Planning the Sunday paddles is always a bit of a challenge, not a huge challenge, like Racing The Planet, but it requires a bit of wrangling as the larger the group the more diverse the motivations and abilities. To my surprise, after weeks of very few attendees, the Sunday group size swelled to nine. I have not had numbers like that since the end of year paddle when I promised home baked goodies (is there a correlation?).
Added to that was a forecast for a very hot day and strong northerly winds. With few exceptions, motivation to paddle into a strong wind is generally missing and my motivation to do car shuttles, especially on hot days, is substantially absent.
What to do then, well, get wet of course. Doug and I would leave from our home beach and meet most of the rest of the crew at Maloneys and then paddle out into the open ocean for some rescue and rolling practice. I offered the few keeners that might be interested the opportunity to tack on ten extra kilometres by starting with Doug and I.
The keeners outnumbered the regular paddles by one this week, and five of us started from our home bay paddled five kilometres in glassily calm conditions (of course, the weather forecast had changed and the strong winds were gone) to meet four more paddlers on the other side of the bay. Within minutes of us arriving, nine had gone down to eight as one paddler was called into work, so eight of us set off around North Head - how many North Head's does Australia have?
Then came some rolling (for some), some rescues for others, some re-entry (or rentry as my friend called them) rolls for yet others and finally, landing on North Head Beach in very easy conditions. One more paddler left to head back home from here, while most other people walked up to North Head lookout. A new platform has been built up at the cliff top since last years fires and the forest, which amazingly escaped the fires is as beautiful as ever. I am always a little bit surprised that people who have been paddling this coast for far longer than me have never ventured up to some very accessible places. Perhaps there is such a thing as the adventure gene.
Next up, we paddled north to Richmond Beach. I have landed on this beach multiple times and there would be no problem landing today but we had one person who really did not want to land. Sometimes, when deciding is difficult, it really helps to have someone in the group with a strong opinion. Other times, I'll admit it can be frustrating. However, with a party of seven, getting everyone in and off a surf beach can really eat up time so I was happy enough to paddle back to Judges Beach and an easy landing for lunch.
Leaving Judges Beach after lunch, we were back to five as two people headed west to Maloneys and the rest of us caught a bit of a tailwind home across the bay.
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