Training

Today was our first day paddle training and it's made us realise how much work there is to do. We only covered around 8kms and we're supposed to be doing 35 a day for 20 days non stop. Oh god. It's not the same as river paddling as there's no river and no running water and if you don't paddle then you don't go anywhere. Weirdly that's come as a bit of a shock. It's good to have the reality check though as otherwise we'd end up on the water in Byron and it would all be over in a couple of hours having just got past the light house. There's some serious training to do and we're going to end up looking like the spartans from 300 and if we don't then I'm going to use makeup to get the 12 pack going for the photo call. I'm off to the UK on Monday for a couple of weeks so Scotty's on the case with chasing up sponsorship - we still haven't got a kayak as yet but the Australian Prostate Cancer Foundation has accepted our proposal so we can start sending out materials with their logo now. It's getting closer - we're both hugely busy with work and so late evenings and weekends are the only time we've go to make this happen. My mum still thinks we're mad and my girlfriend's decided to go home for Xmas and New Year rather than worry if we've been eaten my sharks each day. If anyone's thinking of doing a festive surf trip then let us know as we could do with some support on the land.
I had an idea today to do the whole thing dressed in suits, shirts, ties and bowler hats. It would look great as a launch photo and kind of gets that message out that anyone can have an adventure and raise some cash for a good course even if like us you've got intense day jobs and work in the city. 9to5 jobs (or 8to7 in our case) doesn't mean you have to be a rat. We're going to be racing whales instead.

Sunday morning

It's a beautiful Sunday morning - sunny, clear and there's waves in Manly...fantastic. I've already done some school work and I'm about to email a few people about the trip. Got to check my lotto tickets, get a coffee, go for a surf and then we're supposed to be doing a training session at Spit Bridge for a couple of hours. Scott's gone awol so I've charged up the ipod and am steeling myself for a bit of solitary paddling. It's stunning on a nice day, cruising past all the mosman boat houses and finding little beaches with waterfalls away from everything. I came back on Friday night after a few beers and started emailing some adventure blogs and kayak websites, so if you're reading this and received a badly spelt email, I apologise - the intention was good . Massive thanks to Ian at Meridian Kayaks www.meridiankayak.com.au who emailed back almost immediately. Ian I'll be calling you this afternoon. Thought I'd attach the below picture I took of nuns looking like penguins picnicing on Fairy Bower Beach during the recent World Youth Day celebration (Fairy Bower is so named because of the real local penguin population.) Happy Sunday.
R

Logo needed!

If anyone's got a crayon, mascara pen (it's a wand apparently), paint set or professional graphics mac program, could you have a go at making us a logo?  We need something funky and simple for the site, T-shirts, sausage sizzle banner, boat and front page of the Daily Telegraph.  Take 2 minutes to have a scribble and send us your ideas and designs to robinflowe@hotmail.com or scott.timbrell@hostville.com.au .  We'll put them up on the site for everyone to  vote on...unless they're rubbish.  Thanks R

Up and running...

So after our first day of being live and raising funds for our cause we reached $275. 

Both myself and Rob are much appreciated with the early effort but we still far from our goal of $10,000, so we will need you all to get behind us and donate as much money that you can possibly afford.

We will be planning some fund raiser events in the lead up to our launch date from Byron so keep checking in on this page for updates.

Scott & Rob.

Inspiration from Crossing The Ditch

A few weeks ago I met up with two utterly aspirational and inspiring guys, James and Justin, who had kayaked from Australia to New Zealand in their modified kayak, Lot 41. They'd paddled 3318kms over 62 days in January 2008 to make the world's first trans-tasman kayak crossing. They were speaking at the Sydney International Boat Show, gave me loads of advice, contacts and even offered us their old pittarak training kayak until we could find our own. There must be something about achieving great things that makes you a nice person because these guys were fantastic. Below are some comments they've sent us that I'm going to put up on the home page. Check out their website and DVD - they also do some fantastic lecturing for businesses and groups.

"It's great to see fellow kayakers getting out there and challenging themselves , whilst at the same time raising funds and awareness for Prostate Cancer. Both Justin and believe in what Rob and Scott are going out to achieve and will support them in any way that we can. We can only urge you to do the same"

“Their paddle down the East Coast of Australia is giving Corporate Australia an opportunity that cannot be missed.

This adventure is a must to get behind, with young Australians going out achieving dreams and raising funds for a most worthy cause- prostate cancer.

Dream to say anything is possible and as Australians we can achieve great feats.”

James Castrission
Adventurer- Crossing the Ditch
World First Trans Tasman Kayak Expedition

The beginning

I work in a fun consumer PR company in Sydney called One Green Bean. Scott works on events in our sister creative ad agency Host. We both work big hours on pressured jobs and have sparse time for hobbies outside of school except surfing and letting the social kettle whistle. We all need more than work and beer sometimes so this project is about proving that however busy life is, there's always room for some adventure...and then more beer. About a month ago we were sitting in a pub in Surry Hills on a Sunday having just done a surreal press conference at the Sheraton with 5 WWE wrestlers and one diva in town for a live tour at Acer Arena. It's a varied and bizarre job that we have. Later that night we were in wrestling masks slugging bundies and shouting with a 17,000 strong crowd of red necks watching the Undertaker slam Batista whilst 6 year old kids screamed blue murder and middle aged men spat froth. Anyway, before this we'd been chilling out and sipping on skooners of carlton in a more civilised fashion when off hand Scott mentioned that he'd decided to paddle the east coast of Australia. A member of Scott's family was recently diagnosed with prostate cancer and this was his way of helping, coping and making a difference. This is where it all began.

(Below pic: Scott, Julian and Rob at Acer Arena on 15th June)