Canoe Showdown Oct 6

Well an interesting day on the Mahurangi River this event is only part of the big Kowhai Festival in Warkworth. The town was a log jamb of stalls and activities so it was a bit of a squeeze for kayakers to get a car park, on the flip side they weren't metered!

The Race Organiser was Terry Newsome from ipaddle (Jantex and Nelo Agent) and he's also the President of the Waitemata Canoe and Multisport Club and if that's not enough he also Organises the King of the Harbour!

Terry was ably assisted by a good team of people, his good wife and also Carolanne and Ron Oosterdyk and also 3 or 4 other helpers . Also being the first year that Terry has organised this race so he's still getting a feel of it (after 20 years in the local hands of Jim Sonerson).

33 paddlers stirred the water up on Saturday and I'm sure there are another 100 odd Aucklanders that could have supported it as well.

I travelled a distance to it from Wellington, as did 15 year old junior Toby Brooke from Whanganui who also did well finishing close behind winner Simon Mc Larin.
In the feild were a good mix of multisport, sea kayaks, sit on top kayaks, surf skis and K1's. Among the paddlers was Olympic Kayak Legend Ian Ferguson who was out with me racing on the Think Kayaks Surf skis and another noticable point was that the Waitemata Canoe and Multisport Club still have a good number of their paddlers at these events.

Click here for the results http://regonline.activeglobal.com/builder/site/Default.aspx?EventID=1134770

A mixture of Photos:
Carolanne, Ron, Jim Sonerson, Ian, Terry, me in the front page of the Rodney times :-) also proof that I was paddling as well and not larking around sunning it up. click on any of the photos to enlarge