giant waves and swimming. Clearly none of us had come anywhere near the times of the serious racers in the event but the Team Fat Paddler ethos is clearly about fun and bragging rights, and we indulged as best we could.

But the best stories of the day of course belonged to Cmdr Grumm, who’d come out three times and had to face the embarrassment of being towed to shore. To honour him, we decided to put together a (short) highlights reel of Grumm’s morning on the water. Enjoy! Cheers – FP.

Tags: Bridge to Beach, Bridge to Beach 2011, Grumm, Team Fat Paddler

Gelo - youngest member of Team Fat Paddler, showing off his new cliff-rash with a smile

There’s something about paddling that’s been bothering me for a while – I couldn’t quite put my finger on it but I just sensed there was something missing. Recently, whilst reading other people’s paddling blogs, I came across the following “Wanted” notice on Eric Soares’ blog about the future of the Tsunami Rangers. The opening paragraph went as follows:

“The Tsunami Rangers are looking for new members.  Ideal candidates will be strong, bold, courageous, fun-loving, adventurous and love water, kayak well, be proficient at many outdoor activities, be individualistic and a team player, a fast learner, and a true friend.  And young—18 to 21.”

Those final words grabbed my attention as I realised what it was that had been eating away at me about the sport I love. There aren’t any young people in it.

Froth, Friends and Fun! Now if only someone could make a cool looking helmet!

I have spent a lot of time thinking about this. Why does paddling seem to be made up largely of older people? Is it the access to funds for kayak purchases? Is it seen as boring? Are the skills required too difficult for young people to pick up in the shorter attention span they are alleged to have? Are there too many rules and certifications? Are there just not enough people giving their time to take young people out for a half a day’s paddle? Or does it just look too uncool with pics of people in dry-suits or legionnaire hats??

When you look at other water sports you see that there are plenty of young men and women out there. They are surfing on our beaches, sailing on the Harbour,  running whitewater in Penrith, paddling their SUPs along the coast  or racing their ocean skis at sea . They are getting involved in water sports of all shapes and sizes – all of course, except sea kayaking.

All this bouncing around and adrenalin and stuff. It has another name. Fun!

So why is our sport so devoid of young men and women. On the 1st of April the California Kayaker Magazine Facebook page ran a tongue in cheek April Fools status that said the following:

“Big News! Cal Kayaker Mag is changing. Sports Illustrated has shown that photos of girls in bikinis can improve any magazine. Kayakers in CA seem to always be in cold-looking locales and bundled up in unflattering dry suits and PFDs, where SUPers are in bikinis in tropical locations.  So no more kayaks, and instead now we will be focusing on SUPs (and tropical bikini girls).”

I admit I fell for it at first (it had been a long day!) but after having a good laugh, I wondered if there might be a little truth in it. Is our sport the ugly friend of the more sexy water pursuits like surfing,  SUPs and ski paddling? Is there a fundamental image problem? What does the average sea kayaker look like to an outsider?

Gelo getting his adrenaline fix in the froth and bubbles of ocean whitewater

The average sea kayaker has bunches of gear stashed on deck, an array of clothing that looks fit for exploring Antarctica, and a bizarre face smothered in zinc cream whilst hidden under a hat with flaps of material hanging to the neck. Not only are we not sexy, we’re down-right bizarre. And not in the strange-but-somewhat-sexy Lady Gaga sense of the word.

What about what we do, is that boring also? Sure, ask any paddler and they’ll wax lyrical about the zen-like properties of sea kayaking. They’ll talk about being one with the ocean, the joy of sea salt in the face, the bliss of being completely focused on the present and how the world’s stresses and problems dissolve away. But to an onlooker, the same kayaker will look much like a grey-nomad cruising their campervan too slowly down a straight highway. Hardly inspiring stuff.

Then last but not least, we’re a risk-aversive bunch.  I’ve been involved in many past-times, both on the water and off, that actively promote people to push their boundaries. In sea kayaking we insist on safety above all things: make sure you have the right gear,  make sure you learn the right skills, make sure you earn the right certifications, make sure you only go to safe places. And if you get past all of that, then maybe, MAYBE fellow paddlers might refrain from frowning at you as you slowly plod your way out into the blue waters along our coast. Read the letters section of Sea Kayaker magazine in the US and you’ll see all manner of people outraged at the risks others have taken in previous stories. Outraged!

Gelo's frothy swim - unexpected, exciting, watched by team-mates in case he needs help

But all is not lost. There are small pockets of resistance out there that captivate and thrill us with their wild antics and risk taking. The extreme coastal kayakers the Tsunami Rangers are a classic example, who much like their contemporaries the Banzai Bozos and Force Ten would relish the extreme environments of surf and cliffs for their kayaking exploits. Today younger extreme paddlers like the Hurricane Riders continue the tradition with amazing feats on the tide races of Skook or the rock gardens on North America’s west coast. Even our homegrown surfers up in Queensland, Gnarlydog and his crew, are having a blast surfing and rolling their boats in the breakers. Sure, there will be people who disapprove, who point and shake their finger, but it is these paddlers who push boundaries and inspire the young to take part, that show these generations that sea kayaking can be an exciting thrill ride if they look at it the right way.

Last week Team Fat Paddler took the opportunity to learn from extreme kayaker Jim Kakuk on the joys of paddling amongst breakers and rocks and made the realisation it not only felt fun, but it looked fun. Paddlers coming past stopped, watched and laughed. People fell out in the bubbly froth and had to make a swim for it. Laughter, bragging rights, and rock-rash were the highlights of the day. And finally we felt like the sport of sea kayaking was rediscovering its youth. Who knows if this “fun” thing will catch on, but rest assured we’ll be having as much fun as we can manage! Cheers – FP

Kayaking can be fun if you let it be fun. Even more so with friends!

(Thanks to J. Kakuk and P. Grummett for use of their photos)

Tags: FP, Gelo, Grumm, Jim Kakuk, rock gardens, young kayakers

Captain Kuk leads the way for some serious fun in Sydney Australia

Team Fat Paddler are all about fun and the lads were ecstatic about locking in a session with Tsunami Rangers Captain Jim Kakuk before he returned to his home in California. No-one knew what to expect but we all duly packed our helmets and took Jim out to some small rock gardens to see what we could find. What ensued was a brilliant few hours of watching, learning and playing! Full write up coming soon, but here’s a little video of our fun on the day. Thanks Kuk, and thanks Sydney Harbour Kayaks for your support on the day!

Cheers!! FP

Tags: Jim Kakuk, rock gardening, rock gardens, Team Fat Paddler, Tsunami Rangers, Video