The Paddle Files

Latest Paddle - 12th April 10

Details: Category: Paddle Files; Published on Saturday, 20 August 2011 07:18; Written by Super User; Hits: 327

Paddlers - Angus Sprott, Matt Watton, Steve Price

Adventure Bay, Bruny Island to South Arm - 40km - 40knt South Westerly - Large Southerly swell.

Sprotty has to cop the blame for this one as he instigated it and organised his dad Ian to ferry us (literally) to the Island and everywhere in between. Thanks Ian.

What eventually turned in to a fun paddle didn't start out well. The signs were always there we just failed to see them. To begin with the forecast on the radio was one long monologue of gale warnings, flash floods and road advisory messages. Then there was the trip across on the ferry, with substantial rollers making the journey a little more interesting than usual. But the one we really should have seen and taken notice of was the road sign at the top of the lookout that was blown over while we stood there. Needless to say, the conditions were somewhere between dirty and down right dangerous.

Latest Paddle - 16th January 10

Details: Category: Paddle Files; Published on Saturday, 16 January 2010 08:28; Written by Super User; Hits: 93

Paddlers - Disco Sargison, Ace Petrie, Steve Price

Pirates Bay to Safety Cove - 40km - 35knt North Easterly - Huge NE swell.

The original idea with this paddle was to get a good group together wait for the right forecast and try to get some big runs along one of Tassies most spectacular coast lines. The date was set and with the weather playing the game transport was organised and phone calls made. It must be said that this paddle isn't for everyone, at 40km long and with no where to pull out if the going gets too tough many of the normal suspects declined which in hindsight probably wasn't such a bad thing.

Latest Paddle - 7th March 09

Details: Category: Paddle Files; Published on Saturday, 07 March 2009 12:25; Written by Super User; Hits: 87

Paddlers - Steve Price, Ian Cooksey

South Arm to Lauderdale - 28km - 20knt Westerly - Large SW swell.

This was a really fun paddle. We put in at the South Arm boat ramp and headed down the river to the Iron Pot. We decided to shoot the gap in the rocks closest to shore instead of going around the light house. The width of the gap was less than the length of the skis so there wasn't much room for error. We nearly came unstuck as just when we were heading through a set came in and I was forced to punch through the first one and just made it over the second whilst Cooka wasn't bothered by the first but had to punch through the second. This really got the adrenaline flowing. In all the excitement I was unaware that my juice bottle was syphoning into my footwell and out the venturies into the ocean - not a good start with a couple of hours paddling ahead! Once we left the South Arm headland behind the wind started to create some nice runs and our speed picked up to around 12km/h. We actually caught and passed a couple of yachties in Storm Bay, I think they were a bit shocked to see us out there and then have us go past, pretty funny really.

When we passed Betsy Island the large swell was more behind us and we started to work the runs, building the average speed. We managed to get some really nice waves but never really hit the speeds we were after, the waves just didn't open up enough to go really fast. Once we rounded Clifton and headed into Frederick Henry Bay that was it. We were sheltered from the swell and wind by the cliffs and faced a flat 10km home. The average was 11.4km/h so still a reasonable paddle and good fun.

Latest Paddle - 29th Nov 09

Details: Category: Paddle Files; Published on Sunday, 29 November 2009 08:41; Written by Super User; Hits: 93

Paddlers - Steve Price, Cooka, Disco, Steve Percival and John Hitchens

Cremorne to 7 Mile Beach - 25knt South Easterly - 1 1/2 m Southerly Swell

Great fun - paddled out from Cremorne with a pod of dolphins then turned and ran downwind to Seven Mile for 11km's. Top speed was 21km/h with and average of 14.5km/h. Check out the video

Latest Paddle - 1st March 09

Details: Category: Paddle Files; Published on Sunday, 01 March 2009 12:30; Written by Super User; Hits: 89

Paddlers - Steve Price, Ian Cooksey

Lauderdale to Seven Mile via Slopen Island - 32km - 25knt SSW

Ian and I paddled from Lauderdale around Slopen Island then across to Seven Mile Beach The wind really came in from the south when we were half way to the island and made the going quite tough.

Running back to Seven Mile was awesome, when we managed to link some wind waves on to some ocean swell the speed just climbed and climbed at one stage the Elite was actually humming. The top speed on the Garmin was 25.8km/h which is certainly the fastest I have managed to go so far.

Southern Paddlers