Still Water

 paddling on lakes and rivers mainly in Victoria, Australia

video link below

https://youtu.be/DyrQywwWynw

surfing wooden and plastic kayaks

 surfing wooden and plastic kayaks

Vid link is after images.

I made the wooden kayak last year and have been enjoying getting to know it. Its wider planing shape helps catch softer waves but it still shows a turn of speed with its fins, on the wave face. 

The red plastic kayak is a whitewater/hybrid Wavesport Z which is about 20 years old - it seems indestructable and finless and is my 'go to' at low tide on rocky beaches

https://youtu.be/6mp28UD6PlY

mangroves kayaks and spiders

mangroves kayaks and spiders

vid link below

A local lake is open to the sea and when tidal heights are over 1.85 m, it allows kayakers to paddle over the tidal flats and in amongst the mangroves.

It is challenging paddling through dense mangrove forests - I like it where you need an awareness where your kayak, body, lower and upper paddle is placed in water and space - sometimes, spiders will hitch a ride on the camera lens.

https://youtu.be/9k5J-kizd_8

Wooden Surf Kayak - Build and Surf

My fifth kayak that I have built.

This time I tried using wood - 4mm marine plywood with S fibreglass and epoxy resin. Lots of challenges in the build....but the finished product floats....and early days, but seems to surf OK. The video shows the kayak build, mainly in sequence (bottom, sides, top and 'finnage') interspersed with clips from a 'shake down' surf session.

link to video

Keppel Sea Kayak Symposium 2024 (near Rockhampton, Queensland)

 

vid link...

https://youtu.be/B2HjU74MJeg

Paddling on Wagona Inlet

 vid link

https://youtu.be/echZQNLHjuM

lakes near me

low light on local lakes

gliding on evening glass

winding paths through reeds

paddling heaven here at home

vid links below....

https://youtu.be/w2Tq6ysa4Ro

https://vimeo.com/877072467?share=copy

Summer Build, Autumn Surf - Surf kayak from conception to fruition

Summer Build, Autumn Surf

Surf Kayak from conception to fruition - vid link below

This video is a weird mix, showing me building a surf kayak in summer, and surfing it in autumn.

Before the build, was eight months designing, which was in my head, which doesn't video that well.

The clips of the build are in sequence - i did three decks, but thankfully kept the same hull.

The clips of me surfing the surf kayak, are sprinkled throughout and not in sequence.

Did I like the build? Unsure, but it keeps me off the streets...and that was my fourth build.

Do I like the way it surfs? It basically does what I thought it would do, so i'd give it a satisfactory, and there is nothing wrong with satisfactory. 

If you can customise something and you are the customiser, there is a tendency to keep on customising in the quest for 'beyond satisfactory'. That'll do.

https://youtu.be/jSMocgtb_XA

https://vimeo.com/830369554

Spills and Thrills - surfing in whitewater kayaks

(Vid links below)

You need a decent roll if you go surf kayaking.

I don't subscribe to a bomb proof roll - sooner or later, in the right set of circumstances (the 'perfect storm'), your roll will fail.

Usually I 'bomb out', once a year on average, but live to write this piece and collate this video.

Hope your surf kayaking is more thrills than (recoverable) spills

https://youtu.be/oiWPwPe_cuM

https://vimeo.com/811856832

spring/summer 22/23

 mucking about catching waves in 3 boats and 1 paddle

vid link below

https://vimeo.com/793535450

negative SAM

.

SAM refers to the Southern Annular Mode.

It is the belt of westerly winds (Roaring Forties and Furious Fifties) between Australia And Antartica and can be a swell driver in the cooler months.

In a negative SAM the winds and low pressure systems are closer to Australia and so winter swell can be more consistent and/or larger.

Video shows surfing with a negative SAM,​ in smallish surf​ in a couple of plastic wavesports, and also home made jobs, but allergic to changing the paddle.

Hope you are getting some fun water time.

https://vimeo.com/757037708

pre-solstice surfing

 Happy Solstice!

https://vimeo.com/722529197

sea grass surf

 kayak surfing

bookended by drifting sea grass

(vid link below)

https://vimeo.com/701459591

close to water

just back from a camping trip

(seems a popular pastime these days)

found some fresh water interstate

and mixed it with salt water back home

hope you like a waveless vid

https://vimeo.com/696323563

Paddling Vanuatu

thanks to my fellow paddlers
and also to the people of Vanuatu 

(somehow the video (see link below) was posted on vimeo but this blog entry got lost in drafts for a couple of years)

vincent

https://vimeo.com/356386107

finless fun

this goes back to to 2017 (vid link at bottom)

when i was starting to get the feel of my wavesport Z in surf

the waves aren't that steep or powerful but more 'rampy'

good to play on the face with wide arc turns but easy to overpower

heaps of spray being kicked up (part of the slower boat speed and/or less boat skimming)

so my eyes are getting redder and redder with the spray of the salt water as the video goes on

- it was all a natural high

lots of folk seem to be kayaking now in all of its many variations

but I still like a whitewater kayak with a greenland paddle in small-medium surf

..... with not too many people to share it with!

(I am very slowly and incompetently building a composite kayak, with my own mods, but more on that in another post)

https://vimeo.com/659504125