3 Days to go.....

The Weather is tracking along nicely for Sunday's Cold Kiwi Event THREE.

One Forecast says Rain clearing......Northerlies dying away and the other says a 20 kmh - 40 kmh southerly. Both sites are pretty much on the button this weather pattern can swing either way.

What we see occurring is that the winds will be moderate..... if not dropping off altogether, or just light winds.

I have checked out our Oiginal first option venue....Freyberg Beach..........and this is a no go. Due to parking restrictions and metered parking at the Freyberg Carpark tickets will likely be issued......this can leave a sour taste in our mouths :-(

Onwards and upwards EVANS BAY provides the best Shelter in Wellington !

Moderate Southerly Option

Carpark off Evans Bay Parade, right by Cobham drive........aim for the swinging carrot.

Northerly or light southerly Option

Hataitai Beach Cog Park

Both options have toilet facilities on site......and because we're tidy Kiwis we'll pick up our own rubbish and respect the grounds and areas we use and watch out for other users in these areas.

You won't miss us we'll have the Blue Gazebo and the White Van....which has heaps of new stickers on it......which my workmates are giving me gip about :-)

Thanks SWAZI for being our sponsor and Thanks Welly Paddlers Team (Shoreline Event Team and Paddlers) for attending Sundays event.

Cold Kiwi Series Event THREE this Sunday

We had a good warm up on Sunday just been for Event THREE coming up this weekend.......man it was freezing at Mana......a cold wind blowing straight into the start/finish arena is not the way we prefer our set ups. Having said that Dolly Vardon Park July 13 didn't offer the shelter we like to aim for at each event either......Anyhow onwards and upwards.....we'll do better this Sunday!

Long Range Forecast Sunday:

Southerlies looking like they will be of a moderate wind speed at this stage, the Southerlies follow through to Monday which has an even kinder outlook again, if we hit Monday's forecast we'll have struck Gold!

Course options:

We have a high tide in Wellington Harbour at 10:15am so there won't be any tidal drag/movement it'll just be wind to use to our advantage. Early days yet but we're looking at Freyberg Beach for our venue and a course around to Snapper Point and back....
4 km short course and twice for 8 km.

Shower and Spa pool at Freyberg to warm up after, Parade Cafe and Beach Babylon close enough to throw a small stick at for all you foodies.

So to round it up we had Petone for event ONE, Porirua for event TWO......so all things being equal City side will be a goer this Sunday.

3 more updates to come...... including the final venue announcement Saturday at 9.45......24 hours before the event start time.

Big thanks to Swazi for the cozy warm top spot prize for each event......All the entry money goes into one big voucher at the last one.

We value your support on the water....that's what inspires us to run these types of events......with out paddlers on the water we have nothing.

Click on the images to enlarge

Big thanks

Hey Big thanks to some of the regular Cold Kiwi Series paddlers for getting out and supporting the Canoe Racing New Zealand 10 km series event at Mana today. Leisanne Faletolu W1, Mike Tate K1....and Rueben Hill, Graham Daniel, Jeff Booth, John Toomath, Barton Fletcher,  Dave McKnight  and myself all on surf skis. I am sure the Mana Kayak Racing Club appreciated your support.

On behalf of us Paddlers thank you to Matt Warren for Organising this

event, Karen Simpson who's a Paid administrator for Canoe Racing New Zealand helping out, Mana KRC members helping out in bigger numbers on the shoreline, the ladies who made delicious soup, snarlers and plenty of home baking to fuel paddlers back up again.

About the course.....it started flat for the under 16 event, but we knew from the forecast that 30 to 50 kmh Southerlies were coming

through........so the course was changed just before the Open and Masters event. The Southerly teased us a bit at times, except for the last lap which provided plenty of challenges and the odd capsize into very chilly water. It was still 5 laps, (10km total) up to Whitireia and back.

A good day out, cool, but warm clothing made it seem like any other regular winter's day paddling. Great to see a few of the Wanganui Paddlers coming down, we'll return the favour, with some of us popping up to your CRNZ event in two weeks time.

