Pictures from our island crossing.

[DavidJohn]

I finally got around to loading my pictures from our SUP across from Phillip Island to the mainland..(Australia for those who don't know)

It's the middle of Winter and cold and overcast but four of us decided that we wanted to be the first to SUP across from the island..About 12 kms (8 miles)

I was on the road at 6.30am to meet John, Oliver and Jonathan at Stonyy Point at 7.30 to catch the Phillip Island ferry at 8am.




Our plan was to catch the ferry across to Phillip Island with our boards and paddle back..We had no idea how long it would take or what to expect.




I got to Stony Point and the others were getting ready for the trip..This is Jonathan with his big starboard..A perfect board for a trip like this.




John had his kalama and Oliver and I had our big Naish boards.




We expected a quiet trip on the ferry but we got caught up with a school group doing a camping trip on French Island..We had trouble fitting our big boards on the little ferry.




We ended up loading a couple of boards up on top resting on the seats..It was only a half hour ferry trip and most wanted to stand and check out the views.




John showed that he was prepared for the worst by showing us the flairs that he had brought.




Looking back to Stony Point we realized that there's no going back now..Other than to paddle back.




It was good to unload all the school kids and their gear at French Island.




We now had the ferry to ourselves and we blasted away from French Island and headed towards Phillip Island.




Looking towards Phillip island and starting to feel the cold.




I went downstairs and warmed up but couldn't stop thinking about how Cowes on Phillip Island is one of the most common places in Oz to find great white sharks.

We often get stories like these in our newspaper..  http://hairybeast.wordpress.com/2007/01/19/20-foot-great-white-shark-menaces-aussie-beach/




Back up on top and looking towards the pier at Cowes.




We unloaded our gear..This is our paddles..Nothing but the best..It's long distance paddling were you really appreciate a good paddle.




Our boards all lined up on the pier at Cowes.






Standing on the pier I looked toward where we were headed.




Time to do it.




We put the boards on the beach and grabbed a hot coffee from the local cafe.








Last minute farting around.




The other guys had stuff attached to their boards..I just had my camelbak and bum bag.




One last pic before the great whites get us.




Off and splashing...I soon found that my Crocs with socks was not such a good idea.




We'd only been paddling 20 minutes and Oliver stopped for a quick pic looking back at Phillip Island.




We expected a light South wind but got a light North wind..and the chop that comes with it...Bugger!

About half way I paddled ahead and took this pic looking back towards the guys with Phillip Island disappearing behind them.




John leading the way.




Jonathan cruising along on the big SB and loving his new Werner.



Half way..Yaaa-Hooo!.




Our firs stop on land was after only about hour paddling...It was a small sand island that disappears on high tide.




We were almost half way back and it turned out much easier that we expected..and no great whites to be seen.






We then paddled over to the mainland at Sandy Point..It's a restricted Navy area and we hoped that they don't use land mines or traps on the beach.




We looked around anyway.




Oliver went up to check out a sign that he could see.






We headed North towards Stony Point..along the restricted area.




John was thinking the two big velcro strap was not such a good idea afterall..They cause a lot of drag while paddling.




Oliver paddled closer to the shore and I followed him..and we soon found it too shallow to paddle.






Jonathan spotted a large stingray..We all paddled over and checked it out before it shot off across the sandy bottom.




We were not far from Stony Point and crossed a boating channel when we saw a yacht coming..We waved as they sailed past..They waved back.




We noticed that it was a Navy yacht and a second yacht was also coming.




It slowed near us and yelled to us.."did you know this was restricted water"..We yelled back..'Oh is it..Sorry we didn't know..We'll leave then'..and paddled away.

It sailed away as we headed for where we'd parked our cars.




Soon after the Coast Guard cruised past us giving us the evil eye.




Almost back now.




Oliver stopped to take a pic of the big pelican..I'm sure he got a better picture than me.






Back on land..after a great paddle and a real adventure.






What better way to spend the morning other than a day like this with your mates..I can't wait till Summer.

DJ

[Byronmaui]

Very nice pictures. I hope you don't get a write up again in the paper for illegally entering the island and have to delete this post then reference the deleted post.

Aloha

Byron

[stoneaxe]

Great post as usual DJ....did they scramble fighter jets to check you guys out?

[noworrieshawaii]

hehehe..kinda reminds me of the time I shut Haleakala Park down... Went to the top of the crater to drop off a bunch of illegal downhill bikers off and they took my Pelican camera case out of the back of the truck and left it in the parking lot... Right during a "high alert" security period....   Anyway, when I realized what happened, I called the Park Wardens and they said they were flying a bomb squad over from Hickem Airbase.. OMG... They closed the top of the crater and were going to blow up my camera case......    Kinda funny in a weird way.... It all worked out.. No one was arrested and I got my camera back in one piece...

