Richard, Judi, Trevor, Lynette and Mike enjoyed a windy, swirly exciting race alon g the River Soar on Saturday. After a warm up paddle along the canal we started the race just below the maelstrom that had formed after the weir and soon had to limbo under a low bridge.
The river looked completely different to the last race a month before with water honking under the bridges and totally obscuring the picturesque reed beds we had to negotiate last time. The strong head wind made it difficult to get into a smooth rhythm whilst the fast current made some of the bends quite interesting!
Main body paddling is great stamina training and gives us a real edge in these races! We all came away with medals in our respective classes and would recommend these sort of events to other club members.
Judi really enjoyed the day and recommends the race to anybody who would like to try racing but has never done it before.
Great venue,a perfect distance of 3km for beginners - a worthwhile distance, but not totally exhausting! A variety of river scenery, bends, reed beds, wide stretches of water, a range of craft - even a coracle (made on a weekend course at the Boathouse Inn), and the friendliness of all involved.
The one minute interval between starters made you feel that you were not trailing behind the others, and then the thrill of actually catching up and overtaking another paddler.
The post race drink at The Boathouse (the finish of the race) when the section winners and times were announced was a real surprise – with Rutland winning 3 of the categories! (Judi – senior short boats, Lynette – senior wavehoppers, Mike – senior long boats)
As an onlooker and supporter, Richard, (feeling under the weather on the day!) hopes to be on the water for the next race on January 15th.
Congratulations to Lynette who took the Gold Medal in her class at the Nene Wild-water Race on Sunday.
Entering a club wavehopper on a beautiful October day, Lynette made two racing runs with her cumulative time winning the day. It was a fun day and we’d recommend it to other club members next time around.
The winning run -
Under starter’s orders:
Taking the big drop:
Working through the back straight:
Crossing the finish line:
Medal ceremony:
The wavehopper was reported to handle well and to feel much more stable on moving water and was a delight to paddle – a very fun race and much easier than slalom!!
Many thanks to Graham for leading a keen group of slalom novices at Orton Mere on Sunday. Starting with basic moves we progressed to paddling down the course doing our best to negotiate funny coloured poles that kept getting in the way.
Although opens were welcome, Jools tried his hand in a kayak.
Our leader showing how it should be done!
Judi swaps crutches for paddle!
Lynette battles her way through the white stuff.
Richard in the big stuff!
Very enjoyable morning with everyone gaining in confidence and experience on moving water.
