The last stop is the campsite where Andrew needs to see the owner and wants to say hello to the early arrivals. I see my opportunity and jump ship, a can of Strongbow placed in my hand by Dan who I’ve met for the first time a couple of minutes before. The stage is set and as more people turn up, more fires and barbecues are lit and more alcohol is consumed so the fishermen’s lies grow in direct proportion to the fish spoken of. Somewhere along the line our evening becomes blurry…
It’s 5am. It should have been 6am but I’ve beaten my alarm by an hour so I may as well struggle to stand upright and get some breakfast on; I owe Pugwash bacon and eggs anyway. Mick informs me of the location of water for my coffee and then the infamous cast iron frying pan is heated and fully loaded with protein and we’re away.
I arrive on the green around 630 and Andrew turns up with the van soon after. We unload demo boats and those for the top three competitors, the gazebo goes up, my files are sorted out onto the table ready for the sign-in and the green starts to fill up. Hooky arrives early, the first time we’ve met him and straight away asks who wants tea and who wants coffee – Andrew thanks him then sends him off with some of our own money and he is the first random prize to be earmarked for the day.
Registration complete and it’s into the safety briefing. The RNLI give us the go ahead and Darnsarf covers what needs to be known and done; people are listening because the wind is pretty strong and it’s one of those days that things aren’t going to be a walk in the park. I follow with the general information but it seems to have mostly been covered already so just add in snippets. Then comes the mad scramble to launch; more of an amble really as once again people are here for fun rather than winning.
It doesn’t take long, just half an hour or so, before someone is blown over and takes a swim. This is not a good start but the theory gets put into practice and turns out beautifully; I have channel 6 on in my pocket:
“Danccooke to Safety 1, dancccooke to Safety 1 over”
“Safety 1 to Dancccoke go ahead over”
“Safety 1 I have a capsized kayak in view and he appears to be struggling to re-enter. I am unable to assist at this time, over”
Minutes later and they’re on the scene. Good call Dan, a newbie to boot, have yourself a spot prize: an Ocean Kayak safety navigation light .
It’s time for Richi and I to get kitted up and out on the water. My choice today is the Necky Vector; the first time I’ve used it on the sea. It was a pleasant and easy paddle on fresh water and my wife enjoyed it (telling me it paddled lighter and easier than my Prowler 15 which she usually uses). I found it comfortable and viceless (quite boring for me) as it seemed to do everything pretty well without much effort. This would be a better test as although flat the wind was strong and there was some chop in places. Ideal conditions, in fact, for Viking regalia (pic stolen off Luckyrich).
Off we went and paddled straight out to the first contestants. Mick was already on two species and caught his third to order, pulling in a ballan and a scorpion while I was chatting and snapping.
Then it was off around the bay to take a few more photos.
With last year’s winner in the bag I headed for Amos when another shout went out; Safety 1 was otherwise engaged and with the upturned kayak only 500 yards away Richi and I called in that we were off to assist. Danny Taylor was already onsite and our swimmer was holding onto his kayak while his own was tipped over the wrong side of both wind and anchor line. It was soon righted and while I gathered the flotsam I watched Richi (for the second time in my life) carry out a perfect assisted rescue, hauling him in in seconds as safety 1 arrived on the scene. This was his fifth so I’d have expected it to be good ;D
I slung out a line and gave him a tow into the beach a couple of hundred yards away from where he elected to trolley the kayak back towards the launch point to get warm again. We headed back out again. The Vector was proving an interesting choice. Tracking well because of the channels in the hull it didn’t like to turn easily when broadside to the wind, the shallow hull that makes for such an easy paddle on the flat not giving the purchase of my usual Scupper Pro. Once turned though it was a doddle, cutting through the wind without hesitation, it’s low profile reducing windage.
I paddled around for a bit taking more photos and chatting, ensuring everyone was okay and happy to remain out (we’d already pulled the boundaries in due to strengthening wind) and then headed in as some entrants were already on the beach hoping to cash in on the time element of the competition. Lo and behold there was coffee and a bacon butty on the desk ;D I sat down with the delightful Tinasarf and began to check people in…2’s and 3’s seemed to be the order of the day and in all honesty that was good going for what were pretty snotty conditions. It seemed that almost everything caught was tiny too, as though all the big fish had left the inshore haunts for the calmer, deeper water. It was ballans and corkwings that were making the bulk of the catches at this point with the occasional small Pollack being swung in too. I was fervently praying for a clear winner; the time element being intended only as a tie breaker, not the judge!
