The Land of Oz

Check out the post over on the Munster Dive and Canoe trip report blog, on my recent paddling trip to Nymboida Canoe Centre and Penrith Olympic Whitewater Course. I'd repost here but I'd have to repost all the photos here again, which I can't be bothered doing.

http://mdactripreport.blogspot.com/2011/06/land-of-oz.html

Mike

Paddling Trip! Woohooooo!

Here is the next 6 days road trip! 2100km round trip in a car to go for a paddle it had most certainly better be worth it. To put it into perspective its the same as the car drive from Cherbourg to L'Agentiere and back and we are only going to get maybe 3 or 4 days paddling!

First stop will be the Nymboida Canoe Centre in New South Wales then onto the Penrith Whitewater Stadium outside of Sydney, home of the 2000 olympic games slalom event and the 2005 World Freestyle Kayak Championships. Some where in between there will be an almighty session with Donal Bourke in Sydney and a Diamond Jubilee Ordination Party in Kempsey.

Stay tunes for photos and videos from the trip on our return.

Oh yea joining me on this trip and providing all the accommodation and transport for the trip is C1 legend Niall Quinn. You can check out his exploits on his blog over here.

http://niallochuinn.blogspot.com/

Later!

Queensland Floods of Jan 2010

Here is a small series of pictures (there were many, many more but these 6, I feel, tell the story best) from during the Queensland floods of January 2010. So after several weeks of rains, the ground was sodden ant then a week of severely heavy rains raised the Wivenhoe Dam to unseen levels. Many towns above the dam had already been destroyed but the dam was then at levels previously unseen and a dam that was built to protect the city had no option but to release almost twice the volume of Sydney harbour every hour. The water didn't take long to reach the city ad many low lying suburbs were submerged. The level was expected to surpass the flood of 1976, luckily it didn't. We had expected the water to flood our downstairs neighbours apartment so we moved some of their stuff upstairs to our living room. the rest went to high ground in the adjacent apartments further up the hill. The water never came in but it did flood the sub-ground level carpark. The electricity in the block stayed on till right up until the peak but was then switched off just incase. Niall Quinn and myself decided to stay the night and watch and wait for the peak level. At around 10pm we saw a massive section of floating concrete walk way break away across the river and wash away down stream 3 hours later is would have to be nudged by tug boats to avoid it colliding with the Gateway Motorway Bridge. We night passed and the next day as my work place was now a marooned island I had the weekend off work so I went on a 7hour walk around the city and took some photos (which you see below). It was the first of many disasters to be fall this side of the world in the coming months, it would certainly be the most interesting months of my life from a weather and geology point of view. Our electricity remained off for another 10days and after that electricity and TV were out for two and a half weeks. Things have finally returned to some normality, the cities Ferries and River Cat Buses have returned and temporary stops now replace the ones destroy by the flood waters and debris. I'll add more photos later or upload the lot to a gallery and put up a link. Enjoy

Cork Rodeo 2010 & Solo: Lost at Sea

A couple of short posts today to make up for the recent lack of content. None really big wave related. First up is the edit of all the footage I took at last years Cork Rodeo. I had almost 2hrs45mins of footage in total I would have had more but the camera wasn't rolling for the expert finals. Well here is the final edit with some Irish rap over it by RiRa (look him up). There is some footage audio that makes it onto the final edit after 3:30 (you'll definitely here it!), I don't know where exactly it is coming from at the moment but I'll try to remove it later and make another export. Enjoy!

The second video is the movie "Solo: Lost at Sea". Originally I read about Andrew McCauley in James Cartrission's book "Crossing the Ditch" and while I didn't forget about it, I just hadn't looked it up until I had a few pints with Mr. Paddy McGovern one night over here in Brisbane. Paddy is a couple of weeks away from setting out to paddle around Ireland. While not on a par with the Tasman Sea crossing it reminded me that I needed to look up Andrew's Story. This is a great movie despite its unfortunate end. I found it to be extremely moving and at times hard to fathom the depths of despair and isolation he must have encountered. It must have been tough for his family to decide to release the footage much more to allow it to be made into a movie but I'm sure it's what Andrew wanted. Andrew McCauley crossed the Tasman Sea in a kayak and drowned just 30miles off the New Zealand coast this is the story of his journey and end.

Long time no see

Its been rather quiet since all the flooding, I've loads of photos and stories to share from that experience and I'll do all in another blog shortly, for now heres a short video I made with my brand spanking new GoPro Hero. These yokes are certainly are the job. This was taken the same day I bought it having never used one before and the footage was edited with iMovie. Let me know what you all think.

Over Our Heads

Heres quiet an interesting article from the local news paper here in Brisbane, The Courier Mail's QWeekender Magazine, from October 30-31st 2010. It deals with more than just the hype theres a science bit too!

Some of the more interesting science bits are that the highest waves ever recorded hit Alaska in 1958 after a massive landslide created a Tsunami that peaked at 500m above sea level when it made land fall. Also thinking about how destructive waves can be think about this, water is 800 times more dense than air, so a wave just over 45cm high could knock a wall built to survive winds of 200km/h.

You can read the entire article here on Google Documents

Courier Mail: Over Our Heads

I'm also reading another book at the moment Crossing the Ditch, the story of Justin Jones and James Castrission's paddle across the Tasman between Australia and New Zealand. Its a great read, not only to give you an idea of what goes into planning an adventure like that but also a fairly honest recollection of the torment and emotions they went through along the way. Its written by James from entirely his perspective which sometimes seems harsh at times on his paddling partner Justin and others but at least he is honest. Its a great read for anybody into paddling.

Surfing Mennie Waves

Surfing Mennie Waves is the book from Northern Ireland born surfer Alastair Mennie. The book chronicles Al's adventures since he was a young lad taking up surfing at a time when it wasn't very popular. He spent his holidays at Castlerock Beach where he spent his days cutting his surfing teeth with his brother Andrew.

I first became aware of Al through the Driven DVD by Mr. B productions that I bought in Tubes in Cork a few years ago. The DVD gave a good flavour of what Al and his tow surfing partner Cotty were up to at the time and one particular accident involving their ski. What you didn't learn from the DVD was how Al ever got into surfing and big wave surfing and thats where this book fills in the blanks. From family tragedies to surf mishaps, its Al's honest account of his trials and tribulations leading to him being renowned at home and abroad as a big wave surfer.

While the writing mightn't be in the leagues of a Stephen King novel or anything, that lets you know that its Al's own words and lends to the anxiety you feel for Al and his buddies when they are in the big wave sessions described in the book. For anyone who hasn't a clue about the big wave scene in Ireland this book will go along way to informing you of exactly how it got to where it is today, where Ireland is renowned as a major contender in the big wave premiership table around the world. One day this book will go towards forming part of the history of surfing in Ireland.

My favourite part of the book...

"Cotty flew over on Monday night, arriving at 10:30pm. We drove for seven hours through the night, arriving at Aileen's at 5:30am, I nailed a sleeping tablet and bunked down in the back of the van under the guns and tow boards for a few hours."

"We only had one sleeping bag between us and Cotty insisted I used it so I gave him half my clothes to wear. I woke at 8am and saw Cotty lying there, wearing all his clothes, most of mine, a lifejacket and a board bag, it was hilarious! He still argues that I can't classify two hours kip as sleeping like a log..."

Thats dedication to your cause!

This book and copies of the Waveriders and Driven DVD are a must for anybody into big surf. The book is available in most good surf shops for around €20.

Best of luck to Al and Cotty in their future adventures.

http://www.almennie.com/