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We are all back from Encounter Bay in South Australia which turned out being a great championships and I got a better appreciation of some of the countryside that I hadn’t visited before. The location, the course, the airbnbs, our team and the organisation were just perfect. Unfortunately I left my good
camera in the rental car so none of the photos in this addition will be mine. However Budget Rental have it, thanks to the people who rented the car after us, and Julie will bring it back to me when she flies back on Saturday.
For 26 WA paddlers and their families the
last week at the Australian Canoe Marathon Championships has been pretty exciting. With about 47 medals, 23 of them being gold and with WAs Josh Kippin having won the most sort after gold medal in the open mens, WA yet again did extremely well.
Unfortunately two of our
juniors and some female master paddlers stayed home due to the cost of getting there. It didn’t help with the champs being close to Easter and having the football gathering in Adelaide on the same weekend as flight costs were high.
The Encounter Bay Kayak Club
did an extremely amazing job to make the championships a great success. It was certainly a very enjoyable championships, one that most people will remember with affection. There were a few things that could have helped to make it better for spectators, the start and finish, but overall I think most people were happy with the event and the course.
I thought the winding course
might have disadvantaged some paddlers whilst wash riding in packs, but it seemed to work and I heard no complaints, although we did see some paddlers being squeezed out. The course had about 12 sweeping turns including the top and bottom turns but we equally paddled around left and right hand turns so the advantage shifted to one paddler then the other if paddling in pairs. The best side however was to be on the left side which was an advantage going around the top and bottom left hand turns.
The smart paddlers made sure they were positioned on the best side when nearing the finish line.
Many paddlers had accommodation on the lake which was just amazing and others didn’t have to travel far to get to the course. Because it was a small venue paddlers and
spectators mixed more than if it was at a large venue. There was also a friendly atmosphere.
It didn’t rain whilst at the course, but there was a certainly a chill in the air, however the chill didn’t dampen the experience, we just put more clothes on.
Josh won all
three of his races, so did Dave Berglund, so did Judy Darbyshire. Brett McDonald won 2 gold and 2 silvers and Connor Jacob who is only 16 won three races in the under 18s and a silver in the mixed. 14 year old Beau Jacob decided to paddle in the under 16s instead of the under 14s and although he didn't medal he had a great time chasing and dueling with the older juniors.
I won 3 gold in the SUP races and one bronze in the K1 70+ and a gold in the doubles 65+ with Dave Berglund. I was 4th in the 65+ short course. I really can’t count the SUP races as a real win as I was the only competitor in the 60+ SUP races but I was awarded medals because I’m over 65 years old and they knew I would cry if I didn't get a medal!
More on the champs next week. The Championships are in WA next year so get training.
Some of the happy team members.
Is the Australian Champion in trouble!! Photo credit unknown at this stage.
Can you imagine what Glenn Rypp (behind)
was thinking when he saw Josh in this position! Josh clashed paddles with Casey Haynes on this sweeping turn and apparently both of their paddles twisted causing Josh to first brace on one side then the other. Some how Josh managed to stop himself going over with a big brace on his left, but a lot of water entered the boat as you can see from the photo and he
got left behind. However that didn't deter Josh to give up, it just made him more determined to catch up and win. And did he catch up. He was quite a long way behind, to guess about 6 boats lengths or more behind the leader, but he did such a fast sprint that he caught up within a 100 metres or so.
It was just amazing watching Josh paddle so fast to get into a winning position. It just shows you should never give up.
Medal Count Connor Jacob x 3 gold, 1 silver.
Josh Kippin x 3 gold.
Dave Berglund x 3 gold.
Judy Darbyshire x 3 gold.
Brett McDonald x 2 gold, 2 silvers.
Julie McDonald x 1 gold, 1 silver.
Terry Bolland x 1 gold, 1
bronze. Geneveive Stanley x 2 silvers.
Jade Lane x 2 silvers.
Kelby Murray 1 x silver, 1 x bronze.
Peter Martin x 1 gold, 1
silver.
Doug Hodson x 1 silver.
Stephan Weyers 1 x silver.
