OK, so after following along with Matt's exchange to Singapore on his blog, I have decided to start one of my own, to keep in contact with everyone back home.
When I first arrived in Auckland on July 13th my Dad and I set me up with a car (Jamie's Starlet), found a flat, sorted my banking and other boring things. Next we headed to Cairns, Australia for a dive cruise. It was a busy (11 dives in 3 days) but awesome time. We saw sharks, turtles and NEMO. After the cruise, which thankfully neither of us were sea sick on, we toured the rainforest and beaches near Port Douglas. Next we returned to Auckland, and Dad flew home.
Fast forward to the present. I have been working almost a month now and feel reasonably settled into my flat, and am enjoying both. Anyways, so feeling reasonably settled in I figured it was about time to get paddling again. I headed down to the Takapuna Boating Club Saturday morning. There is a great group of Surf Ski paddlers at the club who were more than helpful at getting me set up. Enquiring about a boat I could use, it turned out that there is a second hand surf ski my size for sale... of course I bought it. The guys paddle Saturday and Sunday mornings at 8, and then walk over to the nearby shops for a nice breakfast on the patio (this is winter remember). It is a nice way to start the morning!
After getting out for a nice paddle Saturday, I headed back over on Sunday for another. The sun was out but so was the wind. Waves are what you want in Surf ski, but were a bit of a challenge for me just trying to get my bearings. All went well until I was just about to head in.
I paddled out into the head height swell (20-30knot winds) and started to turn around. Midway through my turn I noticed the group of guys heading past in front of me about 500m away. This distraction was enough however for the wave broadsiding me to throw off my balance. I went to brace on the left... into the trough of the wave. I followed my paddle into the water. The water was a bit cold but nothing to bad coming from the Reservoir. The waves were another story though. I got on top of the ski, to attempt to get back in when I realized my paddle was out of arms reach. I got off the boat and swam to it. BIG MISTAKE!
Turning back to the boat I see it was now far away, and getting further being pushed by the winds and waves. LESSON ONE: Never leave your Surf ski. Now I am treading water with a paddle in one hand probably 1000m from shore, in meter high swells. I started to feel myself panic, but remember my handy CCC High School tipped canoe briefing: Step one - relax. All in all I was probably only treading water for 5 minutes before the group of guys who had turned around to do another run into the waves. They saw my overturned kayak and paddled out to help me, battling the waves they probably arrived 5 minutes later. I got on the back of Oskar's kayak, while two other guys corralled my boat back to shore. The roughly 10 minutes I spent in the water seemed like ages, and left me pretty cold and frightened.
One of the guys insisted I get back in the boat to do at least 2 more runs, just so I don't scare myself away from the sport. I am thankful I did. Heading back out I was shaky but caught some awesome waves into the shore. It is truly amazing how fast you can get going, if you catch the waves right. Heading to the club I realized the real advantage of the club membership... steaming hot showers. After warming up we of course headed for coffee and porridge at a local cafe.
After my little scare I had a good chat about how I could prevent that from happening again:
- Always wearing/bringing a PFD
- On windy/wavy days wearing a leash attached to the Surf ski
I have also done some reading regarding surf ski safety and don't plan on soon forgetting the power of the Ocean.
Bookmark this site! I will try to update often.
1 comment:
It looks like your having quite the experiences in Auckland, make sure your taking lots of pictures of these 'epic' adventures!
enjoy yourself, and BE SAFE!!
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