Mumbai Surf
Kate and the girls have mid term-break and we are planning a week in Goa. To add a layer of complexity to the planning we will probably have the son of an old friend staying with us for part of his summer break and one of Lucy's friends from Australia will be visiting with her Mum. Needless to say it will be a full house in Goa.
As always I am looking at what is in the trip for me. I will be joining them for the first weekend and the last weekend of their stay. Not that I am selfish but if I am willing to get up at "zero dark hundred" to get a little bit of "me" time in ... then no one should object. I have settled on taking my sea kayak, a kevlar Mirage 580, to Goa in an attempt to paddle around half the length of the Goan Coast of about 140 km. I will get up early each morning for the days that I am there and try to knock off 20 km each day.
The kayak hasn't been out since the start of Monsoon so, with the weather calming down, I decided to take her out on a shake down cruise. The tide was high so I decided to launch near Joggers Park at Bandra. To my surprise, there were sets of glassy 2-3 foot waves rolling across the reef, perfect for a little bit of fun in the kayak. Often you get waves from a wind blown slop that are bigger but lack consistent form and take off points. I smiled as I saddled up and headed out.
Now although the waves were clean, the water was not. The stench of drying fish and human excrement at the put in point is always a little unsettling as I waded out knee deep in the murky water with floating Amul plastic milk bags, hoping that the grazes on my knees from the climbing trip in Beijing had healed up.
I cruised out and selected a nice spilling wave, positioned myself in a line up of one and started to lay down some power strokes when I suddenly lost traction. I dropped off the back of the wave minus one of my paddle blades. Is had snapped off as I tried to accelerate! That said it was 12 years old and there had been a bit of wear and tear.
Now for years I had religiously paddled with a split paddle which I had never used in anger. That said, I can't think of the number of times I was tempted to leave it behind for a short paddle. I C1'ed out of the surf zone and set about assembling my 4 piece Werner. A dozen nice waves later I headed back to shore. I guess thats the point of sorting out your equipment before a trip, better to break the blade now than off the coast in Goa.
My predicament now is that I have two broken wing paddles. In a moment of stupidity with a crowd of interested local onlookers, I had reversed over the shaft of my Western Canoes carbon fibre wing paddle after a morning paddle off Juhu beach and now my split shaft Canoe Sports paddle from NZ had a broken blade. Repairs or replacement for this type of gear in India is almost impossible so when Kate gets back I will commandeer her hair dryer in order to remove the two good blades from the broken shaft and fix then on the good shaft. Wish me luck.
In addition to my paddle problems, I am trying to navigate the bureaucracy of transporting my kayak to Goa. One of the frustrations of doing business in India are the various State taxes. I can't simply drive out of Mumbai with my kayak on the roof. If I do so, OCTROI will attempt to tax the kayak on my return. As a result my driver will take evidence of import of the kayak to India and the taxes paid on my family possession on arrival. They will give me a form to present at the border. To make issues more interesting, the Road and Traffic Authority will only allow personal items on the roof of a car. A boat longer than the car is strictly verbotten. That said, a kindly official at the RTO pointed out that if we are pulled over by the Police, we should be fine provide that we bribe them. It always works out in India, it just doesn't always work well.
The following weekend I had a further brush with the authorities, Now I have paddled a short way into Mahim Bay on a number of occasions but generally early in the morning. On this Saturday, I thought I would paddle in and get some photos of the old Portuguese forts that dot the shore. Unfortunately, I went in too far and was spotted by the Water Police who came out in their boat to apprehend me. The boat was not obviously marked as I don't know that Maharati word for Police and the Police were dressed like auto-rickshaw drivers. When I was intercepted the exchanges went some thing like this:
Police- Who are you?
Me -Who are you?
Police - Police
Me - Where is your uniform? ( they then got out their shirts to put over their singlets and Wayne Rooney football jerseys)
Police - Where is your ID?
Me - Where is your ID? ( they pulled out a dog eared ID card)
Police - Follow me us in
Me - Ok
Police - How long have you been here?
Me - I have lived here for almost three years and I have paddled off the coast all that time.
Police - If you have been doing this for 3 years why haven't we seen you?
Me - I start at 6 am normally what time do you start work
Police - 9 am
Me- Lucyk terrorists keep business hours
At the Police jetty I refused to give them my paddle or get out of the kayak as they then would have tried to haul the kayak up a ladder to the jetty which was 20 feet above the waterline. That said they were very polite and I was the most interesting thing that they were probably going to encounter that day that day. Eventually Mansoor arrived with my Passport and the Police Captain arrived to question me.
Captain - You need a licence.
Me- No I don't because the kayak doesn't have a motor
Captain - Hmmmmm, the is the first time I have encountered this.
