Well i headed out to Henly for one of the winter Kayak series races yesterday. It was a 16km paddle to to Taieri Mouth and Back. I have had a few paddles in the boat over the last months and am building back some tummy strength ok, so i thought it would be good to head out and race to see where things are at. A fantastic morning weatherwise and there were about 40 kayakers there at the race which was fantastic to see.
The race was a Handicap start based on Boats pretty much so i was in the 35min+ group and had the 40min group f the K1 surf club guys behind me which was goint ot be a challenge to hold them off to the finish. We took off from Henly bridge to Taieri Mouth and there was a good outgoing tide flow so the trip down the river was pretty quick - i lead our bunch unaware that when i looked over my shoulder at the Taieri Mouth turn around there were a string of 5 boats behind me - including one double! After the turn around i tried to put the hammer down a bit and some of the washriders dropped away to leave me, the Double and one other, we worked hard all the way back and i started to fade with 2-3km to go from the end, but we had passed most of the earlier markers by then, the double put in a solid finish pulling away from me 500m from the end and the other paddler got 40m on me, blasting to the finish it felt like my paddle was being dragged through concrete but i managed to hold off the K1s from the 40min group.
All up a solid paddle and felt really good, so the build back into things is going well. I finished 6th Overall from the Handicap start system, 5th MAn and had the 10th fastest paddle of the day. So all good!!
Winter Kayak Series Race 4 9th August 2009
