BSUPA National
Championships 2013
A two day event on my home turf, I was looking forward to
this race a lot, mainly because it meant I could walk about 500metres straight
to the start line from my front door instead of driving 150 odd miles but also
because well heck, it’s a race… The event was split into the 2 days, the Saturday
being the main event as it were, the chance to get picked to represent the UK,
this meant you had to ride on a 12’6” board around the 5.5km course and place
first though. I had been practicing before and after work most days for about 2
weeks prior to the event testing out different boards and trying my hardest to
get a good time, Ollie O’Reilly had set a blistering time of 38:40 and I was
really struggling to get anywhere near that time. I kept shaving off 10 seconds
here and 10 seconds there but wasn’t really getting any closer to beating Ollie
let alone the likes of the UK top 3, Still it gave me a goal to push towards
and kept me trying extremely hard so it worked out as a great training tool.
It was cool to see such a good turnout at the crabshell
(waterborn) and see a lot of familiar faces as well as plenty of new faces just
getting into the race scene. I was fairly fired up for this race despite the
fact I know I’m not very fast on a 12’6” board. I had done all of my race
preparations such as polishing the board the night before, having a good breakfast
and a day of rest beforehand, I was as ready as ever and determined to give it
my best shot.
The pace at the start was as horrible as I had expected everyone
heading down the creek towards the quay at a blistering speed, I tried to keep
my balance and speed and try to slowly overtake were possible, as we rounded the
first mark I got caught behind Sam Ross and Marie Buchanan and it forced me
abit wide near the moored boats, I put the hammer down and tried to pull away
from James Mc’ging who was hot on my tail trying to put his recent drafting
practice into use. As we passed back in front of the crabshell it gave me a
boost hearing friends and family cheering me on, I tried to maintain a good
speed and catch the group in front of me consisting of Ben Swails (my favourite
rival) Marie Buchanan, Rick Swann and one other, but just behind them was
fellow 11 cities paddler Sam Ross, even catching him could mean a slight rest
so I could try catch the others. It took maybe another 800m or so to catch Sam,
I tucked in behind and paddled for maybe 5/6 strokes and then had a bit of a
chat with myself, being such a short distance race, I can’t afford to draft if I
can catch someone I can overtake them, so I pulled out and began to try and
pull passed. As I drew almost level, I think Sam must have glanced over saw my
board and momentarily lost concentration, he tipped and fell off his board and I
cruised passed, 1 less. I knew I had to keep going as fast as possible as I rounded
the mark out by the entrance of Bowcombe, Sam isn’t the sort to be defeated by
failing in and losing a place, if anything it would push him faster and make
him more determined. I was perhaps only 6 board’s length behind the group and
Rick seemed to be struggling to keep on the back of the train. I was pushing as
hard as I could but nothing seemed to help me close the gap, I was utterly
determined to beat Ben but knew he was saving himself drafting till when he saw
his opportunity. The gap was pretty much the same all the way back accept for
the gap between myself and Sam, as we passed various turns in the course I could
see slowly he was gaining on me. As we rounded the last mark back by the quay I
saw Ben make his move and go off on a final sprint to the finish, I made a
slight mistake on the turn and I knew it could have been costly, I put the
hammer down for the last 500m stretch to the finish but was piped on the line
by a fully deserving Sam Ross, I finished 12th and had knocked off
almost a minute compared to all my previous training times so I took that as a
form of success and tried not to be too dis-hearted by the result.
My main focus now
would be for the distance race, 3 creeks challenge the next day. But before
that could happen I had a go at the 1 mile stock equipment time trail, a 10’6”
mega inflatable with alloy adjustable paddle and leash, everyone had the exact
same equipment and it wasn’t a fast board so everyone was at the same
disadvantage. It was tremendously hard to keep the board moving, opting for
short paddle strokes as often as I could move the heavy weight of paddle for
what seemed like forever. It certainly was the slowest iv paddle a mile in a
long time but it was interesting to see everyone else was tiring around the
same location when I was back on the land. You could only enter a time once a
day, so I still had tomorrow to try again and hope for a better time.
The next day arrived soon enough and I was feeling a lot more
confident about it as well, back on my beloved 14’ board the C-14 I knew how it
handled and knew within myself I can keep a good race speed up. Some people had
only came down for the Saturdays race and so I had selected a different bunch
to people to target to try and beat or stay near. One of these people was Scott
Warren, we had a brilliant race against each other at Eton Dorney and joked
about when we would see each other on the course and what the plan of action
would be from there.
The start was slow for me but I had expected this much,
knowing that my heavy board takes a bit longer to get up the speed, the course
had been made longer which was a good thing but It was back down the creek
towards the quay and meant a turn which would slow me down and stop any rhyme I
had got into. I was still happy with the position I was in and knew I could
slowly now make up my ground and speed. Slowly but surely I built up my speed and could pass one of two
people and focus on the group I wanted to be with, Scott Warren, Aaron Rowe and
Ollie O’Reilly were up ahead and I was determined to catch them. Coming up to
bowcombe I took a chance and cut across the shallow bank filled with weed, I had
my FSC weed cutter fin on and Marie Buchanan was drafting me, I saw this as an opportunity
to both lose Marie and gain on Scott’s group, it paid off and I was soon
alongside. I had joked with Scott id catch him at the 3km mark and then he
could draft me but it took until 3.6km to pull head, we now all worked as a
team of 4 changing every now and then to maintain a good speed, as we got
towards the last turn at Frogmore creek I was beginning to wonder when I would
be able to make my move and pull away from the group. I let Ollie take the lead
after the Frogmore turn hoping to tire him out before I went for it, this is
when I saw my chance, as he had made the turn his leash was caught round the
back of his board, not around the fun but enough drag to make it hard for him
to catch up, I waited till we passed saltstone and let some boat wash try and
break up the train, I kept weaving in and out of the wash desperately trying to
shake them off, it turned out Scott had fallen off the back of the train near
the mark and I just now had to put a gap between Aaron and Ollie, I took a longer
route to try and keep ot of what little tide there was but also out of the
wind, it seemed to work, I could never have caught Peter ahead of me but was
fairly confident I had done enough to maintain a good finish.
I Placed 6th overall and was pretty chuffed with
the result considering the level of competition. It was a great race and it
involved a lot of tactics, local knowledge of the water and racing knowledge to
do well. When I got back and had recovered I gave the stock time trial race
another go, again it was hard work but I did feel I got a better speed out of
the board this time round. It’s hard when you are used to getting a certain
speed out of a board to put yourself on a board that doesn’t really have a race
pace or even a sweet spot and paddle it effectively, despite how much it hurt I
did really enjoy the time trial race and i look forward to seeing the results of it in the near future.
I would like to thank everyone at Waterborn for setting up
the event and organising it so well, also to BSUPA for their involvement, to Tushingham
and Starboard UK for their help and support. Also a big thank you to Dave at
Tri-Ocean for meeting me after a training session to sort out some gloves for
racing when I couldn’t get to the shop in opening hours. And a big thank you to
everyone how made the journey to turn up and race, always great to see the
commitment to the sport, thanks guys and gals. Whoop Whoop!!!
