Coffs Harbour Carnage (OC1 Nationals)

Last weekend saw a cluster of PD's travel up to Coffs Harbour for the OC1 Nationals: Annett, Shell, Mandy, Lydia, Gav & Matt. Whilst the wind was (unfortunately) calm, there was quite a swell built up, which made life pretty tough at Woolgoolga for the start of the 25km long course event.

Sometimes it's just easier to tell the story in photos. Gavin Godfrey captured all the action of the day! Below are a copy of some of the fantastic pics he took.

Receiving instructions at the briefing

Annett, Shell and Mandy wait around for the start, all ready to go

Waiting for a lull in the sets

Oh no! OC2 going down like the Titanic

Mandy and I make a start

All going well...

Whee!

Oh dear, this is not good!

Wipeout!

Smashed! (My poor canoe!)

OC1 carnage

Drifting without a rudder

Annett getting smashed...

...but recovering OK

Unhappy paddler picking up the pieces (thanks Matt for the help!)

Shell and Mandy - disappointed but safe

More calamity

Just making it

Whoa!

Lydia back to shore

All girls safe

It could have been worse

The alternative start entry location (around the headland)

Slicing the crests

If you made it to the start line, it was a pretty uneventful, but tough grind south. Here are some of the top paddlers who made it.

Lauren Bartlett (2nd Open Women)

Anna Matisen on Lydia's Pueo! (3rd Open Women)

Danny Ching (3rd Open Men)

Todd Cohen (1st Open Men)

Luke and Nathan Evans (1st OC2 Open Men)

Kai Bartlett (6th Open Men)

A big THANKS! To Gav and Matt for being so wonderful to us back on the beach. Gav - for taking great shots, providing a hug when needed and helping us get sorted. Matt - for collecting all the canoe bits, and offering to get us hot chocolates. You guys are awesome!

And to Lydia and Mandy - another adventure to add to our collection. Let's hope we have a bit more luck and success this weekend for 20 Beaches.

Annett - congrats on making it through! Great to see one PD on the finish line!

OC Sprints - Kurnell / Koa Kai

The weekend saw us head out for a degustation of outrigging sprint races (500m, 250m, 1,000m) at Kurnell served up with a side of wild weather - a pretty gnarly 25-35kt Southerly, thunderstorm, rain and a chilly 21deg C.

I say degustation, because it was a taste of a little bit of everything. A 500m OC6 Heat, 250m OC1 Final, 500m OC6 Final and 1,000m OC6 Heat before the weather, like an intruding, stinky, blue cheese that you can always smell coming, overpowered the day.

Nonetheless, it made the races just that little bit more interesting and challenging and added that little bit of extra anticipatory adrenaline!

I haven’t done many turns races (first one was Hamo this year) so saw this as an experience in which to learn a few new things. Typically, I enjoy the marathon format in OC6, given focus on sprints in Dragon Boating, but this time, it was a chance to make the most of our speed ability.

The great thing about sprint turns is the co-ordinated effort from the crew to swing the canoe around 180deg. Everyone has a specific role to play. Seat 1 pokes, Seats 2 and 5 draw (on opposite sides), Seat 3 helps orient the crew in the right position in preparation of the turn, and Seat 4 provides a burst of power in the lead up. Then of course, there’s the all-important steerer. Surprisingly, even though I’ve found it hard to keep the canoe straight when steering, it’s also difficult to make it turn a full circle! Luckily, in my crew, this mastery was left up to Jane. And in the other crews, Stu, Linda and El.

For each race we were buffeted by the winds as the canoes lined up. There was much debate over which was our lane, and our buoy. Sometimes the buoy in the distance, wasn’t even in the distance, but floating km’s away towards the loading arms at Port Botany. Hoping that something would appear for us to turn around, we raced up the course. Spray flying, ama bumping along, adrenaline flowing, puffing, focused on the end of the course.

In my mind, we pivoted like an eagle, wings outstretched, banking and soaring around an imaginary central line. But with slightly less individual grace, we poked, heaved, and coaxed the canoe around, the tip of the ama gently touching the buoy as we swung.

  



Bodies on in front...





...And at the back



Somewhat miraculously, we were facing the other direction, taking another start, “Go!” Then back again. Full pelt back to the start. Warmed up now. Then phew! All over, heart beat no longer pumping in my ears, limbs relaxed and feeling tingly. And in that post race high thinking, “yay! Let’s do it again!”

Luckily, we did get a few more races in before the atrocious weather led to the sensible decision to call it a day a bit early. I had a disastrous OC1 sprint, missing the start through not being able to identify the starter with his flags – semaphore is not for me! But a good day all up.



PD's Penguin cluster



Wild conditions

It’s been a while since I last posted. I think I wasn’t sure where I wanted to go with this blog – originally I felt like I needed something momentous to talk about (and to try and provide a variety of interesting tales), but now I realise there are little great things that occur each day!

So I’m back.

My focus over the past few months has been on training for the OC1 Nationals, up in Coffs Harbour on Dec 10-11. The long course is a 27km downwind requiring plenty of endurance.

Over the past few weeks I’ve been trying to increase my session length, but have run into a couple of problems. Last week on Thursday morning, we were having a great club session from Kirribilli, surfing (yes sufing!) in the harbour on the wind chop generated by the blustery 15-20kt SE. It was awesome! Lots of little troughs to chase. I had hoped to get in 2hrs before heading into the office.

