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I had a hard training session last night doing the Island 1.8km Sprints at Ascot. It's certainly a good workout especially if you have someone there just a little faster than you. I was even a bit stiff this morning on my 11km
paddle. Must be getting old. This weekend we have the Mandurah Canals Race and the following weekend the 28km City Lights Race which is always tough. Then two weeks after there is the State Marathon Champs and the following week the Australian Sprint Championships which are in Perth. So it's going to be a hard
month of paddling. The Sea Kayak Fest is on at Albany on the Long Weekend in March. The 2023 Australian Canoe Wildwater Championships are scheduled from 4 – 5 March at
Penrith.
For the Downwind Paddlers they will be getting prepared for the World Downwind Champs that are here in Perth later in the year.
- Dolphins
- Richard Barnes Paddles to NZ
- Joe & Gordon at
the Dusi River Race
- Australian Marathon Champs
- Who's Out There
- Sprint #4 Regatta
- Paddle WA Come & Try & Basic Skills Course
Paddle WA Positions Vacant - Drummers Downwind Run
- Sydney's Regatta Centre & White Water Park 6.7 million up-grade
- Birds Along The Way
Coming Events
It was pretty windy Thursday morning but after a 12km training session I got a little reward for my hard work. Passing Sandy Beach and heading towards Ascot I met Stephen Chin who appeared to be otherwise occupied. Then he told me there were dolphins.
At the same time the junior dolphin surfaced just behind him. Then the parent showed itself. I managed to get a couple of photos but it was hard as they kept popping up at places that were too difficult to take a good photo in my K1. Eventually they put on a bit of speed and headed upstream of Sandy Beach and into a much windier part of the
river. They played hide and seek with us for a while surfacing all around us. The parent even jumped clean out of the water, but now it was even more difficult to take a photo with the strong wind and river waves upsetting my balance. Eventually I decided to turn and head for home leaving Stephen to follow them further up-river. The dolphins have been pretty active in this section of river in the last two weeks giving us a show on Saturday and a few days previous. Lets hope they keep coming back.
This is a photo of the dolphin I saw on Thursday.
These are photos of the same or a similar dolphin I took in 2008.
Could it be the same dolphin? In 2008 we called this dolphin Nick. We would see it quite often.
Richard Barnes Arrives In New Zealand
Richard
Barnes
has successfully kayaked 2,000km across the Tasman Sea, between Australia and New Zealand. The 62-year-old landed in New Zealand after 67 days at sea. He began his journey from
Hobart, on the Australian island of Tasmania. “There’s been a lot of quiet moments, [and] a lot of rough moments,” Barnes admitted when he arrived.
This was Barnes’s second attempt at the crossing. In 2021, he had to give up after 75 days because of Cyclone Seth.
This time, he took a slightly different route
across The Ditch. Previously, he set off from mainland Australia bound for New Plymouth, on New Zealand’s North Island. This time, he took a more southerly route, from Hobart to Riverton, on New Zealand’s South Island.
South Africa's Dusi Race. WAs Joe Dowse and Gordon Lentz took on the iconic race. Joe on the The Dusi Competing in the Dusi has been a childhood dream of mine since
meeting the South Africans who would come over to do the Liffey Descent in Ireland every September. They talked about this mystical three day event like it was some holy grail of canoeing, the pinnacle of mad white water marathon canoeing, and like a love sick silly teenager I was in awe. I had managed to persuade Gordon Lentz to paddle with me, and being an ex-south African who had actually paddled the Dusi twice, even his words of caution and good counsel still had not convinced me to be
sensible and stay at home. Day 1 Well fast forward 40 years, and I found myself on the top of a hill in the morning light waiting for the starters gun with a mixture of fear, trepidation, excitement and sweat.
We were in group G with the rest of our age group and some long term Dusi veterans who looked apprehensive, which did not sage my nerves very well. So the gun goes and we start off running, the start had been moved down stream to begin with a portage due to poor water quality, (a darn long 3.5 km long portage, it might be said). We started strong and with a steady jog were in second position before a naive mistake had one of our paddles fall out. We dropped the boat with a bang and rushed
to put the paddle back in and then started jogging along to catch up. Before the thorn bushes we were back in 4th place as we pushed and shoved our way (well I did, Gordon is too nice) to second place before the first water put in. We then started to battle the Msundusi waters. It was fast moving, muddy and full of technical lines, which we really did not
know, but we just bludgeoned our way through the wave trains and rock slides as best we could. We dragged ourselves through the portages and only had one swim and a folded boat on a nasty rock towards the end, but we made it to the finish line and the boat was sent to be repaired along with about 50 others. Overall, day one was an immersion in portages and wave trains, but we were so glad we had got a kevlar hull to take the punishment served out by the granite boulders and rock rapids that make
up the last 10 km of the race. The paddling was amazing, lots of really challenging rapids, big borders, stoppers, rock drops and rock slides, but the portages were hell on earth. Up steep hills with thorn bushes, wild animals, slippery rocks and mud, we really struggled, but one foot in front of the other was the only way forward and we finally got there. The rapids we managed to overcome had names like Devils Cauldron, the Mission, the Maze etc and they lived up to their names. The African sun
is also relentless and lucky our zinc cream stayed on or we would have been toast. The good news was we were second in our age category, but the first team must be really top paddlers as they had 25 minutes on us as they ran the portages. They must have legs of steel.
