The take away – debrief

These notes are really just to help me be better prepared for next time.

What went right:

Hydration and nutrition were spot on – consumed 600mls per hour – five litres of electrolytes (3 scoops – 600 calories per litre) plus six litres of water and one hot chocolate at midnight.

Seven 200 calorie high protein muesli bars. Pasta at first stop with a banana and peanut slab chocolate bar. Beef burger, banana, two sachets of squeeze baby food(apple and pear), one peanut slab chocolate bar.

Base fitness level was good with average heart rate for paddle 128 beats per minute.

Clothing first 32km spot on – not cold, no chaffing, Lululemon training shirt, underwear and shorts, Columbia fishing shirt. Clothing for last 45kms same as for first with thermal leggings, thermal hooded top, gloves (worn for 30mins then removed) woollen beanie – all worked well. Clothing for second stint 7:30pm – 11:30pm inadequate as got very cold when temp dropped below 10 degrees – clothing was same as first with beanie only – needed the hoodie to protect my neck – felt like I had an ice pack on the back of my neck which was radiating out through my body. Core body temp dropped and took 45mins to get back up and feel well enough to be able to continue – full body shivers, quite unpleasant.

Kayak was spot on – quick through the water and stable – able to keep pace with doubles and all sea kayak models during first 65kms – would consider trying camel pack for water to reduce stops next time even though I am not a huge fan – would help maintain a rhythm and stay with others. Happy with Black Magic for future events of this type.

What could be improved:

My GPS did not have a dim mode on the screen, was too bright and unusable in the pitch black- need an upgrade for next event. Paddled blind by myself for many hours during the last 45 kms dramatically reducing my pace.

Need to get the surgery done on my torn bicep tendon. Right arm functioned well until about the 85 kms mark then felt like had broken glass in right shoulder dramatically dropping power output from that arm. I expected this so was planned for, I just hoped with all the training I had done it would hold together.

Need more long paddles to prepare for the distance prior to the event. Was very comfortable up to the 65km mark, after that my performance dropped off markedly.

Would not change the support crew as they were excellent.

The event overall – I realised during the last 15kms that if I came out of the boat I would be unlikely to be able to get myself back in – it would have been good to see a few more support boats at this stage of the race. To be fair they could have been there and I was too knackered to notice them. I of course haven’t fallen out of a kayak in years – but in my fatigued state I couldn’t shake the thought.

Love the concept of this event – the night paddling makes it very tough mentally – am very happy I got it done.

Met heaps of interesting, inspiring people on the river – some great stories – particularly loved talking to a women in her 60’s paddling a beautiful kayak her husband and she had built – she had paddled the event 20 plus times, when I complemented her kayak she told me she considered it a privilege to be able to paddle it and shared a small part of her story – was a beautiful moment – I didn’t ask but got the feeling her husband had passed and this was a way she stayed connected to him – made me smile.

Some photos below – we had a bonus display at the start as the Richmond airshow was on so got to see low flying F35s c17’s, Hercules aircraft before the start.

I was stoked to see a Red rumped parrot for the first time and of course the very cute little family of wood ducks below.

The Hawkesbury river is beautiful and the little towns along its bank are historic and interesting.

I have heard about another event for next year – the MMP a 415km paddle along the Murray River – I plan to train for that now…

Cheers

DT

Mission complete

Well guys 14.5 hours sitting on my backside to complete the 111kms turned out to be just a little bit harder than I had expected.

It appears my training built me to a level where 65kms/ 7.5 hours was comfortable- the final 45kms absolutely kicked my backside. I conclude more training is required to make it moderately comfortable.

I have lots to share with you about the experience but will do that after I sleep for a few hours.

$2150 raised for the Arrow bone marrow trust, another bonkers idea ticked off the list.

Celeste and Macca, my support team made it possible – watching someone you care about physically destroy themselves and stand there in support takes a special person – thanks guys.

A very sore DT signing off.

Lessons on the Hawkesbury

So yesterday I paddled the bottom 23kms of the course into an incoming tide – the river is beautiful, cliff faces down to the water on one side and large mangrove estuary area on the other.

I decided to wear a light merino bush shirt to paddle in – this has been my plan all along as it will be down to 10 degrees over night – I have not worn this shirt to train in as we are so much warmer in SEQ. Unfortunately once wet the wool component of the shirt becomes like sandpaper – after three hours of paddling in it I have four very nasty chaffing spots on my torso.

