I took this a few months ago and finally got around to doing some post-processing. Some other guy was on the beach at the same time and took pretty much the same photos. He entered them in a photo comp on Prime TV and won. I’ve got lightning in mine therefore it is better. It’s the second time this has happened to me. Taken on an Olympus E-30 with 14-54mm Pro zoom. I love this camera.
Storm at Redhead Beach NSW
Made in China. You know what images this conjours up. Just like Made in Korea in the ’80′s and Made in Japan in the ’60′s. I get this all the time in the Solar industry; “I don’t want Chinese made panels” they say as if they have a clue. Well let’s take a look at Chinese made gear. First, Apple computers, iPads, iPhones and iPods are made in China. So are Toshiba. Canon, Nikon and Olympus cameras are made in China and so are their lenses. Olympus Zuiko lenses are regarded as some of the best you can get. My early film Olympus SLRs and Zuikos were made in Japan but the digital gear is Chinese and guess what? They are better. The lenses are shorter, lighter, faster, sharper. In the Solar industry, of the top 10 highest rated panels in the world, eight are from China. Our company uses JA Solar monocrystalline panels and they are about the best you can get. Suntech might argue the point but they are Chinese as well.
This little rant came about because of coffee. You see, my last couple of paddle trips were coffee cruises on Lake Macquarie and because my Thermos died and I couldn’t be bothered taking my Trangia to boil water, I was hoping to stop near a cafe and buy a nice Flat White. Well, on each occasion Owen and Anne decided we’d go nowhere near a cafe so I was forced to put on a sad face and get them to make me a coffee from their own supplies. Fortunately, the generosity of this pair is never wanting nor is Owen’s usual offerings of advice. “Buy a bloody Thermos! Aldi have got them for $6″. OK, OK, so I went to Aldi a few days later. No Thermos there but soon picked up a cheapy elsewhere. What I really wanted was a gas burner that could make a cup of coffee without all the rigamarole of the Trangia, something like the MSR Whisperlite but without the stupid price. Of course, eBay is your friend here and a quick search pulled out dozens of tiny gas stoves for various prices. With no idea of whether they were going to be any good and all of them from Hong Kong or China, I shut my eyes and picked one at random. It cost $9 with free postage!! That’s nothing. How could I lose. Even if it were complete rubbish, I get a $9 lesson. It arrived today and it is pretty impressive.
This thing is tiny, very well made and comes in a handy orange box to stow in a coffee cup.
So where is the Whisperlite so superior? Why pay $69 for the MSR?
Note the flame. This flame is exactly the same one they use on the MSR. Now, I’m no rocket scientist but I’m pretty sure if I put a teapot on this thing, the water in it will boil and make a splendid cup of coffee in seconds. Piezo electric ignition, too. I’m sure there will be some among you who will be quick to tell me that the piezo ignition will probably fail after a few months in the real world of kayaking. Note the box of matches. I’ve got it covered. I should buy another five of these things before the Chinese middle class starts getting their stuff made in India. Hmm, Beijing Olympics, Delhi Commonwealth games? You be the judge.
Do you see these shoes? Seven bucks at Target. I don’t even know what brand they are. Certainly not Crocs. I was put onto them by fellow Hunter Klanner, Graeme Auld, after I lamented not having a general purpose shoe that was truly general purpose. I have Sanuks which are fantastic but take a long time to dry when wet. These things are dry in a minute or two of sunshine. They are warm and pretty close to indestructible. They weigh nothing and you can throw them into the kayak in case of emergency. Some even paddle in them but I prefer proper neoprene boots for that. A lot has been written about how uncool Crocs are and wearers of them run the risk of being social pariahs if seen in them. Yes they are ugly. I got the drabbest colour I could to reduce the risk of them being seen. The fakes only came in two colours though, black and these, so I wasn’t exposed to the hideosity of genuine Croc orange or lime green.
I am in these all the time which drives my wife, Samantha, nuts and that is an enjoyable secondary benefit. But Seven bucks. Did I mention that. You could treat them as disposable if they didn’t last so long. Crocs are $50 and are heavier. I don’t know if they are tougher. Maybe, but seven bucks! That’s seven sets of these for one pair of genuines. You’ve gotta ask why. How can Crocs survive? I don’t care really as long as Target still have these. You should buy some to go with your Sanuks for a complete wardrobe.
