At 7:00 am, Tuesday 23rd May, a group of 9 paddlers, including 7 members of the SSRKC, departed Woorim, Bribie Island bound for Caloundra.

This event was not a Club Paddle.

The aim was to paddle the ocean side of Bribie Island from south to north utilising the prevailing wind and currrent.
The group intended to extract at the Short Street Boat Ramp, Golden Beach.
This would require a transit over the Caloundra Bar into the northern end of Pumicestone Passage.

The group made excellent progress and by 11:00 am, had covered 32 kms to reached the ocean side of the Caloundra Bar.

They were 3 hrs ahead of schedule.
The tide was still running out.
An easterly swell of 1.5 m was running.

Two members of the group paddled forward to evaluate the conditions on the bar.

One passed across.
The second suffered a catastrophic failure of his kayak in the Impact Zone on the Bar.

His craft was broken in two, by dumping surf, as he returned back out over the bar.

Fortunately, he was under observation by the King’s Beach Surf Patrol.
They conducted his rescue by jet ski.

The remaining 7 members of the group did not attempt to cross the bar.

They paddled around Caloundra Headland and extracted, without incident, at Moffat Beach.

The kayak was a Prijon Marlin Prilite.

Comments are closed.