Francis Nolan x 1 bronze.
Mitch Tamblin x 1 bronze.
Darryl Long x 1 bronze.
Bronwyn Martin x 1 bronze. SUP Open
Darren Pratt x 3 gold.
Derek Cross x 3
silver.
Tashka Goswell x 3 bronze. SUP 60+
Terry x 3 gold. Hopefully I got the right medal
count. Please Note.
If the open classes or classes under 65 have less than three boats no medals are given out.
For juniors and for seniors above 65 years old medals are given even if there are no other
boats in the race. Jade & Garth were 1st in the mixed doubles in the 35-49 but there were only two in the class so no medals were given. Derek Cross & Garth Civil were 1st in K2 45-54 but they were the only pair in that age group so no medals were
given.. Julie McDonald also came 2nd in the women's 55-59, but because there were only two boats a medal wasn't given. Gary Nagy (C1) was first in the open C1, but because he was the only one a medal wasn't given. Team Manager: Doug Hodson. Trailer 1: Darryl Long Trailer 2: Lafe Jacob For a full list of results,
click here: 2024 PACMSC Results_OCR.
Australian Canoe Marathon Champs Encounter Bay, South Australia
my K1 race I had two races on day one, a 16 km K1 race and a 12 km SUP race but the K1 race was the most important. Terry Poole was again my main opposition in K1. I have raced him four times and it is 2 to him and 2 to me. It was his turn to win this year, but I will be trying to make it hard for him. There were two new paddlers who
had just turned 70 that we hadn’t raced against before, but we knew nothing about their speed so we didn't know if we could beat them or not! Unfortunately we were also lined up the the 65 year olds who are usually quicker, so if a 70 year old who had the sprint speed quicker than me they could get a good wash from the younger paddlers and sprint away at the start. Of course I tried
just doing that, but I didn’t stay on the faster paddler long. WAs Dave Berglund had gone out like a rocket with 4 or 5 guys chasing him which included three of my opposition so it wasn’t looking good for me as one of them was Terry Poole, although Terry wasn’t quite as fast as the other two and fell off their wash. So with Terry ahead of me it was quite worrying. If he got too far ahead I might never catch him. I was hoping that he would slow, but my hopes didn’t seem to be
working. After about 500 metres or so I noticed Peter Martin behind me. In previous races he hasn’t been so close, so with him right there it was also worrying. I was wondering why I wasn't further ahead, had I not worked hard enough at the start! Then it came
time to make a real effort as I couldn’t let Terry get any further ahead or let Peter keep up with me, so I increased my pace, got away from Peter and eventually caught Terry and stayed on his tail until the top turn where I had a chance to draw up beside him on his left side which was going to be an advantage paddling around the top and bottom turns.
Getting ready for our K1 race. Photo Doug's camera.
Dave Berglund sped off with Peter Currie. Photo Doug's camera.
Leading Terry Poole around the left hand turns. Photo Doug's camera.
I was much happier now and to my surprise he said we should take it in turns doing wash leads. In Sydney when I first raced against him I got on his wash and he seemed most annoyed. He later wash rode me, including the last section before the end and then sprinted to the line beating me by a second. Because the course here in Encounter Bay had so many turns the person on the inside of the bend led the way and after the course turned the other way the other person on the inside then led. So we were taking the lead in turns depending on the sweeping bend. He didn’t realise that Geoff Pearce from
Queensland was well ahead of us and he was in our class, so we were now fighting for second place, not first, as Geoff was too far ahead. Geoff lived in WA for a while around 1979 and paddled at Ascot so I knew him after he introduced himself. He was much younger back then and didn’t have a long white beard. Terry and I continued racing each other, but it was hard to make a break.
There was one corner that was fairly sharp and shallow which was an advantage for the inside boat, but I was on the outside at that corner so I couldn't use it to get away from him. I did however have the advantage on the top and bottom turns. Terry was paddling well and I did have a feeling that he may be a little stronger than me, but it is so hard to tell because you don't know if the other person is at his peak speed or not. We were doing 4 laps of the course and a 200 metres sprint after the last turn and the finish line was getting closer and closer. I'm sure he was like me and wondering what the sprint finish to the line was going to be like and who would get that silver medal. Then I noticed another kayak ahead on its return from
the top turn that had a number that indicated he was in our class and if he was in our class we would be racing for the bronze medal which certainly wasn’t as appealing as a gold or silver medal that we thought we might be fighting for before the start.
