The great Hawkesbury River system - a beautiful place to train
It’s amazing that 6 months have already passed since Team Fat Paddler last competed in the Hawkesbury Canoe Classic. In 2009 we had one man on the water, in 2010 we had two, and for 2011 we already have eight paddlers confirmed. As a two-event “veteran” I feel confident about what the event involves, but at least half of this year’s team are “Classic Virgins” and are already thinking seriously about training and preparation.
Three TFP Classic Virgins - Cmdr Grumm, Lt. Cmdr Alan and Midshipman Nat
Despite my desire for less distance and more “fun”, the members of Team Fat Paddler insisted on a flat water training paddle to get a few kilometres under their belts. With that in mind we met at Bobbin Head around 6.30, a rabble of different boat sizes, shapes and colours brightening up the shore as we prepared to set-off.
Seaman Nathan and Lt. Cmdr Alan get ready to set-out through the fog
Midshipman Simon gives the thumbs up to head off
And they're off! Well, the fast ones anyway - haha!
Within minutes the seven paddlers formed three distinct groups – Midshipman Nat, Lt. Cmdr Alan and Cmdr Grumm in their rockets took off first, powering ahead to an early lead. Midshipman Simon and Seaman Nathan held the middle of the pack, whilst Lt. Ned remained at the back of the pack with me in the canoe, acting as sweeps at the rear. And so the paddle continued for ten kilometres until we arrived at Little Jerusalem Beach, the fast team securing the beach-head before the slower paddlers made their way to land.
The advance party secures the beach prior to the landing of the Team Fat Paddler flagship
With the beach secure, Capt FP was able to safely bring the flagship into shore
Team Fat Paddler set-up a lunch-camp on the beach
With the beach secure and camp set-up, there was really only one thing left to do – put the sausages on the Trangia for lunch. With the pan sizzling and the smell of cooking sausages in the air, the lads laughed and joked with each other and generally enjoyed each others company. Then when the cooking was done, sausage sangers were handed out to all and we enjoyed lunch surrounded by the beautiful bushland of the Ku-Ring-Gai National Park.
Oh yeah, bring on the slightly blackened sausages!
With lunch done we cleaned up the area and packed our gear away, making sure the beach was left as we found it. Team members had a few turns in each others boats for a bit of fun for a while, before preparing to set-off for the final run back to the start. At this point we were joined on the beach by a random paddler Russ, who lamented the fact he’d come too late for the sausages – haha! We gave him our commiserations before setting off back into the river.
Lt. Ned greases himself up with lube before trying to squeeze into Seaman Nathan's Zegul 550
Russ, trying to smile despite his bitter disappointment at missing out on a hotdog
The fast group decided to make a run in the next bay, the “real” Jerusalem Beach, adding an additional 5-10kms to their paddle. The rest of us set-off on the return run at a more leisurely pace, playing in the boat wake and gas-bagging all the way back. We were finally joined with two kilometres to go by the faster guys who surfed a yacht’s boat wake for several minutes to give them a boost of speed. Then with a final burst of energy we all raced our way back over the final km or so.
I get asked a lot about how to train for the Hawkesbury Canoe Classic, which is ironic considering the type of paddler I am. But for the begginners I’d say just get out and paddle each week, and slowly work your way up to some distance. You don’t need to do 50km each week, a good 10-15km most weeks with a few 20-30km paddles thrown in here and there will do you well enough to get through the event. Of course the serious athletes train much harder than that, but then clearly this website isn’t about that! Regardless, anyone can do the Classic with a little training under their belt, so if you are thinking of doing it in 2011 I’d love to see you out there on the water. Cheers – FP
Two crazy men in a canoe - bring it!
With the team now finalised for this years Hawkesbury Canoe Classic, I thought it time to hang up the kayak for a month and start getting some kms in with my Mad River canoe. With new Team Fat Paddler member Gelo joining me, we took the canoe up to the Ku-Ring-Gai Chase National Park with Grumm.
C'mon Gelo, I didn't just bring you along to look pretty, paddle dammit!
With the two of us in the canoe we struggled a little with steering and synchronising our paddling but as we made our way into the beautiful wilderness of the National Park it slowly came together. In fact, despite the short boat length and incredible width, the boat seemed to manage a fair pace when we got our paddling working well together.
Nice pink paddle Gelo. Really, errr, nice!
Of course as we worked on our paddling together the scenery around us went from beautiful to stunning. Banks of mangroves changed to rocky pools and overhanging trees as we worked our way further and further up into the Park. With Sydney having put on a magnificent Spring day for us, it was hard to treat this as training!
Drifitng amongst the rock pools.
Turning around, we now had the run of the retreating tide and found that the canoe would get some real pace once running with the water. We were having some real fun now and started experimenting, with me trying out using the canoe as a SUP a few times, paddling down stream whilst standing in the back.
A canoe, or a SUP?? Who cares, as long as we're having fun!
And lastly, I wanted to test out how easy it would be to sleep in the back of the canoe with Gelo paddling, since this would be a core FP strategy during the Hawkesbury Canoe Classic! So with him straining away on his pink paddle, I gently lay back and enjoyed the ride for a while. This could definitely be the secret to enjoying the Classic in a few weeks time!! Cheers – FP
Ahhh, now THIS is the way to travel!
