Neville joined us today for his first paddle of the year. A little while ago he had dug through the pile of 2x4 cedar in one of the local lumber stores and managed to find a really good piece to use for his first attempt at carving a Greenland paddle. He ended up with a knot-free paddle and had been wanting to try it on the salt water.... When we got to Portugal Cove we compared his paddle against mine and found his loom was about three inches less in length. He tried my paddle on the way back and found the longer loom felt better. I expect it won't be too long and he'll be producing another one...
I didn't take many pictures today, but here are are a few to share...
When we arrived at the channel at Sailing Point we sat and had a look. The swell was dumping into the channel through the end and the couple of openings along the length, the water was sucking out and filling in, and the the waves were crashing back and forth inside the channel. It was plenty gnarly in there, and I was thinking it could go either way... Tony decided to go for it! Just as he went in the water sucked out and he was sitting in the bottom of a trough with the near vertical face of the rocks on either side of him. The water came in and he rose vertically, and then his kayak was on the face of the wave with several feet of his stern sticking up off the crest of the wave; I could see the underside of his hull... Then he was pushed forward into the channel and out of my site. I guessed he was at about the same place where I had dented the nose of my plastic kayak a couple weeks ago! He has a fiberglass kayak and I hoped he did not have the nose of his kayak pushed into the rocks... I decided I would not enter the channel today and quickly paddled along the outside to try to keep a watch as he made his way through. From what I could see of him as he navigated his way though the channel, I have to say he produced an impressive display of paddle skill and calm control... We discussed after that it would have been great if he would of had a helmet cam and had a video of his run through the channel... Another kayaking toy to purchase?
We carried on...
I took a little video just before we got to Portugal Cove... I was trying to zoom in to get a pic of Tony and accidentally hit the record button so just decided to let it run for a bit...
We took out on the beach near the ferry terminal at Portugal Cove and had a granola bar and a chat before making our way back to St. Philips...
Another splendid day. Thanks guys.
Dean, I got a nice ride from the first wave and managed to keep between the rocks. A second wave picked me up and I managed to get it to roll under me and the rest went without incident.
ReplyDeleteI have to say that I got away with one today. I should have timed it better so not to get sucked back. When the wave picked up the stern aggressively I thought to myself "Oh,oh" and it was do everything to stay upright and not get surfed forward too quickly. I managed to exercise just enough directional control.
It will be one of those memorable kayaking moments.
Tony :-)