SHQ Boardsports - SUP Mega down-winder- Windsurfing, Kiteboarding, Snowboarding, Surfing, Stand Up Paddle Surfing

SUP Mega down-winder

On Tuesday the 3rd of March a small group of local SUP enthusiasts decide to go on a Mega down-winder from St Kilda to Frankston. Dave, Jonathan, Dave, Christian and Pete take up the challenge. An awesome effort and an interesting look at what is to come for long distance paddling in the bay. Make sure to check out their report underneath:

This Tuesday is looking good to do our mega down-winder from Port Melbourne to Frankston.

Who's interested?

Forecast for Tuesday
Winds: North to northeasterly 15 to 20 knots tending northerly 20 to 30 knots
around dawn then tending northwesterly 30 to 40 knots around midday then
tending westerly 25 to 35 knots during the late afternoon. Seas: 0.5 to 1
metres increasing to 1 to 1.5 metres during the morning then increasing to 2
metres during the afternoon. Isolated thunderstorms in the afternoon and
evening.

It's 8 pm Tuesday and I just got a call from DJ. He had just got back to his car, at St Kilda I assume. They are all safe, but no doubt completely rooted. They had trouble seeing the land (overcast and smoke haze), overshot Frankston, and made it to Mornington. Six and a half hours on the water. What an effort! DJ said he didn't have much left in his legs.
Don't hold your breath for a trip report tonight. Can't wait to hear it though.

Just made it home. It was a brutal day. Lots of fun but jeez we were spent at the end of it. The smoke haze in the sky was pretty bad and after rickets point we were completely out of sight of land for about two hours. As a result we overshot Frankston and wound up down in Mornington which is another 10-15 km I think.

Massive effort by all the boys. It was a real grind at times but some of the runners we were getting were huge! Had a close shave with the shipping lane at one point which led to a furious paddle side on the the wind for about an hour.

We were a bit screwed by the forecast. Expecting a Northerly but got a pretty solid Nor-Easter all day which meant of the 6 hrs+ we spent on the water I reckon about 5 hrs I only paddled on my RHS.

It was huge day and a lot happened out there. We certainly learned heaps about doing downwinders and paddling as a group. My brains a bit fried at the moment so I'll leave it at that but I'm sure the other boys will be along to elaborate. DJ took heaps of pics too so I'm sure they'll be up soon.

You wouldn't think there'd be much difference between north and northeast.. but those few degrees made such it hard work for us.. and also made us miss Frankston.

We hit the water about 10.30 and touched ground again at about 5pm.. ..We were hit with wind gusts of well over 40 knots and at times the water was all white as the wind blew the tops off waves and spray flew across the surface like sand across the beach on a windy day.

There were wave faces 8-10' high and the odd rogue waves breaking with vertical faces. It was huge... I have some more pics that I'll post tomorrow.

Ten Lessons Learned

1. Have a backup plan. We had one but we probably could have used a third or fourth. As it is we wound up in Mornington and wandered around for about half an hour looking for a cab to pick up the car at Frankston. We didnt really consider what would happen if the wind didnt adhere to the forecasted direction. On a shorter downwinder this would not have been such a big deal but when you are covering 40+ km even a small direction change makes a big difference at the other end. However you dont really want to get to the point where you're dropping half-a-dozen cars off at bail out points along the way so its a balance thing.

2. Take extra water. I had a 1L bottle of gatorade for the whole day. I only finished it about 60 minutes before landfall but rationed myself pretty strictly once it was apparent we were way off beam. I could've probably used another L and it wasnt even very warm out there. More food would have been good too. I had one nut bar all day. Probably a few more would've given me some energy for the intense final hour.

3. Have regular breaks. With 5 of us we got pretty distant from each other at times. Every hour or so we'd sit and regroup, talk about tactics, rehydrate and maybe swap boards. Everyone always caught heaps of big runners after these breaks

4. Safety gear. We took several mobile phones. A marine VHF, GPS, spare collapsable paddle. Dave was the only one with a PFD (it doubled as a camelbak). We didnt need to use any of it but was reassuring to have it there. With 5 of us we definitely had safety in numbers too Of course everyone was leashed. Dave and Pete had calf-straps

5. If you fall off your board stay upwind of it. A couple of times I fell off the nose and the board brushed my head as the wind picked it up and tossed it. Could've been nasty if i got hit by an edge or the fin . After a while if I fell in I would just toss the paddle and dive straight down then swim underwater until I was upwind.

