Wiki Factory Racing

This year I got invited to be in a competitive team by Tim Farrant which included a few GODZone competitors such as Elisha Nuttall and Ben Gibson. Due to my current lack of fitness and lack of time on my feet, I went into the event pretty nervous about my ability to survive 24 hours on my feet let alone in a fast team which would be running a lot of the event. Due to the nature of the event, we had no idea where we were off to when loaded onto the buses Saturday morning, but I had heard rumors of the event being held in the Ashburton lakes region which turned out to be correct. Another major part of this event is the fact that the majority of teams dress up in costumes for the first leg. Our team decided to go for Cadbury Favourites as the theme for our costume which not only looked impressive but also worked as some protection from the masses of matagouri bushes which always seem to feature in a Twalk course. The first leg was held from Lake Camp back to the sealed road via Lak

On sunday the 11th (Mothers Day)((Sorry Mum!!!)), the Down River Kayak Club held an upstream race on the Waimak down by the motorway bridge. The course was a loop with paddlers going roughly 3km upstream before turning around and paddling back down to the finish. Despite a small field, the handicap nature of the race still ensured that everyone made an honest effort to either try and prevent getting caught or prevent slower paddlers from beating them to the line. I started in the 3rd wave, 6 minutes down on the first group of paddlers with only the always flying Ian Huntsman behind me. Despite my best effort it is always a huge ask to hold off Ian, especially when he is using his K1 just for a bit of fun. In the end I managed to paddle down everyone who started in front of me to finish in 2nd overall which I was pretty pleased with. It still showed however that I have a lot of work to do in the boat to achieve the kind of results I want to be.