The Mighty Waikato

I got roped into a 11km kayak race (actually it wasn't a race - its was a "Members Training Session" and you could join the club on the day for $30) late the night before, and roped my support crew into the race a short while after midnight.
Rochelle and I drove down to Mercer after getting about 5 hours of sleep after the decision had been made.
We turned up to see most people unpacking their gear, and I unloaded my kayak and then waited for the race briefing. The race briefing was pretty standard and after I joined the Sunset Multisport Club, I took a look to see most people sitting in their kayaks in the river.
Crap, so I scampered to my car, and started wildly throwing on kayak gear and barking instructions to Rochelle, then ran to the start line, with kayak under my arm. By now, everybody was in the water waiting for the race to start. Even the starter was holding the horn, looking at me, just waiting for me to get into my kayak. No sooner had he seen me dive into my kayak (and nearly fall straight out - due to the pressure of trying to do it quickly and trying to explain to my support how to help), he then blew the horn, and the "race" was under way.
Herein lies a lesson: Turn up early and allow plenty of time to get into your kayak. A last minute rush, is not good for your mental state, and could cause you to forget something.
Anyway, some 2km of kayaking later, my arms were so tired, I considered cutting them off to avoid feeling anything. I had been told by plenty of people that this would happen, and that you have to engage your stronger muscles (core & upper body) to be an endurance paddler. I appreciated the advice, but its pretty easy to tell someone to just "use perfect technique".
Your arms will give out very quickly no matter how strong you are. So I tried to figure out how to engage my core muscles and paddle using a rotational figure-of-8 style. I had mixed success, but couldn't manage to hold any decent form for more than a minute. Practice makes perfect I guess.
I got the the end of the paddle, and decided not to do the next leg as I had to get my kayak back onto my car. Its far too cruel to ask a first time support person to strap a brand new $4000 kayak on the roof by themselves, with no advice and then just tear off.
It took quite a while to pack things up (even with two people) and we had a long drive to the next transition. We had to stop to check the map a few times, but found the roads ok. When we got near to the transition, the road split into 3 roads, and the obvious road to take was blocked by a farmers truck. We guessed one of the others and 200m later came to a dead end. The stupid farmer asked us what we were doing, and when I pointed out that his truck was blocking the (public) road of an event for 50 people, he apologized and said he would move it (apparently he didn't want the bobby calves escaping - whatever!). Idiot.
By this stage, the other teams had transitioned, and we arrived about 15minutes after our team had got to transition - they were understandably rather annoyed about waiting.
I wanted to do the mountain bike, but we were now holding them up, so let the rest of the team go, and made an executive decision. We had to call it a day after being totally disorganized. So on our way home I treated my support crew to an all day breakfast at Bombay, and then headed home.

More lessons had been learned, and I'm sure more will be learned over the coming months.

A New Arrival

After a 5 week wait from ordering my boat I went and picked it up from Fergs Kayaks on the 8th of the 8th 2008 at 8 minutes into my lunch time. While most people were taking there future partners down the aisle on this auspicious day, I was vowing to spend only (I say 'only' now) the next 6 months with my new partner.



Btw, I haven't named her yet, but have a name on my mind, but open to any [serious] suggestions - send me a mail or comment.

I also hadn't sorted out a place for her to sleep at night, so like many other partners in my past, she'd have to make do with the back of the wagon on her first night, and see how things go after that.

The next day I headed off to Ironman training squad for the morning (which thanks to Tony was a nasty Bike Run repetitions). I was shattered at the end, but was desperate to get my boat on the water so headed down to lake Pupuke to cast her off on her maiden voyage.
If any of you know where the saying "To push the boat out" you would know that often the sailors were in shocking condition (i.e. drunk off there faces) before they set sail for a long voyage. Although my first voyage was going to be short (15 minutes) I probably should have waited till the next day as I was not in a great frame of mind. But I was as keen as mustard to get this kayaking business underway.

I was to (ironically) quickly learn a lesson in kayaking in the first 45minutes after arriving at the lake. I couldn't tell you how may times I walked to and from my car to the lake to get something I had forgotten or not thought about, or opened and closed my car doors/boot to pull something out, or wak back to my kayak to get my keys (again). I spent nearly 30 minutes pissing around with the foot pedals to get them in the right position, and got undressed twice in the process. If some (experienced) kayaker had been watching my preparation this must have pissed themselves laughing at my total disorganization. Still you have to do these things once, to learn how to do them better the next time.

Then there was getting into the boat. The armchair kayaker would have wet themselves looking at me in my fancy new kayak and bright orange and yellow jacket/PFD (Personal Flotation Device - aka Life Jacket), struggle to get into the boat numerous times. Although I never tipped out, there were some nervous moments. After 4 or 5 tries I managed to push out onto open water.

The kind hearted Russell from Canoe and Kayak (Sandringham) had lent me a wing paddle and I gave that a go. For those who don't know what a "wing" paddle has one edge curved like a airplane wing which forces the blade to move out from the boat (which helps with efficiency). But it has the drawback of not being great for an emergency brace or being very unstable when the blade is behind you (because it grabs the water - and tries to tip you over). See an example at The Boatshed store in Cambridge. I am told that these advantages outweigh the disadvantages, but as a beginner you have to get used to using them in the way they were designed - or there are consequences.

So after 15 minutes and being totally shattered from training and desperately wanting to fall asleep I decided to head back ashore in the knowledge that everything was working great. I would have to paddle this in anger on a different day. And I wasnt to know it then, but that day would be the very next day.

I (ironically again) quickly learn another lesson in that packing up a kayak takes just as long, and I cant tell you how much time I wasted opening/closing doors, tying/untying knots, taking clothes one/off, but as I say above; you will learn to do this faster the more you do it. I was paranoid about tying the boat down, and making it safe, as I had to go over the Auckland harbour bridge, and the wind had picked up a bit.

I made it home intact (with kayak), and made a call to Emma who had advised me of rumors that there was a Sunday paddle on the Waikato river the next day. I had no intention of going, but was returning the call out of courtesy. You know where this is going...


PS: Don't forget to mail in suggestions for her name.