Nice work people........now that everyone's warmed up we'll see you at the next Cold Kiwi Series event next Sunday........follow the 4 weather updates (here) from Tuesday through to last one on Saturday....at 10am when we'll announce the final venue....Read the flyer on the right hand side of this page.

Here's a few quick file photos to show some colour with this post. Click on any photo to enlarge 
You can find results from today's event on http://www.canoeracing.org.nz/home-1/news/archive/2014/kayak-krazy-10km-series---mana

Outlook for Sunday...

Southerlies dying away out at Porirua Harbour which could mean this may occur later in the afternoon....so expect something around 20kmh to 40 kmh @ 3 days out.

The times I've been on the water or checking out the FB timeline I've seen some good keen people posting their on water activities, which is inspiring to many who are loving the look of the couch on some of the snakey cold days we've had over the last 10 days....on the bright side some days haven't been that bad at all....it's winter, it only comes once a year :-)... just get out on the water and embrace it.

Have a post paddle pic from last Saturday out doing some coaching......but more yakking, our student has been making some awesome progress while we've been away, he has the basics under his belt.....Ian Ferguson can come down and expel the finery's of technique into him......that and the Dawid Mocke.....surf ski paddling book he has....good work JT.
Not surprisingly with the balmy conditions on Saturday morning there were 3 x Evo II's, 1 x Eze and 1 x Ion and 5 rowing craft all on Oriental Parade within an hour of each other.......if we were up earlier we would have caught Tio and Graham and the boys in the Tu Nui Club W6....and a few other surf skis and SUP's......of course Petone and Porirua were also hotbeds for many getting in their water time also.

My water time has been somewhat erratic over the last 3 to 4 months just taking it easy at the moment just doing enough to stop the body from seizing up. I'll still be out on the water on Sunday for the 10 k-er it's all about making up the field and supporting local events....

Test drove my new www.millenniumpaddles.co.nz Pleiades today thanks Corey Hogg for the custom blades with titanium tips and hybrid carbon/kevlar frontage, also my custom Rochfort/Paddlesticks balanced crank shaft, thanks Shane.....the whole shabang weighed in at 700 grams......big change from the 950gram rig I've been using for the past year :-) Again they had the big pimp up with Think Kayak logos and Think Kayak racing stripes!
Skis on Oriental Parade, the blades, the blades....O for oarsome.... thanks Corey....and the gear lounging around on the grass at Cog Park/Hataitai Beach today.

Click on any photo to make it BIGGER.

Canoe Racing New Zealand 10km

Yep this Sunday out at Mana.

Go to the Porirua Rowing Club/Mana Kayak Racing Club storage sheds be there at 8am.

Matt Warren is running this event go and register with him.

The weather forecast maybe a bit chilly?....if you don't have good warm gear sorted race into Fergs Kayaks on the Wellington Waterfront. They have Adrenalin 2P Thermals in abundance the long pants come in black only and are $49.
The long sleeve tops come in red and yellow in long sleeve and short they are $75. Fergs Kayaks have 100 of the green tops coming in around September???? maybe a bit late for the colder weather.... but Australians run this set up.....and they are a bit behind the 8 ball on this one, if you know what I'm saying.

Anyhow it's great gear I swear by it because they have the best price point and the gear dries out really quickly! I will be getting two sets of the green tops when they arrive sometime in September........green that's me!

For Canterbury

Over the years I've come across some awesome people from the Christchurch and the wider Canterbury region, add to this we have Family who live there.

It would be fair to say the Region has been hammered for a few years now and are still not quite out of the woods, with constant barriers in regards to infrastructure or simply travelling around from A to B with the threat of constant detours. I love my paddling just as much as everyone else does down South, and I always look forward to paddling with my South Island mates.

Some History:
I finally got into paddling after starting work and saving for my first kayak, and got there at the age of 17, I bought a Q-Kayaks Olympia and drove over to Ashurst from Pahiatua, where Max Grant got me all sorted.

Multisport was the thing back then (and still is) and that was responsible for where I am today, I made it into a K1 in the late 80's and the Long Distance events around the Greater Auckland Provincal Region were those that gave me the most exposure to all the paddle sports. By 1992 I figured surf skis were the best all round craft for me and I was retro fitting flip up rudders onto my spec surf life saving skis and then an Ocean Racing ski in the mid 90's.

