Who you gonna call?
Saturday, March 25th, 2006…Coastbusters! (Sorry, bad movie pun…) I spent last weekend at Coastbusters, a sea kayaking symposium. I had a good time, learned a lot, and met some great people! And got exposed to the world of Greenland-style kayaks and paddling. Photos are here.
Friday evening was registration and separating into our “pods”, or smaller groups (akin to a pod of marine mammals), with a leader assigned. Since there were on the order of 160 people, this was a good way to get to know some people, and the pod then worked together several times over the weekend. My pod consisted of Philip, Warren, Jane, Lesley, Mark, Natalie, and Charlie our fearless leader.
The evening presentation was an introduction of the four Greenland Paddling experts who had come down to New Zealand for the occasion, Cheri Perry, Turner Wilson, Freya Hoffmeister, and Greg Stamer. They had some Greenland-style kayaks (or “qajaq“) and paddles on display, and showed both slides and video from the competitions in Greenland. Since hunting is not done by kayak anymore in Greenland (a bit dangerous, you know?!), they now have kayaking competitions to keep the culture alive. They have harpoon throwing for distance and accuracy, races, the “walrus pull”, and of course, rolling. There are 35 different rolls that have to be performed in the competition now! There is also a ropes competition, where moves are done on two ropes suspended off the ground. Practice can be done on the ropes year-round. Kids start young on the ropes, and in kayaks with outrigger floats attached! I expect that Cheri, Turner, Freya, and Greg will all be back competing in Greenland soon.
Saturday was a series of sessions on many different topics at Milford School on Lake Pupuke. It was hard to choose, because I wanted to go to all of them! One session was on sail rigs that people have adapted to kayaks, ranging from a simple pop-up sail on the bow suitable only for downwind sailing, to a carbon-fibre mast with a main and a jib and a half-dozen lines led to just in front of the cockpit for complete control! Other sessions I attended were on kayak maintenance and gear & gadgets.
After “morning tea and scones” (how delightfully civilized!), I went to a session by John Kirk-Anderson about his not-quite-circumnavigation of Stewart Island (the third largest island in New Zealand, just south of the South Island). What started out as a well-planned circumnavigation ended up being a risk-management exercise when he was pinned-down on the west coast of the island by storm after storm. With food running low, it was hike out and leave his equipment to try and recover later, or call in a helicopter. Since he had a way to receive weather forecasts (marine VHF), he didn’t make the mistake of trying to run for it between fronts and get dashed on the rocks. And since he had a way to call out (rented satellite phone), it gave him a way to be extracted before running out of food. A trip ended safely through preparedness and awareness of conditions, though the helicopter bill was no fun to receive!
I attended a session on “Photography from your Kayak” by Justine Curgenven. It turned out to be her tools and techniques for videography. Justine has done video for BBC, National Geographic, and her own DVDs. She has come up with various equipment to do video from a kayak, most notably a waterproof camera on a pole that can be attached to the front or back of a kayak to give an eye-level view of kayaking in surf, rough seas, with whales, etc. (She’s written-up her experience at Coastbusters and in New Zealand here.)
Later in the afternoon, the Greenland Four put on a wonderful demonstration of Greenland rolling techniques in the lake, including speed rolling, rolling with just your hands, and rolling while holding a brick! Freya put on the ultimate demonstration of balance by first standing up in her kayak with her paddle balanced on her head, followed by doing a handstand on her kayak!
Following this was the test of the plastic-cardboard boats each pod had made earlier in the day - a race out and back, whomever was first without swamping! Jane did a great job keeping our boat afloat!
There was an exhibit of kayaks, which included my Pygmy Arctic Tern, though mine was not at all in the same class as some of the strip built boats with inlaid designs and skin-on-frame boats. Many of them were so beautiful, that I couldn’t imagine putting it down on the sand of a beach!
Sunday morning were on-the-water sessions with my pod at Sullivan’s Bay at Mahurangi West. We spent the morning paddling, and doing different scenarios along the way - paddle strokes, rescues, towing, group travel, risk analysis, etc - along with a break for “morning tea” on the beach at Wenderholm.
After a BBQ lunch, then it was open to work on whatever you wished. I wanted to learn to Eskimo roll, so I don’t have to keep doing wet exits, and to feel more confident about perhaps going out on my own around the Hauraki Gulf. After watching other people for awhile and trying (failing!) to do it on my own, Greg of the Greenland Four helped me for a bit. Didn’t actually roll, but got to try a Greenland paddle, and go through the steps. It was also interesting to wander amongst the 160+ kayaks to see how other people have their boats set up and gear arranged.
Monday I had signed-up for small group sessions with the Greenland Four to hopefully actually do a roll. So, I took the afternoon off from work, and Cindy came with me so we could do a picnic at the beach, and she could take embarrassing photos of me. I listened to Greg introducing Greenland paddles and paddle techniques, then got a half-hour one-on-one session with Freya to work on rolling. Using her Greenland-style kayak, which is designed for rolling (narrow, low volume), I actually managed it a couple times by the end of my session. Then I tried it in my kayak with my paddle, and of course failed miserably! With some additional coaching, I almost succeeded a couple times. I’ll definitely need to work on it more.
It was a great weekend. I really enjoyed all the people I met and talked with, including my fellow pod members, the Greenland Four, Marcus from California, the skin-on-frame group from Wellington with the cool “Qajaq Aotearoa” (Kayak New Zealand) t-shirts, Anna from Fiji, and Gerry Maire (whose brother Peter founded Navman, the company I work for). Thanks to Paul Hayward and his team of Red Shirts for putting on such an excellent and well-organized event.
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Local New Zealand kayak clubs include the Kiwi Association of Sea Kayakers and the Yakity Yak Kayak Clubs.
If you’re interested in finding out more about Greenland-style paddling, check out Qajaq USA.
If you’re in my native Pacific Northwest, check out the SSTIKS, the South Sound Traditional Inuit Kayak Symposium.