I of course will now wear the clothing I have been training in and have a different plan to deal with the cold. Hopefully no more chaffing. I am very pleased to have discovered the problem before the event.

We have checked out all support checkpoints and studied the river, I now realise that 111km is a long way.

The map photo above shows the start point circled and the section paddled yesterday.

Two more sleeps.. can’t wait. DT

Winged vs Flat blade paddle

For over forty years all of my paddling be it white water, flat water, ocean paddling has been done with a flat blade paddle. I always wondered about the wing blades being used by Olympic paddlers and Surf paddlers alike but never tried one.

When I started training for this event and started to focus on my speed across the water I realised I was slower than I wanted to be – I paddled harder with the flat blade and of course sped up but fatigued quickly. I decided to try the wing blade.

Measured with my GPS unit I immediately noticed an increase in speed – one kmph with the same effort touring stroke and consistently 2kms faster with solid effort. It took some time to get use to as you paddle a lot closer to the boat with this blade, it is also a bit of a pain at rest as it catches the wind and water, it doesn’t sit evenly on the water surface like the flat but over the past few months I have become very comfortable with it.

I understand the paddle catches more water as it only allows the water to spill off one side of the blade.

Where speed across the water is needed I cannot imagine using anything else now. When exploring and cruising I will stick with the flat blade.

Macca and I are half way to Brooklyn – four days until the event…. My right shoulder just pinged thinking about it.

Something fun – we saw an Emu in a sugar cane paddock as we drive through McLean, yep bird watching at 100kmph can be done – so good to see one in the wild.

DT

Am getting nervous – just over a week to go.

Hi guys,

The serious packing, final planning, re-reading the rules – coming to the realisation that I likely have not allowed enough time to fully survey the course before the event. I also am starting to question my sanity.

That being said I am pumped and ready to go and very much looking forward to crossing the finish line.

Macca (nicknamed ‘Mappa’ by me after witnessing his advanced planning and navigation skills) head off Tuesday morning arriving in Brooklyn Tuesday night. Macca has the support role so will get to witness me at my very worst whilst having a sleepless night tracking my GPS tracker.

Wednesday/ Thursday/ Friday next week I will paddle what will be the night sections making notes so I can hopefully avoid running into something solid at speed in the dark. How I am going to read these notes in the dark whilst paddling is a problem for future Dean to figure out.

Two questions: Why is my kayak named Black Magic? I named her after the late New Zealander Peter Blake’s America Cup winning boat. It was an awesome vessel just like my Epic kayak.

Why redwinekayaks.com? It is quite simple, all of the best ideas I have had in my life seem to have been created whilst drinking a bottle of red wine with good friends and family. Some of the ideas disappear the next morning with the dry mouth and hangover but every so often one takes hold and becomes something real and awesome.

Fundraising update: $720 raised so far – that’s outstanding. The link for anyone you wish to forward it to is:

http://www.givenow.com.au/cr/deantattle

Apparently the number of paddlers is quite low this year – at the moment only 58 boats have entered, some are doubles. This is well below previous years and has impacted on the fundraising efforts.

A few more gym sessions and a couple of training paddles left before we head off.

The photo below is of my beloved old 105 Toyota Landcruiser, it is our transport vehicle for the trip.

Update

Training has been full on this week with two hours of weights and cardio in the gym each morning and a paddling session of two to four hours most afternoons – yes I am sore all over.

Wednesday had me on the lake for four hours doing battle with 25knots of wind which made life uncomfortable but yes it was a hell of a lot of fun also. I came away feeling that I am close to being fit enough for the event – I am starting to get nervous about it.

Fundraising:

The fundraising has been going really well with it already surpassing my target of $555 – we hit $570 last night. I appreciate every donation – thank you so much. Young Ori – you are a legend.

The image below is what 4 hours of paddling in 25 knots looks like on Hinze Dam. As the wind was coming from the South East I crossed the lake and then hugged the southern shoreline, this gave me some level of protection from the wind. It took 2.5 hours to get to the southern end of the lake and only 1.5 hours to get back to the start point. You can see the long straight stretches on the return trip where I had the wind at my back and surfed my way up the lake (that was a lot of fun).

