Last Day in Kaikoura

Day 8 – Jan 12th – Surfing Practice in Kaikoura

Spent the morning packing up in the rain; Charlie fed me the last piece of Pavlova, Mary also made me a sandwich for lunch, and packed me a large lunch before they helped me move my kayak down to the beach. Honey moon is officially over for me :(

But just after they left me, Matt called to arrange for a meet up. He seemed quite busy with work but he came up to see me during his break. They checked out Curiosity, I changed into my wet suit, and I got myself into those surfs.

Since Matt is there to advise me how to handle surfs, I thought I would just be honest and show him what I didn’t know x_x I paddled to where the surfs start breaking quite far off shore, and paddled back in towards the beach to where he signalled me to stop.

It was a disaster!

I wasn’t sure what he was expecting, I wasn’t quite sure what I was supposed to do in a “practice run” – normally, when I’m trying to land, I just find the quietest place in the beach and wait for the lull to pull in. But since I’m supposed to be practicing surf, I thought maybe I should ride the biggest bad breaker, and so I dicked around just behind the breakers, totally not committed and somewhat confused, saw that Matt was signalling me, so I moved forward without really looking at what’s coming, and just paddled in towards Matt diagonally.

So many things went wrong I don’t even know where to begin. The end result is a few tumbles in the big sucker that hit me hard from on top and behind, and I tumbled in the water a few times before I had a final roll in the sand.

I can’t remember how it happened, I rolled up without trying; the energies of the surfs were doing all the work. I first made contact with the rocks and volcanic sands with my back, but somehow ended up sitting upright in the end, with a whole of a lot of pain in my left forearm and left quad.

So I scrambled out of there before the next breaker hit.

Matt debriefed me, I felt totally humiliated:
1) Go STRAIGHT in at 90 degrees to the surfs. Don’t come in diagonally. Pick the shortest distance, you are also less likely to be hit sideway and capsize.
2) Use stern rudder, paddle a straight line …
3) Watch ahead AND *back* You need to keep an eye on what’s sneaking up from behind!
4) If a big one is sneaking up from behind, don’t just sit there and let it break on you. Back paddle to get on top of it and ride it in!
5) if a big one breaks on you, use LOW brace, brace aggressively, don’t capsize, and turn into the wave and broach in.
6) Don’t use high brace, because the force of the surf will dislocate your shoulder … (as I found out very soon…)
7) If you capsize, try to roll up at all cost if it’s a sandy beach.
8) If you capsize while entering a boulder landing, pull out and swim in, be prepared to let Curiosity rest in piece. No glass boat will survive that.
9) DON’T HESITATE. Once you start running into the beach, COMMIT to it and get out of the cockpit quick.
10) When launching – don’t drag yourself forward with paddle, it will snap.
11) when launching into a big breaker, spear it. Don’t let paddle shaft sit in front of your forehead as the breaker hit because it will knock you out. Paddle aggressively with deep and reaching strokes.
12) [Paul added] Lean forward into a rolling position when spearing a big one, don’t try to paddle through in an upright sitting position, or the surf with push you back (and snap your neck.)
13) [Paul added] broach in if the surfs are really really big. Don’t try to come straight in, or you risk a pitchpole onto terra-firma.

Lesson learnt, I launched into the surfs again under Matt’s supervision. I practiced a normal landing (with a smaller surf, straight in, and get out before next surf hits), then I practiced broaching in with a big one (ouch, Curiosity really didn’t like that.) I think Matt was finally satisfied with my surf landing when he left me. But he did advise that I should practice rolling in the surfs when I get to Gore Bay before I move onto the more aggressive Southwest surfs…

After practice, I spend the rest of my day charging up my electronics. Tried to reach Paul for a forecast, as I was eager to move on, I’ve been stuck in Kaikoura for too long. I could only get the VHF working channels in Kaikoura, I couldn’t get the repeating weather forecast. But Paul wasn’t available that night and I ended up texting Fred. Didn’t get a response until 0200am.

As I wanted to launch early, I slept inside my exposure bag without pitching a tent, and got up the next day with a very wet sleeping bag.