Some time last year, I organised a paddle from Woorim on Bribie Island to the Caloundra Bar.  Eight of us met at the picnic area south of Woorim for a 7am departure.  It was a mixture of Sunny Coast paddlers and Claytons (Brisbane) paddlers.  Woorim Beach is quite steep, with dumping waves.  After helping several paddlers off the beach, through the surf, it was my turn to go.  I thought ‘this is no problem, I’ve done it all before’. I pulled my boat to the edge of the surf, hopped in, but before I could put my skirt on, I was sucked out by a receding wave into the pounding surf. Hence, a cockpit full of water and a roll-over.  Back to the beach!  Empty the water out & try again.  On the next attempt, I got side-on to a dumping wave – another roll-over. Back to the beach – again. Drain the water out, and finally made it out on the third attempt!

 

All this, of course, was to the great amusement of my wife Carol and some beach walkers, who thought it was the best entertainment they had had for a long time.  Carol’s part in this adventure was to take the car and trailer to Golden Beach, pick up several of us, and return to the car park at Woorim.  We had a great trip up the coast, with an outgoing tide and a SE breeze, we made very good time.  This presented a problem at the other end.  As we arrived early, and the tide was still running out, the swell had increased to about 2 metres, and the surf was crashing onto the bar.  This did not look good for crossing.  Bob Whiting and Trevor Zaretsky were a little ahead of the main group and radioed that they would attempt to cross the bar. The rest of us waited outside the breakers.  Both paddlers were barrelled on the bar. Bob hit the sand bar once, was sucked out by the current and slammed back onto the bar.  Between the waves, we could see Bob standing on the bar, with 2 pieces of kayak!  He then disappeared into the waves and next we saw him standing on the tip of Bribie Island, with no kayak.

 

Fortunately, the life saver from Kings Beach came out on his jet-ski. He had observed what had happened on the bar. He crossed the bar, picked up Trevor, brought him to the beach, then retrieved Bob from Bribie Is and the 2 halves of his kayak.  Unfortunately, Bob’s car keys were lost in the break-up of the boat.  The rest of us decided we were not going anywhere near that bar, so paddled around the headland to land at Moffat Beach.  Bob rang home to request a second set of car keys.

 

Because we landed at Moffat Beach, several phone calls needed to be made to pick-up drivers as to our location.  When we finally all got together again, we enjoyed a well earned lunch. We all agreed that plastic boats are not good on bar crossings.  At the end of such an exciting day, we were happy that it had ended safely.

 

George Reeman

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Last August, a few of us travelled by car,  to the Western side of Fraser Island, with our kayaks on top. Camping at Awinya Creek. On the second day out, some of us paddled about a km  out..dead flat water, without any whales around. Oh well, maybe one may turn up!!  Sitting out there for a little while, with nothing happening, when out of the corner of my eye, under my kayak, the water went suddenly dark. An almighty bang occurred!!! Next…I apparently was knocked out..came to..boat upside down, blood coming out of my leg..all I could think of was “sharks”!! Luckily, Di, Lou & Jim  were fairly close by!! I yelled out to Jim, to help me turn the kayak the right way up. He then told me, the whale had smashed the deck 3 times, while I was out to it, unaware as to what had happened!!! Damaged the deck in a couple of places. Thankful I had a decent life jacket on, which kept me floating with my head up!!  Anyway..a happy ending, even though,  I never saw  the whale.

Cheers Albert

My first paddle ever was on the upper Brisbane river, at the ripe old age of 50. Thanks to a cycling friend, and the loan of a touring tk,  (which supposedly fell off the back of a truck), I started my paddling adventures.

My first kayak was a small seakayak. I knew nothing about seakayaking or the bay. Just wanted a boat with hatches so I could go camping. I still have this little boat and paddle it from time to time.I must stress, at this point, I knew alsolutely nothing about paddling. My friend kept pressuring me to join her on her paddles with the ‘Rosco Group’. They were quite an adventurous group. Some of whom paddled the Qld. coastline and other exotic places. 

