Topsport Prologue Series #1

 With my K2 partner heading to South Africa to see family and do some racing (lucky bastard), I finally lined up at a major race as a solo competitor. With hand surgery in a couple of weeks potentially wiping out the next few months of races, I wasn't sure whether I'd even bother to enter this race but the racing bug bit hard! 

While it was a warm morning, the wind was blowing hard! It was enough to make me slightly concerned about parts of the course, so I felt pretty bad for the novices, they were certainly in for a wake up call on what the Waimak can be like on race day! In the wind storm that was the 2011 Coast to Coast, I had managed to get to Woodstock dry, before swimming many many times in this final 15km due to the wind. There's really only two strategies for wind, paddle at the speed of it (or faster) so it doesn't impact you, or be at the heavier end of the scale so it doesn't affect you as badly. Unfortunately most of the time both of these strategies are not options, so us lighter paddlers get slammed by the conditions.

I've been fortunate enough to start a relationship with Carbonology Sport NZ over the past few months after they imported my K2 from South Africa. If anyone is looking for a surf ski, K1, K2 or river boat I'd definitely recommend having a chat to them. There isn't a single company in NZ that is producing boats to the same high standard while also being really good value for money. For this race I was trialing out the Carbonology River Vault as I didn't feel comfortable enough to use my K1 in the forecasted conditions. I'm pretty pleased I made the decision as the boat was a dream to paddle. The hull is honestly a game changer for multisport paddlers with how it handles downriver. Below are my thoughts after the initial test paddle before the race:

"Super impressive boat on moving water. It doesn't get grabbed by eddy lines or boils so you can just keep paddling straight through with so much confidence. Handles nicely through wave trains, and isn't pushed around by the wind like other boats. That hull is a game changer for the seasoned multisporter. I don't think I've paddled a boat downriver as nice."

Currently the demo boat is laid out like a surf ski, which has it's benefits for most paddlers. If you happen to fall off, you can just jump straight back on and not need to worry about emptying your boat. This saves valuable time and also means you can get moving again sooner which is likely to help keep you warm and use less energy. It also means with one boat you can train on flat water, moving water, or in the ocean. Owning a versatile boat means your training can be more interesting by adding variety to your typical training locations. And finally, while instructing I always found that the one thing most people were concerned about was tipping over and getting trapped. With this boat being effectively a sit on top, this isn't an issue which should help with peoples confidence, increasing the effort they will put into paddling. The one downside is your legs will get splashed alot more than the "classical" multisport kayak, however if there is enough interest, I hear Carbonology are willing to adapt the boats to have a cockpit. Reach out if you're interested in giving the boat a try! 

Carbonology River Vault enjoying the morning glow

With the effort and hours I have put into training over the past 7 months, I was really expecting a result I'd be happy with. In this time I have done over 2000km of paddling, mostly on flat water meaning there was little assistance to make the kilometers go by faster. Overall the race started well, I timed peeling out of the eddy nicely to start perfectly, and found myself at the front of the field moving along quite nicely. 

Unfortunately quite nicely wasn't quite enough to maintain a spot at the front of the field. While the mind was willing to push hard and suffer, the body didn't come to the party and I was slowly passed, one by one. All I could do was focus on choosing good lines down the river and hope that I would warm up into the effort so I could pick up the pace further downstream. 

The wind was certainly noticeable, and the pace of the field was high as a result. I can't recall too many moments where I've been on a river with small swells rolling downstream due to the wind, and there was certainly some associated carnage due to it! The novice field had started 5 minutes before us, and within the first 5km I would have seen roughly 20 swimmers who had been blown out by the wind.

By halfway the leaders had disappeared from view and my heart rate continued to decline as I was unable to push. I'm still not quite sure what happened. Did I start too fast? Am I fatigued from the amount of training? Did I have a slight cold? Or was it just the result of a long week at work and weather impacting my key pre-race sessions? 

I never found my rhythm and the finish line certainly couldn't come fast enough! I definitely didn't do the boat justice, but given the conditions and how I performed, ticking off 14km in 44 minutes, averaging 19kph wasn't too bad at all. I've had a look through my past paddles down this section and I can't recall ever doing a sub 50 minute paddle so it highlights just how fast the conditions were and the competition on the day. 

I'm certainly disappointed by 8th Open Men, 14th Overall. I feel like I'm capable of more and unfortunately may not get the chance to prove it for awhile as the attention now turns towards hand surgery and the associated recovery.