Joe Dowse and Gordon Lentz competing in the Dusi.
At Mission Rapid. Day 2 The day was in two
half's. The first was fast and incident free. We were second off the line to the Dusi bridge portage, and then has a good double portage at Saddles hill before hitting the big grey water from the Mgeni river at the confluence. We shot all the big rapids and Gordon was solid as a rock in the back seat keeping us up as I disappeared into stopper hole after stopper hole. Then the day changed. We had the cauldron portage which sapped us dry of energy and will to live. It was up a slippery hill side
with mud and horrid thorny bushes and the heat and humidity did not help. From there we were dog tired and then we had another soul sapping 4km portage around the washing machine rapid as it was deemed too dangerous to even attempt. Unbeknownst to us we must have damaged our rudder as after that we went down a series of rapids and half way down the rudder kicked up and locked so we had no steerage and in a second we were sideways into a long wave train. We fought it hard, but we
disappeared sideways in to a deep stopper and over we went. It took us about 15 mins to find each other and the boat which now has bust seams. We continued on and made it to about the 30km mark before the rudder did the same trick and we got shot up on a big rock and had a painful swim. Think bashed bones and granite skin scrapes, and this time the boat needed some serious tape strapping. We limped through the rest of the rapids, portaging in the bush when the drops were deemed too big.
Finally, we hit the dam lake entrance and all our training kicked in and we slogged (well the big engine in the back did) the 10 km flat lake to the finish line. Woohoo, we made it, now for some aspirin, disprin and whatever else will help the battered muscles and limbs. However, beside our pain we had great fun on this section, the scenery was amazing and the big water paddling superb. It was a joy to be out in the African bush and absorb it all. We checked our result and had dropped to
7th place as the swims really took our energy and time.
Washing Machine Rapid. Day 3 The last day was a day of extremes. We started off on a lake full of floating water hyacinth which had to be navigated and smashed through. We started strong and were the first of our batch to hit the dam wall and portage, we actually caught the batch in front who had a 10 minute start on us. After a long brutal walk down pot holed paths we got in at the bottom of a rapid series called Tops Needles and then hell erupted. The water level is normally 40 cubes and now it
was at 120. The highest ever for a Dusi race. Every rock was now a boat breaker. We made it through four wave trains before hitting Umzinyathi/Side chute rapids. We fell into big holes and stoppers, but managed to get about half way down before the bottom of the river just open up and swallowed us both. We were now out of the boat heading across a rock rapid. Gordon valiantly tried to swim the boat left, but after 600 metres the water turned right and spat him into trees. I held on and bashed my
bones for a long way to a small rock pool where I jammed the boat nose into some rocks. Lots of other boats were passing us upside down. Gordon was now stranded up stream but then jumped back into the river and swan down to me and we got back in and off we went. We were very lucky not to break the boat in half. For the next two hours we fought wave after wave of stoppers. The water was really too high and while there were 4 compulsory portages there should have been more. We pushed hard at the
portages and kept making a few minutes, but it was so hard as the usual lines did not exist and we went blind into so many rapids. Gordon did a superb job of keeping the boat up as I smashed into the stoppers and literally disappeared. Finally, we hit mango rapids and as the last major one it delivered some bruising rock hits to the hull, but the seams held and we were now on the 14 km haul to the finish. We dug deep and pushed on and were never so glad as to see the finish line. Even after all
the training we were spent. We had drunk over 6 litters of liquids from the start of the day and had run out so it was a dry grinding slog to the line. We were greeted by Hank McGregor who gave a big “hello mates” to the Aussies for finishing on such a big Dusi.
Joe and Gordon portaging. So overall, what can I say, well what an experience, what an adventure. Would I do it again, NO, but I can see why
people do it every year. The drama, the scenery, the wild life, the adrenaline fuelled rapids, the fight for control on the river and most of all the satisfaction of finishing. After all our efforts we got 3rd place as we had caught up and over took our competition. So a Dusi medal and podium place, what more could we ask for. Special thanks to Gordon for being an absolute rock though some challenging days. If you ever need a K2 partner you could not ask for a better one. Now it's recovery time
with lots of carbs, chocolate and anti-inflammatories.
Joe and Gordon with Hank McGregor.
