Wind: SE (so offshore) 15 knots
Swell: 2m easterly
Venue: Main Beach, western end, just east of river mouth
Participants: daveyG, jimbo, richmond, gemini, stormin, mangrove-mac, carlo, imax, turtleboy, doctor dog, sunshiner, DennisT, whalerider, kayak-one, kahuna, weeksie
Spectators: eyetag, wal ahti, hollywood, salty, jaro
Special thanks to: Dennis and Nadia of Australian Kayak Specialists (AKS) who travelled all the way from the Gold Coast just to help us out today.
~~~~~~~~~
Bloody hell! The surf seemed enormous. We were sitting on a tarp on the beach under AKS’s canopy, sheltering from the rain. Right in our view was the raging sea. Our Chief Instructor DaveyG hammered home the fine and rough points of handling a fishing kayak in the surf. Were we really going to go out in that?
Then we were donning surf helmets and launching our yaks into that same raging sea, some of us borrowing one of the several Stealth kayaks supplied by Dennis.
Did we get wet? Did we have fun? Did we learn a lot? Yes, Yes, Yes. Despite the apparently appalling conditions we found that our yaks could handle the surf pretty well. Most of us spent some time at least bobbing around supported by our PFDs while our upturned yaks were drifting nearby. So yes we were soaked, and yes we really stretched ourselves in surf we would normally never contemplate entering. A great experience it certainly was, and we owe a considerable debt to DaveyG who organized the event, and to his able helpers imax, turtleboy and kayak-one all of whom helped keep us and our kayaks safe and undamaged.
Here's the story in pics provided by Salty. Thanks, mate.
The scene
DaveyG, instructor.
Yes, sir!
Shit, do we really have to?
Stowing dangerous gear.
Getting down to business
DaveyG (yakless), jimbo and gemini.
Weeksie heads out
Sunshiner on the way
Laughing spectators. Wal, eyetag, jaro.
From left, jimbo, weeksie, kayak-one, imax, stormin, DaveyG, sunshiner
Oops, sunshiner.
Doc dog on foot, others playing in the small stuff.
Eyetag, dry; DennisT, damp; mangrove-mac, dry but about to get soaked; sunshiner, sopping wet.
Stormin, taking a well-earned break
Stealth tag team. Imax, in his own BFS, hands over to weeksie, borrowed Supalite x.
Kahuna, daveyG, richmond, gemini
Clearly, enjoyed by all. Perhaps we should make it an annual event?
Thanks to all.
Kev
sunshiner
Video by Gemini
Perfect brace, Matt.
ReplyDeletenice, how did the hobies do?
ReplyDeleteI find them hard to control in the surf and the front threatens to dig in constantly (revo 13) I suspect surfing and adventure would result in a perfect disaster!
Not so in the Adventure. I went out without a rudder (up to prevent damage), and copped about 200 waves from direction. I found the Adventure very stable. It does track a little too well in rudderless mode, but is very capable.
DeleteCopping waves from every direction necessitates the use of bracing support strokes. This is another skill that, in the conditions, there was no opportunity to demonstrate practically. Maybe next time we will get a more friendly learning environment. Hope so.
Thanks to DaveyG for organizing, and also the other 'safety people' for helping.
kayakone (trev)
Cheers Kev! What a great arvo. We need to do it more often.
ReplyDeleteBig waves, rain...
ReplyDeleteIs everybody mad in Australia ?
Too much for me !
Nice work guys... this was good fun. Dave kudos to you for your massive effort. Your knowledge and presentation of this was fantastic.
ReplyDeleteThanks Kev for your humorous report and well done to all the guys who turned up and braved the conditions on Saturday. Conditions were a little more ‘challenging’ than we’d hoped for, in fact that was probably as bad as it can get! Large dumping waves, wind and sheeting rain….and we were out there in kayaks not really suited to surf. Yes I think we are all mad.
ReplyDeleteI’ll prepare an overview of the points that we discussed and some reminders about what to do and not to do in the surf, and will include this in the next issue of the NY newsletter. Look out for it.
In the meantime all I can reinforce is that you will not become a good surfer by reading about it or browsing internet forums. You need to get out there and practice at every opportunity. I hope that this introduction now inspires you to challenge yourselves and get out there in your bare kayaks a bit more often. More time on the water = more skills, but remember safety is always the priority.
I’d also like to officially thank the NY members who generously gave up their time and risked personal injury by helping out with water safety on Saturday. There was a nasty current which took a few of us around the corner into the river, and without the assistance of the helpers things could have gone badly very quickly. So a big thanks from me to Steve Crisp (Turtleboy), Dan Drier (IMAX), Trevor Gynther (KayakOne) and Mark Powell (Doctor Dog) for helping out in this area. I really appreciated it.
Also a big thanks to Adventure Sports at Noosaville (www.kitesurfaustralia.com.au) for loaning us the whitewater kayak helmets which we used on the day. If you need any kayaking, surf or watersports gear, go check them out. Cheers, Dave.