Still they came in twos and threes and then Mick strolled up, the faint whiff of squid preceding him ;D Four, maybe five he claimed. I took a look…definitely 4, including tompot blenny and scorpion fish and then a bad picture of another blenny; out came the books ;) I couldn’t be a hundred percent certain but it did look sufficiently different from what I could see. I awarded it as a half ;D
So now we had a winner… for the time being at least. Who else was still to come?
More twos and threes and then up ambles Floydyboy.
‘How did you do?’
‘Abysmal. Four I think…wasn’t going to bother checking in but Darnsarf said I should’
‘Oh well, let’s take a look anyway…’
Yep, there were a definite four. Poker faced, I answered his query as to what the leading count was with a simple ‘you don’t need to concern yourself with that mate’. ;D I’m an evil bugger sometimes! Off he wandered, downcast and looking like a miner at a pit closure when all the sheep have been married off already. At least it kept him from singing ;D
…and that was it. Time to wrap it up and get ready for the prize giving, delayed slightly of course in the best traditions of our rigid enforcement of time constraints…I was on overtime anyway ;)
Everyone gathered around to hear as we started to give out the leaders from fifth upwards. Marshy, hailed as coming to the opening of an envelope, walked back to his place with a new-style C-Tug and I was glad; even in the depths of winter Jim turns up to join the happy throng and always pops by to say hello at shows; he also has a few yaks so this should ease the pressure. Well done that man!
4th place saw Shep, returning for his second OK Classic, joining the Pugwash elite with a 1.5m Pacific Action sail. Nice one – enjoy! Then to the kayak winners:
Also with three, the first one to book in with the average score, was Mark Radcliffe. He hadn’t a clue and the mixture of joy and surprise was great to see, I foresee many Capers ahead ;D Mark had also fished last year.
Well, I still hadn’t said what the winning scores were and with good reason. I had seen no reason to cheer up second place: Floydyboy was in shock when he found out he had to somehow cart a Trident 11 back to Wales! Made all the more gratifying as his pair of the only smuts last year had been eclipsed by only one type of wrasse instead of the longed-for pair. Hey, but that hurt, we’d never hear the end of it, giving him a yak! Well-deserved mind, he’s a good angler and shares his knowledge too and is a large part of the reason we saw such a strong Welsh contingent here on the day.
Now, first prize. It’s always good to give it to someone worthy but we couldn’t give one to everyone who entered and who all deserved something for heading out in those conditions and so we had to send another kayak to Wales! Having first heard about Tridents from his classmate Neptune, Mick Dundee had done it and fortunately his ‘half’ wasn’t the deciding factor. The first in to log a definite four, a fisherman’s fisherman, I was pleased to hand it over to the man who gave me a conspiratorial wink when I arrived at Oxwich last summer and secretly palmed me a bag of cockles that were the secret recipe of success in that bay. Nice effort but they did nothing for me; clearly they work in Swanage though and at least we wouldn’t have to suffer barbecued ragworm back at camp ;D
The winner in action:
Brilliant. A top effort by everyone and so it was time to hand out the rest of the prizes from holding paddles upside down and wearing Viking hats to having big balls (to launch again after a capsize) and being the most foreign though my ‘most romantic looking couple on the water’ prize of thigh straps (the most suggestive prize we had other than rod holders) turned out to be for a father and daughter which raised an additional laugh. It is Dorset I suppose…this all followed by a huge chunk of the stickiest, sugariest, tastiest cake (beautifully supplied by Mrs Gosling) ever to grace the field of human competition. No wonder we’re the slimmest bunch of athletes other than dart players ;D
Well that’s the comp…it was back to the campsite after that after topping up on supplies. My four-packs of Cobra spoilt only by the 0% alcohol content on them; there was plenty of non-Children’s Beer to be had though luckily and even some spare food around when my wife, children and parents pitched up in the ghetto too. Lucky it was the second night else I’d still be grounded ;D Next year a special prize must be held back for Esther, the Boudicca of kayak fishing camps.
So thank you guys and girls, thank you for supporting us, for turning up, for launching and for fishing. Thank you also for all the good humour, good sportsmanship and for keeping an eye out for each other. Thank you for moving in when asked to, thanks for calling for assistance when you needed it and most of all thank you for coming…see you next year! I should also thank the rest of the team of Okreally and David Parker, Richi, Starvinmarvin, Darnsarf and especially Tinasarf for all their efforts, Chris from the Canoe Shop Group for looking after the demos that couldn’t really be run and all the people at Swanage from the RNLI, Tourist office and council who limbo danced the event into being.
