Yarra Bay to Cronulla

Finally got around to posting about the club paddle from Yarra Bay.  This was a dummy assessment, in my case in more senses than one, so I was expecting to find out what things I needed to work on. I went into it knowing that my fitness was poor, my back is a bit dodgy and that lifting boats and towing might be an issue for me. I also tend to get sea sick when practising rescues and self rescues. In fact I have a long history of motion sickness but have found kayaks to be the least problematic boats for me. Most of the time I do OK.
So how did it go ? Well it could have been better but I was actually surprised that I went as well as I did.

Fitness
Fitness wise, I wasn't the slowest there but still clearly need to improve.
Strokes
Against my own better judgement I used my wing paddle................. and it was great. I really felt comfortable with it in the rebound from the sea cliffs and it was fine getting in and out off the beach. Some of the other strokes need more work with it but overall I was really happy. It was actually the first time I'd used the wing on water with a bit of texture to it, so I expected to struggle and I just didn't.

Balance
The exercise I was most nervous about was putting on or taking off a cag on the water. I had visions of thrashing around upside down with the cag over my head and one arm stuck in a sleave or something, but it never eventuated. I had my Reed top handy in the day hatch and whipped off my PFD, pulled on the top, put the PFD back on, done, no problem. Note: I used my Reed top, not my semi dry top with the latex wrist gaskets and neoprene tube neck ! Mainly because I thought I'd get hot and while it's easy enough to get into, Houdini himself would struggle to get out of it while bobbing around in a boat.

Rescues
I forgot to instruct the swimmer to "Grab your boat, grab your paddle" so she artfully discarded both and swam around smugly. I managed to get my "victim" back in the boat, pumped out and spray deck on before barfing all over her boat. Chunky bits just don't wash out of the compass recess that easily. I was still very chairy about hurting my back and it did feel tender but I can see light at the end of the tunnel. Practise, practise, practise.

Motion Sickness
As for the motion sickness, while I was sick, my perseverance seems to be paying off. I appear to be improving, as I was able to paddle on after getting sick this time, but got sick again later, and paddled on after a short tow to shore and a break. Finally needing a longer tow on the third bout. I'm told my colour was reasonably healthy right through and while that sounds silly, it is a significant development for me.

Why did I get sick? Probably a bit of a combination, I usually use Sea Bands and ginger.  The Sea Bands, which have been so good for me in the past, had stretched in the wash and applied no pressure where it was needed. They will be replaced with Bio Bands that have velcro straps and don't rely on elastic. I didn't find the ginger effective on its own although it may well have helped me recover quicker afterwards. I took a Stugeron tablet at lunch time. This didn't really have time to get into my system and the only effect I noticed was that I felt slow, my reaction times were a little out of whack and I felt I was always late responding to conditions so I felt wobbly although I don't think I was in any danger of going over. This could also have been an effect of the motion sickness as I was sick again on the way back to Yarra Bay but in the past I've found antihistamine based products knock me about nearly as much as the motion sickness. I remember sitting upside down in the boat at Umina once looking up at the surface and trying hard to motivate myself to roll. I did but all I really wanted to do was go to sleep.

Towing
Well I provided the towing practice after my third bout of barfing and was in an excellent position to see what did and didn't work. So I will be making some changes to my set up and doing some testing to make sure that it's free of the glitches that I observed in other peoples systems. There was clearly alot of drag in some parts of the system, tow systems failed, paddlers struggled, gear came adrift and progress was very slow. In the end the assessor took over the tow, so I'd say that's a pretty clear NYC for all concerned. Thanks all for your towing efforts, now lets get out and practice some more.

Surf
Well I'm no surf guru, but I'm comfortable enough to get in and out and stay upright or roll as required. After turning myself inside out before lunch I was feeling a bit flat so I sat out most of the surf session but did a landing and launch and put myself in position to do a few braces on the way out. The surf was pretty small so there was no real challenge there.

Self Rescue
The rolling component is fine, but the other self rescue techniques need a brush up and some additional balance training wouldn't hurt either. Particularly I need to practice with both paddles and practice paddling swamped.

Fun Factor
Well we had a beautiful dolphin encounter in the morning, the scenery was superb, the water was clean and warm and I got to enjoy breakfast, morning tea and lunch in both directions. I also discovered that the high energy gel shots actually taste better on the way back up, which made me laugh in spite of myself. So in spite of the barf fest it was a good day, for me anyway, probably not so good for the poor beggars doing the towing/supporting  and trying to avoid the technicolour yawns. It finished up with the club Christmas party at the Yarra Bay sailing club which was fun, too. A very nice meal and the only meal of the day that had a one way ticket, shame I had to drive home and so skipped a nice glass of wine to wash it down with.

The day was topped off with a fascinating Q&A session where Stuart Truman answered questions on his trip around Australia. His comments on co-existing with crocodiles particularly fascinated me. I don't mind sharks that much, but crocs worry me. There are huge sections of the coast that I would love to see but would have worried about paddling until hearing Stu's strategy for avoiding them. As during his trip he successfully avoided every croc residing on mainland Australia as well as some of the island based ones his strategy obviously works. There was actually a solid insight into crocodile behaviour behind his strategy by the way which largely changed my thoughts on tropical paddling.