Peter Martin wasn't far behind. Photo Doug's camera.
Doug Hodson started a few minutes behind on another grid. Photo Doug's camera.
Terry Poole leads around the right hand corners.
I led around the left hand corners. Photo Doug's
camera.
Anyway after having about half a lap to go we caught up with Pablo on a ski. Pablo had worked in WA for a year or two and paddled in some of our races, now he was living in South Australia. When I was passing him he tried to keep up, which was a concern as he had the inside line and had the advantage on the next two turns. I was also thinking that
he might do something that could give Terry an advantage, so I put the power on to get away from him. With about a kilometre and two turns to the end of the race I pulled away from him. In doing so I somehow managed to pull away from Terry. I was surprised that he was no longer by my side and I was several metres ahead of him. It was like all my Christmases had come at
once. At the bottom turn and about 600 metres or more to go I glanced over my shoulder and realised that I really had the upper hand and for him to beat me he had to pull something special from under his hat to beat me. I couldn’t ask for a better ending although I had been looking forward to a duel at the end, but I would sooner have it this way and get the bronze medal rather
than having to fight and lose to him. Today the lord was on my side and I crossed the line well ahead. So it was Geoff Pearce 1st, the mystery man Peter Prichard 2nd and me third. I was happy with third because they were much faster paddlers than me and they deserved getting their medals.
Terry told
me later he thought he was going to have an angina attack. He also said, he was tiring near the end and he didn’t think he would have had a sprint in him to beat me at the end. We will never know, but he was a fierce competitor and he always has been.
Now we have Geoff Pearce, Peter Prichard and WAs Peter Pawlow in our 70+ class we probably won’t get on the podium again until we go up to the 75+ class in two
years time. I can't wait.
Judy Darbyshire going for gold. Photo Doug's camera.
Julie McDonald going for 2nd place. Photo Doug's camera.
Peter Prichard 2nd, Geoff Pearce 1st, Me 3rd. Photo Carolyn J Cooper
The SUP 12km Race A few hours after the k1 race I was out on the water again, this time on a Stand Up Board. The best thing about the race was that it was 12 kms rather than 16 kms.
However a SUP is much slower than a kayak, takes a lot more effort to paddle and the wind had got stronger. Nevertheless it was going to be a great race for me, as it was only my second timed race. I couldn’t believe that there were only 3 other boats racing in the event all from WA; Darren Pratt, Derek Cross and Tashka Goswell and to make matters worse they were all faster than
me. Where were all the SUP paddlers from the east. There seems to be a lot of SUP groups around so why weren’t some of them here?
Darren, Tashka, Derek and me.
After warming up I was waiting on my knees at the start line, as we had several minutes to wait but the starter decided to get the race going early as he knew he probably would be there a long time waiting for us or should I say waiting for me to finish. I just managed to get to my feet when to my surprise and without warning he shouted go. Well
that put me well behind at the start, the others taking off at great speed. I gave chase trying to keep on a straight path, which became more of a challenge when the wash from their boards collided with mine. Darren sped to the lead, followed by Derek, followed by Tashka with little old me hoping that they would all capsize to allow me to catch up. After paddling around 2
sweeping corners I noticed Derek was in the lead. I was impressed as he too had raced in the morning. I found out later that Darren had missed two buoys which he hadn’t seen because of the glaring sun, so he did two turns around the buoys that he missed to make up. With it being late afternoon the sun was shining straight onto the water at a couple of the bends which made it was hard to see some of the green milk bottles lining the course. Minutes later Darren was back in the lead and gaining ground on all three of us. By now some of the fast juniors started to pass me. They slid by creating virtually no ripples in the water. Eventually I arrived at my first 360 turn and headed back towards the start chased by lots of other tiny juniors in slim kayaks. Surely I could paddle faster than some of them that started behind me! Nearing the start line Julie McDonald came
down to a jetty at the house that they were staying at to cheer me on. I passed her by heading for the bottom turn which was much tighter than the top turn and I had to do a cross bow draw to get around it by the shortest route. At times I got pretty close to the rock banks occasionally missing underwater rocks by inches. Being high I see a lot more underwater snags and rocks from a SUP.
