2009 Hasler Final

So the end of the 2009 marathon canoe season saw us revisiting Reading Canoe Club for the 2009 Hasler Final. The water was calm, the air was warm and sunny and the organisers presented us with a course that was simple enough, even for us Way paddlers to understand! For the 13km and 20km courses this entailed a top turn before Mapledurham weir followed very shortly by a new false portage in a cow field. And here I detected some trepidation from the organisers on how this would go down with some of their more awkward customers judging by the email,

"Before you start your blog on tomorrow’s race. You will not need hiking boots this time but … a grappling hook and rope would be advised, also a bucket and spade may be useful if you have time to spare. As you do not wear a red vest you should not attract attention from the bovine crowd.
Cheers, BG"

I was later assured that although the cows had been taken out of the field they may indeed have left something behind. Nevertheless, to be on the safe side, I resolved to follow the nearest Richmond crew into said portage.

As it turned out, the new get out couldn’t have been more welcome as my crew mate and I were running with a horrible lean all the way up to Mapledurham. Until then we were constantly veering left and were steadily getting dropped one-by-one down the field. And so to the portage, an easy sandy beach, a not-so-bad-earth bank to negotiate, 50 metres of soft (well fertilised) grass and no evidence of the bull, and after putting-in the wonderful realisation that we were sitting square in the boat. With no lean we were able to stretch out and even catch a few crews up again. But alas not enough to get us onto the points table. Get yourself a faster partner and one that looks where he's going next time Marthe!

Well done to all the Wey paddlers who got to stand on the podium. An outstanding performance from Jack and Charlie in Div 3 K2 saw them take silver. In the other races we had two more silvers from James (4K1) and Calvin (7K1), four bronze placings from Richard/Mike (4K2), Rebecca/Seb (7K2) and points for five positions in fourth place from Rob (1K1), Roy/Mike (2K2), and Oscar/Tom (6K2). But Oh dear, without any gold medals this steady performance was only good enough to place us fourth in the club points.

Congratulations to Norwich Canoe Club first time winners of the Hasler Final. With seven gold medals, four silver medals and Tim going home with a bronze won in the Division 1 race, they were only six points shy of the maximum possible.

Thanks to everyone at Reading CC for a really successful event. I love you all.

Tell Chad

Races at Royal Wey, Tonbridge, Nottingham, Longridge not to mention Poznan, Ostroda, Gudenaa and Crestuma. Wot has everyone been doing all summer?!

Box End Quadrathlon - 2nd August

This was an "off-road" Quad.

• Starting with a 750m open water swim,
• 4.4km kayak with 2 portages,
• 15km (3x5km loops) mountain biking on a soft grassy and often rutted course
• and finishing with a 5km run on the same track.

This was my first solo multi-sport event and was chuffed to finish 17th out of 42 competitors in a time of 1hr09, with the 12th fastest time in the paddle leg. Interestingly the top finishers were also by far the best paddlers! So if you can swim a bit, manage an hour + cycle and then still finish a 5-10k run, then forget the triathlon and take the next step up.

Next up the real deal in Pembroke on 12 Sept.

Guildford Lions Raft Race 2009

The raft race ended at The Waterside centre on Saturday. Here are some pics of the event. Lots of fun! http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/calum.shaw/RaftRace2009?feat=directlink#

Post-script to Reading Hasler Marathon

More to talk about? Clearly there are more ways to make a race less predictable than anyone bargained for.

1. Allow the home side to shoot the weirs
2. Allow home side to use different portages
3. randomise the results.

You couldn’t make it up.

Reading Assessment and Hasler Races

According to some, the reason football is the most popular sport in the world is down to it being unpredictable. There's the offside rule to start with and then as only a few points (aka goals) decide the winner, the team that wins isn't always the best team. Really, it’s true; Games Theorists who think about these things say so.
Perhaps Reading Canoe Club has come to the same conclusion. Contrast Saturday's assessment race with Sunday's Hasler race.

The assessment race was run with the new international circuits. The competitors can be seen by a stationery spectator and maybe this has some merit as round and round they go. But come on, be honest, isn't it just a little boring to watch? And counting the number of DNF's perhaps too tedious for many of the competitors.

And so how to add the element of unpredictability? DSQ those that don't pay attention to the briefing! Good try but apparently the selectors weren't looking for an ability to recall minor details. I'm not sure whether teams are allowed to bring along a pacer to international events either but that is another story.