The Police then pulled out their mugshots of Pakistani terrorist, all bearded and very swarthy. Needless to say, I didn't quite fit the picture. An hour later after six phone calls the Captain told me that I don't need a license because I don't have a motor but Mahim Bay is off limits even though it is not sign posted. I then needed to visit the Captain at Bandra Police Station to verify by Foreigner Registration and he just wanted to chat about the Metro and I was a free man 2 and a half hours later.
 |
| My baby, a kevlar Mirage 580 which travels the world with me |
As always I am looking at what is in the trip for me. I will be joining them for the first weekend and the last weekend of their stay. Not that I am selfish but if I am willing to get up at "zero dark hundred" to get a little bit of "me" time in ... then no one should object. I have settled on taking my sea kayak, a kevlar Mirage 580, to Goa in an attempt to paddle around half the length of the Goan Coast of about 140 km. I will get up early each morning for the days that I am there and try to knock off 20 km each day.
The kayak hasn't been out since the start of Monsoon so, with the weather calming down, I decided to take her out on a shake down cruise. The tide was high so I decided to launch near Joggers Park at Bandra. To my surprise, there were sets of glassy 2-3 foot waves rolling across the reef, perfect for a little bit of fun in the kayak. Often you get waves from a wind blown slop that are bigger but lack consistent form and take off points. I smiled as I saddled up and headed out.
Now although the waves were clean, the water was not. The stench of drying fish and human excrement at the put in point is always a little unsettling as I waded out knee deep in the murky water with floating Amul plastic milk bags, hoping that the grazes on my knees from the climbing trip in Beijing had healed up.
I cruised out and selected a nice spilling wave, positioned myself in a line up of one and started to lay down some power strokes when I suddenly lost traction. I dropped off the back of the wave minus one of my paddle blades. Is had snapped off as I tried to accelerate! That said it was 12 years old and there had been a bit of wear and tear.
 |
| Nothing worse than broken kit |
My predicament now is that I have two broken wing paddles. In a moment of stupidity with a crowd of interested local onlookers, I had reversed over the shaft of my Western Canoes carbon fibre wing paddle after a morning paddle off Juhu beach and now my split shaft Canoe Sports paddle from NZ had a broken blade. Repairs or replacement for this type of gear in India is almost impossible so when Kate gets back I will commandeer her hair dryer in order to remove the two good blades from the broken shaft and fix then on the good shaft. Wish me luck.
 |
| A photo of the RTO filing system in Andheri |
In addition to my paddle problems, I am trying to navigate the bureaucracy of transporting my kayak to Goa. One of the frustrations of doing business in India are the various State taxes. I can't simply drive out of Mumbai with my kayak on the roof. If I do so, OCTROI will attempt to tax the kayak on my return. As a result my driver will take evidence of import of the kayak to India and the taxes paid on my family possession on arrival. They will give me a form to present at the border. To make issues more interesting, the Road and Traffic Authority will only allow personal items on the roof of a car. A boat longer than the car is strictly verbotten. That said, a kindly official at the RTO pointed out that if we are pulled over by the Police, we should be fine provide that we bribe them. It always works out in India, it just doesn't always work well.
The following weekend I had a further brush with the authorities, Now I have paddled a short way into Mahim Bay on a number of occasions but generally early in the morning. On this Saturday, I thought I would paddle in and get some photos of the old Portuguese forts that dot the shore. Unfortunately, I went in too far and was spotted by the Water Police who came out in their boat to apprehend me. The boat was not obviously marked as I don't know that Maharati word for Police and the Police were dressed like auto-rickshaw drivers. When I was intercepted the exchanges went some thing like this:
Police- Who are you?
Me -Who are you?
Police - Police
Me - Where is your uniform? ( they then got out their shirts to put over their singlets and Wayne Rooney football jerseys)
Police - Where is your ID?
Me - Where is your ID? ( they pulled out a dog eared ID card)
Police - Follow me us in
Me - Ok
Police - How long have you been here?
Me - I have lived here for almost three years and I have paddled off the coast all that time.
Police - If you have been doing this for 3 years why haven't we seen you?
Me - I start at 6 am normally what time do you start work
Police - 9 am
Me- Lucyk terrorists keep business hours
At the Police jetty I refused to give them my paddle or get out of the kayak as they then would have tried to haul the kayak up a ladder to the jetty which was 20 feet above the waterline. That said they were very polite and I was the most interesting thing that they were probably going to encounter that day that day. Eventually Mansoor arrived with my Passport and the Police Captain arrived to question me.
Captain - You need a licence.
Me- No I don't because the kayak doesn't have a motor
Captain - Hmmmmm, the is the first time I have encountered this.
The Police then pulled out their mugshots of Pakistani terrorist, all bearded and very swarthy. Needless to say, I didn't quite fit the picture. An hour later after six phone calls the Captain told me that I don't need a license because I don't have a motor but Mahim Bay is off limits even though it is not sign posted. I then needed to visit the Captain at Bandra Police Station to verify by Foreigner Registration and he just wanted to chat about the Metro and I was a free man 2 and a half hours later.
