Paddling on a Winter Day in Summer
Impromptu Paddles through WhatsApp
A bit of winter weather in the middle of summer doesn’t stop Adelaide Canoe Club members from braving the unseasonably weather. We cancelled the Thursday Evening Skills session at Tirana Way. But this was soon replaced with an impromptu surf session at the Adelaide Sailing Club on 5/Feb.
The surf was rolling in along the coast. Charlie posted an ad hoc surf session in our WhatsApp channel, and therefore, outside of the calendar. The unpredictable weather is showing that this channel is allowing paddlers to connect and get out on water. At the time of writing this post, the channel has 43 club members.
The winter day
We had Charlie Walker, Bella and Anthony (and Leigh), Giresh Chandran and Mark. We were braving the 25 knots plus winds with the sand blasting in our faces (and on the cars)!
Conditions looked challenging when we arrived at 5.30pm. We decided to use the protection of the Boat Ramp rock wall with some good waves forming inside the harbour. Lots of surfers were just outside the northern rock wall, so we didn’t want to encroach on their turf.
We launched from the southern end of the beach and gradually made our way outside the harbour to experience the swell. Confidence gradually built as we paddled further out (some further than others).
When Charlie, Anthony, Giresh and Leigh warmed up they managed several successful runs into the beach – most without mishap – the pictures tell all!
Well done to Giresh on successfully managing to control his kayak in the soup zone with some perfect looking bongo runs onto the beach. Pretty impressive having only been introduced to low support strokes at the previous evening skills session at Tirana Way.
The adrenalin was running after we finished and cleaned up, so we adjourned to the protection of the Sailing Club to debrief and plan the next adventure, perhaps from Noarlunga depending on the interest from Club members.