Since I work in the Solar industry (at least for now), there’s really no excuse for not having a few things sorted out. One of the issues that bugs me when I go camping is the lack of refrigeration. An Esky and ice just doesn’t cut it. You end up with a pool of water with soggy things floating in it and food you have to throw away. The problem with a car fridge and solar charging system is that it is quite expensive to set up so the cost/benefit ratio is poor.
Not to be put off, the company for whom I work, Solar Newcastle, recently set up a Recreational Solar department and the pricing they got on 12v panels was amazing. This prompted me to explore the project again and with the help of our senior design engineer, Lee, I pieced together a plug and play solar charged fridge system for my car camping needs. First things first, there’s no point having a good deep cycle battery if you can’t keep it maintained so a proper multi-stage charger was the first thing to buy. Plenty to choose from but Projecta kept popping up as a big player and I scored this thing from my friendly Ebay store:
This thing can handle any chemistry battery up to 10A. It can recharge a car battery in situ and still connected so in short it is ideal for the job.
Next was the battery. Now, I am an electrician and electronic engineer but, in truth, batteries were never a thing I studied much. Fortunately, Lee is a battery master and he schooled me up good and proper. So now I can do batteries, me. I really wanted an AGM 100Ah deep cycle but the cost was more than I could justify at $369. So I opted for a 100Ah SLA which I got for $200 from Newcastle Batteries, our sister company.
So now I have a battery and can keep it charged and in good order. With an Engel 50l fridge at 2.5A maximum draw, this will give me about 20 hours of autonomy time before the battery gets below its critical 50% discharge. That will do for an overnighter but I need solar panels to make it permanent. The panels our company now sells are OK and the pricing is very good at $480 for a 130W bi-fold with regulator. This price is hundreds cheaper than similar at the big retailers like Ray’s Outdoors and Camping World but then I found this:
This setup is 120W, waterproof with protective corner guards, a superior tilt stand, Anderson plug connector and only $355. A steal and it’s on its way.
Now I have the ability to keep my battery charged for years without the need for mains connection. Unfortunately, all I can do is look admiringly at my system because the battery has nothing to run. Sure I can charge my iPod but I could do that in the car. Naturally, the fridge is next.
These days there are several good car fridges to choose from but I will pick from either the Waeco or Engel ranges. The Engel runs much lower current draw because it uses a Sawafuji swing motor which is more efficient than Waeco’s Danfoss compressor. It’s a difference between 2.5A and 5A maximum draw and this will impact on autonomy time for the battery. Both fridges are highly recommended with impressive track records for serviceability but the Engel’s higher price might be worth paying. I only need 50 litres so I expect to pay around $1k unless I can get a great Ebay deal. I will keep you informed when it arrives.
Finally, my next step is plug and play so Anderson plugs will go on all connections and the battery will live in a box with Anderson plugs, car d.c. socket and a little recharge inverter for all my electronic gadgetry. My next post will show it all together and working.
Gout
I am used to pain. I am also very tough and can withstand prolonged periods of pain. I have had a broken back and recovering from that is pretty painful. I have been injured many times and now suffer chronic pain from these injuries as well as the pain from just getting old. Most blokes my age or thereabouts are similar.
But nothing. NOTHING comes close to the excruciating torture of gout. It is not only debilitating it is ‘being stung by a stonefish’ level of painful where you seriously contemplate sawing off your limb with a hacksaw to make that pain stop. It starts maybe in a toe. For a lot of people it stops there and they complain about it being sore. YOU ARE AMATEURS! For me, I go to bed one night seemingly in good condition and wake up with a sprained ankle. What!? Did I sleepwalk to the Seven 11 for a slushy and trip over. Then it occurs to me. Gout. It’s back. The sprained ankle doesn’t go away and I hobble off to work. Next day all my toes and my instep are throbbing in agony and it’s not easing. Another day and can’t bend over to put my pants on. Seventy (it seems) Panadol later and I am drugged enough to eat tea and have a shower. In the morning my wife helps me get dressed and puts my socks on my feet. I can’t get my work boot on without crying like a baby. There are violent stabbing pains coursing through my body and my leg is bright red and stiff as a post.
