Andy Kirkpatrick wrote a substack article about a recent solo ascent of the Matterhorn in which he floated the idea that “content creators” – which is such a meaningless term that I have put it in quotation marks – risk being owned and driven by the audience they have created. But, it’s not just content creators that feel this pressure, anyone doing anything for any group of people feels some incentive to make people happy, unless, of course, they are a sociopath.
In any event, there seems to be an ever decreasing number of paddlers interested in 30 kilometre paddling days, so, for my latest Sunday paddle for the NSW Sea Kayak Club, I came up with the idea of offering multiple distances across the same trip. Each paddle loop was about 10 kilometres and paddlers could join for any one or more of the loops. If you haven’t been paddling on the ocean for a long time or have only been doing sub-10 kilometre paddles, the idea of a 30 kilometre open ocean day can be intimidating. I learnt early on in my outdoor career that there is a very small minority of people who enjoy being thrown into the deep end. Most people thrive in the “adventure zone” where difficulty meets competency and fitness.
We met at Wimbie Beach because my local beach can have a sucking shore dump and is quite shingley with very little sand. Also, the parking is marginal. I paddled down from my local beach and noted that there was a decent (12 knots or so) westerly wind (off-shore) blowing. By the time I got to Wimbie Beach, the wind was strong enough that I had to do up the chin buckle on my paddling hat to stop it blowing off. Having to buckle my hat on is a bit of a key indicator for me!
Our first planned loop was to the Tollgate Islands as this trip is a perennial favourite but that off-shore wind was a bit of a concern. Our group was certainly strong enough to paddle out to the Tollgate Islands and back into shore but I am trying to make good decisions these days so with agreement from my paddling partners we did the second loop (around Snapper Island) first. By the time we left Snapper Island, after paddling through the rocks for a bit, the wind had fallen so our next (second) loop was out to the Tollgate Islands. There was very little wind by the time we got out to the islands but a decent ENE swell running so we did not go into all our usual play spots. We did, however, see a large cluster of seals resting about 200 metres off the Tollgate Islands! Occasionally, we see one or two seals at the Tollgate Islands but this was a group of 8 to 10 individuals. I have no real knowledge of the issue but I take this as a sign of a healthy ecosystem.
It was certainly feeling like lunch time by then (or breakfast time for me) so we paddled back into Wimbie Beach. At this point, two paddlers decided 18 kilometres was enough and they would pull out. Doug and I will be back out for a longer paddle this week so we were also happy with our paddle distance at 23 kilometres. The wind, which switched about all day had increased again but this time from the north so we enjoyed a paddle into the wind for the last three kilometres of the day. Later than evening, the wind swung about again and came from the south. I’m not sure if the loop option is a great idea, as I didn’t actually lure out any of the lurkers on my list, but, it was worth floating.
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