Saturday morning, and the sun is shining, an unseasonably warm current has brough water down that is nearly 20 degrees centigrade and we're trying to get to the beach to put our boats in. Unfortunately our planning omitted the "Fat as Butter" rock gig and the road to our launch spot at Horseshoe Beach on the Newcastle Foreshore is closed. Luckily the three of us managed to hook up anyway and moved down the harbour to Carrington where we found a nice convenient put in point.
We paddled out of the harbour and down the coast as far as bar beach, with nice moderate conditions. There were dolphins and some bumpy water around he headlands. Newcastles beaches are fairly shallow so you tend to get a bit more dynamic water conditions as the swell kicks up and the rebound off the rocky coast generates some nice frolicsome water.
We had a new paddler along and he did very well, looking very comfortable in his boat and keeping pace nicely. I'd have to say my pace is pretty slow at present anyway as I've been having some back problems and have become enormously unfit. We turned around just north of bar beach and headed back to have lunch at kite point. This is a beautiful little beach, just inside the harbour but on the Stockton side. There we played happily after lunch wallowing, rolling and doing some edging and bracing practice with Shawn mentoringTony and me trying hard to remember how to do it myself after a winter virtually devoid of paddling.
I tried out Tony's boat too. A Riot Evasion. It was a nice little boat. The hull design is channeled and it kept a respectable pace for a shorter and quite manoeuvrable style of kayak. It was much easier to roll than my old Gecko as the deck is more contoured behind the cockpit and it's easier to get moving. It had a rather high and obtrusive seat back so a forward finishing roll was required but as that's my usual choice anyway it didn't affect me. The foot pegs are the sliding track kind to work the rudder so you lack a solid foot brace for optimal forward stroke although if the rudder is up you do get some support even if it feels spongy. The boat actually tracked pretty well without the rudder too. A top end touring boat it isn't but a decent little entry level kayak it certainly is. I'd probably rip out the seat back and put a backband in and replace the foot pegs.
On the way back we paddled past the "Fat as Butter" gig in full swing with four bands playing on separate stages. The kayaks were humming like sound boxes from the base being transmitted through the water. Even from a distance of 300m it was unpleasant and I felt priveledged to have spend a morning on the water instead of on the Newcastle foreshore. Not surprisingly, there were no dolphins to be seen.
I have a Riot Brittany which I think is narrower than the Evasion and with a more traditional rounded hull. I found the same issue with the spongy pedals along with the rudder because it's poor quality and broke easily. All in all it's a great little kayak as far as handling and tracking goes, a decent all rounder for coastal waters. My only gripe is that while the hull seems well designed and solid, the fittings are generally not great quality. Of greatest concern for safety are the hatch covers which seem too flimsy and IMO could to implode under strong wave impact. I would also like a more defined lip on the cockpit so the spray deck can't slip off. If they fixed those things it would make for a very handy, affordable coastal boat to suit a beginner or intermediate paddler.
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