A week after this the pain is still there but easing a little. A week after that I can walk a little better then one morning my kneecap is sore. Shit! It is in my knee now. I go through another two weeks of repeat agony from the knee down. The Allopurinol doesn’t do much and I’ve run out of Panadol and am hitting the Feldene pretty hard. Finally, after a month of excruciating torment the pain subsides and I am back to normal. This is what gout is all about. It is a rich man’s disease. So ‘SHOW ME THE MONEY!”
For the uninitiated, gout is a condition where the body creates more Uric acid than it can expel and it crystallizes and grabs hold of connective tissue in the joints. These crystals are razor sharp shards of glass-like horror that get inside the joint so in effect you are walking around on smashed glass all the time. It is called the rich man’s disease because it is linked to lifestyle. Too much alcohol and Fructose are the main causes and I have been a soft drink addict and an enthusiast for wine and beer. I also have chronic kidney disease which doesn’t help. Now, the thought of soft drinks (sodas) frightens me and I am mostly off the wine and beer. I even drank some water.
XRAY of gouty foot. Not mine.
Do not get gout. Do anything to avoid it. Since the average age of kayakers is pretty high, most are in the zone for this disease. Learn what it is and do what it takes to avoid getting it. Your kayaking will be a distant memory while you have this.
Klanners in the Shark Hole - photo by Simon McGuire
Today I decided to fill in my Paddling Log for the NSW Seakayakers Club which I haven’t done since my Grade 2 paddles. To do this I had to go back through to the original posts on this blog to get details from my earliest trips. Back then every trip was an adventure and in some way pushed me further along the kayaker’s journey. Funny thing is just how lame these appear now. A windy day on Lake Macquarie was a big day out and fraught with peril. Contrast now. A week ago I paddled across the lake solo in a 20kn Southerly with a busted skeg and a bitch of a boat that loves to weathercock. Waves were breaking over the deck and I think there was something following me! It was cold and raining and there was no-one else on the lake other than more kayakers who I was heading to meet. No big deal. A lone tinny passed me and the owner asked if I was OK. “Yeah, why?” I replied between sips of my water bottle. He shook his head and raced off. A lot has changed. My boat and I have been through the wringer a few times and survived. We go into much more interesting water and the little things like a bit of wind no longer terrify.
I was filling in trip entries into the log but had forgotten how many trips we’ve done and not recorded because they are too routine. The Spoon Rocks trip we do once took serious planning but I whizz down there by myself now. I’m not being complacent just pleased with my progress. Now, in the klan, there are a lot of new members and many haven’t been out into the sea. They joined to get that experience and so I decided to take them down to Spoon Rocks for their first trip.
The difference this time is that I was the trip leader. I had to do the float plan and briefing. I had to watch everyone and make sure they not only returned safely but had a good time doing so. It’s quite a responsibility and you can sea why the NSW club puts so much emphasis on getting things right.
Anyway, the trip went pretty smoothly and we all had fun in the Shark Hole and Sea Caverns. We had lunch and tried each other’s boats and all returned greatly edified. It was also good to have done this with Simon Maguire and John Anderson as the three of us are the original members of the Hunter Kayak Klan. A pity that John and I got sea sick in the oily swell but our greater experience meant that no-one knew. John beached to prevent a worsening condition and I drank some sea water to vomit up my breakfast on the deck. MacDonalds before a trip is just plain wrong. Don’t do it.
Gavin and Dolphins. They made his day. - photo by Simon McGuire
I’m pleased with where I am right now. I am good in the sea and mostly good in the surf. I’m not great at long distances but don’t care either. My strokes are strong and reliable and I go where a lot of others won’t. The thing that bugs me more than anything though is that I cannot roll despite the best efforts of Graeme and Owen. Owen has ambitions to be the klan’s first instructor but my defiance of his rolling instruction must irk him as much as my failure irks me. I told Rob Mercer about this and he said he was in the zone for getting his students rolling. I think I will break him.
