New board! I thought I'd pick up another board, something that would handle the rough weather a bit better than the Mongo cruiser, something would cut through the waves and track a little better. So Scotty at Wetspot gave me a deal I couldn't refuse on a Fanatic Fly Race.

The board is 12'6" and built for speed. It has some serious rails, very little rocker, a nose that cuts through everything and a matte finish bottom so that is slips through the water. Picked up a new paddle too, a nice and streamline Naish carbon/glass number.

She tracks very nicely, in fact you can easily afford 5-10 moderate paddles on one side before swapping without losing course. I can't stop paddling and look forward to getting out with Rach now, and anyone I can convince!

Fixed cyclocross, much like the first time you ride a MTB at night, changes everything and multiplies the fun.

Spent last night watching Ben build my wheels so that I could turn the Mount Cross into a fixed CX machine. Took it for a test run and was planning to fit a free wheel for the occasional SS outing. Freewheel is not going near this bike, perfect just the way it is.

I was unsure of whether or not to take the rear brake off, but it seems you need to to modulate your braking; far easier to do fixed on bitumen than dirt. So it will stay on there.

This is a taster of what motivated me, JPs race, next week:

Canberra Softroad Triple Crown
Each rider will use one bicycle for all three rides and will have a handicap, subtracting time for features of said bicycle. Standard bicycle will be a mountain bike with suspension and multiple gears. Time will be subtracted for: no suspension, single gear, fixed gear, tires under 43mm in width, tires under 26mm in width.

T - Walk out the revolving doors at work, unlock bike; follow uncrowded picturesque bike paths home, avoiding traffic the entire way.

T + 35 - Arrive home, change and pack board on roof of car.

T +45 - Depart home.

T + 55 - Arrive Lake Ginninderra, unload board. Launch.

T + 1h 55 - Arrive back at car. Pack board, depart.

T + 2h 5 - Home, beer in hand.

Soon I'll be back on the bike, wine in back pack, heading to Ainslie for dinner. I can see why people hate Canberra.

If you know me well enough it would come as no real surprise that I threw some money at a new board almost immediately after I spent Sunday morning on the water. In fact, if I could have bought one on the way home I probably would have. When it comes to paying for something that gets you out of the house, doing new things, seeing new places and meeting new people there's nothing higher on my priority list. Buying a paddle board once I'm retired is not an option, simple.

The issue I had was the fact that I'm very picky with the feeling I get from inanimate objects such as bikes and even cameras. They have to feel right, and this feeling usually comes from the knowledge that they've been assembled by a craftsman, an artist. In the board world it's a little harder to attain this handmade feeling as even most of the big names have their boards made in Asia and as a beginner I wasn't going to have one custom made as I don't yet know what I would want in a board. So the next best thing was to find a wooden board, something that was unique despite its mass produced pedigree. I wanted to stand on top of it and look down at the grain, knowing that it was unique to every other board in the world.
 
It wasn't a huge search. The options were pretty slim and I decided to go with Mongoboards. There was practically no information on the net but the magic of Facebook made it a lot easier to get to know the people that make up the business. Then a quick phone call confirmed that they weren't just some importers marking up items as is the case with a lot of cycling goods.

I ordered the board on Monday and picked it up on Thursday, after a long runaround (the consignment was of two pieces and they split them so I had to pick them up from different locations....on opposite sides of town......). She meets all my greatest expectations.  In fact the only problem I have at this stage is that she feels like she should be a 'he' with a name like Woodie, but we all know ships are ladies of the ocean so I need to find a suitable lady name.
 
Anyway, after two sessions of paddling over the weekend I'm pretty worn down. A unique feeling as SUP is a whole body activity and I'm still developing the muscles required!
 

Robbo and Roo came to stay for the weekend as Robbo raced the Capital Punishment. We were lucky enough to have Cook come to stay also. He's 3 months old and full of beans (and anything else he can find). I think Elroy is enjoying a well deserved rest after keeping Cook entertained for the weekend.

And just in case you're wondering why he's called Cookie Monster.

Of course if you look closely you'll see that their tails are frantically wagging, they're having a ball!

The Canberra Festival has been on for the last ten days or so. We've been out and about to see what's been going on.

I attended the Bicycle Roundup. Kinda disappointing as nothing was actually organised, just for everyone to meet at the chess square in civic. Then stand around. Needless to say we quickly retired to get beer.

The long weekend saw us roaming the town.

Enlighten Canberra is a part of the Canberra festival and one of the attractions is the art projected on some of the city's main attractions. Similar displays have taken place in other cities and Rach and I had seen it before in Adelaide. So we headed out to see Canberra's lights.

Once the sun had gone down the lights came on and the crazy people came out. There's a rare breed of photographer that must feel the need to photograph even the things that they are not interested in. We were able to witness numerous of these beasts in action, they went like this - arrive with camera on tripod, setup, frame shot, push shutter release, check LCD screen, repeat 20 times, leave. All this without once actually looking at the building with their very own eyes.

I had my D90 with me but lost all motivation to use it after witnessing this phenomenon. Instead I took B&W photographs. Silly, but I like some of them, and if I want to see them in colour I can just check out Flickr, I'm sure all the pics are up by now!

St Pats day happened to fall during the week so a few beverages were devoured.

And the last of last events was Skyfire. We were lucky enough to spend the evening at Candey and Mark's apartment, overlooking the poor people enduring the rain and wind. Again, a colourful event recorded in B&W, my sincerest apologies.

The party was memorable, apart from the fact that I can't remember what is on the film I am yet to develop. I love surprises. Anyway, here's a teaser I found at the end of the last roll.

Everyone knows us singlespeeders are a little different to everyone else. What other discipline awards National Champion status to the winner of a race that involves drinking beer? And what other type of cycling is as simple, steady and harks back to the grass roots of the sport? So over the last few years I've attempted to find the water borne equivalent - kayaking, canoeing, surf-skiing, you name it. It wasn't until today that I discovered the answer. SUP. Stand Up Paddleboarding.

Spent the  morning steadily paddling  on the lake. We launched, paddled, had coffee, relauched and returned. Nine kilometres is all it took for me to start my search for my own board.

Obviously more to come on this topic (think 11 feet of wood)!!

It's been a photo slump lately. I think I've been riding too much, well, too much dirt. Not really conducive to photography. Either way, this is all that's come of the last couple of weeks.

I ventured into the old Abbey Church on Constitution Ave, feels like you're in a different world.

Captured some random moments on my daily commutes.

Visited the GG's digs.

And found beauty in some unexpected places.

* I must apologise for the quality of some of the images. I've been experimenting with Fomopan 400 @ 1600, eeewwww, and even Delta 400 didn't perform as well as I'd expected @800. Back to regular programed box speed from now on I promise.

I had a busy day last Saturday but managed to make it down to the lake for the FLOATilla. Quite simple really, bikes that float. There must have been some nervous moments when they first entered the water but by the time I arrived all was relaxed and I had a beer in my hands within seconds. Then the race began. Pictures tell a thousand words.

And a victory for Ben. I suppose that makes him a champion of something!