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