In complete contrast, Sunday's divisional races were held over a there-and-back course. From the club house to a big buoy 2km upstream for the short and middle distance races and somewhat further for the longer course. Back down past the club to turn around the island to finish for the 7,8,9 paddlers. And this is where it started to get interesting for the 13 and 19 km races.

Unpredictable element number one: the race went behind Caversham Lock across a recreation ground on a mega-long portage. Bare feet? I would have stuck a pair of hiking boots in the back of the boat had I known!

The paddle continued on down to Kennet Mouth and up to a portage at Blakes Lock where we have unpredictable element number two: a jetty there to taunt us (as it was reserved for the return leg) while some struggled, others patiently waited to put in on the tiny piece of water 3 or 4 foot below. There followed a short loop with lots of potential to get lost while absorbing Reading's industrial heritage along the way. Back over Blakes Lock, back over Caversham Lock (puff puff puff) to finish outside the club.

Now I'm sure the best paddlers did win through and it was only those at the back of the race (like me) who got held up at the portages but it was a thoroughly enjoyable Sunday outing nevertheless. I have no doubt that Sunday's paddlers will have a lot more to talk about that those that raced on Saturday. Vive la difference!

Hastings 1066 Marathon

The 1066 Hastings Race was once again held at Tonbridge (does anyone remember the Rother?) After the usual daft start where there is only enough room for seven boats before funneling down after 100 metres or so to where there is only room for a group of four, the course continued with the usual long and short laps up and down the sides of the island. The long and middle distance races in the afternoon then visited the downstream leg on the Medway for the first time since 2005. Why can I remember this? Perhaps it’s because a young Mark and I beat Sage in 5/6 doubles! Since then I think the lock has been re-fitted and there is now a canoeist-friendly jetty rather than the long drop down over a metal walkway. So worth another visit Sage? Shame I got tipped in on the last leg of the island before the finish because (a) I wasn't doing too badly considering the poor start; (b) I was overtaken by none other than one of the Ealing Oiks. No for a change I'm not being rude, you just had to be at the Wey Regatta to understand and (c) I’ll get my revenge on Maidstone when they visit us on June 28!

Some results
Tom came 4^th in Div 9 on first outing in his lovely new boat. Oscar, bravely racing up two divisions in Div 7 came 8^th
Amanda in the pink Tor and now on the dizzy heights of Div 6 came 4^th
Hazel came 3^rd, Ed came 4^th and Mike 9^th in Div 5.
Jack on his first outing in div 4 came 3^rd. OK he was disappointed as there were only two others in the race, but while the veterans still think he's cute and will give him a wash, in this race the gloves were off and he was left inspecting the bankside flora on more than one occasion.
Dean seamlessly integrating his sprint training with a 20km paddle once a week came 1^st in Div 1.

Gent Sprints 2009

Last Friday, myself and 10 other U15 paddlers met at Elmbridge Canoe club to set off to this year's Gent Regatta in Belgium. We arrived in Gent on Friday afternoon, and the wind was fairly strong. This was not enough to put us off however, and we were soon on the water testing our crew boats, as well paddling our K1s. By this time many of us were tired and hungry, so we drove over to the hotel where we were staying. After a few room changes and broken keys, we soon settled into our rooms and headed over to the restaurant for a nice dinner.

The next morning (although a few of us had forgotten to set our alarms to Belgian time), we had a good breakfast and travelled over to the racecourse , in time for the boys' first race - the K1 1000m heats. 5 of them made it through to the Semi-final, and Marton, Matt, Guy and Albert made it through to the final later in the day. Their next race was the K2 heats, again there was another fantastic result with all 3 crews making the final. But before the finals of the K1s and K2s, they had the K4. This was a straight final, but the British crew won second place, just behind the strong Neerpelt boat. Next was their K2 final, all the crews raced really well again - with a silver for Marton and Matt, 4th position for Peter and Albert, and not far behind was Charlie and Guy in 8th. Shortly after was the K1 1000m final. It was a hard fought race, and Marton ended up with a bronze, although was very close to silver. The other three raced really well and finished 4th, 5th and 6th.

