G'day all,

As a frequent stalker of this forum over the past couple of months, I feel it my obligation to post something re the Hawkesbury Canoe Classic on the weekend.

I'm brand new to the SUP thing, and (far from ideally) launched my homemade ply board at the start line! However, I had an absolute ball and met a few great people.

Unfortunately I didn't manage to meet all of the competitors (although I would have loved to have). A couple of remarks are:

1) It appears that Toby Cracknell and Cameron Turnbridge both broke the previous SUP record held by Mark Buchanan (being 12:13:45 in 2014). These times (among others), but particularly Toby Cracknells, completely blow my mind. The conditions they would have encountered included painfully adverse tides and significant headwinds... Yet maintained an average of near 10km/h across the 111km. Insane!!!

2) Was cool that Ryan Spring came and introduced himself before hand. He reckoned I was crazy, but I think anyone who entered this race on a SUP has got to be pretty nuts. Simarly, he beat half the kayak fleet....now that's crazy! He told me his goal and it looked like he achieved it. Well done mate.

3) I paddled close to Nicki Day for a long time and she was great company. She was doing it for a purpose, and after almost 90km unfortunately leg cramps (which she had battled with for the last 50km!) forced her retiremement. What an inspiration she was though! Her family and mega land crew would have been proud.

4) Retrospectively (due to my naivitety) the race is hardcore. Everyone entered for different purposes, and had different strategies. Congrats to all who entered!

5) Whilst Toby Cracknell and Cameron Turnbridge broke the record for the fastest time ever I'm fairly sure I would have completely annihilated the slowest record!!! I was also the last overall finisher (had around 5mins to spare at the 9.30 cut-off at Spensor). But I had a ball.

Results are shown below and are also at the following link: http://www.canoeclassic.asn.au/results/2015/results-2015.htm



If anyone is interested, the pic below is of my SUP just before its launching. It was made over the three weekends prior. It was a bit rough around the edges but did the job.

Massive thanks to my wife Kat, and dad Peter, as well as the race organisers, competitors, and many volunteers for making my experience so awesome!


Cheers,

James

Great effort James! That was one hell of a maiden voyage! I paddled past you after the first hour in a K2 and you looked like you were finding it tough going into the wind. Congratulations on finishing!

Toby was a machine! He rode our wash for over two hours during the night. He was going hard the whole time but still managed to have a chat. He actually won the race on handicap too!

Next year is the Classics 40th Anniversary. Hopefully you'll come back and try and beat your time. It is a huge challenge but the organisers do a fantastic job and meeting your fellow paddlers as you paddle down the river in the dark is a great experience !

Well done!