The Sunday Paddles Must Go On

It is spring, and with spring, and a La Nina, comes unsettled weather. Even in Australia, spring is unsettled: sunny and warm one day, rainy, windy and cold the next. The Sunday Paddles, however, must go on. Last Sunday, I was thinking it was time for an easier paddle as the number of attendees had been falling consistently until one Sunday, I was the only paddler.

But the weather was not conducive to getting out the fair weather crowd - a southerly flow with wind and rain. If we were going to get wet paddling - and kayaking is a wet sport - we may as well get really wet and go surfing, do some rolls and possibly even practice some rescues.

To my surprise, there was more than just Doug, Nick and I as Mark, or Talkalot as we have now come to call him, also turned up. We left from Sunshine Bay and paddled south. The big boys surfed at the appropriately named Surf Beach while I surfed on smaller waves at nearby Wimbie Beach. Conditions were actually pretty perfect with decent spilling waves. Most of us did a few rolls and I hauled out my short and long tows and, after much fuss, towed first Doug and then Nick, and, as Nick said "a few things need work."

The following Sunday, we had plans to run a "boat control" workshop but another wet weekend with a strong southerly flow and rain put a definite damper on that idea. Instead, Nick suggested a rousing paddle into the wind and so off we went again. Doug and I had been hoping that someone else might turn up because when it is just the three of us, Nick lets loose on all pistons and we paddle flat out until Doug and I pass out.

And so it was. A dash down the coast for 10 kilometres into the wind, but really not that bad, except for the pace. Pausing at Pretty Point I was a bit dismayed to hear Nick say "well, now that you are well warmed up we can pick up the speed." Yikes. Doug struggled on the way back. He was going too slow to pick up any runners which Nick and I were catching so we got way ahead. If you can't get going fast enough to get on the runners, the kayak just wallows in the troughs and it is slow and heavy work indeed. Plus it is hard to watch your partners speeding away.

By the time we got within three kilometres of our launch spot, I was too fatigued to put on enough speed to catch any waves either, so I just focused on the forward stroke drills Nick had given us last time. Within one kilometre of the beach, my brain shut down completely and I just wanted the effort over. So much for recovery week.