*************************
The Race Winner Andy Birkett This Dusi Canoe Marathon was special to me because it was my 10th consecutive win and 13 wins in total as well as 10 years of being sponsored by Euro Steel Sport, I am grateful to have had the support to follow my dreams. It was also one for the memory banks that will be talked about for a longtime
& one of my best yet, paddling down the river with +- 100 cumecs of water flowing and so many different variables thrown into play. It really is the most iconic river race. Thank you to the Dusi race organisers for an awesome event and great calls made all round!
Connor Jacob (centre) and two paddling friends are back in Perth training. Connor took part in the Canoe Sprint
Grand Prix #2 (GP2) last weekend. He had some amazing results. Connor Jacob
1st in U16 K1 200m
1st in U16 K2 200m
1st in U16 K1 500m
1st in U16 K2 500m
1st in U16 K1 1000m A summary of all WA results, and the official results from both slalom and sprint competitions can be found in the link below.
WA Update at Canoe Slalom Australian Open / Canoe Sprint Grand Prix #2 | Paddle WA
LiveLighter Sprint Regatta #5
4th March | Champion Lakes Regatta Centre
Registrations are open for the fifth and final sprint regatta of the season, before the 2023 Australian Canoe Sprint Championships (held in WA).
First race: 8.00am
Expected finish:
1.30pm
Entries close at 11.59pm on Sunday 26th February. Register Here. Paddle WA LiveLighter
Sprint Canoe Regatta #5 | Event registration | Webscorer
Paddle WA staff were kept busy on Sunday at the Public Come & Try at Kent Street Weir. Coming
Up. There is a Basic Skills Course on 12th March at the Kent St Weir, Canning. Tell your
friends.
Paddle WA is looking for a Marketing and Communications Coodinator
to join our team. The position is a part-time role of 30 hours per week, and may require out of hours and weekend work. Application
Instruction
Please submit your resume and cover letter addressing the key selection criteria by COB on Sunday 5 March 2023 to Paddle WA EO Rosalie Evans – eo@paddlewa.asn.au Vacant Position: Marketing and Communications Coordinator | Paddle WA
Paddlers having fun. Photo John O'Sullivan.
Doug Hodson approaching the beach. Photo John O'Sullivan.
Darren Pratt paddles strongly on his SUP.
Photo John O'Sullivan.
Andy Heartcliffe.
Photo John O'Sullivan.
Who needs a paddle. Photo John O'Sullivan.
$6.7 million to Up-Grade
Sydney's White Water & Regatta Centres.
Canoe Sprint Grand Prix #2 and
Canoe Slalom Australian Open
17th-19th February | Penrith, NSW
Our
WA athletes fought hard with many vying for national team selections in Sprint and Slalom, a summary of their individual results can be found below.
Congratulations to all our WA athletes who competed over the
weekend, there were some incredible results achieved, and to list a few:
SLALOM
Ben Pope - 1st in Men's Kayak Cross, 2nd in Men's K1
Brodie Crawford - 3rd in Men's C1 Georgina Collin - 6th in Women’s K1
George Pankhurst - 13th in Men’s C1
Hunter Florisson - 25th in Men’s C1 31st in Men’s
K1
Steven Lowther - 26th in Men’s C1
SPRINT
Luke Egger - 1st
in K1 200m, 2nd in K2 200m
Yale Steinepreis - 1st in K4 500m, 3rd in K2 500m
Samantha Lourey - 1st in U18 K2 500m, 2nd in U18 K4 500m
Kathleen O'Kelly-Kennedy - 1st in Para V1 200m, 1st in Para K1 200m
Amy Ralph - 2nd in Para V1 200m, 3rd in Para K1
200m
Lachlan Armstrong - 2nd in K4 500m
Mark Daniels - 3rd in Para V1 200m For More results -
A summary of all WA results, and the official results from both competitions can be found in the link below.
WA Update at Canoe Slalom Australian Open / Canoe Sprint Grand Prix #2 | Paddle WA
WA Sports Star Awards Finallists
Big congratulations are in order for WA paddlers Ben Sainsbury, Yale Steinepreis and Samantha Lourey who have been named as finalists at the 2022 SportWest Awards!
Red Tailed Black Cockatoos.
There are lots of Swans on the river at the moment.
It's good to see the Whistling Kites are back on Ron Courtney Island.
Basic Skills Course
12th March | Kent St Weir, Canning
Paddle WA is pleased to present a series of Basic Skills Courses, that are completely free thanks to the Department of Local Government, Sport and Cultural Industries!
Course Details
Location: Kent Street Weir Park
Time: 9am - 12pm
Equipment: included (kayak, paddle,
life jacket) or bring your own
The Basic Skills Course is an introduction for people who wish to learn to paddle either a kayak on inland waterways, designed with the aim of giving you the confidence to enjoy the
excitement and challenge of paddling. After the completion of the course, a certificate will be emailed to you.
Register in the link below, and and queries can be sent to marketing@paddlewa.asn.au Register here:- Courses and Programs (paddle.org.au) |
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