Just look at this piece of art. A thing of beauty. What could be better than a Mission Eco Bezhig atop a Volvo 245, arguably the greatest car ever made. Let me tell you, an Impex Assateague atop a Volvo 850GLT. That’s what. All I need now is a picture of Stephan Meyn’s Boreal Labrador on his Volvo XC70. The man has style. Volvo’s & Kayaks. For Life.
This week I picked up my new Impex Assateague. I have been paddling a demo boat from Expedition Kayaks and I made the decision to take one of the last ones in stock. It is one of the few boats available designed for large paddlers. I’m 6′1″ and 240lb. My initial impressions of the Assateague were very promising. Continue reading ‘Impex Assateague Review’
Surf Lifesaving
Derrick at Kayak Quixotica has recently painted a picture in ‘Telling Stories’ of an American outdoors idyll on the Adirondacks complete with bears, plaid jackets and Dad teaching to read a compass. It’s an American fantasy, a romanticized legacy of early frontier life that strikes a chord in, presumably, white middle class Americans. It’s how certain Americans perceive the perfect transmission of the American psyche through a rite of passage that’s rarely lived out.
Australians also have these romances. The spirit of ANZAC is our most sacred. It’s a myth. This belief promulgates an idea that we are the successors of tough, fierce bushmen; expert horsemen, crack shots and brilliant soldiers. The truth is that the majority of the men who served in the 1st and 2nd AIF were urbanized coastal dwellers who had never fired a shot prior to the war. The fact that these men became legendary soldiers has nothing to do with the bush myth. Of course, the myth stems from an element of truth in men such as the Light Horsemen and from these the entire AIF received the ANZAC benediction.
So, Derrick’s post got me thinking about the real outdoors as it is in Australia. We have dozens of TV shows from the likes of Malcolm Douglas and the Leyland Brothers showing adventures from the Pilbara and the Kimberlies but only the tiniest fraction of Australians will ever visit there and only a few dozen will live there. However, tens of thousands routinely live the outdoor life along the coast. Surfers do this every day. The Surf Life Saving movement institutionalizes this life and contains within its ethos the seed of the ANZAC spirit. The surf clubs teach young Australians about the sea, the weather, how to read a beach, ride various craft and how to rescue people. When you’re a Nipper, you learn to wade in the surf, run in the sand and gradually learn the skills of a lifesaver. You learn how to treat stings from bluebottles, sunburn and heatstroke. When you’re old enough you are examined and put on patrol where you ride a ski, a rescue board and even a IRB or rubber duck. You become tuned to your beach and are now the repository of local knowledge. This is the real outdoorsmanship in Australia. We are a coastal people and learning to find witjuti grubs in the bush is nowhere near as important as learning to read a rip in the surf.
A few days ago I was reconnected with the surf club culture that raised me as a boy when we chose as our set-out point the boat shed for Swansea Belmont Surf club. Old clubmen were there washing down their skis as we were washing down our kayaks. They kindly offered us their facilities and I took the opportunity to ask advice on selecting different surf skis. The old blokes, who referred to me as ‘cobber’ which is just beautiful to hear, gave me the benefit of decades of life in the surf and regaled me with stories of local paddling legends like the eternal Archie Salaris, trainer of champions and a legend of the Hawkesbury classic, the Hooey brothers, past Swansea Belmont champions and many more. I was indulging in the mythos of a very real outdoors culture and I felt proud and glad to be a part of it. My father understood the need for this culture and took great pains to make me part of it. I would like my boy to be part of it too.
Of course, these days I ride a kayak but my reconnection with the sea is also reconnecting me with that legacy and I think I’d like to be like those old clubmen, never losing touch and always maintaining a link with a very Australian idyll.
Today was the largest klan trip since we formed. Since most of us had today as a holiday, we planned to paddle out of Swansea channel, out to Moon Island and down to Spoon Rocks near Caves Beach. South of this point is a series of sea caves and cutaways which might offer some decent play.
Eight of us set out at 8:00am under the watchful eye of Henry Van der Kolk, a NSW club instructor who recently joined the klan, and broke out of the Swansea bar soon after. To greet us, a pair of large dolphins ripped through our ranks defying all attempts to photograph them. We decided that the Moon Island leg would delay us too much as there was a cold front heading our way and we didn’t want to get overtaken by bad weather. Next time.
