Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Patterson Lakes Canoe Race by Ella.



Re: Patterson Lakes Canoe Race 17th May.
by Ella on Mon May 18, 2009 3:01 pm
Okay. Well we had 10 outriggers line up for the PLCC Winter Series race 2. Two OC6s, two OC2s and six OC1s. Got off to a very late start as the flood gates into the canals were shut, and they really wanted to get them opened to run the full course, rather than everyone doing laps of the river. Eventually they got it sorted and we were on our way. All the outriggers started together in start 3. The OC6s did a 15km course - 3 laps of the river section. Everyone else did 18km - 3 laps of a 6km course including a section in the canals. We decided it was probably a bit dangerous to send the OC6s through the canals - not much room in there means a high chance of squishing a kayak!! The girls OC6 got a good start, sitting right next to the boys crew (literally, we were rubbing their ama!!).
The attempt to put young Dylan off didn't work - he calmly held his line and the boys powered away!! The OC1s and 2s turned off to go through the canals and the OC6s had the river mostly to themselves for most of the first lap - just a few kayak relay teams up the top end, as everyone else went through the canals. Got to cheer everyone on as they came out of the canals as we headed back down to the start line and again as we headed back up on each lap. Made sure to scream at Notto on every lap to stop slacking and get back up with Wade! The boys OC6 kept pulling away from the girls crew (sorry Dan, you're a girl now!!), and Clarkie and Bondy would pass us right at the end of each lap, despite paddling an extra km per lap. On the last lap, Janine made a $5 bet with Al Opie and his TK2 partner that we would beat them to the finish, right before he turned the closest buoy to head back - we still had almost another km to go before our turn around!! We tried to fire the crew up to beat them back anyway, but there wasn't much energy left by then (we had three novices in our crew who had been slightly misled about the distance involved in this race. They did a great job sticking out that extra 9km they weren't expecting!!). Coming past the exit from the canals on the last lap, we saw Clarkie and Bondy again. Told the crew we were not letting them beat us to the finish!! We tried hard, but they just pipped us on the line. Oh, well, it was a big ask for a crew going 9km further than they would've liked to beat a crew going about 90km less than they would've liked!! So OC6s: Inland Outrigger boys, PLOCC/IOCC combined girls crewOC2: Bondy/Clarkie, Maya/HelenOC1: Steve Vegh, Notto, Wade, Lisa, Brian, Stefan (think that's the right order)Ella










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