The final race of the season was paddled in beautiful weather conditions with barely a gust of wind to be found. Geoff got off to a fast start and got around the course in a cracking time to take the race in from Phil Barratt, with Chris Bates coming in in 3rd place. Race times are below. We also had the end of season BBQ, thanks to Amanda for making it all happen, from making salads to picking up food and the trophy to cooking the snags. Cathie assisted on the BBQ as well, thanks.

Paddler | Time | Position |
Geoff MacQueen | 19:06 | 1 |
Phil Barratt | 19:40 | 2 |
Chris Bates | 20:19 | 3 |
Phil Nelson | 20:27 | 4 |
Claye Mace | 22:23 | 5 |
Richard Pearson | 22:24 | 6 |
Pete Sebbage | 24:53 | 7 |
Beth Wadley | 25:11 | 8 |
Chris Schulz | 25:17 | 9 |
James Caspar | 26:44 | 10 |
Along with the final race of the season we also presented the winner of the points competition; 3rd place going to Beth Wadley who had 6 top two finishes in the last 7 races to fly up the leaderboard with heaps of improvement in her paddling from the start of the year. Phil Neslon finished in 2nd place with a year of consistent improvements and very rarely being off his best pace quietly gaining points without managing to grab a race win. The winner of the point series and the perpetual trophy was Geoff MacQueen, who had a great year of improvement moving himself further back in the handicap race each week and regularly finishing in the top few and moving his best time down to 34:07.

We also drew the raffle for a $600 discount of a new Ski from Paddle ‘n’ Ski and a 2 piece paddle from Stellar Kayaks, donated by our wonderful sponsors April and Phil Nelson. The raffle tickets aren’t sold, you have to earn them with sweat or toil, either paddle a personal best time or take on the timing duties for a race to get in the draw. This year we had 98 personal bests out of 206 race times which is a lot of improving paddlers, well done to all those who managed a PB. The winner for this years prize draw was none other than Phil Nelson himself, he kindly declined the prize that he had sponsored so we drew again and the winner was James Caspar, congratulations James.

Keep an out around October next year for the race series to be back again, also keep an eye out for the Northern and Southern 10km flat water race series over the winter. Otherwise I will see you on the water.