The modern world of POV-style cameras like the GoProHD and Contour has opened up the world of action-videos to sporty types all over the world. Team Fat Paddler are hardly the most skilled or fittest paddlers out there, but we…
Summer is always mixed down here in Sydney – some days the surf is great, other days it just flattens out and we’re better off watching the cricket on TV. Recently however a little weather system called Cyclone Evan battered…
5.45am and the “tribe” is there – 5 paddlers on surfskis, one on a sea kayak, and one on a longboard. This is Manly Australia, home of the oldest surf lifesaving club in the world, and the local surf spot…
In my last post A Return to the Surf… or Paddling to Feel Alive I spoke about the joy of returning to the surf and waves, the fun of falling off, the feeling of really living when you let the…
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about paddling, and the parts I love, as well as the parts I don’t love so much. In particular, I’ve thought a lot about my own evolution as a paddler and what I’m becoming.…
Team Fat Paddler finds itself in that lovely part of the year between events, the time when there’s no real need to train for any particular event, just a period to relax and enjoy each other’s company. It’s a time…
Having spent the past year largely on my surfski, I’ve missed out on the rock gardening I did for much of the previous year. I love my ski and love surfing her, but there are times when I look longingly…
Sitting here in Australia it’s easy to get carried away in our own coastal paddling exploits – surfski paddling, sea kayaking, SUP paddling, recreational paddling. But in the Northern hemisphere one of the biggest paddling sports is white water, and…
Another year, and another Hawkesbury Canoe Classic 111km night paddling ultra-marathon done. Only this year I wasn’t alone, with Team Fat Paddler swelling in size to 20 paddlers and 30 land crew, with the now huge group creating an atmosphere…
The idea was simple – with a 111km ultra-marathon paddle just a week away, a slow, easy tapering paddle session was in order. So Team Fat Paddler decided to the hit The Bay down south for a few gentle waves…
Something really exciting has happened in the world of kayaking recently – the launch 4 months back here in Australia of the e-magazine Paddlemag. It covers stories across all paddling disciplines – white water, canoeing, marathons, surfski, and anything else…
I found myself sitting at work, exactly ten years to the day since I was in Bali that fateful day, with my mind wandering to the bad times. I’ve never felt right claiming to be a victim of Bali –…
It’s hard to believe that in a few weeks I’ll once again be taking on the Hawkesbury Canoe Classic (111km kayak ultra-marathon held overnight to raise money for charity). Fortunately I won’t be alone, with Team Fat Paddler taking to…
I was recently tasked by the CEO of my workplace Dimmi to come up with a kayak-based activity for a National Conference we were holding in Manly. His instructions were clear – “Don’t make it some boring, gentle paddle… I…