6. Knee-paddling. A bit of knee paddling went on. On your knees (or sitting) you can get a much higher cadence paddling which gives you extra speed and the ability to surf much flatter sections. This was actually surpisingly fun and I managed to link a few good runners.This was useful when the wind dropped down around the 25 knot range for a while. I estimate I would've stood for >80% of the day. Others did more and less. One knee paddling drawback is rubbing the skin off the knuckles of your toes

7. Board selection. Between us we had:

11'4 Naish
11'6" C4
12'6" Starboard
12' Naish Glide x 2

We had pretty much every body type covered as well. Quite a bit of board swapping went on and it was interesting to see how different boards went with different people in the conditions. The conclusions are probably best left to a different thread but the fact we had the opportunity to do this research was a definite bonus.

8. Catching runners is a split second thing. You pretty much dont know you're on a runner until its right under you. The waves were so quick and changing shape so quickly that something that looked great 20m or even 10m away could just go past you.

9. Concentration. This was a very tactical downwind and in the conditions we had to watch the sea surface closely at all times to make progress. I know RamboOC1 has posted some advice catching runners about always scanning ahead for the next opportunity. I found myself scanning ahead a distance of one or maybe two board lengths. I dont know if this was far enough but I seemed to get a few glides out of it. We also had a period where there was swell coming from 2 different directions at once. This really made it difficult to get glides as you had to watch not only in front of you but off to port as well. This was too much for me and that section was a bit of a slog with the paddle.

10. Linking up runners is the best experience ever!! A few times (maybe less than 1/2 dozen) I managed to surf off the runner I was on and onto another one in front of it. On one occasion I got 4 or 5 in a row and it was exhilerating! Its like surfing but at another level. The best I can compare it to is like riding a surfboard shaped jet ski. Except instead of the wind in your face its howling at your back I think this is the reason downwinding will be huge

The GPS readings were 24.8 max speed, average speed 6.8k/h and distance 39 but given that it ran out of battery half an hour before we got there we must have done a good 43k. It was a big day with all the car shuffle etc, I left home at 7.45 in the morning and got home after 8pm. Had two little kids play lunch packs of dried fruit and nuts all day and a couple of litres of water. Sounds a bit silly but with the right wind direction it would have been a doddle, the constant paddling on one side really loses its shine - we worked out in the car on the way back that we had done 14000 paddle strokes, allowing for stops, wave runs still a good honest 10,000. Best fun I've had for a long time!

We did get pretty far apart.. It was amazing how I'd stop to take a pic.. Click one as they approach.. Then again as they pass.. and one more as they disappear away from me..and it seems like only second would pass and they'd be a dot in the distance.. and anyone ahead of them was almost out of sight... Then I'd have to paddle like hell to try and catch up.. and I think doing this added to me running out of steam towards the end.

In fact I was so buggered for the last hour or so I didn't have the strength to stand.. I'm embarrassed to say I had to sit and paddle just to make it to the end..and even though the guys would often wait for me (having a nice little rest themselves) by the time I got there we'd all be off again when it was me that needed the biggest rest.

I didn't realize how much strength it takes to balance in rough water..and if you've got no strength you can't balance at all.. I'd try and stand..and fall..and the effort that it takes to climb back on and try and stand was just making it worse..I thought if I sit and paddle for a while I'd recover. but I never really did.

The last time that I ever felt like this was Mt Bike racing years ago when I bonked (hit the wall) and could only peddle in my granny gear and it was flat ground..in fact even my paddling at this stage even though it felt like I was digging deep I was really only dipping my paddle in and out enough to get it wet.

This was a very important lesson learned by me.. I had not eaten a good meal the day before and only had a piece of toast in the morning and my body was out of fuel.. I should have eaten my Wheaties and had pasta the night before or something like that...Maybe even take some of the gel that triathletes use.

I had not expected to be paddling for so so long.. or to be paddling on one side so much heading across the swells and getting hit by side chop.. But I guess you should be prepared for the worst..just in case.

At this stage I put my camera away.. It was getting very serious.. The wind and waves were getting huge..and I mean really huge..and I often thought jeez..what a great picture that would make as some waves rolled through with a 8-10' vertical face..and missed some great shots.. I was hanging on for dear life sometimes.

Well what a great day. Thanks to DJ and Jonathan for doing the car shuffle and for dropping me back at my door.
As far as recovery goes, I feel fine in the body though i did come down with a cold as soon as I got home. Not from being cold but from being spent. In this sort of a paddle you definately need a board that is fairly stable because it was such a technical paddle and when you are running out of juice it gets harder to stay balanced. What a hoot. I highly recommend it though all the advice about safety gear should propably be taken more seriously. Nothing went wrong for us but the potential is there.

Looking forward to the next adventure