Panasonic Lumix DMC-FT2.
If you have been reading my posts that precis the current ranges of waterproof camera you will have read that I have already briefly covered the Panasonic DMC-FT2. Well, recently I happened to acquire one. For free even. I’d like to thank Panasonic for their generosity but I can’t. Unlike Fuji and occasionally Olympus, they won’t give me one. Anyhow, I digress…
I have been using the FT2 whilst paddling and I can say it is rather good. It’s not perfect, though. Here are some pros and cons:
The Pros
The Cons
Overall, it is a useful kayaker’s camera. I just wish that for once the designers would actually have a clue about the environments these cameras are going to be used. Then they would put on a big robust zoom toggle that cold, wet hands can use. The single button for video is a positive step but should be bigger and overall handling performance really need to be stepped up. Forget megapixels, we all know it’s bullshit. Give us an 8 megapixel, low noise sensor with lightning speed and 7x optical zoom with 22mm wideangle and full HD video, rubberized buttons for basic controls on the top of the camera for one handed use. A flick in polarizing filter would be a fantastic feature as well. This would be the perfect camera. It would never needed to be upgraded so you could keep it in production for years and outselling every other waterproof. As things are now, though, if you want the best waterproof compact for kayaking or other water sports, the FT2 is it. Even better would be to find the FT1. At 12mp it has better stills.
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So it’s been ages since I posted. It’s not like I’ve done nothing. The Hunter Kayak Klan is my main project now and I have achieved everything I wanted to achieve with it. Well, not quite. The Klan is gaining not just in strength of numbers but in strength of paddling. We were once rank beginners with beginner boats and kit. Now we are seafaring kayakers with a reputation in our locale of awesomeness. I recently paddled on Lake Macquarie and crossed paths with some other paddlers. After greeting them they asked if we were Klanners and we said yes. They said they read our site but were too scared to join because we WERE TOO AWESOME!!! It’s like we’re the Jack Black of seakayaking. Even a fortnight another klanner and I passed some bathtub paddlers near Pulbah Island. They were like us two years ago and afraid to go to sea. When we told them we were klanners they were suitably impressed. They probably called us wankers as we paddled off but they KNEW we were awesome.
The thing is though, it’s pretty easy to look good in front of newbies. It’s a whole other thing to not look stupid in front of kayakers who really ARE awesome. You have your Stu Trumans and Nigel Dennises of the world and they are stratospheric compared to us. Being in the same ocean as them puts pressure on you. Being in an organized club trip with these guys, say at Rock n Roll, instills doubt in your mind. Can I keep up? Will I look like a noob? The aim of every sport is to be awesome. There’s no other goal. You can say you do it for pleasure or whatever but there’s no pleasure in doing something you really suck at. So what to do? Well, getting someone just as awesome as Stu and Nigel to train us is a good start.
Regular readers (if there’s any left) will know of our connection with Expedition Kayaks’ Rob Mercer and Mark Sundin. Many klanners have trained with Rob or Mark over the last couple of years and improved their skills but now I have formalized this with the annual Klanocopia at Ocean Beach Umina. Sure, it’s a direct rip of Canoecopia in the States but Klanocopia sounds even better than that. This year is the second year of this event and we increased our numbers and the scope of training. The format is in two parts. Saturday is for sea skills training and this year Rob and Mark focused on stroke combination and blending with the aim to ultimately make individual strokes merge into a holistic body-boat action. We were put through drills in stroke combinations and boat control; things we can take home and practice ourselves. Sunday is boat testing. EK bring their fleet of boats they are currently selling and we take them for a spin. Apart from being great fun, it increases your experience with different boat types and EK also generate some sales. It’s pretty social and it’s interesting to get a diverse range of opinions on which boats suit who.
My pick was the Rockpool GT. Last year I hated it largely because of the haste in setting it up for my body and I was exhausted by the time I trialled it. This time I loved it for the comfort and its unbelievable maneuverability. It’s definitely on my short list. I also liked the Zegul 535 which was speedy and had great secondary stability. The Rockpool Taran was an interesting new boat. It is very fast and quite likable but not a boat I would have much use for. I can’t paddle a lot of the real sexy boats because of my size but it was nice to see other klanners enjoying them, or not.
