Paddle in Peace Eric Soares

I was saddened today to hear that one of the true paddling legends, Eric Soares, has passed on. He had been tapped on the shoulder by the man with scythe before and bore the zipper like scar of open heart surgery but while he took more care, he never let it stop him from living his life. His positive outlook and drive to live life to the fullest were truly inspirational. Sadly another aortic aneurism has taken him away to paddle the big break where the ether surges and foams around the rocks of the spirit.

I didn't know Eric personally but we had traded comments on our blogs and I had hoped to get the opportunity to meet him in person. I will be raising a glass to his memory tonight and toasting his exploits with Gage Roads Purest Atomic Pale Ale. Somewhere out there Eric is showing Neptune just what a Tsunami X15 can do.

My deepest condolences to the Soares family, Eric's many freinds and to Jim Kakuk and the Tsunami Rangers.

An alternative River Grading System

I've had a hankering to do some white water paddling as cross training for sea paddling for a while now. Here on the Central Coast there isn't a great deal of close and convenient white water, surf is alot easier to get to, but I keep thinking about going down to the Penrith white water stadium to play or even over to UNZUD, AKA The Land of the Long White Rivers where some excellent courses are available on real rivers.

Not really being au fait with the terminology, I've been checking out grading systems on the UK Rivers Guide Book site, where I  found Dave Petterson's alternative river grading system...........................written from a swimmer's perspective.

If you haven't seen it before then do check it out, you'll like it.

http://www.ukriversguidebook.co.uk/reports/general/alternative-grading

Wyong River

With the weather a bit threatening and being on my own, I opted for a short outing on Wyong River. I spent about three hours on the water; paddling up to the weir before turning round and paddling back down to South Tacoma then back up to the launch point. Total distance for the trip was about 15 km, with a diversion into Porters Creek which had a nice little flow going. I thought it might be interesting to see how far I could push an 18 foot sea kayak upstream in a narrow flowing creek using a wing paddle.  Answer, not very far, but it was fun trying and even more fun running back with the current. I might have to get myself up to Barrington River or down to the Penrith White Water stadium sometime.

I spent a fair bit of time playing with my wing paddle to see what it would do with a bow rudder or a cross bow rudder. The cross bow rudder was a far better option as the shape of the aerofoil (hydrofoil ?) works with the turn to pull the blade away from the boat allowing a tighter turn. I had best success with the bow rudder by turning the paddle round, this is cumbersome at best and when the cross-bow rudder works better, why would you bother. There was also more braking force in the rudder stroke compared to a conventional blade. Not too surprising I suppose given the increased cross-sectional area of the wing blade.

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.

Hanging my Britches on the Line.

I've just had a little lie down, my back was killing me after an hour or so bent over running some new retroreflective decklines round my bow. One of the very few things on my boat that is merely adequate rather than top notch are the deck lines. They are functional enough but a little on the thin side. So I replaced them with 6mm line with a retroreflective strand woven through which I bought from Mick McRobb of Flat Earth Sails last Rock'n'Roll.

I took the opportunity to add a pair of Northwater's Paddle Britches just forward of the front hatch and compass recess while the lines were going on, so we'll see how they go in the surf tomorrow. Last time I played in the surf I nearly lost half a Werner Cyprus. It was tucked in under the front deck bungees and the water pulled it out at the far end and it was flapping around all over the place. The paddle britches look just like a little pair of pants and are designed to hold the shaft ends of a split paddle safely on the front deck where it is easy to get at. A full review will come shortly.

If you ever find yourself changing deck lines on a sea kayak: many boats are supplied with lines that are really too thin so there's a good chance you will be: you will find it much easier if you start off by melting the new line and shaping it nicely into a drawn out point. It just needs to be long enough to poke through the deck fittings so you can easily catch it with a pair of pliers and ease it through. 6mm line is a snug fit in Valley deck fittings and the kernmantle construction of the cordage makes it expand when you try to push the cut end through, so melting it and rolling it to a stiff little point lets you get it through without the sheath bunching up and fraying. You might also want to think about letting it cool slightly and wetting your fingers before you roll it as molten plastic does nasty things to skin.

When you finish, I think it's worth leaving the tail ends a little long, just a few inches as this makes it much easier to adjust them down the track if the new lines should stretch or shrink. Put a loop in the end of the lines and you have two impromptu towing points if you ever need them although I would worry about using them for all your towing needs as I could see it being likely to rip out deck fittings in rough water. Maybe a loop of bungy cord as demonstrated by Gordon Brown in his rescues DVD is a better option.

I'm off down to Botany Bay, bright and early tomorrow for a club paddle as part of my ongoing preparations for sea skills assessment. Four of us Klanners will be joining the legendary Stuart Truman for a paddle to test us out and see how close we are to ready for assessment and give us some tips on what we still need to work on. In my case, I know that will include manoeuvring in rough water, rescues in bouncy water, preferably without throwing up and towing. The way my back is the rescues and towing are going to need great care but I hope that over the next six months I can find work arounds for the things that hurt and build enough fitness back up to get by in the assessment. It will be interesting to see what else Stu picks up on.

