This is a special newsletter as it is my 777th one.

I would hate to think how many hours I have spent collecting the information and putting it all together, but it's been fun.

It was a big week for Down Wind Paddlers with all the races and The Doctor Race, Rottnest to Sorrento.

There was a lot of money to win. 
A few top paddlers went home very happy.

• Ben Sainsbury - World Champ
• Rottnest Race
• Pairs Enduro
• Birds Along The Way
• Canning River Race - Marathon WA
• Coming Events

Rainbow Bee-eater.

Ben Sainsbury

World Champion

I first met Ben when he was learning to paddle a kayak in October/November 2019. He was being trained by Jesse Philips, Ramon Anderson & Demi O’Brian at Ascot Kayak Club. He was paddling up and down along the bank. Considering he had no feeling below his chest he was paddling extremely well. Ben was being trained for the Para-Olympics in late August 2020, about 9 months away, which wasn’t a long time to reach the standard needed to qualify. He didn’t quite make the Olympic team, but this year he became a World Champion. 
 4th September 2019

This time 2 years ago I was in a helicopter on my way to Royal Perth Hospital in a very bad way with no feeling from my waist down. I laid there thinking everything in life had been taken away from me, everything I had dreamt and worked for my whole life was gone. 

One of the things that got me through that helicopter ride was something Luke Davis said to me which was “it’s just spinal shock buddy I’ve had this before, everything will be okay”.

This definitely made my first few days a lot easier knowing there was still hope. 

Although the three months of being in hospital was hard, especially seeing how it affected my family and everyone around me, the thing that got me through this situation was definitely the motocross community. It made me love the sport even more seeing how much they all got around me and did anything they could to help. 

Ben in hospital.

But most of all the main thing that got me through it was my family! I would never be able to express how thankful I am to have the family I do and what they have done and still do for me. Although at the time I thought I had lost everything, I couldn’t have been more wrong. I’m still here with my loving family and friends. I might have lost motocross, walking and lot of other things that day, but I’ve now realised there is a lot more to life than those things. 
This time 2 years ago I definitely didn’t see myself training at WAIS 6 days a week, travelling around the nation as a wheelchair basketball player. I can’t begin to thank Brad Ness enough for giving me this new opportunity of life. I’m definitely not going to let this injury put a negative on my life and I’m going to embrace it. Let it be a foundation to creating amazing new dreams and goals. I just want to say a massive thank you to everyone that has stuck behind me, helped and supported me. Keen to have you all part of this new Journey and see where we can take it.

Ben was training for the final State motorcross round in Henderson.

During his warm-up laps he was sent over the handlebars, landing head first, with his back taking the impact of his motorbike.

Despite wearing the best safety gear, Ben sustained broken ribs, a torn spleen and serious spinal cord damage.
Due to Ben’s injuries, he has no feeling from his chest down.

Getting involved in Para-sport was a key element in Sainsbury’s recovery. He spent four months in hospital after his accident when he was 17. The injuries were so severe that, he said, paraplegia wasn’t the doctors’ biggest concern. He became heavily invested in his rehabilitation, which provided a distraction but stopped him from truly acknowledging what had happened.
“I’d trained my whole life to become a motocross rider and knowing I wasn’t going to ride again probably hit me more than being told I’d never walk again,” he said. “It goes to show what motocross meant to me. It was more than a sport, it was my way of life.”
Sainsbury completed Year 12 and a diploma of engineering. But he was an athlete at heart and wanted to experience physical competition again.
“I looked at some motorsport options but then I was given the opportunity to try wheelchair basketball,” he said. “I didn’t really want to do it because there was that stigma that, if you have an accident, you get into Para-sport because it’s an easy avenue and easy to do well.
“But with wheelchair basketball, I saw how much they were training and saw it was just as hard as an able-bodied sport at the top. That’s when I thought I wanted to be involved. It also made me realise there were people in a similar situation to me or worse. It put things in perspective.”

Sainsbury made the Australian U23s but, coming from motocross, he sought an individual sport. He tried Para-canoe and immediately felt at home.
“It sort of felt like an escape from my disability. To the naked eye you can’t tell the difference between me in a kayak and anyone else in a kayak. I really enjoy that. So all that together, it just felt like the right challenge. It’s a damn hard sport and it’s a bit more like motocross – I was behind that start gate again. I’ve got a massive passion for it now.”
He also has a massive passion for mental health and shares his experiences at schools and rehab units.
“In the months afterwards, I thought I was being strong by not showing emotion and I thought I was making my family feel a bit better too,” he said. “I thought if it looks like I’m dealing with it well, then they’ll deal with it well. But then I realised it just made things harder because they became worried that I was being quiet and wasn’t processing it.
“I had my accident in 2017 and didn’t cry about it until 2019. I was on a basketball tour and the tiniest little thing broke me down. I was travelling around playing sport, things were going well, but it had all built up so much that I couldn’t handle it anymore and I had a breakdown.
“I was suffering depression, I’d shut my family out and became suicidal. I’d let everything build up but eventually it comes back and you have to deal with it.
“Once I spoke to the right people I was able to connect with my friends and family again and I finally came to terms with what had happened. I felt like I could move forward with life. Now it’s about taking the opportunities I have and making the most of them. That’s the best thing for my mental health.”
To stay the best in the world Sainsbury does three sessions a day, including gym cross-training. He described the Western Australian Institute of Sport program under Ramon Andersson as “next level” and feels fortunate to have strength and conditioning coaching, sport science, psychology and dietician support.
He may wonder what could have been in his motocross career, but those early days competing in country WA taught him well.
“It gave me a really good base,” he said. “It’s a sport where you need to have a lot of respect for your bike and it’s not a cheap sport, so you learn to respect what you’ve been given.
“My parents didn’t have to buy those bikes and take me everywhere so I could race. They did it because they love me. Dad always told me, ‘I’m taking you out to the track, so you give 100 percent and make the most of it’.
“I’ve taken those lessons into Para-sport. I have coaches offering me the best they can, giving me their time, so you have to give them the respect of doing everything you can to be the best you can be.”
Sainsbury’s remarkable maturity, mixed with his skill and passion for Para-canoe, places him well to become a star of the Australian Paralympic Team en route to the Games in 2024.
“It’s really good to be back in a high performance environment,” he said. “It feels normal again being an athlete. It’s in me, the drive’s there, so I want to use it.”