Ross Cook put on training days as well. 

I was finally talked into joining the group.

One paddle on the bay and I fell in LOVE with seakayaking.

This incident happened just recently on the 12th March on a club paddle. There were only eight brave souls paddling due to the early rain and heavy clouds. We had launched at Caloundra, heading for Roys Rd.Some further showers fell… then as I paddled on quietly, lost in my thoughts, I was suddenly hit by something from beneath which lifted my kayak completely from the water! I struggled to remain upright and can’t recall what I yelled out. I had no time to react before I crashed back into the water thankfully still upright. Jim Lewis was closest to me and witnessed the incident but told me he could not see any creature as there was such a huge splash of water. We came to the conclusion that it must have been a dugong feeding on the sea grass and suddenly realised I was directly over him and objected to the threat above by reacting in the only way he knew. I can’t believe that I stayed upright…I think it was more by good luck than any skill on my part. Hmmmm…could it have been a bull shark?

JAN – “Hey ol’fella, I need a new Sun Deck for my Mirage Kayak, please?”

 

DON – “No worries .. I’ll grab one off Amazon, they’ve got everything there.”

 

DON – “Look here it is .. same size as the old unit .. Large.”

 

DON – “Hmmm .. Minor problem .. it’s in the USA.”

 

JAN – “USA, are you OK with that? .. Run a tape measure over it to be sure.”

 

DON – “Look, Large is universal .. how can we get it wrong?”

 

..

 

 

SHOULD’VE GONE TO SPECSAVERS

 

Even with 6mths of travel (& much solo kayaking) during 2019 through Southern NSW, Victoria, South Australia & West Australia & back…. it was this memorable paddle of Jerseyville that I finally remembered to take the bloody camera.

 For those not acquainted with this region, we are talking Macleay River, South West Rocks nr. Kempsey NSW.

We’ve always wanted to but never have turned off the Pacific Hwy to check out SW Rocks, it’s simply a lovely seaside village with excellent waterways not to mention golf course, Trial Bay gaol, ocean beaches & plenty of seafood eateries. Great 😊

Just don’t go there during school holidays, Christmas or Easter I suggest.

 My paddle commenced at the Macleay River Marina paddling upstream with a turn left into Spencer’s C, then a long run towards Jerseyville, under the main road bridges & encircling ‘Jerseyville Island’ back into the Macleay River (yes on an outgoing tide) with inquisitive black angus following my progress down river.

The journey was broken by a morning tea before passing the fishing fleet vessels tied up along the wharf  (up on the right),

no river traffic was sighted just the occasional motor vehicle passing as I soaked up the ambience of ‘the peace of a estuary’ of the mighty Macleay. Not sure what distance I covered? Could have been 14~15kms felt like 20kms but who cares 😊.

Joyful paddler, Graeme Meade – Stellar Si18

Well, this is a bit sad, but my story is from early 2000 on a paddle with the former Sandgate Canoe Club out of Elimbah Creek to the Bribie passage. We were almost at the passage when we heard a commotion from the top of one of the trees in the middle of the entrance.  So, keen to see what was causing this, we paddled over and spotted a very distressed cormorant hanging by a large fish hook stuck into his bloodied chest. What a terrible sight.
I could not leave him that way, so we rafted up alongside the tree, with a plan to cut him free.
With my good buddies holding my kayak steady rafted up, and after discarding my life jacket and spray deck in order to fit through the branches, holding a sharp knife at the ready in my teeth, I managed to make my way up to the stricken bird.
I took hold of a branch near him to steady myself, avoiding his flapping wings, then I cut the line so that he fell free to the water below where he swam quickly away. It was very sad to see, and we all hoped that he managed to survive, or if not, he was better in the water than all his weight hanging by that hook.
It was a dreadful sight, but we eventually went safely on our way,
It is my most vivid kayaking memory even though it is a sad one.
Yvonne Harrison