A chilly southerly wind forebode an end to our summer of fun. And what a summer of fun the Paddle ‘n’ Ski Hadspen Race series has provided for all and sundry. There have been a steady flow of PBs (Personal Bests – not Phil Barratts) over the series, many new faces, many paddlers upgrading gear for that technical advantage, many just putting in the hard yards of training. Congratulations must go to the regulars who turn up and give the race a good hard go! – rain, hail, storm, lightening, high water, low water, bikini girls and UFOs… I think we’ve had them all!
The 4km-ish course (2nd bridge and back) turned into a huge paddle spray fest mass start. The Ratha and Lucky Phil leading the crew back in an almost sprint race. Mike, Colin and Ken tussled on the way up and back. Bill, after paddling his less than hydro-dynamic plastic touring kayak for the whole season, had a PB setting run in his “new” Time Machine.
Well despite all the effort of the paddling tonight, the results are yet to be decided on the series points chart. With Adam away practicing his hula dancing in Hawaii, the official result cannot be sanctioned, and thus the winners of the Paddle ‘n’ Ski prize Race Paddle, the Paddle ‘n’ Ski Super voucher, and the prestigious Paddle ‘n’ Ski “Hadspen Race Series” perpetual trophy all have to wait in anticipation of the announcement.
What I can announce thought, is a huge thank you to Phil and April Nelson of Paddle ‘n’ Ski, who aside from supporting this great race series, are also great people to paddle with and very handy on the BBQ (extra tasty thanks Mark!!!).
Stay tuned with more to come with results and photos on the series winners…
Hope you all had fun, and manage to get in some winter paddling – don’t forget the Winter race series (posted here soon). We’ll be back to Hadspen race in Spring!
Thanks Claye for the write up.
The results have come in from Phil Nelson, who along with cooking a mean BBQ timed the final race.
Ratha 19:13.4min Phil Barrett 19:40.86 Mike 20:42.51 Colin 20:43.32 Paul 21:00.78 Geoff 21:07.51 Claye 22:16.21 Peter 25:10.34 Bill 30:48.27 Richard 39:14.7 (started late, can’t work out your exact time).
Keep an eye out for the end of season wrap up for all the winners.
