Sunday
Race 5 Dunedin Winter Kayak Series - Henly-Taieri Mouth 17km
Well race 5 of the winter series was on Sunday 15th August and the competition seems to get a bit tougher and closer each race. This race doubled as the Otago K1 Marathon race series so there were a few extra fast paddlers there in their K1s on the start line. This race used a handicap starting system. Having done well in the previous races in the series coming in 1st multisport boat in each of them I had earned myself a 34 minute handicap delay on the starting paddlers. I would have liked to be in one of the earlier handicap time groups with the other multisport boats but found myselfthe only multisport boat lined up in my UFO alongside all other K1s - It was always going to be a tough call to stick with them but I hammered the best I could in a hope to reel in some of the earlier starters throughout the course of the paddle. It was slack water on high tide at the start but by the time we turned under the bridge at Taieri Mouth to race back up through the gorge the tide was flowing out and the use of eddies and river currents proved decisive. The handicapping system made for an exciting finish catching many boats towards the end, competing for line honours. Being on the 34min handicap I had to work hard to make up ground on the paddlers before me and try to minimise my losses to the K1s. I finished up 2nd Multisport Paddler and had the 10th Fastest time of the day to all the K1s and the 1 other multisport paddler who held out 2 minutes on me. A great blast and a good way to keep things honest over the winter months in the kayak! full results can be viewed at http://www.kayakotago.org/events/calendar.html
Race 4 Dunedin Winter Kayak Series Sunday 18th July
Henley to John Bully Gully and return – 13km
Well after missing race 3 of the series I was back to try and hold onto the good finishes I had had in the first 2 races of the series. My goal has been to be the first multisport boat paddler in my trusty UFO finished in each race while staying as close to and getting in front of as many K1 paddlers as possible. Races 1 & 2 saw me achieve this and finishing amongst the K1’s and Surf club ski paddlers in 5th and 6th respectively.
Raced 4 had a slight course change at the last minute due to a Jet boat race on the same waterways, after some discussions with the Jet Boat racers a course was decided that would see us all avoid each other out on the river, which is good because a massively powerful V8 jet boat is going to win over a thin piece of paddle powered carbon any day!
The race was a mass start and as always I like to get a solid break on other boats from the start before settling into a good rhythm for the rest of the race. We were off and I found my self doing a bit of wash hanging on 2 K1’s and we had one in the distance that we were never going to be able to catch. So I hung tight with the 2 K1 paddlers and worked at almost maximal effort to stay on their tails all the way down to the turn point – my paddle was hammering a solid cadence all the way and feeling pretty good. A the turn point we had to exit our boats and run up and around a picnic table on the river side before getting back in our boats and heading back to the finish. I had a bit of a slip running up the grass and a slow transition here so missed the 2 boats I had been paddling with.
Heading back I could see that we had built a good comfortable lead on the chasing 23 odd paddlers behind us. I worked hard to keep up a good paddle turn over and most of all good technique. As the fatigue of working at almost maximal effort sets in sometimes techniques drops and with this speed drops too, so well aware of this I kept good technique focus on my stroke for the return leg.
Heading back in the distance I heard the roar of about 20 jet boat engines and could see a big group of rooster tails coming from boats heading my way, I glanced to my left and saw a buoy in the water and suddenly clicked that the buoy would be the turning point for the jet boat race. My heart rate stepped into overdrive along with my boat speed – I had a vision of 20 jet boats mowing me down and that being the end!! The boat drivers are very skills and alert and zoomed down and around the buoy and back up the river while I was in the middle of the river they zoomed past and made some good chop, but all was safe, I hammered it out to the finish from here to finish 4th in a time of 1hr9min, 2min off 2nd and 3rd. A good paddle, the next race of the series has a handicap start system so I will need to work hard there as good finish places mean longer handicap times at the start. Anyway a good blast for a mid winters morning.
Well after missing race 3 of the series I was back to try and hold onto the good finishes I had had in the first 2 races of the series. My goal has been to be the first multisport boat paddler in my trusty UFO finished in each race while staying as close to and getting in front of as many K1 paddlers as possible. Races 1 & 2 saw me achieve this and finishing amongst the K1’s and Surf club ski paddlers in 5th and 6th respectively.
Raced 4 had a slight course change at the last minute due to a Jet boat race on the same waterways, after some discussions with the Jet Boat racers a course was decided that would see us all avoid each other out on the river, which is good because a massively powerful V8 jet boat is going to win over a thin piece of paddle powered carbon any day!
The race was a mass start and as always I like to get a solid break on other boats from the start before settling into a good rhythm for the rest of the race. We were off and I found my self doing a bit of wash hanging on 2 K1’s and we had one in the distance that we were never going to be able to catch. So I hung tight with the 2 K1 paddlers and worked at almost maximal effort to stay on their tails all the way down to the turn point – my paddle was hammering a solid cadence all the way and feeling pretty good. A the turn point we had to exit our boats and run up and around a picnic table on the river side before getting back in our boats and heading back to the finish. I had a bit of a slip running up the grass and a slow transition here so missed the 2 boats I had been paddling with.
Heading back I could see that we had built a good comfortable lead on the chasing 23 odd paddlers behind us. I worked hard to keep up a good paddle turn over and most of all good technique. As the fatigue of working at almost maximal effort sets in sometimes techniques drops and with this speed drops too, so well aware of this I kept good technique focus on my stroke for the return leg.
Heading back in the distance I heard the roar of about 20 jet boat engines and could see a big group of rooster tails coming from boats heading my way, I glanced to my left and saw a buoy in the water and suddenly clicked that the buoy would be the turning point for the jet boat race. My heart rate stepped into overdrive along with my boat speed – I had a vision of 20 jet boats mowing me down and that being the end!! The boat drivers are very skills and alert and zoomed down and around the buoy and back up the river while I was in the middle of the river they zoomed past and made some good chop, but all was safe, I hammered it out to the finish from here to finish 4th in a time of 1hr9min, 2min off 2nd and 3rd. A good paddle, the next race of the series has a handicap start system so I will need to work hard there as good finish places mean longer handicap times at the start. Anyway a good blast for a mid winters morning.
Race 5 Dunedin Winter Multisport Series 27th June
A great race out at Macandrew Bay. A solid Kayak saw me finish the 10km paddle in 3rd place and then onto a solid MTB up and over the peninsula hills and onto the final 10km run from Lovers Leap down through Sandfly Bay and back up over the Harbour hills and down to Mac Bay to finish. I lost 3 spots on the MTB to end up finishing 6th in a time of 3hrs 11min, a good sold race.
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