Eco Bezhig is GO!
We have now acquired the Mission Eco Bezhig kayaks that will be used for the event and several test paddles have shown that the boats will be very capable of doing the job we require of them.
These premium quality kayaks come in three colour schemes, solid yellow, bright orange to red, and yellow to bright fluro-green. We liked the look of the boats so much we couldn't decided on just one colour so we now have all three.
As soon as we get a good day and all the kayaks together in the one spot, a photo of these great looking boats will be posted on the blog.
The first Eco Bezhig, Snowgum supplied us with has already been out on the water some six times. The first trip was a paddle from Blackmans Bay to Bruny Island and back, both Ben and Charles had a paddle of the boat and agreed that it handled the conditions very well. They also found that it has a nice pace across the water, with an average speed of around 8kms/hr (11 kms.hr with the current and around 6 kms/hr against a tidal flow and nasty head wind).
Other paddles in the new boat included a couple of trips across Storm Bay in quiet choppy / windy conditions, as well as a paddle from Blackmans Bay beach up to Taroona. On each occasion the boat performed exceptionally well in fairly challenging conditions. With it's ability to surf waves very easily when running with the wind, a nice bonus.
Charles has decided that he likes the green boat, hitting the water for the first time on Sunday the 6th of September, he put the boat through it's paces with a paddle across Storm Bay and up the Derwent River.
Chris has taken the orange boat up to St Helens. It had it's first outing in the open sea on Tuesday the 8th of September, with a paddle from Binalong Bay, up to Cosy Corner and back - not a particularly long paddle, but the conditions on the day did present some challenges in the form of quiet large swell, with a nasty wind chop. In-fact the conditions would have made paddling in many kayaks a pretty horrible experience, but thanks to the well thought out design of the Eco Bezhig, the paddle while very wet (in the main due to almost continuous heavy rain) was a very enjoyable one.
Ben is on holidays for a few weeks and is looking forward to getting a lot of sea-miles in. We are sure he will have many hours of enjoyable paddling -- just hope the rain goes away!