Klanocopia is now our annual event. We are stronger paddlers as a result and are preparing for more demanding paddling. Congratulations go out to Owen Walton and Campbell Tiley on achieving their Grade 3 Sea Skills qualification on Friday. This is a big step on our grading system and adds to the overall awesomeness of the Klan. Klanocopia 2011 will be an even bigger event with more klanners and more Grade 3 qualifiers.
The klan goals for 2010 were to get people rolling, get our seas skills in top shape, and to get Grade 3′s underway. We can safely tick all those boxes. However, we can add more. We now have Hawkesbury Classic veterans, expedition veterans and sound local knowledge of our coast. For 2011 we will aim to get more of the same, to turn Grade 3′s into Sea Guides and increase the size of the klan’s core paddler cadre. We are a long way from a universal recognition of awesomeness but each time we hit a goal we add to our bragging rights.
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It’s amazing how things change and in a short time. When I started paddling I was terrified of leaving the safety of Lake Macquarie. Even the lake itself could at times be pretty hostile. These days the lake is pretty boring. I still like to cruise around with friends on relaxing day trips, especially when newer paddlers are with us, but mostly not much happens and it usually ends up a chat-fest.
Lately, we’ve made our coast our playground. It’s as it should be for sea kayakers. We are fortunate to have easy access to some very beautiful and varied coast and you can be sure things don’t always turn out the way you planned. We have accumulated some handy local knowledge on the conditions our backyard can hand out despite our recent trips being calm and uneventful.
From Swansea down to Catherine Hill Bay, you can expect hidden bommies with waves that stand up out of nowhere, tricky rebound and swell that doesn’t do what you think it will. From Newcastle harbour down south, there’s loads of rebound, reefs and some very large ships to avoid. Swansea bar is either flat and calm or an unpredictable mess that requires nerves of steel to cross. Our region boasts some of the best beaches in the world but what looks beautiful from the shore looks life-threatening when you’re trying to land a kayak. From Newcastle to Swansea there’s nowhere to land without a beach landing.
The great thing about handling all this all the time is that you get a feel for what is being dished out. We now know where the threats are lurking, where to land easily and where to explore and when. We have cathedral-like caves, cut-aways and gauntlets that are as good as anywhere and we are learning how they operate in varying seas. Some of these places can only be accessed by kayak so it is a privilege to get to know them.
All this makes it more attractive to visiting paddlers who would like to see what our part of the world offers. So if you are coming our way, gives us a call.
Last month was a real bastard. Since my last post, more random disasters have fallen in my lap. Like my washing machine. It’s a thousand year old Whirlpool toploader that barely did it’s job. We always knew it would die one day and it chose the month of hell to do it in. I took it pretty philosophically. I have no money left and my credit cards are choc-a-bloc. Solution. Get another credit card. Not really. I went to work and wrote my own interest free contract with GE Money and went into the Electrical department to see the boys there about what to get. My old mate Paul informs me that the only two worth looking at are Miele and Asko which I wanted but neither can be purchased on interest free finance. I take the best of the rest, a Bosch frontloader. It’s pretty advanced and we spent ages watching it wash clothes largely because my TV shit itself (in May) and there was nothing else to do because it has rained for weeks now and it’s pointless going outside. I’ve also had my cancer cut out and am stitched up so I can’t enjoy paddling in this weather either.
So by enduring the last month I can now take stock of my situation as follows:
The bad things can be reduced to the massive cost the month required, Madelaine’s broken leg and my cancer scare which was mercifully minor and quickly treated. I’m even less broke than I thought due to creative funds management and a good week or two in retail. Still, it was a massive hit and set us back ages but we survived and even moved ahead a little. I’m even being interviewed for a new job in renewable energy. I am also about to get a new mountain bike from money I earned from a side project that funds my kayaking and adventuring needs.
All in all, I’m pleased with my performance. I lost only one day to complete psychological failure but rallied and took control and kept an even keel. It’s like paddling in dire conditions. You just can’t stop, you have to keep paddling no matter what because standing still is dying and you have to fight right to the very last. You never know what the tide brings.