Tags: Hawkesbury Canoe Classic, HCC 2010, Ku-Ring-Gai Chase National Park, Mad River Canoe, Mad River Explorer, Mad River Explorer 14TT, Team Fat Paddler
The motley crew of Team Fat Paddler for this year's Classic
Despite promising I’d never attempt the Hawkesbury Classic again unless in a much faster craft, for some crazy reason I thought I’d try to put the fun back into the event by doing it in a canoe. A short, wide, slow canoe – suitable for a short, wide, slow paddler! The call went out to past members of Team Fat Paddler and two of last year’s HCC team (Grumm and Burnsie) agreed to get back in the car for the trek around NSW. Then with a few new recruits, the team has finally come together.
So to introduce all the members of this years HCC Team Fat Paddler…
Gelo – Young, fit, beautiful, and now paddling in the front seat of the canoe. His Blue Steel gaze is designed to mesmerise other paddlers allowing us to paddle past them in a blur of red.
Grumm – Captain of the Landcrew, there is much debate whether his whinging or snoring will be more unbearable on the night. If he gets anywhere near a curry, I fear there may be worse things to worry about!
Burnsie – Ex-Navy Cook, Burnsie returns as Executive Chef to prepare a full buffet of aircraft carrier proportions at each of our pit-stops. I wouldn’t let him near a curry either.
Sacha – New to the Classic but a past TFP member, Sacha was once the most beautiful man in our crew. Officially our Executive Media Producer, but I suspect will be looking to get close to Gelo’s face at some point with a heavy bat.
Nat – New to TFP and won’t be there on the day, Nat is a dark mysterious spin doctor and fixer who works behind the scenes threading a complex web of propaganda wherever he goes. He is perfectly placed as TFP’s Chief Propaganda Officer.
FP – Just some fat fella hoping to cruise in the back of a canoe paddled by some young, fit, beautiful bloke named Gelo.
Team Fat Paddler - a hard working dedicated support crew!
Of course, the important thing here is the fund raising for the Arrow Bone Marrow Foundation, an incredible organisation that supports research into Leukaemia and related illnesses. This one event each year is its main fund-raiser, so I would ask any reader to here to pull out the credit card and make a donation, no matter how small!
Donate via the Fat Paddler or Donate via Gelo
Cheers, and paddles up! – FP
FP during last years Classic - bring on 2010!
Boat 107 - seems so easy at this point!
As much as the HCC turned into a gruelling night of sleep deprivation and pain, for many it’s a paddling festival of colour and fun. My land crew (Team Fat Paddler) seemed to be having more fun than most of course, doing us all proud. Here are a few more pics of the colours of the Hawkesbury Classic.
Colourful paddlers! Ned and FP
Landcrewing is incredibly serious business...
It's all Go! Go! Go! when you're on landcrew duty!
Night colours!
Fat Paddler's own shade girl. Where are my skinned grapes?
You can even paddle in colour
Tags: Hawkesbury Canoe Classic
Final thoughts: "Clean sheets and soft pillows soon...."
When you kayak a long distance on your own, you inevitably have meandering thoughts about many things ranging from current muscular pain to family to why your bow wake is glowing like fluoro ribbons in the dark. On my recent paddle as the night grew late and I found myself paddling in the dark alone and in considerable pain, my thoughts grew crazier and a little scattery as the night progressed. Of course these were fed by some of the amazing things I saw during the night, such as the aforementioned luminescent algae creating glowing lines in my bow wake, or exploding in fluoro clouds as my paddle bit into the water. Or the sight of a paddler catching a ferry cable around the neck in the dark due to paddling too close to the shore. Or the vision of billions of stars stretched out like a milky ribbon across the sky in a display seldom seen in the light-sodden skies above Sydney.
The final light of Saturday - only 90kms to go! Bummer...
So what did I think about during the more painful hours of my paddle? I thought alot about my family: my wife Bec and my two daughters Grace and Ella. I thought about my last car accident, and the pain I went through learning to walk again with a shattered pelvis. I thought about sharks occassionally, and the unlikelihood of there being any this far up the river. I thought alot about my support crew, actually worried about them and their safety driving through the night (had I known how much fun they were having I may not have had these particular thoughts!).
Best chicken noodle soup I've EVER had! 83km to go...
I thought about my paddle mate Ned, who had pulled out at the 30km mark with a raging nauseating migraine, and hoped he was feeling better. I thought about cutting my pants off with scissors to try to alleviate some of the pressure sores that were developing (it wouldn’t have helped). I thought about my Greenland Paddle and how lucky I was to have a paddle that could do different strokes, resting muscle groups when they badly needed it. I thought my future kayak adventures, and what I should aim to do next.
A mixture of pain and relief at the end of the 111km
There were many dark thoughts too. I thought on a couple of occassions about pulling over to the side of the river and sleeping for the rest of the night until a rescue boat found me. I thought about simply pulling in at the next checkpoint and refusing to paddle anymore. I thought about taking all my remaining pain killers at once (I had taken a couple and had half a dozen left) to cut down on the pain. And on the odd occassion, I seriously thought about stopping and crying.
Finished - woohoo!
When I look back at the event now, I realise it is this level of hardship that really allows you to test your mental resolve. I honestly felt mentally weak on quite a few occassions out there in the dark, and yet somehow I managed to keep putting the paddle in the water enough to get me to the end (unlike many who pulled out). Whilst I’m in no real hurry to do something like this again any time soon, I can see why people become addicted to this type of pursuit. So if you are about to embark on a big and gruelling adventure, I’d like to send you my heartfelt wishes for your success.
Tags: endurance paddles, Hawkesbury Canoe Classic, kayaking, kayaks