Wait for me!!
That's the way we started and that was the way we finished with much bigger gaps. The second lap was not really any
different from the first, apart from the others getting further away from me and one of the young kids telling me I was doing alright when he passed me. Then after my second lap all the juniors stopped and finished their race after two laps, which left the four of us to paddle the last 4kms without paddlers on the course. Of course by now I was not in a position to beat any of the
other 3, but it was a wonderful experience to slog away and know I still had the energy to endure the physical and skillful challenges that it takes to paddle a SUP at 73. I heard my SUP mates cheering from the beach as I passed it and paddled to the bottom turn which was roughly 400 metres back to the beach, and roughly a kilometre from the finish line because of the short lap we had
to do. Most of the crowd had gone due to all the kayaking races having finished about 2 hours earlier, but there was a small crowd to cheer and see me cross the finish line and win a gold medal in the 60 plus SUP race. Note: Old paddlers get a gold medal even if they haven’t
beaten anyone in their class.
Photo Carolyn J Cooper. Carolyn goes to all the major championships and world champs to take photos. She is pretty dedicated.
I had to choose between a gold medal or a pineapple.
WA Report 2024 Marathon Nationals Doug Hodson - Team Manager About 1-1/2hrs south of Adelaide and about 10deg cooler, you’ll find Victor Harbour. It’s a grand old Australian town which had a really busy port during the 1800s. There’s a small kayak club there who are very proud of the water they paddle on and rightly so. It’s a man-made lake in a residential development, a sort-of chilled-out Gold Coast. It’s a double S bend with beaches, rocks, jetties, fish, the whole lot. The course ran the whole length of the lake and involved keeping right of the 60 buoys the organisers laid down the middle. WA took a team of 26, 24 kayakers and 4 SUP paddlers [a couple did both, guess which ones 😀]. Quite a few drove across. WA people think the drive to Adelaide is way easier than
going to Melbourne 😀. The Jacobs left on Monday morning and got there on Tuesday evening ! John Hilton, in his electric vehicle, spent half the trip in caravan parks watching electricity go slowly into the back of his car. Jade Lane brought the whole household: Ian, William, Ellie [twins] and Blaise [the labradoodle]. Great job by Darryl and Lafe towing all the boats across. We
were queued up waiting for spots in the boat park first thing Thursday morning. We set the WA camp up and got on the lake and we were all pleased with what we found. Paddling started early on Friday, there were some sleepy looking paddlers in the tent in the dark ! Friday was the big day and WA did well. Garth, Jade, Connor and Beau were in the first session and they went like the
wind. The second session was the old guys and you could tell because two of them miscalculated how many laps. One of them said “I must have got my maths wrong”. I guess so !! However there were still some really good performances from WA. The third session was Open and
Josh was back at it against his big rival Glen Ryp. This time Josh kicked with about two laps to go and that was it, what a magnificent performance. Saturday was Doubles. WA fielded plenty of teams and got into the medals. Sadly, Francis had a very serious medical episode which turned out to be a heart attack. Luckily, help was good and nearby. He spent the weekend in hospital in
Adelaide and is coming home later in the week. Good luck to him for the rest of his treatment. The afternoon at the Doubles saw the familiar experience of struggles with boats that pairs were not familiar with. Josh kicked ahead of his pack as he was nervous the others would get him on the sprint because he was so uncomfortable. That was it, one day left, Sunday for mixed doubles and
Short course. Mixed Doubles was good fun. WA had two husband and wife teams in it [Brett and Julie and Pete and Judy] plus others and a few more medals. Most people had a crack at the Short course and really enjoyed it. Josh came by on the second lap a couple of boat lengths behind the pack. Steph said “That’s the race plan” 😀 Turned out the real story was he clashed paddles with
one of the others and had to do a slalom manoeuvre to get back up ! Much to his credit he retrieved his position at the front and took the gold medal. SUP entries were all from WA so they killed it, good for them ! The medal haul was as follows: 24 Kayakers: 12 Gold, 11
Silver & 4 Bronze, 4 SUP paddlers: 6 Gold, 3 Silver & 3 Bronze – Decent ! There were also great WA performances worthy of medals but not awarded because classes were not constituted. Two involved Garth Civil in a double one with Derek Cross and one with Jade Lane times they were mixing it with the guns ! Gergely Balázs Nagy went like the
wind but there weren’t the numbers for C1s. Both Beau and Connor Jacob paddled an age group up Good luck to our paddlers going to Worlds in Metrovic, Croatia in September. See you all at the 2025 Marathon Nationals here in Perth !!