The final two races of the day were the 5ks. For the boys this was the last race of a very long day, for the girls on the other hand, it was our first race of the weekend! The boys' race was very close - less than two seconds between the first boat and the 11th! After a tiring day, the 5k was no doubt very hard but they pulled through and ended up with: 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th and 11th. The girls, however were far less exhausted, instead we were dying to get out and race. When the start eventually came, and the familiar "start within ten seconds" was announced, one British paddler was shocked by the loud starting gun and capsized. However, Rebeka and Amy stormed the race coming 1st and 2nd, and Isobel and Naomi also did brilliantly in 4th and 5th place. After recovering from my swim, I finished the race in 11th place - not a brilliant result, but I wasn't too upset.

On Sunday it was a busy day for all of us. The racing started early again, with the boys' K1 500m, with 4 of them making it into the semi-final. The girls had their K1 500m shortly after. There were two heats, with the first 4 going through into the final. All 5 of us made it into the final - making it nearly an all British race! Directly after was the boys' semi-final. These were two really quick races, and all four raced well, however the competition was strong and only Marton made it through into the final.

Unlike Nottingham, in Gent there is a lunch-break of a couple of hours. This left us all with a welcome break of a few hours! However soon we were back on the water and it was the girls' K2 final. Amy and Rebeka won, with myself and Naomi coming in 2nd place. The boys' were also doing well, with another silver medal in the K4. A little later was the girls' K1 final. This was a fierce race, with all of the British girls fighting hard. Rebeka, was on unbeatable form, and won - 4 seconds ahead of her Belgian rival! Amy came 3rd, Naomi 4th, myself 5th and Isobel 6th. Straight after was the boys' K2 final. Peter and Albert were really strong and came in 3rd, shortly followed by Marton and Matt in 5th.

Only two races were left, first was Marton's final - where he gave an excellent performance and won bronze. The last race for the GB team was our K4. Unbeknown to us, we had merged with the U18 race, so when we came second we were initially a little dissapointed. However, when we pulled up to receive our medals - we were very confused to find a gold around our necks... It turned out that we had beaten the other U16 crews, and won!

Overall this year's Gent regatta was fantastic. Everyone on the team won at least one medal! On behalf of the team I would like to thank Dyson Pendle, Sarah Hannon and Vicky Swallow for taking us over there, supporting us and putting up our general weirdness! It was a great trip, and I couldn't ask for a better introduction into international racing.

Weyside Rovers take to the water!

Yesterday saw the first paddle of the new Weyside Rovers group. And a very nice paddle it was too.

The idea is that the group (anyone who wants to come along) takes a gentle paddle in one direction or other and returns to the club in time for tea. No sprints, races, training plans or anysuch high drama.

Last night we had good weather, and decided to wander off to Bowers lock. Barely a ripple on the water (except when Mike C swept past ;). A perfect spring/summer evening. Nigel deserves an honorable mention for upping his "taking a swim" tally significantly during the evening. He reported that the water wasn't that warm!

There will be a paddle every Thursday evening at 6pm throughout the summer.

Chester Marathon

Held on the River Dee: a nice wide river, with not very much flow after a period of good weather; natural banks (so no re-bounding waves); and nice warm and sunny to boot. Chester has to be one of the best venues for a marathon race and well worth the effort of getting there. Twelve Wey Racers entered the first Assessment Race of the season: Rob W, Roy F, Paul Y, (senior men); Claire G (senior ladies); Mark C, Michael L, Richard L (junior men); and Alice H, Hazel C, Marthe dF (junior ladies).

A new course was set up conforming to the international 4.3 km circuit, consisting of seven laps for the senior men, six laps senior ladies, five laps junior men and four laps junior ladies. If that wasn't hard enough, a "false" beach portage was added on each lap.

Some good results came the club's way. The selectors were looking for times that will be competitive in an international race, clearly working this out is made a lot easier by virtue of having a standard circuit. That being said, it should have been advertised as such as it was clear that some competitors were only looking for a good placing! I recorded the lap times and when I have found out how to upload a table here without the blogger stripping my html code I'll do so! But in the mean time you can find it here as well.

Like all good gigs, Chester threw on a support act to keep the fans quiet. The morning started with a regional hasler marathon. Why more people don't regularly race in the north-west I don't know but the decision to hold the assessment race on the same day ensured a larger field as the Hasler results show.

More Easter Action!

