If you look at the picture of the Norwich clubs lake it looks fairly placid, wait until you actually get on it, we were blessed with sunshine but the wind was gale force, it was around the 50mph mark.
I traveled up with Toby and Paul and we were all looking forward to this race, think we all changed our minds once we got out on the water, because of the balls up with the timing and placing at the last Hasler race my promotion to division 5 had been reduced to division 6, looking at some of the div 5 paddlers perhaps I was better of in 6 lol,
it was still double the distance from my previous races which I prefer and 2 portage laps around the lake then the next 2 with a portage each before the finish line.
Out on the water for a warm up and my mind changed about this race, the wind had suddenly picked up more and with the lake being exposed you felt like a pea being pushed around by someone blowing down a straw, a few hundred yards out and then a turn to come back youre hit with the full force of the wind side on, everything suddenly became a lot tippier, I opted to use the Epsilon, Im stable enough but just cant get comfy in this boat and dont like it, with a white knuckle turn and confidence knocked I wasnt too sure how this race would go, staying in was the biggest priority, a second practice turn wasn't much better, better just to shore up and wait for the race I thinks and let fate do the rest.
The start area was fairly sheltered, that was good lol but this start was backing up to the main jetty for the start, a bit manic and fraught with 18 boats trying to maneuver in place, especially as I dont feel comfortable in this boat.
My start was lousy as usual, why cant they go "ready steady go" lol instead of suddenly "go" wasnt worried too much as it was easy to get in a group and wash hang, 2 on the front went like rockets, no body seemed too bothered about catching them up, unlike my cycling days if someone got out front and thought a threat they'd stay there everyone worked together to catch them, not with this racing or at least this level, the group was a little slow so I had to pull out and was doing quite well then we hit the full force of the wind from behind, low paddle strokes now as the wind catches the paddle and try's to rip it out of your hand, the waves were quite high now with nose to cockpit being underwater when you catch a wave, not been used to that and was a little un-nerving, it was surfing now when you catch a wave, a totally new experience but fun,
I was expecting nice calm waters at the turn, how wrong could I have been, it was like sitting in your bath in a rictor 15 earthquake, instead of 1 buoy it was 3 which prolonged the exposure to the side wind and the waves being whipped in with the wind also tried to stop your turn into the wind, it was an extreamlly ungraceful turn all made up of support strokes that somehow had some forward motion, finally got the nose into wind, phew, how I stayed in I dont know, how the hell I was going to do that another 3 times I didnt know,
into wind wasnt too bad, head forward and low paddle, frustrating you cant get the speed but I wasnt struggling with the strength side and was easily making up distance on the others, then I would struggle with stability and loose ground and the catch up again, the second turn was like the 1st but I still stayed in, just lol,
time for the first portage, a small area to get out of then a short run and into a beech launch, would have gone ok but a K2 suddenly appeared on the left and another on the right just as the wrong time, landing space taken up completely, no choice but to wait, mmmm to gentlemanly I think, Ive gota get more aggressive and push in.
The 3rd lap was when the wind reached its maximum, downwind was surfing and reaching speeds of up to 15kph and looking down and seeing no water under the cockpit in between waves, the waves now getting higher were washing from behind and each one putting more water into the boat, mmmmm this wasnt good, I was loosing ground not because I was exhausted but just trying to stay in the damn boat, the 3rd turn was worse, turns 1 and 2 put together, someone up there liked me and kept me in, into wind with the wind whipping up the white horses this time and the nose of the boat permanatly buried underwater, was starting to notice loads of boats the wrong way up and the rescue boat busy, so did not want to go in the water in the middle of this huge lake, at the winds worse the best I could manage was 2.2 kph and couldnt get the paddles any lower, loosing loads of ground now, the 2 I had been chasing had vanished, think one had gone in and the other I dont know, that was very draining lap, the last portage and there was a few boats anchored up doing nothing and 2 club mates standing there, It looked like the race had been stopped, phew!!!!!! how wrong, the anchored boats were from other class's and had finished, it was made clear that when finished to get out the other side and not at the portage, no choice but to get out of the boat in the water, lol try doing that gracefully, place behind had caught up and a mad dash to get in the water and off, struggled again to keep the speed in the wind and lost the place to him at the last turn, wasnt as bad as the other 3 times, I opted to take the straight route to the finish line whilst the guy in front took the longer sheltered route, it worked for him and pooped back out in front of me and left me trailing him by 50 mtrs, with 500 mtrs to go I wasnt going to be beaten that easily, this close to home it was s*d the wind and falling in, gave it everything and was catching, not quick enough, this Epsilon boat does not go any faster than the old bus Cirrus and is still like pushing a brick, with 50mtrs to go no choice but to dig even deeper, im not going to be beaten, made it by 1 second in front, long long time since Ive had ab's screaming like they were, the 100mtr saunter to the portage was like 5 miles and had nothing to even get out of the boat. Final position was 5th, under the conditions I was pleased with it, if it had been calm im confident I could have finished a lot higher.
I think it was an achievement for anyone just to have finished that race, it was an experience and a confidence builder staying in the boat as nearly a 1/3 of the entire entries had dunkings and retirements, it has helped me with stability and my blue boat feels so comfortable and stable and can even sit stationary in wobble 2 boats with no paddle, that was an impossibility 6 months ago, Im going to stay with the blue boat a bit longer and do a race in it before tackling the red boat head on, having a break from the next Hasler and concentrating hard on technique and distance training for the next race.
Congrats to team mates Spencer who won his Div 8 race to get promoted to Div 6, and young Paul getting a good finish in Div9 in lousy conditions and well done to Toby who had 3 dunkings and avoiding Davey Jone's locker, the next race has to be a CALM one, fingers crossed it is....................till next time :-)
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