The instructional team tomorrow is Stuart Truman and Shahne Gresser, so we will have the first man to paddle completely unsupported around Australia (only the third person to circumnavigate Australia) and the first woman to cross Bass Strait solo so we couldn't be in better hands. If we don't learn something from these guys, then it's probably a lost cause.

Hunter Kayak Klan Greenland Paddle Day.

I had a nice paddle on Saturday afternoon. My Klan mates had allocated a day to do some Greenland paddling. As I had some commitments in the morning, I met up with them half way through at Wangi Point on Lake Macquarie.

Depending on who you ask, the Greenland stick is either a high efficiency aerofoiled wing design honed by thousands of years of experience or a primitive tool, far inferior to modern day materials and computer aided designs. The truth I suspect is closer to the former than the latter, but they are certainly a different tool with different strengths and weaknesses. Regardless of which opinion you ascribe to, there are lessons to learn from the GP that are relevant to other paddle types and there is also a goodly dollop of fun to be had in the process. Every time I play with a GP I tell myself I must get one, but so far I have only borrowed them. Christmas and my Birthday are not far away though, he hints with all the subtlety of a baseball bat.

Lacking a beautifully crafted aerofoiled greenland stick of my own, I took my beautifully crafted and recently sorely neglected aerofoiled modern "wing stick" for an outing. I do find it amazing how ten kilometres with a wing paddle finds out the poor techniques that I slip back into. My personal paddling Guru, Rob Mercer, calls these paddles "a forward stroke lesson on a stick". He is so right ! I am still very much a beginner with a wing paddle but my regular forward stroke is a high angle style so the adjustments to a wing are comparatively small compared to others.

On this trip I benefited from Owen's coaching, it is such a great help to have someone else looking at your stroke. Particularly someone who actually has some knowledge of what to look for. Without the aid of a video camera, we can't really look at our own stroke and having someone paddling along beside you is a good substitute. It's also nice to concentrate on form and technique rather than power, and high cadences. As this was a very gentle and cruisy paddle, I was able to do that without falling behind.

I tend to lift my left hand too high, and let my hands drop as I rotate which shortens the stroke and lifts water at the back of it. It really helps to have someone remind me when I'm doing it. At the end of that short paddle I was really getting some improvement. It felt good. I kept Col, Tony and Shawn company back over to Swansea and then came back across to Wangi on my own. The wind was shifting into the north east and picking up a little eighteen inch wave with just enough energy to catch the odd little ride. The sun was setting in the west and out on the lake there was nothing but peace and serenity.

One of the things that wings are not very good for (there are pros and cons to every paddle type), is manoeuvring. The finer points of linking and blending strokes and sculling are not really well suited to the design. As part of my wing paddle learning curve, I took the opportunity to play with a little flat water rock hopping on the way back to the boat ramp. I was very glad to have a plastic boat as the reflection of the setting sun and flat water made it quite hard to spot the rocks until I was nearly on them. Sweep strokes with the wing work very well. Draw strokes work well too, but a little care is required if drawing on the move as the twist in the blade takes some getting used to.  Still lots to work on there, too.

Back at the boat ramp, there was a gentleman washing his dog near the jetty, or perhaps he was shark fishing, it can be hard to tell....He asked me if I was worried paddling with all the hammerheads in the Lake. There are hammerhead sharks in Lake Macquarie, but they are the small scalloped hammerhead, which is not a threat to humans. There's also a healthy population of Bull Sharks, too and they certainly can be a threat to humans. The ones in the Lake, are pretty well fed though and if they were actually interested in eating people, they probably would have done it by now. I don't recall every hearing of a shark attack in the lake, although there have been instances of close encounters and kayak fishermen being harassed. Sadly it's probably only a matter of time before somebody gets bitten, and the media will have a field day, but the simple fact of the matter is that healthy ecosystems need predators. Personally, I'm delighted to see that there is enough biodiversity and fish life in the lake to support these creatures. The lake also supports a small but permanent population of dolphins too.

Messing about in boats.

With very little time at my disposal last weekend I decided to get on the water with the sole aim of spending an hour or so, just moving the boat around buoys, edging, blending strokes, paddling backwards along a range and bracing. I was really working on getting my lower body and abs involved to move the boat more efficiently and it makes such a big difference. Still lots more work to do though.

Edging and manoeuvring often includes the odd roll thrown in when the edging goes slightly further than intended and this weekend was no exception. There were lots of impromptu braces and a few rolls where I was out of position to brace without a rapid movement. I have some back problems at present and any really quick movements tend to hurt so it's better for me to roll gently than brace awkwardly or violently. I have become very rusty and when you go somewhere from point A to point B you often don't make the time to actually practice these skills so it was a worthwhile excercise for me.

It was a beautiful calm morning, the water was cool and clear, the breeze little more than the lightest zephyr to ripple the surface of the water. It was a pleasure to be on the water, even for just an hour. There is something seductive about altering a smooth surface, whether it's putting your footprints in fresh snow, writing the first word on a blank page, getting into a pool alone or watching the ripples spread out as your bow gently cleaves the water  on a calm day.

I was joined by Owen, Anne, Selim, Marty, Tony and Carolyn who had more time up their collective sleave and continued on for a quiet paddle around the headland to the lighthouse.