Huge congratulations to all the Wey paddlers on their DW triumphs - all must feel very proud of their achievements.
Good Friday saw a number of Wey paddlers sprinting on Littleton Lake at the Richmond Sprints. Not too much wind this year and some excellent results (full details on the Richmond web link). Mike W and Alice showed great consistency with first places in both their head to head races. With several other top three placings, there was no shortage of chocolate comestible prizes for the journeys home.
After a senior/U18 paddle to Elmbridge from Wey on Saturday (just for fun!) the scene was set for the annual Elmbridge Junior (U16) half marathon. Well done to Oscar, Tom, Joe and John who gave it a go for the first time and all finished with limited support from the bank.
No fewer than four Wey paddlers completed the course under the previous age record times - Jack (who smashed the U13 record) and Ed. Also Alice and Hazel in the U16 girls. What do they have for breakfast in the Childerstone and Haws households?? Charlie won the U15 boys which had the largest field of the day. (Results on Elmbridge web)
More chocolate......still these guys have to keep up the calories!

DW 2009 - Last Day

Hurrah, we've made it!

While most people would have been still asleep, preparations were in full swing for a very early start at Teddington. Shortly before 6 am we were ready to get on the water, Clive was set to follow us on his bike (as he had done in the previous days) and the other members of the support crew to cheer us on from various bridges en route to Westminster. The start was given at 6.30, and after a few initial wobbles Calum and I got into our usual rhythm, gliding past Richmond, Kew, Barnes, Putney on our way to the finish. The force of the outgoing tide led to some impressive speeds (around 9 mph), but also to a couple of rather shaky moments, which I admit to being terrified of, as it would have been a rather long swim for the bank! (There have in fact been a few capsizes, and Calum also recalls seeing a K1 which was sinking with the paddler still in it). The London Eye came into sight around Vauxhall, and the appearance of Westminster Bridge in the distance gave us the energy to cover that final stretch of the race. So after 1 hr 55 of hard paddling we were finally at the steps of the County Hall ready to receive our finishers' medals!

With a total time of 20:06, we, according to provisional results, have come first in the Endeavour class!

Once again it must be said that the whole race would not have been possible without our incredible support team. Clive, cycling alongside us, provided us with a great amount of valuable information, dashed to locks to identify the best spots, and, crucially, very skillfuly and rapidly repaired our boat after it had been damaged on the second day. Lynsey, Richard, Hannah, Alexander, Maria and Tom kept us well fed and watered and in high morale on portages, and helped in numerous other ways. Thanks must also go to Dave, Pete and Mike and everyone else at the club who guided and supported us throughout our training. Thank you so much to all!

DW 2009 - Day 3

Today was the longest day of the race: 38 miles from Marlow to Teddington. Everybody arrived at the start extra early, and after some work to reinforce the broken front of the boat, we were off the start around 8.15 am. With strong flow helping us along, Windsor Castle came into view well ahead of schedule. Encouraged by this, we pressed on towards Staines, taking extra care not to damage the boat further on portages. The middle section of the day seems to have gone exceptionally quickly, and by the time we arrived at Sunbury Lock, I was still convinced we hadn't reached Chertsey! The last 7-8 miles, however, proved to be rather hard and certainly very painful (Calum and I strongly regretted not padding out our seats). The final mile before Teddington dragged on forever! Once we had made over the lock though, everything suddenly seemed very easy and we were at the finish in no time. End result: 5 hrs 44, giving us a 14 minute lead over the next boat.

For the third day running, our support team - Richard, Hannah, Clive, Lynsey, Maria and Alexander - have excelled in providing us with food, moral support and valuable information. Thank you very much to all!

Coming up tomorrow is the final 17-mile leg which will take us through Richmond, Chiswick, Hammersmith, Putney, Chelsea and Vauxhall to Westminster Bridge!

DW 2009 - Day 2

What a day! We're now leading our race by a minute after finishing 25 minutes ahead of schedule, so the pressure is on for tomorrow.

It was a fairly unremarkable paddle after the start until the front of our boat broke off at a portage. Thanks to large amounts of tape and a very skillful repair by Clive, however, it was swiftly re-attached and we were able to continue without much delay. Excitement grew as we approached Reading and we were starting to look forward to the Thames and some flow to aid our progress. After a quick compulsory portage at Dreadnought Reach, we pushed on for Marlow, passing the half-way point to Westminster along the way. We arrived at Marlow in a state close to total exhaustion, got changed, bypassing the showers (which were cold and only seemed to work one at a time!), and headed off home to recuperate in preparation for the longest day of the race tomorrow.

DW 2009 - Day 1

It's Easter again - time for a paddling trip on the Kenett and Avon Canal and the Thames!