Hosted at
Encounter Lakes in South Australia,
the 2024 Paddle Australia
Canoe Marathon
and SUP Championships
saw more than 200 paddlers take part.
The hugely successful event saw winners crowned in a range of race, age and classification categories. Three-time Open Champion from the event, Rebecca Mann was thrilled to race in South Australia and defend the titles she won last year
in Geelong. “The lead up to nationals was probably one of my best, I’ve been really committed with my training and racing,” said Mann. “I was really confident going in which meant I felt really relaxed on race day and was able to perform at my best. “I think the work I’ve been putting in showed at nationals, so I was pretty happy with my results from the weekend.” As well as winning both the long and short course K1 events, Mann partnered up with Kate Leverett (VIC) to challenge in the K2 long course race. “I’ve always wanted to do doubles with Kate Leverett. The weekend was the first time we raced together but we clicked almost instantaneously and were stoked to win that race,” said Mann. Victor Harbour welcomed local and international paddlers in what was the first time a national event
was hosted at the site. “It was a great location for nationals, different to anything I’ve had in the past as it was quite technical but still quite deep,” said Mann. “It was definitely one of my favourite courses that I’ve paddled on in my Marathon career. “The event was really well run, the volunteers were great and the event organisers had obviously put a lot of work into the event which meant everything could run really efficiently,” she finished. Josh Kippin also had a stellar weekend on the water, winning the long and short course Open
K1 events as well as the K2 event for the third year in a row. “It’s always a great feeling when you know you’ve performed well,” said Kippin. “The guys put up a very tough fight across the races and it’s always great to have that depth of racing, it makes it even better when
you win in that context. “The short course K1 was definitely my most challenging race. I nearly went for a swim after the first turn but managed to save it and spent the next few laps catching up to the front group. I was really happy to win that one in a very tight bunch sprint at the end,” he finished. Article Paddle Australia. For a full list of results, click here: 2024 PACMSC Results_OCR.
Team Boat Race 25th April 2024 Ascot 5.00pm A fundraiser event to help Nina, David and Harry get to this years Wild Water racing international events held in Macedonia, Italy and Spain!
David Burdett, Harry Langley and Nina Mueller have been selected for the Australian Wildwater Senior Team this year and are hosting a fundraiser event to help them get to this years international events held in Macedonia, Italy and Spain! The team boat race will involve random selection of teams to race in doubles/K3/K4 (teams and start list will be announced a few days prior to race day). Paddlers of all ages and experience are welcome! Please arrive early
to allow enough time to get your team boat sorted! Race start will be 5:00pm Course:
Start/finish at the Ascot jetty heading upstream.
3 x laps around the Sandy Beach buoy and Ron Courtney Island. Enjoy a sausage sizzle & drink afterwards. There will also have a raffle so bring some cash if you would like to go into the draw to win
some awesome goodies! Tickets will be $5 each. $30 race entry (including sausage sizzle & drink)
$10 sausage sizzle & drink only We hope to see you there for a fun
evening! If you want to sponsor the three paddlers, they would welcome any help. Enter Here: https://www.webscorer.com/register?pid=1&raceid=346696
There will be Long and Short courses.
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