Ben started paddling a kayak in October 2019 and started paddling an outrigger in later 2020.

At the start gate for the VL1 200 final at the World Championships in Canada in August, Ben Sainsbury experienced an eerily familiar feeling.
Emotions were high after a pep-talk from coach Shaun Caven, in which Caven recalled how in 2019, two years after Sainsbury acquired paraplegia in a motocross accident, he could barely paddle 20 metres without capsizing.
“Look where we are,” the coach said. “Look what you’ve got through.”
Sainsbury thought back to his motocross days, which began when he was just four. Countless times he’d been behind a start line ready to give everything in the hope of becoming the best and representing Australia.
Now, in a different sport under different circumstances, his time had come.
“At the start gates I couldn’t help but think it was all quite familiar,” Sainsbury said. “I knew what it felt like and how to deal with the pressure. I knew what I had to do. ”
The 21-year-old from Karnup, south of Perth, burst out of the blocks and powered down the course, stunning his opponents to win.
“I was World Champion and I remember just looking up and taking a deep breath. I felt like I’d done something that made all the pain and struggles of what I’d gone through with my accident somehow worth it. I gave my family something to celebrate after everything they’d been through. Bad things happen, but sometimes maybe they’re not as bad as we think they are.”

Getting involved in Para-sport was a key element in Sainsbury’s recovery. 

Having only taken up the kayak sport in October 2019, outrigger in late 2020 and on his international debut, Western Australia’s Ben Sainsbury secured a gold, winning the men’s VL1 200 at the ICF World Cup in Poznan, Poland.

Gold Medal. Canada World Champs.

Oh what a feeling, nearly 5 years ago I was laying in a hospital bed with my life turned upside down, to sit here today in Canada and to be crowned a world champion is crazy. I guess as much as sometimes things are really hard to swallow and deal with in the moment, everything really does happen for a reason.

Paracanoe rising star Ben Sainsbury took out the Athlete of the Year (Paracanoe), after bursting onto the scene at the 2022 ICF Canoe Sprint and Paracanoe World Championships.

The 21-year-old, who hails from Western Australia, won gold in his international debut, in the men’s VL1 200.

(Shaun Caven is the Paralympic Canoe Sprint - Head Coach at Paddle Australia)

Who's Out There

Nicky Pope.

You can catch Nicky & Andrew paddling around the slalom poles at Ascot Kayak Club.

They were the reason we have two of Australia's best slalom paddlers in WA.

Ben has been living in Sydney for the last few years and has been representing Australia at World Championships and is working his way to the Olympics.

Cody works hard on the slalom course here in WA and coaches other slalom paddlers to become champions.

Andrew Pope

Ben and Cody Pope

The Doctor Race

Rottnest to Sorrento

Kenny Rice from South Africa won the race and five of the top six paddlers were from South Africa.

There were lots of dollars to be won.

Results here:

https://bluechipresults.com.au/results.aspx?CId=11&RId=1567&EId=5

Paddlers gather on Rottnest beach.
Photo John O'Sullivan.

They are off earlier than most expected.
Photo John O'Sullivan.

A group head out of the bay.

Photo John O'Sullivan.

A paddler surfs a wave.

Photo John O'Sullivan.

Pairs Enduro

The idea of this race is to paddle in pairs and work as a team by wash riding each other and try to create a maximum speed to beat others. 

John Liso and Jeannette Busch.

Photo Peter Martin

Matilda Reekie & Taya Cassidy.

Photo Peter Martin

Ross Burdett & Terry Bolland.

These two old guys beat the young pair of Sharon and Jayden below.

Photo Peter Martin

Sharon Cobley & Jayden O'brien.

Photo Peter Martin.

Olivia Berson & Abbey Major.

Photo Peter Martin.

Craig Elliott & Brett McDonald.

Photo Peter Martin.

Stephan Weyers & Mitchell Tamblin.

First place.

Photo Peter Martin

Craig Elliott & Brett McDonald and David Ahmed & Alex Pawlow over 40+ second and first places.

Open Male - Mitchell Tamblin & Stephan Weyers.
Open Female - Olivia Berson & Abbey Major.
Open Mixed - Jane Pankhurst & Joshua Richards.
Other Results Here:

https://www.webscorer.com/race?raceid=298938

Birds Along The Way

Sacred Kingfisher

Rainbow Bee-eater.

Rainbow bee-eaters select a suitable nesting site in a sandy bank and dig a tunnel leading to a nesting chamber, which is often lined with grasses.

A young spoonbill crosses the river from his nest to explore another perch just before a storm.

Waiting for their parents to bring some food.

Pelicans grooming themselves.

Spotted Dove.

They were introduced from south-east Asia and the Indian subcontinent.

Darters drying out.

Four young darters in the nest.

Corella

2023 Australian Wildwater Championships
3rd - 5th March 2023 | Penrith, NSW

The 2023 Australian Wildwater Championships have been relocated to Penrith Whitewater Stadium in NSW, from the 3rd to 5th March.

The Sprint event will take place on the whitewater stadium, while the Classic course is still being confirmed.