After an evening in Devizes last night and breakfast with a Basingtoke crew at the B&B this morning, the green boat, the support team and, indeed the paddlers, arrived at the start to find a remarkably empty car park (and no, the race is on!). Quick check in and wrist-tagging, and we (Calum and I) crossed the start line shortly after 7.15 am. We finished overtaking the five boats that had started ahead of us just before Pewsey and stayed in the "lead" until the end of the day! The tunnel was great - calm, empty, with no other boats in sight. The support team - Lynsey, Clive, Richard, Hannah, Alexander and Maria were great, offering plenty of food and encouragement along the way. The stretch from Great Bedwyn to Newbury was very familiar and rather painful, but the the effort has definitely paid off - 34 miles in 6:14 (14 minutes ahead of schedule) and, so far we're second, 6 minutes behind the leaders!

So 34 miles down, 91 to go...

Oh, and it still isn't too late to sponsor us online!

Gent Marathon

After meeting early Friday morning three Wey paddlers, myself, Jack and Alice, and a large BCU team travelled to Gent in Belgium to take part in the Gent Marathon race. We arrived on the Friday afternoon to a windy, choppy regatta course, but despite these conditions we were all very keen to get out for a paddle and a practice on the race course after being on the bus for hours. After our paddle we changed and headed back to the youth hostel for a good dinner and a good nights sleep.

Raceday came and we rose early, enjoyed a big breakfast and headed to the racecourse. After plenty of preparation and warmup the races got underway. First off were the senior men and then Jack and I went off in the junior mens race then the vetran men and then the junior womens race went off. After a tough start the junior mens race separated into groups and raced round the canals. After a burn up out of the last portage I ended up paddling to the end of the race on my own and taking second place. Jack wasn't so lucky with his race. after a poor start he pulled his way right back through the field and then just as he looked like he was back up with the group he took an unfortunate swim. He then got back in and carried on to finish the race despite the freezing water and wind and still beat several other competitors. The junior womens race started soon after the mens and set off round the lake at a fast pace. After a breakaway at the first portage by the eventual winner, Alice paddled round the rest of the course in the front group and after a burn for the finish took second place.

The race was great expierience for all the paddlers who took part and it was great that Wey came away with excellent results.
Charlie

Waterside D

The Green Boat goes forth again! I was slightly concerned about this race as I've never paddled for more than 3½ hours in my life. The thought of 34 miles was bad enough without the fact that the first 13 are without a portage and there's a great big tunnel half way through.

So the day started with snow. From that point, everything got better. George took the helm and we got a couple good rides on stern washes. The weather improved very quickly, and we got in to a good rhythm. Took a tactical toilet break after about 11 miles and was then actually looking forward to portages. Our three support teams were great. Plenty of encouragement, grapes, bananas, and nibbles.

When we got to Great Bedwyn it felt like we were nearly home as some of the scenery became familiar. But there was a way to go!

Stopped for a few minutes to pull a couple of lads out of the drink, and I took a brief unscheduled swim myself (George was just standing at the side watching me topple in).

Luckily there were no more "events", and we put in a respectable 6h38m.

We got changed (avoiding the very cold showers), grabbed our soup and "lunch" at the finish and toddled off home.

The apprehension of Day 1 of the Devizes to Westminster will be greatly reduced now.

Thanks to Richard, Hannah, Lynsey, Maria and Alexander for their enthusiastic and very professional support!

Wey AGM

Well it's just over 48 hours to the red carpet event of the year....yes, the Wey AGM including the world premiere of the Wey 2008 Review featuring stunning titles and special effects (?) and maybe even you!!
Also featuring the canoeing world's equivalent of the Oscars, the annual awards ceremony: awards for the great and the good on and off the water....and including the prestigeous Fish award to go to the person or persons who considered, however briefly, switching their sport to open water swimming!
Oh, and there's also the business bit to be done. So come and have your say and join in the celebration of another great year in the life of Wey Kayak Club!!

Thameside II

A breezy (and sometimes gusty), cool day greeted us for Thameside II in Reading. After a choppy start, George and I got into a bit of a rhythm. Henley straight seemed to go on for ever, and then the heavens opened and we got a bit damp... Did an OK 2h44m, and later found out that we would have gotten 3rd place if we'd entered Junior/Vet. Ah well.

Test of the brand new Wey Kayak Club Blog

rather nice view of the club house