James, Shane, and myself (Dean Ford) all headed up to Tauranga on Friday night to take part in the Wairoa Extreme Race. The race is run over two days with the first day being a time trial from the put in to the bottom of the Waterfall rapid. The next day has head-to-head elimination style racing down the Waterfall and Roller-coaster rapids.
Finishing second was a pretty good result for me, given that it was my first time in the race and that I only started paddling that level of river less than twelve months ago. For I while there I even thought I was going to win. But, unfortunately, I was beaten in the end by a very good paddler. It was a little gutting that I didn't get a prize for my effort though. But apparently there wasn't any given to those who got second in their first round race...
But anyway, the trip report.
After pouring with rain all the way up to Tauranga, Saturday dawned calm and clear. After the usual fluffing around you would expect from a white water race we all got our race numbers and headed up to the put in. The time trial starts with a seal launch off a ledge five metres above the water. Basically everyone lines up and plops off the ledge in 60 second gaps, then tears down the river as fast as they can.
This meant there was a bit of a wait. Obviously too much of a wait for three of the entrants, because they decided to walk upstream to run the heinous looking, grade 5 drop that is McLarens Falls. As I started getting into my boat the second of the paddlers ran the Falls. He got his line slightly wrong and went very deep. After what seemed like a long time he came up and rolled up with only half his paddle remaining. He tried his best to sort himself out, but eventually went over again, and swam the final weir.
I thought, "what the hell am I doing here, these people are all insane".
Then, Mike Dawson, the eventual winner, launched himself off, with a super powerful boof, skimmed over the pool, and boofed the final weir in one of the finest displays of grade 5 paddling I have ever seen.
I thought, "what the hell am I doing here, these people are all gurus".
Then the starter gave me my ten second warning, and it was time to get back to my own race. For once I didn't pencil the drop - actually pulling off a quite sweet seal launch - and headed downstream as quickly as I could. I was about to solo a grade 4 river, going as fast as my puny runner arms could paddle me.
I managed to hit most of my lines, including taking the faster, and more challenging, left line down Mother's Nightmare (sorry Mum). The flat bits I paddled fast, I didn't get pinned anywhere, although had to do a bit of lean-forward-and-grunt on one of the drops where I got pushed over a hole, I managed to avoid getting toasted on the final waterfall.
I hit the end rock, and thought, "that was pretty fast, I wonder how many of these speedy looking paddle-seven-days-a-week slalom paddlers I've beaten?"
As it turned out I didn't beat any of them. In fact I was pretty much last. ;(
James and Shane did much better, however, finishing comfortably in the middle of the field. This was an awesome result, cause it meant they avoided drawing one of the top paddlers in the first round tomorrow. I would not be so lucky.
After the race we headed down to the beach to check out the sights. John the Pom was blown away by the warm water, and the sport of body surfing that he tried for the first time (remind me again why anyone would want to live in England?).
The next major part of the race is of course the Saturday night party. Highlights included a glow in the dark Bliss-Stick Scud, and a bit of fire spinning (or is that dancing?). The fire spinning/dancing got especially interesting when a few people tried it for the first time...
Anyway, next day we paddled down to the top of the Waterfall for the start of the head to head racing. Because I was one of the slower competitors I was in one of the first races. They called out the first ten pairings and we all got in our boats. The draw went something like this:
...John Smith versus Steve Bloggs...Andrew So and So versus Craig Whatshisface...Dean Ford and his opponent weighing in a three hundred eighty pounds, HULK HOGAN!!!
Well, actually the guy's name was Tim, but he was massive.
He was actually quite friendly. We had a yarn before the race.
Me: So Tim, were are you from?
Tim: Rotorua.
Me: Oh, so you'll have paddled this river a fair bit then.
Tim: Yeah well, I'm actually a raft guide.
Me: Oh.
Tim: What about yourself Dean, where are you from?
Me: Wellington.
Tim: Oh, I didn't realise there was any rivers down there.
Me: Compared to Rotorua we haven't, but there are actually some quite testy grade 3 stuff on the Hutt. Of course it's got to rain heaps before its paddlable.
Tim: Oh, umm, so what do you do in Wellington Dean?
Me: I work for a bank.
Tim: Oh.
Eventually we lined up, the rope went up and we were off. I sprinted as hard as I could and had about a boat length on him by the start of the Waterfall. Unfortunately, that's were Tim's superior skills started to kick in. I got slowed slightly in the hole above the Toaster, the again at the bottom. This meant he had about five boat lengths on me at the top of the Roller-coaster, so I really needed him to make a mistake if I was going to get through, and, unfortunately for me, he didn't.
I actually got a pretty sweet line down as well. Ran through the Cauldron quite cleanly, then boofed the bottom drop, and made the top of the final eddy. But that didn't matter. I was out, and my day of sitting on the bank had begun.
Next up James had his race against Nils, a tourist we had met at Hokitika over Xmas. They arrived at the Roller-coaster together, then Nils went upside-down through the Cauldron. Unfortunately James couldn't get past, and Nils rolled up so they both paddled over the final drop together. Then the craziness started. Both them went over and started missing their rolls. On about his third attempt, James got up and made the eddy. Nils eventually got up, but had been washed too far downstream. James was through to the next round.
Shane came through after that, leading his race, but only just. Then disaster struck. He rolled at the bottom just above the final eddy and by the time he rolled up he had been eliminated. Kind of a snatch defeat from the jaws of victory situation.
Then something incredible happened. After his tinny win in the first round, James hit form. He kept nailing lines, while others made mistakes, and eventually made it through to the quarter finals. People started talking about this guy no one had heard of before, wondering why he had those spikes on his helmet, and where the hell Wellington was...
Then he won again.
So James found himself in the semi-finals, racing against Jarred Meehan. The other semi had Mike Dawson and Kenny Mutton. Coubs was in amongst the best of the best.
But unfortunately he couldn't keep his giant killing ways going, and lost his semi, then his race for third against Kenny Mutton.
But this was an awesome effort, that is unlikely to be repeated for some time to come. That level of the competition is usually reserved for the country's top slalom paddlers, with the pure whitewater paddlers usually being eliminated much earlier.
Awesome stuff James.
Fordy
