The water looked glassy, the sun was shining and it was too hot to get much productive work done so I went for a quick paddle.
Thought I'd just head up to the point and back but once I got there the little voice in my head (you pesky little bastard) dared me to go further. So I did.
I headed across to the ski club. then he spoke again and told me to go all the way around the inlet..... are you mad!!!
well yes I am.
I had a bit of a tail wind so it was pretty enjoyable. the water was very shallow in places so I had to hang ten on the nose of the board to lift the fin free and keep paddling.
Got all the way down to Pauahatanui and had a bit of a rest... shoulder was playing up a bit so it made paddling on one side a bit hard.
The paddle back around the road side was super glassy and sheltered from the wind, it was so nice that couple of wake boarders were out. Thought about seeing if they wanted to swap turns on toys for abit but decided to keep paddling as I was in a good rhythm.
Rounded the point and was met with the wind again, not super strong but enough to white cap... and an incoming tide. Just what I needed on the last 500m of the mission.
Stick as close to the sides of the channel as I could to keep out of the main current and was suddenly surrounded by about 20 stingrays from dinner plate size upto some biggies close to 2m across. All only about 30cm under my board.... a very close up view.
I stopped to look at a couple and they all started to head towards me.... shit! I was outta there. Must be a breading ground or something.
ended the session with a couple of jumps off the bridge with the local kids.... massive bombs with the aim to splash the cars on the bridge. some of the lads were doing huge back flips entertaining the stalled rush hour traffic.... loads of fun!
Max speed 12.3km/h
