December News

We are finishing off the series with the iconic Mosman Marathon. Paddlers can choose to take on the 20km full marathon challenge or the 10.5km half marathon challenge. Starting and finishing from Middle Harbour Yacht Club, your journey will take you through the beautiful Sydney Harbour and past world-famous icons like the Sydney Harbour Bridge, Sydney Opera House, Fort Denison jail, Taronga Zoo and much more. Sydney Harbour is a stunning location to host the surf ski event and the Mosman Marathon will showcase what a beautiful harbour we have. We would like to respectfully acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we gather, the Gadigal People of the Eora Nation and pay our respects to their Elders past and present. We extend that respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in attendance.

Saturday 7th December @ 8am is a 20km full marathon and 10.5km half marathon course option. Followed by presentations held at the Middle Harbour from 10:30am. 

20km Course: is a deep water start on the East side of Middle Harbour Yacht club marina and takes you to a turning making off Balmoral beach, before heading towards the Harbour Bridge. As you round Bradleys head aim slightly right and paddle to a turning marker off Kurraba Point, turn right and paddle back to Athol Beach to another right hand turning marker, then back to Bradleys head to turn left back to Balmoral for the last right hand turning marker to take you to the finish line on the beach of the Middle Harbour Yacht Club. 

10.5km Course: is a deep water start on the East side of Middle Harbour Yacht club marina and takes you to a turning making off Balmoral beach, before heading around Middle Head and to the halfway marker off Clifton Gardens. Make a right hand turn here and paddle back to Balmoral for the last right hand turning marker to take you to the finish line on the beach of the Middle Harbour Yacht Club. 

Your result that we count will go towards your overall NSW Surf Ski Championships ranking. If you compete in the 20km full marathon course, there will be bonus points on top of your positioning result that will be awarded to you for your overall NSW Surf Ski Championship ranking. 

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2024 Club Champions

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Countdown to Christmas Challenge

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Every day through December we will send you a message on the Club whatsapp chats that will have a task. It will be random, weird and questionable, but is aimed to improve you as a person. Each task you complete you submit it as a record on strava. On Strava in the description write that you completed the task and how it felt for you. 

If you complete all the tasks you will be rewarded on Christmas day by Santa.

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Christmas Eve Paddle 🎅🏻

Tuesday 24th December is our famous Christmas Eve paddle where we get over 100 paddlers all wearing Santa hats for a fun adventure paddle. Start from either our Mosman or Rose Bay clubhouse 7am (all levels welcome). 

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Paddling over the Christmas Period!

We have the following options for you over the Christmas period. 
Option 1. Solo paddling packs
Option 2. Hire a surf ski from us

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Solo Paddling Packs

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Paddle with other club members 

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Hire from us!

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2025 Paddle Trips

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How we burn calories 

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The History of Fort Denison Jail
 

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Fort Denison, part of the Sydney Harbour National Park, is a protected national park that is a heritage-listed former penal site and defensive facility occupying a small island located north-east of the Royal Botanic Garden and approximately 1 kilometre east of the Opera House in Sydney Harbour.  The island is also known as Mattewanye or Muddawahnyuh in the Eora language, and as Pinchgut Island.
 
The site contains time gun, navigational aids and tide gauge facilities. Correctional and military facilities were designed by George Barney and built from 1840 to 1862 by William Randle. The property is owned by the Office of Environment & Heritage, an agency of the Government of New South Wales. In 1978 the former fortress was listed on the (now defunct) Register of the National Estate, and is currently used as a national park, nature reserve, tourist facility, and as a function space.
 
After the First Fleet arrived in 1788, Governor Phillip and his advocate-general used the name "Rock Island". In 1788, a convict named Thomas Hill was sentenced to a week on bread and water in irons there. The island came to be known as "Pinchgut". Once a 15-metre high or higher sandstone islet, the rock was levelled by convicts under the command of Captain George Barney, the civil engineer for the colony, who quarried it for sandstone construct nearby Circular Quay.
 
In 1839, two American warships entered the harbour at night and circled Pinchgut Island. Concern with the threat of foreign attack caused the government to review the harbour's inner defences. Barney, who had earlier reported that Sydney's defences were inadequate, recommended that the government establish a fort on Pinchgut Island to help protect Sydney Harbour from attack by foreign vessels. Fortification of the island began in 1841 but was not completed. Construction resumed in 1855 because of fear of a Russian naval attack during the Crimean War, and was completed on 14 November 1857. The newly built fort then took its current name from Sir William Thomas Denison, the Governor of New South Wales from 1855 to 1861.

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Technique Tip