Race 8 Mana

You can't beat Wellington on a good day .............. and today it wasn't one of those ........... we're used to it and it was really just one of our other days, one of the exciting ones when you know if you get to the race after stressing at watching your prized boat dancing around merrily in the cradles on the roof rack, you've past the first challenge of the day. You release your straps on your boat and it tries to find its own way down to the water. Non stop action and excitment and that's just the pre-race stuff. On the water, the craft and paddlers only have to deal with wind speeds under the open road speed limit today, so we are thankful and go about our business, race well and take the time to have a good old chin wag with as many paddlers as you can before and after the racing.

Cutting to the chase, everyone was pleased that 28 other paddlers were just as adventurous as they were being out on the water today. The big Southerly gusts were pumping through the Porirua Harbour, so we opted for a two lap course from the SH1 road bridge at Mana and around to the bottom of Browns Bay in the Pauatahanui Inlet. Pretty much most of the course was still quite windy and with the tide still coming in and shallow patches off the main flow and Browns Bay giving us the lions share of wave action, I think we pretty much had it covered in the variety of conditions stakes.

Today it was good to hear paddlers talking about the Series here and using these races as part of their build ups to other races around the Country. Those that the Welly paddlers will be suppotring in the next month also include: The Takapuna Cup; The Tasman Surf Ski Series and Trans Taupo. As we progress through the Series (our post Christmas races were around 7km) we now increase a few kms in distance every three weeks up to 15km by the end of April, which lead us up to the big Wellington distance race of the Year "The Matariki Race" and of course other races around that provide good value, a good location or a challenge.

Today we covered a distance of 9.2km, not too many dramas on the water, just one rudder knocked off, a couple of withdrawls and one of the Race Organisers forgetting to complete the last 100 metres of the course, then ran a ground, fell off the ski trying to remount in a hurry while the field was bearing down .......... though he did finish and saw the funny side of it as did Tuhiwai who was also laughing from the shore ........ luckily no video of that one :-)

The next race of the Series is Sunday February 21, Petone Foreshore, (By the Giant Oars) Course around Matiu (Somes) Island, distance 8.5 km.

Results - Race 8 Mana (9.2km )

Kayak: Brent Harrison 49:58,1.

Sea Kayak: Sandy Winterton 50:00,1; David Fisher 50:59,2; Pete Notman 54:21,3; John Taylor 55:56,4.

O.C.1 Women: Anita Taggart 55:01,1; Chris Fox 56:31,2; Sarah Snow 64:13,3; Selena Katene, 4
O.C.1 Men: Pari Taiapu 47:12,1; Joern Scherzer 48:54,2; Grant Barriball 49:05,3; Paddy Rimene 49:10,4; Rob Taggart 49:48,5; Neil O'Brien 54:16,6; Peki Emery 54:22,7; Taawhana Chadwick 55:08,8; Joe Nuku 59:36,9; Bjorn Agnew,10.

O.C.6 Men: Team Pulse 45:53

Surf ski: Chester Burt 44:50,1; Mike Tait 46:08,2; Dave Ryde 47:14,3; Craig Anderson 47:38,4.