ROUTE NOTES - The Cut Run - Mandurah Duel Course

In a far flung corner of Western Australia, lies the sleepy little town of Mandurah.

This is the home of The Cut Crew, a bunch of paddlers, some fish and chip (or maybe beer and pizza with the odd bourbon or red wine thrown in) and some faster. Their craft vary from Think Uno and Uno Maxes, a Fenn Elite, and a Custom Kayaks Synergy to Epic V10’s and V12’s to the unique Brainwave Vayron from New Zealand (named after the legendary Bugatti, and often quoted as being nearly as fast on runs), then there’s the OC1 and OC2’s of the outrigger paddlers (affectionately known as the sissy bar paddlers). The characters who make up the Cut Crew are mostly middle aged, a few of Surf Lifesaving origin, whilst the others come from kayaking, mountain biking, and even golf pedigrees.

Like most Aussies the members of the Cut Crew are often referred to by their nick names of Maverick, Rookie, Viper, Moose, The Fireman aka Dolph Lundgren aka Big Ads, Bin Paddlin, Yak, The Big Kahuna, Grover and a few others which are just simply shortened to Hel, Linds, Rydey or Dario.

Located some 60kms south of Perth, Mandurah is bordered by Comet Bay to the North West, the estuary to the South East and the Dawesville Cut to the south. “The Cut” is a man-made channel that literally cuts through the peninsula that reaches North along the Indian Ocean to form the Western edge of town, allowing the waters of the estuary a second outlet to the ocean, the first being the mouth to Mandurah’s North.

The route of “The Cut Run” originates from the Cut and follows the coast of the Indian Ocean via Falcon Bay to Point Robert and Doddies beach near the mouth of the estuary.




Our favoured launch is from a reasonably sheltered beach separated from the Cut by a rock breakwater (known in WA as a groin). Here we can easily launch and group up in The Cut mouth prior to getting into the Run. By paddling West we enter the swells and the runs that the Seabreeze brings to the Indian Ocean. The lumps of swell pass from left to right as we begin the transition from the Cut to the Ocean proper. Once we’ve ventured approx 200-300 metres across the back of the swells we veer almost directly North, North East toward Pt Robert.

The distance of the Cut Run from The Cut to the finish at Doddies beach is approx 12.5 km. The average time taken by the quickest of the Cut Crew being around the 48 - 50 minute mark, with top speeds of doubles being around 30kmh and singles the low 20’s. The average speed of a double has been recorded lately at around 16kmh with a low of 13kmh, while singles have averaged from 10kmh to around 14kmh.

As the Cut Run can be paddled in wind conditions ranging from Southerly to South Westerly it suits the directions of the Perth Seabreeze (aka The Fremantle Doctor) perfectly. A wind speed of 15 – 18 knots often produces beautifully clean runs and faster average speeds than the stronger winds of 25 – 30 knots which although producing bigger runs at points along the course, don’t necessarily add up to faster times or as clean a run. This admittedly is in the experience of the Cut Crew, who don’t profess to be world class by any stretch of the imagination, except when the beers are flowing.

The following features make this an ideal run for paddlers of all abilities;

The ease of launch even in strong wind conditions.

The entire shoreline is accessible by streets following the coast.

If a paddler feels more comfortable paddling reasonably close to shore, they can still get onto enjoyable runs and as their confidence and skill level develops they are able to venture either further out from shore or over the reef to take on the bigger more exciting ones.

The combination of the wind and swell direction tends to push the paddler toward shore to a degree so that if they make the choice for whatever reason to bail, they can fairly easily do so, taking care to exit at a break in the reef, at almost any point along the run (this doesn’t mean that they won’t cop flack from the rest of the Crew, but the option is there).

The end of the run is easily identified without the need of a GPS by Point Robert at the Northern end of Falcon Bay.

At the finish of the run the paddler is greeted with the Reef Marker off Point Robert, marking the point at which the paddler leaves the seabreeze (they may need to exercise care here if the swell is running) and enters the sheltered coastline of Doddies Beach, a good point to regroup, count heads and head back for any stragglers.

The landing at Doddies Beach calls for little if any skills in negotiating surf breaks and paddlers can easily leave the water at their leisure. This is also the home of the MOC, the Mandurah Ocean Club, formerly a dedicated outrigger club that has welcomed surf ski and SUP paddlers. The Organisers of the Mandurah Duel race.

The drive from the finish at Doddies Beach to the start of the run at the Cut can be done in approx 15 minutes, making it the perfect run to do after work or without eating into family obligations too much on weekends, or public holidays. The Cut Crew have been known to do this run 4-5 times in a week when the conditions are favourable, which is often in this part of W.A..

For some of the action see below:

Sounds like a good crew Mav

My old man lives in Falcon and I've been thinking of doing that run when I was using my Endorphin. Might have to join you blokes for a run now that I have my V10L. If ya don't mind the out of towners!

Cheers
Riggers

No worries Riggers, my email is This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. If you go to the Mandurah Outrigger Club website you'll see more good videos and entry details for the Mandurah Duel.

Hey Maverick - great stuff, thanks for posting.
any chance of getting a GPS track/google map image/ a few pics for this and I'll stick it up as a proper article?
Rob

Hey Rob
This might help....
connect.garmin.com/activity/58632190 & Yesterdays run was pretty sweet too! .......
connect.garmin.com/activity/65299683

' gearing up for our event on Saturday - The Mandurah Duel
mandurahduel.blogspot.com/

I'm sure Mav or Rookie will upload some pics soon !

The Fireman aka Dolph Lundgren aka Big Ads

Seems the weather just wont play ball, after ideal conditions for weeks now the cyclone or now tropical low up north is throwing a spanner in the works Could it be that the race is reversed??? If so the Estuary paddlers would have to be favourites

Just checked out the clubs website, great to see they now have a relationship with canoeing WA so ski paddlers who join them are also eligible for Canoing WA events. I see they are also building a boat storage shed

If nothing else this event should see a lot more ski paddlers joining the club! The videos posted are a great recruiting tool

Yes I'm sorry to say that due to the impending cyclone that has been forecast to hit the Perth - Bunbury region on Sunday, the event has been postponed for one week, stay tuned, the updates of the correct date will be on the event website and on facebook, "Rather Be Paddling" etc.

Big thumbs up to the "Cut Crew" for making me feel welcome on Monday arvo for the Cut run.


Being able to throw all our 11 boats on two cars and a trailer for the drive to the start was great and the common sense organisation at the start getting us grouped up was reassuring for those of us who hadnt paddled this bit of the ocean before

I had a fantastic time and am certainly "hooked", it's going to be hard maintaining my other training this year now that I've got the downwind bug

I can see once word spreads this is an "Ocean Club" now and not just a outrigger club that tolerates paddlers and SUP's the club will boom! The position and facilities are exceptional

facebook page

Forecast for this Thursday looking... "As good as it gets"

Sorry, nothing to do with this thread -per se-, but what website is the swell/wind graph from?! Looks great -in color, correlating waves/wind/weather...
Have fun Thursday, you lucky Westerners! I've been using WillyWeather, which isn't bad, but your graph looks better.
Cheers-

www.seabreeze.com.au/default.asp