Not a fan of this "Summer" weather!

Coffs Harbour Carnage (OC1 Nationals)

Last weekend saw a cluster of PD's travel up to Coffs Harbour for the OC1 Nationals: Annett, Shell, Mandy, Lydia, Gav & Matt. Whilst the wind was (unfortunately) calm, there was quite a swell built up, which made life pretty tough at Woolgoolga for the start of the 25km long course event.

Sometimes it's just easier to tell the story in photos. Gavin Godfrey captured all the action of the day! Below are a copy of some of the fantastic pics he took.

Receiving instructions at the briefing

Annett, Shell and Mandy wait around for the start, all ready to go

Waiting for a lull in the sets

Oh no! OC2 going down like the Titanic

Mandy and I make a start

All going well...

Whee!

Oh dear, this is not good!

Wipeout!

Smashed! (My poor canoe!)

OC1 carnage

Drifting without a rudder

Annett getting smashed...

...but recovering OK

Unhappy paddler picking up the pieces (thanks Matt for the help!)

Shell and Mandy - disappointed but safe

More calamity

Just making it

Whoa!

Lydia back to shore

All girls safe

It could have been worse

The alternative start entry location (around the headland)

Slicing the crests

If you made it to the start line, it was a pretty uneventful, but tough grind south. Here are some of the top paddlers who made it.

Lauren Bartlett (2nd Open Women)

Anna Matisen on Lydia's Pueo! (3rd Open Women)

Danny Ching (3rd Open Men)

Todd Cohen (1st Open Men)

Luke and Nathan Evans (1st OC2 Open Men)

Kai Bartlett (6th Open Men)

A big THANKS! To Gav and Matt for being so wonderful to us back on the beach. Gav - for taking great shots, providing a hug when needed and helping us get sorted. Matt - for collecting all the canoe bits, and offering to get us hot chocolates. You guys are awesome!

And to Lydia and Mandy - another adventure to add to our collection. Let's hope we have a bit more luck and success this weekend for 20 Beaches.

Annett - congrats on making it through! Great to see one PD on the finish line!

OC Sprints - Kurnell / Koa Kai

The weekend saw us head out for a degustation of outrigging sprint races (500m, 250m, 1,000m) at Kurnell served up with a side of wild weather - a pretty gnarly 25-35kt Southerly, thunderstorm, rain and a chilly 21deg C.

I say degustation, because it was a taste of a little bit of everything. A 500m OC6 Heat, 250m OC1 Final, 500m OC6 Final and 1,000m OC6 Heat before the weather, like an intruding, stinky, blue cheese that you can always smell coming, overpowered the day.

Nonetheless, it made the races just that little bit more interesting and challenging and added that little bit of extra anticipatory adrenaline!

I haven’t done many turns races (first one was Hamo this year) so saw this as an experience in which to learn a few new things. Typically, I enjoy the marathon format in OC6, given focus on sprints in Dragon Boating, but this time, it was a chance to make the most of our speed ability.

The great thing about sprint turns is the co-ordinated effort from the crew to swing the canoe around 180deg. Everyone has a specific role to play. Seat 1 pokes, Seats 2 and 5 draw (on opposite sides), Seat 3 helps orient the crew in the right position in preparation of the turn, and Seat 4 provides a burst of power in the lead up. Then of course, there’s the all-important steerer. Surprisingly, even though I’ve found it hard to keep the canoe straight when steering, it’s also difficult to make it turn a full circle! Luckily, in my crew, this mastery was left up to Jane. And in the other crews, Stu, Linda and El.

For each race we were buffeted by the winds as the canoes lined up. There was much debate over which was our lane, and our buoy. Sometimes the buoy in the distance, wasn’t even in the distance, but floating km’s away towards the loading arms at Port Botany. Hoping that something would appear for us to turn around, we raced up the course. Spray flying, ama bumping along, adrenaline flowing, puffing, focused on the end of the course.

In my mind, we pivoted like an eagle, wings outstretched, banking and soaring around an imaginary central line. But with slightly less individual grace, we poked, heaved, and coaxed the canoe around, the tip of the ama gently touching the buoy as we swung.

  



Bodies on in front...





...And at the back



Somewhat miraculously, we were facing the other direction, taking another start, “Go!” Then back again. Full pelt back to the start. Warmed up now. Then phew! All over, heart beat no longer pumping in my ears, limbs relaxed and feeling tingly. And in that post race high thinking, “yay! Let’s do it again!”

Luckily, we did get a few more races in before the atrocious weather led to the sensible decision to call it a day a bit early. I had a disastrous OC1 sprint, missing the start through not being able to identify the starter with his flags – semaphore is not for me! But a good day all up.



PD's Penguin cluster