Firstly, thanks to Phill & Kristi for ensuring the paddle could go ahead !! (Phill on logistics and camera, and Kristi on the C4 Vortice Rocket ! - Pics to follow from Phill & Kristi !?).
We had a very successful DW run today. We waited for the WSW to kick in, and monitored the wind at Warnambool, Port Fairy, Port Campbell, Apollo Bay, Camperdown, Colac, Lorne, Aireys, etc, to determine that the wind change and front, was going to stay on course, and it did !
We knew the first 1/3 was going to be pretty flat, waiting for the runners to increase in size, as we got further off shore. We also knew the last 1/10 would be shallow, and would not produce much. And we got kind of lucky with a nice storm front when we were about 2/3 through, and we had 5 minutes of great runners, running up and down the board, getting pretty busy with the foot work ! I remember looking to my right while surfing a runner, and seeing a seemingly endless wall of running waves.
The nose of the Naish 14 even went under a few times, and popped back up pretty quickly. Short wave periods, so sometimes a runner pushes the nose into the back of the runner in front.... but you can still sit there, and continue to run, with the nose resting on the back of the wave in front.
Thanks again Phill & Kristi !! 
A kayaker on a Fenn even came along to join us, and peeled back to Geelong before the fun started !
(the course below - bang on 6km)
Below, other future options....
good to hear you guys had a good run. the back of the runner infront is where you wont to be- it kinda sucks the board along. you just watch and time it - tap a bit when you need too, back off a bit sometimes too or go for it and jump on the next one in front or zig zag to find those 'troughs'
makes dw ing so much fun. how did kristie go?did she pick it up what you were doing. look forward to the photo's
cheers
Yes, Kristi was fine ! She fell in only once, but I didn't go in, so I slowly cooked in the (dry) wetsuit... We paddled as a pair, and I didn't get more than 50m ahead, and easily put my feet in for a few moments on 2 occasions, to regroup.
I had to laugh, Phill and I had been discussing routes, and forgot to mention it to Kristi !! And shortly into the paddle, out popped the question, "so where are we actually going!?" 
I remember the last time you did the Corio run you said that the shallow water caused a problem with runners. I would have thought that shallower water would have improved the chances of getting on to runners. Are there any runner experts who can explain the need for deeper water and catching runners?
The last downwinder I did was in 3m swells with a good 20-25kn wind behind me in deep water. While the swells were good the runner action was deceptive, difficult to really catch the big swells. It just felt like going up and down a floor in an elevator - two steps forward, one step back. Getting close to shore however, with the shallower water the swell seemed to really jack up.
I've done plenty of them in Port Philip Bay, where I guess the water is reasonably deep and the wind and swells just seem to work to make some good consistant runners, I do notice that when the water gets shallower the runners are better - ie around green point.
I'm just curious why as to why Simondo raised the point some months back about shallow water killing the runner action.
The shallow water seems to prevent the runners from forming (and rolling), but would help them to stand up. That route that DJ & I did was on constant shallow water, so they never really formed properly.
Today's route had a decent long run of deeper water. Below is an old depth indicator map, and the route we took in a moderately strong SE. Our route tracked over some of the shallowest parts of the bay that day !!
Today's route was over deeper water.
That day, we were most definitely in the wind shadow of that shallow shoal, off the tip of Point Henry, and that shallow shoal was probably largely responsible for the runners not running through....
yeah that makes sense, the wind pushes the water along and if the wind is coming from some deeper water it allows it to form some ground swells - kind of obvious. If the whole route is in shallow water the ground swell doesn't ever get the chance to form and express itself fully.
Ok, I think I've worked out that little conundrum I was having.
Awesome afternoon Simon a couple of pics from the take off.
Simmondo and the Big Banana
Kristi hangin out on the red rocket
Heading off through the yacht pens
looking forward to the next one
Phill and Kristi
Great Phill.. You guys will have to come up for a Melbourne Maliko run one day soon now that Kristi has that board.. 
DJ