Nuts and Bolts
Buying a surf ski when you're along way from a retailer much of the time was a pain in the butt, and it still is, because many of us have made the same mistakes buying a surf ski site un-seen or without even trying one out. Too many cheap purchases led to upgrading too often to find the right ski and it's cost me 3 times as much in the long run. Money doesn't grow on trees, so if we can guide your first investment to being the best investment it may save some heartache......of asking your Partner, Husband, Wife for another crack at it......good luck with that :-)

For me the most important thing is buying surf ski with a comfortable seat........and if I can sit on the ski for two hours without getting a sore butt, and without having to pad the seat........I've found myself a good ski, the rest is building my skills up and figuring how that ski rocks and rolls and getting the very best out of it.

The second part of the equation is not working above my ability, skinny kayaks or surf skis are great in relative conditions on rivers and lakes..........but when it gets rough or you're offshore when the conditions turn to custard......you have to be able to get back home comfortably without turning your paddle into an extreme adventure or a near rescue effort.

Nathan Faavae and a few others have documented this approach over the years, not to over reach your skill level...........the Ocean is new territory for many of us and we all have to do our apprenticeship over this new Territory........if you've come from a surf life saving background on surf skis........you're home and hose as they say, you're probably more skilled on these craft, than many of us inland paddlers.

Cutting to the chase:
Flow Kayaks, Epic Kayaks and Think Kayaks will be bringing their full range of surf skis to Cass Bay in Christchurch on Sunday November 2..... for a 10 km event around the Shelter Bays where multisport kayaks can compare how they go against surf skis......then straight after, everyone comes off the water they can then demo any one of 13 surf skis on site!

Local Icon's Ian Huntsman and Wendy Riach will be representing Richard Ussher and Andrew Martin's Business Flow Kayaks with their Superstar, Addict and Sharpski surf skis.

From Auckland, 4 times Olympic Gold medalist Ian Ferguson will be representing Epic Kayaks with the V8, V10 sport, V10, V10L, V12 and V14 surf skis.

From Wellington Chester Burt from Welly Paddlers will be representing Think Kayak with the Big Eze, Eze, Evo II, Ion and the ICF surf ski World Championship winning Uno Max.

Our aim is to hold the event on the Sunday November at 11 am (we have an alternate date on the Saturday) ....we will have contingencies and updates through the week leading up and post them on a new paddling website that we'll be setting up for "All Country" events.

The Paddling Event will have a $5 entry fee..... and we'll have a supply of spot prizes to filter out.......the demos will be free!

We're working through Bianca Teague who's an Arawa Canoe Club and Canoe Racing New Zealand member and we'll be contacting as many key people and clubs in Christchurch as we can to make the day, as awesome as we possibly can.....with everyone's participation of course.

On the Horizon

A number of events on the Calendar right around the Country check ours....and also everyone else's event calendars.

Here's a clip from the 2012 Foxton Loop Race.

This years event is on September 27......check the left hand side of the page for the link straight to the Ruahine White Water Clubs website.

Thanks to Kevan Anderton and Wind Warrior Kite and SUP at Foxton Beach for this great little vid!

CRNZ National 10 km Series Mana Race......correction

Mana Kayak Racing Club are holding one of the rounds of the National 10 km Series in two weekends time.

The event is on SUNDAY.
No info on the Mana KRC website....so click on the link below
http://www.canoeracing.org.nz/home-1/events/kayak-krazy

In the past Mana KRC have included Waka Ama and other craft into their events but not communicated out to many groups they'd like to attract. The info has not been placed on any sites or facebook pages in Wellington with two weeks to go....but anyhow we'd like to help Matt Warren get some info out to paddlers.

If you have any inquires e-mail: matt.warren@surflifesaving.org.nz..... I found this info on the Canoe Racing NZ site....and Matt sent this flyer to me.

You may find some details on the MKRC site or receive an e-mail from them shortly if you are on their e-mail group. I'll be there I support everyone's events. Come and join in with me.
Click on the flyer to enlarge

Photos from Event TWO

Click on any photo to enlarge