Unfortunately, after about an hour, my front iaku drifted away from the hull of the canoe! In slow motion, I watched in amazement, then increasing realisation that my canoe was falling apart. Poised, braced with the wind, I gave in and tumbled into the harbour to join my disintegrating canoe bits.

Stretched out like spider clinging to its web in gale force wind, a I scrambled to grab my seat in one hand, the front iaku (with my GPS on it) with my other hand, hooked my leg around the ama and hoped that my legrope on the other leg would keep the canoe in check. Luckily, Stu and Churn were keeping an eye on me, acting like a gutter, helping gather all the debris that had started to float away.

There was no elegance to my method of reassembling the canoe in the water, which always seems so clever on land. But in one piece again, it was back to the shed earlier than anticipated.

Hence, it was with even more determination for a long session that I jumped into the car on Saturday morning, with the intention of a 2.5hr downwind from Mona Vale to Balmoral.

I had doubts about my plan though – as intense rain blasted my windscreen as I went up the driveway. Earlier in the morning I had been speaking with Mandy, and we had checkout the Coastwatch cameras (you can only call a paddling friend at 5am in the morning!) Mona Vale was a mess, Narrabeen was a mess, North Steyne was a mess. It wasn’t looking good! Lots of chop and white water. The BOM radar looked like this:

BOM radar image - 7:12 am, Nov 26 2011

Regardless, we met up with Lydia and Stu in the Balmoral carpark, and the 4 of us huddled amongst the amas and iakus in Mandy’s car. Time for a United Nations Roundtable discussion. Nestled in the warmth of Mandy’s lambskin seat covers, and with the condensation building up on the inside of the windows, we contemplated the madness in going outside (at all, let alone to paddle). Yes it was mad, and yes we would do it – but an abbreviated plan, sticking to the harbour and running between Balmoral and Manly.

Without further hesitation we were kitted out and grinding into the north easterly towards Manly. Grind, grind, grind. Soaked through, rain pelting. Grind, grind, grind. I looked at my GPS. 3.5km/hr. It was going to be a looong morning! 35min later we had completed the ~2km to the yellow pins at Manly. Time to turn and wheeeee…whizz back to Balmoral. This was more like it! A short 10min later we were back at the start. Re-invigorated after the fun of gliding with the wind.

Let’s do it again! And again!

2hrs down. Bam! 13.5km. Not the furthest I’ve done in 2hrs, but a solid session, and awesome to be out there with Mandy, Lydia and Stu. A memorable day. Looking back at the BOM weather stats the winds reached gusts of 30kts (NE). Good work team.

Let’s hope for some “better” conditions this week.

June 1: New Starts

June 1, and a new start to a month and a season! I’m equipped with the latest TimeOut and Delicious magazines and am ready to launch ahead.

There's something very refreshing and optimistic about new starts. I think that's why I like breakfasts so much. During conversation with my good friend, Julia, we realised that breakfasts are so great because they're a new start to the day, nothing has marred events so far, most (morning) people haven't had a chance to fall into an argument or have an unhappy encounter. The whole day of potential lies ahead - and what better way to begin this, than with some poached eggs with avocado on toast!

Nic enjoys breaky after another great paddling session

Similarly, on the first day of winter, it opens up a range of opportunities to embrace our chilliest time of the year. Curling up in a doona for a deep night's sleep (and hopefully a bit of a sleep-in) rather than wrestling with the sheets whilst tossing and turning on a still & scorching summer's night. Retreating inside to drink hot chocolate and watch DVDs on the couch, and not feeling so bad about not going for that run you'd been planning. Although it's not the end to all activity: squash becomes a more attractive option than tennis, Bikram yoga is relatively appealing. Hot roasts, hearty soups, baking brownies. A fresh selection of outfit options for work with soft jumpers, cosy scarfs and my favourite trench coat. The start of winter does bring some joy (although I still hate the cold!)

I guess the key is how to create new starts when we need them, without the need of a time milestone such as a new morning or a new month (or travelling thousands of kms)

But back to the offerings of TimeOut. Looks like they’re testing out Sydney’s best places for burgers. I’m up for checking their results!

Ice encrusted ferns on the roadside in NZ (2004)

Freedom with Friends

Everyone needs some time out from routine. This photo of Mandy on our walk along the rolling green hills from Gerringong to Kiama sums up the elation I felt hanging out with friends this weekend and doing things just for fun.

The need to tell

Hugh Mackay, Australian psychologist and social researcher recently published a book, "What makes us tick?" outlining what he believes are our top 10 desires that drive the way we act (often irrationally). His list includes the need to be taken seriously, the need for my place, the need to connect, the need to love (and be loved), the need to be useful and the need for something to happen . I believe that as an expression of some of these desires is the need to tell a story.

Anyone who's struck up a conversation with me will know of my insatiable need to tell you my latest story. Whether it be the details of a recent paddling session, newly discovered breakfast cafe, interesting podcast or disaster/success in the kitchen you've probably been subject to the details - whether you've encouraged it or not!

But now you can choose whether to follow my everyday happenings! 

Welcome to the Stories of Shell.

(You can watch Hugh Mackay's address to the Sydney Institutue about his book here through ABC's Big Ideas)