Day 3 and 4

Yesterday was a beautiful day. I managed to strain my wrist during the first two days of ripping southerly winds and as it was still howling out at sea, decided to knock up the kms by paddling down the Evans River. It was stunning. Today however we were up at 4.30am and back out on the high seas with a gentle NE wind following down the coast. After another shark sighting, a beach break at Brooms Head and some stronger winds, we ended up cruising past our goal of Minnie water and straight into Wooli. We hadn't meant to, but my map reading isn't that good and from 2kms out, it all looks the same. Still, it was 10km more than we meant to do so the paddle to Coff's tomorrow should be more manageable than the 62km we'd planned. There are strong NW winds at the sart of the day turning into SW in the afternoon which could be a shattering way to arrive, so we're getting up at 4am tomorrow instead to try and beat it. Yippee.

Putting some pictures on the blog now. Below are a couple of videos. ROB

Santas drop in with Adrenalin.com.au

As part of our training regime, we've been looking for ways to increase the heart rate and get the fear factor pressure on high in order that when we see sharks on our paddle, we don't freeze and start crying. So when I was given the chance yesterday to jump out of a perfectly good plane, dressed as Santa with full red suit, white beard and hat - I said yes please...and then rand to the car to get a spare change of pants. It was to celebrate the launch of a new range of festive experiences to buy online from Adrenalin.com.au, including amongst other things, a tandem skydive with Santa. Have a look at the footage (I'm the short person who's first out of the door at the beginning).



Adrenalin have been really supportive of our paddle trip. They gave us a kayak tuition experience in Sydney harbour for our charity auction and are potentially using their power boat for journalists to follow us into Bondi on the last stretch on the 9th January.

Fundraising auction launch party

YOU'RE INVITED!

We're holding a fundraising party in Paddington on Wednesday 3rd Dec for anyone that can make it. There's going to be so many cool items up for auction including Odyssey sunnies, an Aquabumps surf pic and weekends away, to exclusive tickets to Kylie's sold out concert and Gucci handbags, plus loads more. We'll put a full list up soon. Please pass on the invite to anyone that would like to come, can donate something to the auction or would like to know more about our paddle and our cause - raising money and awareness of Prostate Cancer.

The kayak schedule

Here's our planned paddle schedule. It includes the approximate distance to paddle, date and destination. I seem to have underestimated the total distance by about 100kms from when we first considered this trip - oops. Just means some big paddle sections and less room for bad weather. We've got a remote camping spot planned on Broughton Island, but the rest are mostly towns. The biggest section is 60km, which could cause some problems, but we've got a couple of rest days and some fat within the plan. Currently Christmas is at Coffs and New Year at Seal Rocks. I'm not sure that the celebrations at Seal Rocks are going to be that wild, but I like the idea of a bonfire on the beach and beers.

Bring on the coverage!

We got our first piece of coverage on the paddle this week - a whole half page at the front of the Wentworth Courier, a well read Sydney weekly. I place stories on big companies for a living so it's weird to be pitching yourself in, but great to be doing it for a charitable cause. If you're interested in reading the article then click on the title above.

Also really exciting news - we now have a logo, thanks to Brad Madge and his design skills. We just need to get T-shirts and caps made up now for all our adoring groupies. Really, if anyone can help us get 20 T-shirts printed in size 8 DD, please let us know.

Training's going good. I've had a couple of pre-work sessions during the week with Guy Leech and his hard core group of gnarly locals. Last weekend I had a couple or more beers in Manly stuffed a tenner in a pokie and won $700 straight up. I couldn't believe it. So I woke up the next morning pegged it down to the wharf and spanked it all on a second hand sit-on-top kayak for morning paddle sessions. It's now sitting padlocked to the side of the house. It's a big ol lump of plastic to be carrying down to the water and I almost fell down the stairs with the think balanced on my head on Tuesday, but so worth it once in. I live on Fairy Bower in Manly so I just paddled down the beach and back up to Shelly. Great thing to do as the sun's coming up.

Charity trip gaining speed again

It's been a while since we've posted anything. I've been back in the UK seeing family and Scott's been on a Bali surf trip so we haven't spoken in a bit. Now that we're both back in the country it's time to start ramping up the campaign. The Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia has given us official approval now on using their logo and support so we're going to meet soon and work out next steps. Hopefully we'll be able to work together over the next few months to spread the word and start raising funds.

It's amazing how when you make the first few steps on an idea with good intention, people respond so well and we've had a lot of people saying that they'd be willing and able to help. Bruce from Pittarak kayaks is going to give us his advice on the coastline, shark hangouts and any rips that'll set us on a course to New Zealand after the Ditch crossing boys. We also had some fantastic news from Ian at Meridian Kayaks who is actually in the process of making a double kayak that he says we can use for the trip! The guy's a legend and without his help we'd be attempting the journey in a bath tub. He's even putting a rush job on production of the prototype to make sure it gets completed in time. He's promised to include a beer fridge and waterproof ipod speakers in the design, so hopefully the coast guard will hear are merry singing each day and carols at Christmas.

There's a couple of things we're doing to try and make the trip slightly safer and a little more achievable considering that we're currently more at home in a client meeting than a kayak. Firstly I've booked us into a two day ocean kayaking course next weekend down at Jervis Bay Kayaks so that we can learn how to paddle in a straight line, not sink and get back in if we do capsize. The second is get into some mid week training. Guy Leech (Australia's Mr Fitness and celebrity Iron Man) is also a supporter of the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia and runs paddle training sessions round the corner in Manly, so we're going to start getting up earlier and getting onto the water before work. I used to do his PR so I'd hope he takes it easy on us.

More consistent updates to follow. We're still looking for company sponsors and equipment (clothing, EPIRBS, tough laptop) so if you or someone you know can help, please let us know and pass on this blog address. I'm going to try and make contact with the Manly Daily tomorrow.

Rob

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

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)