[keala]

hey awesome story thanks for sharing!  great pics too!  glad you didn't get any visits from the "men in grey suits".    i loooooove the photo of the kialoa paddle on the tree branch, its beautiful!  looks like a photo you'd find in a sales catalogue or something.    you should send to the guys at kialoa, maybe they'll put it on their website or something?

[capobeachboy]

Laird is gonna be pissed !  He wanted to be the first one to cross that channel.

Sounds like a great adventure paddle with your mates and beautiful photos as always.  Love your posts DJ.

[srfnff]

Another great story and very cool adventure DJ, thanks.

[kurtr]

Thanks, DJ -- I really enjoyed it!  I almost felt like I was along on the adventure with you guys.       

   

[XLR8]

Great post!  I'm interested in your friend's ideas of using the velcro straps and finding too much drag...

I am planning an overnight circumnavigation of North Manitou Island in Lake Michigan.  It's 22 miles overall if I take the ferry to the island, otherwise I'll have to add 8 miles there and back.  I have done it before in a big water decked canoe and found the currents between the islands to be tricky.  Also there is some solid exposure to the big lake and waves can get chest high and above.  On my canoe trip I actually ended up surf paddling the west side of the island.

My challenge is figuring out how to secure some minimal gear.  I was going to somehow fasten a dry bag to my SUB using some velcro straps.  What do you think you would have done differently if you really needed to bring the gear?

[johndavid]

Thirdcoaster, I just joined this forum. DavidJohn passed on your question to me, so thought I'd join up. Don't confuse me with DavidJohn...I'm JohnDavid!

I think I got the velcro straps that I used on my board from a yacht chandler. They seemed to hold the gear on the deck ok, no slip or anything. I'm sure they caused some drag though, particularly as the underside of the strap (the part under the board in the water) had velcro all the way along the strap. I may try using some stretchy straps I use for my motorbike gear, which don't have velcro on the full length. I think the best answer is to fit some leash plugs into the deck, but I haven't been brave enough to drill into my Kalama yet, especially with the nice deck pad it has.
Check this post for another good idea, utilising some PVC pipe on the rails, and a milk crate for fishing gear. I'm thinking of trying the PVC pipe and stretchy strap to hold a dry bag on. The milk crate is way too bulky for a long distance paddle.
http://www.seabreeze.com.au/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=38172

Hope this helps. I'll wait with interest to see what solution you adopt/adapt.

[keala]

i have 4 leash plugs on the front of my board (it came that way, i didn't have to put it in myself).  i really like it.  i can strap a milk crate or a cooler or dry bag or just bottles of water.  bulky stuff up front is a real PITA if theres a lot of head/side wind.  plus having all that weight up front really makes it interesting paddling through chop/surf.  i capsized my board once with a bunch of stuff in the crate and forgot to secure the contents.  good thing most of it floated. lol.

someone makes a crate that clamps to the rails of a LB or SUPB.  it looks like a glorified version of the PVC pipe/bungee cord idea.  the photo section is pretty cool. check it out: http://www.boardfisher.com/

[DavidJohn]

My friend put leach plugs in the deck of his 11'6" C4.

DJ

[champcrow]

Cool stuff DJ, sounded like a great tripyou guy's had. I thought it might of been a harder trip than what it turned out as you fella's had enough in you to go for a surf as well

Keep up the good stories mate and hopefully one day i can join you guy's for a trip.

[DavidJohn]

Thanks Champcrow...I should drive over and meet you and we could paddle over to Kangaroo Island..How far is that?

DJ

[PonoBill]

I'm going to install some footstrap plugs in my Starboard sometime in the next couple of days.  I've found the bags they make for kayak decks are really good on a SUP board. They are shaped kind of like a little Quonset hut, and the best one is flat toward the nose and then rises to an arch in the back so the wind just slips over it. Zippered opening. A couple of dry bags and a camelback and Bob's yer uncle. I'll shoot some pics for here and Ke Nalu.

I'm also going to show off my overhead camera mount soon. I have to rebuild it, I fell on it in the parking lot the other day and turned it into a pretzel. Clumsy bastard--I got all tangled up in my leash and went down like someone in a Monty Python sketch. I've perfected the "breakaway" base. It's just an old style hourglass windsurf universal rubber. The new tubular ones are too flexible, but the hourglass one works great.