Getting the Ball Rolling

Getting the Ball Rolling

 Progress is a little slower than I though, we are all preoccupied with our day-to-day lives , catching up together to put some effort in the planning has been challenging . At the moment one of our fellow adventurers is not quite sure that he can commit. Getting time away from his work is almost as big a challenge as the adventure.

One thing we all have agreed on at the moment is we all need to get ourselves a lot fitter than we currently are at the moment. So we have scheduled and started adding more activity and exercise to our day-to-day routines, it's surprising when you are busy little bit of exercise hear and there all adds up and it doesn't take long to start seeing the winter love handles disappear.

I have started getting proactive with research in regards to sea kayaks. Three of us have grown up around the East Coast of Newcastle surfing and paddling but we have very little knowledge when it comes to being in the ocean with a sea kayak. Mark would have the least amount of padding experience in the ocean, but that has not stopped his determination, he has a huge amount of core strength and is very surprising how quickly he goes on the water. Mark Hickey who we were expecting big things in the paddling leg of the adventure has been in the famous Molokai ocean race in Hawaii and I personally was expecting a big drive from Mark.

As far as researching sea kayaks, I have narrowed it down to 3 Australian made kayaks, my preference is to use kayaks that are Australian made, I haven't really discussed this with the others or if they share my views on Australian made sea kayaks. After reading and researching countless sea kayaking blogs and sea kayaks forums, I think these would suit us.

All of these are outstanding Aussie built and designed sea kayaks and I'm sure any one of these craft would fulfil our needs well. These are some of the criteria I am looking for in a sea kayak.

• Expedition strength and quality
• Must have a rudder
• Reasonably quick off shore touring 

The Nadgee nadgeekayaks.com.au
The Epic   www.epickayaks.net.au
The Mirage 582 www.mirageseakayaks.com.au/2013-05-28-10-20-40/582