2024 Christmas Race

What are we doing here Simon?

Ideal weather conditions and a high but rapidly outgoing tide made for a good race day setup. The lineup at 8am was nothing unusual, other than the placement of some of the paddlers. Phil, Steve, Barry, Martin and Terry had the inside line but Donovan and Xavier (in a double), Pete, Simon, John and Julio had made an odd call to sit close to the middle of the flow. On “go” the race started as per usual, with John picking up the pace to attempt to compensate for the poor positioning. By the 500m mark when the field merged together the three outsiders had the front position.

Julio taking the lead

That was followed by a hard paddle by Julio to take the lead by the 1km mark at the Huruhuru. That got taken over shortly after by Simon who lead the run to the 2km mark. By the next turn and up to the 3km mark, John took the lead back and then lead the group of himself, Simon, Pete and Julio for a speed run with the outgoing tide down to the turnaround just past the club. Phil was next follower by Donovan who was doing a gallant effort dragging Xavier into 6th at the turn.

Ideal conditions, at least when heading downstream

Simon took over the lead coming into and out of the turn and it was a quick chase to the mangroves and the shadow of the tide with Simon and Julio getting a small lead. Phil could be seen taking a line up the Western bank so loosing further ground come the turn.

Back up at the club, the waterski boat came on through causing a further split in the front runners as Simon and Julio stayed on the Western side and John and Pete attempted to head into the wash and then cross over the flow early on, resulting in further lost ground at the merge point 500m up.

At this point, it was obvious the Simon was running late for a date, because he then proceeded to accelerate and start putting some serious distance on the rest. It was also clear the Julio had been saving up all year for this one, and he too put some distance on, though not enough to catch Simon. John and Pete worked together for another kilometre until Pete dropped off.

By the last Motorway turn, Simon had a very clear lead, Julio had a very clear second, and John was in third. That’s how It stayed across the line with Simon running out of the water, Julio also heading off for an early shower, then John. Phil took third having clawed back Pete pushing him into fourth. That was followed with Donovan and Xavier, Terry, Barry, Steve and a lonely Martin.

The race was followed by one of Phil’s excellent BBQ lunches, refuelling the team for the rest of the day.