We made Spoon Rocks in good time and beached in a little sheltered beach made just for us. A quick chat and some photos later and we were on our way to the caves. The rebound off the shore was pretty strong and when we got to the main cave, we found it a bit too dangerous to enter. A little further south is a cutaway guarded by fierce rebounding rock gates. By picking a good line through these, we could get right into the cutaway which was calm and we could inspect a narrow gorge, more a long crack in the coast. Returning to the open water again, we headed home as time was important. The trip back was uneventful and calm with a gentle half meter swell. The problem was that Leonie became seasick and her paddling became very lethargic. The gentle swell was making me feel a bit nauseous as well and I don’t usually get seasick. Unfortunately, Leonie didn’t make it and the seasickness took its toll. We tethered her up and towed her to Swansea Heads beach for a rest. Henry towed her boat back to the cars and Graeme picked her up in their car.
This was a lesson in making sure tow lines are always available and in making sure the group doesn’t scatter too far. We were on top of the situation but had someone got sick with a large distance to go then things might have been more problematic. It can happen any time and to any one. Leonie is a good paddler and well equipped but there you go – sick. She recovered quickly enough but some don’t. Best be prepared.
Apart from this, the trip was enjoyable with loads of dolphins and mixed conditions; a good solid outing for the klan. With so many new members, it was good to get this many at once and find out each other’s strengths and personalities. Not a big trip by any measure but a milestone for the team.
As a camera specialist for a major retailer, I am overjoyed to finally get to play with a range of new underwater cameras from vendors other than Olympus and Pentax. I have only had a cursory look at each of these except the Canon D10 which is not available until May. Since the recent Rock n Roll event involved numerous photographers and a whole range of opinions I thought I’d give a brief rundown on the current line-up and my initial thoughts. Bear in mind, I haven’t done any real world testing but I will. Canon and Olympus have already agreed to give me demo units to test and I’m sure Panasonic will come to the party when I shame them into action. Here they are:
Continue reading ‘Cameras for Kayakers – revisited … again.’
Well it’s over for another year. The NSW Seakayaking Club’s annual event was held at Umina on the NSW Central Coast and it would be hard to find a better venue. The Ocean Beach Holiday Park was the host venue and it’s great. Right on the beach and with outstanding facilities. Unfortunately for me, I didn’t have my leave confirmed till a week before the start so I had no accommodation booked and had to live out of my Volvo for two days. Not a big problem but it meant I was separated from the central activities and had to walk a good half mile to get things I needed. Anyhow…what do you do?
My old mate James ‘Big Dog’ Musgrave has just completed the new website for Mirage kayaks and I have to say it is a vast improvement on the old one. Good job James.
As you know, Mirage is a dominant kayak brand in Australia and probably the number 1 boat in NSW. You see them everywhere and there’s a good reason for this as the Mirage ticks all the boxes for kayaks for advanced paddlers. I know dozens of paddlers who see the Mirage as an almost automatic upgrade from their first boats so it’s good to see the Marque with a decent website at last. It wasn’t that the old one was terribly bad but it certainly was looking dated and needed a refresh. It’s good to see prices included again. It’s a real issue with me as a retailer that companies persist in not showing prices for their stuff. It’s bad business.
Well done James and all the best Mirage.
Today I had a routine check of my kayaking bookmarks to see what changes had been made to NSW kayaking retailers. Unsurprisingly, only one has had a recent update. Expedition Kayaks. Now, this post is not a plug for EK because I’ve bought stuff from the other retailers and in fact more so but I want to use the EK approach to retailing as an imperfect model of how clever retailers can shift the market to their advantage, cheaply and easily Continue reading ‘Selling Kayaks’
That’s right…with a ‘k’. Just like Hard Kore. The Hunter Hard Men of Paddledom. Not quite. In fact, not by a long shot. Compared to other members of the club we are soft on but let me tell you how it all started… Continue reading ‘Hunter Kayak Klan’
I’ve had the Eco Bezhig for about 3 years now and have paddled many k’s in it. In previous posts I’ve discussed some issues that Mission (formerly Perception) should see to in the event of an Eco Bezhig 2. At the very least I think they should put out an option to buy as spare parts some things that would make the boat much, much better. Continue reading ‘Eco Bezhig review – again’