The big difference

Preparing to go on a multiday camping paddle where you plan your route, load food, tent, minimum 5 litres of water for each day away from a water source and a 20% buffer with everything to allow for the unexpected can see me pack up to 100kgs of gear in my 22kg kayak – with me added I can be paddling 240kgs of laden kayak through the ocean. 6kmph across the water and 30km covered in a day are great numbers – stopping to watch a whale and her baby play is done without thought, exploring a sandy bay, finding birds nesting among the driftwood and spinifex is the why and purpose of the trip.

Paddling 111kms in one stint chasing a time, speed across water is a very different thing – to start with the equipment loaded on the boat is almost zero, enough water, electrolyte drinks and protein bars to get you through to the next checkpoint where you can reload and go again. Your focus instead of being on the environment and its wildlife becomes the kmph number on your GPS, the length depth and draw of your stroke and trying to nail the paddle exit from the water so as not to slow the boat. Monitoring your body for signs of breakdown through either dehydration or calorie deficit, working through the pain in your shoulders and back, ignoring the chaffing that just insists on happening when you paddle hard for four hours or more. The why and the purpose is to challenge yourself, push your limits, raise money for a good cause.

The two are so different that it seems strange to call both paddling – both are hard, both are rewarding in completely different ways. Both are challenging and push your limits which is why I guess I love paddling.

This resident White Bellied Sea Eagle has seen me so often over the past few months he is now starting to let me paddle under him almost half the time

The afternoon Thunder storms – I really enjoy paddling in the rain, not so much when lightning is closely followed by a deep and vibrating grumble. This one cut my Monday afternoon session a bit shorter than planned but added a dose of adrenalin to my day.

The Hawkesbury Challenge

 Guys,

Come 3pm on the 26th of October Black Magic (my kayak) and I will line up on the Hawkesbury River to paddle 111kms in one stint. The furthest I have paddled in a single session is 75kms – that was eight years ago when I was a much younger fella. I am determined to complete the distance and have been training hard for the past three months to get ready. Four weeks out I am sore and tired from the training – a spill off my mountain bike last weekend at 20kmph on a rocky downhill has made sitting in the kayak somewhat uncomfortable but thankfully a loss of skin, pride and some gnarly bruises later, I only lost two days training and am back at it.

This event is something I have wanted to do for over a decade and am stoked to be able to do it. The event is a fundraiser for the Arrow Bone Marrow Transplant Foundation – this organisation helps keep people alive who have blood cancers – our family has been directly affected by multiple myeloma, lymphoma and leukaemia – they are bloody awful cancers. I would like to raise $5 for every kilometre I paddle – having never done anything like this before (fundraising event – as you know I am often doing mad things to push my body and mind) I do not know if that is a reasonable or achievable target but since I hope to paddle at about 8 kilometres per hour -$40 an hour seems a pretty good number for an afternoon and nights work – this event is a bit bonkers as most of the paddling is done overnight – start at 3pm – I am hoping to cross the finish line between 3 and 4am making it a 12-13 hour effort.  

If you are happy to do so can you please forward this post to your network, if you can spare $5 that would be greatly appreciated.

The fundraising link page is below.

www.givenow.com.au/cr/deantattle

I will keep you posted on how I am tracking over the next four weeks.

Cheers

DT

Hinze Dam – Gold Coast
The flooded valleys make great spots to stop for a drink out of the wind and chop.
Eight large Bass swam and jumped in front of the kayak this afternoon – I very rarely see people fishing on this lake, this day they were everywhere.
Native Persicaria form a great habitat for the Australian Grebes to skitter away from the kayak, the Black and Pied cormorants, Intermediate and white-faced herons have great hunting grounds. You have to be careful paddling under the dead trees as the cormorants always lighten their load before they take flight – have had some close calls.

Back on the water in my own back yard – Surprising South Stradbroke Island

At the southern end of the Island is this mangrove wetland that once must have had a healthy population of Coastal Sheoks along its fringe – almost all are dead now creating a physical barrier to entry. At high tide there is about 13 Hectares of flooded mangrove wetland and dead standing trees – its a lot of fun to paddle through and somewhat spooky in places – the rainbow lorikeets are nesting in the dead tree hollows, shorebirds, night herons and schools of small fish are everywhere. This is less than 20 minutes paddle from the main land. Is good to be back on the water…. DT