KOH '09

After a gentle prod from Lynda I remembered I had a blog to update. It is summer down here, forgive me! The time from when my parents left to now, the end of February is all a blur. Somewhere in there I competed in a Surfski World Cup race here in Auckland. The King of the Harbour as it is called is a 30km race around the Rangitoto volcano in the Waitemata Harbour. There were 90 paddlers from 7 different countries. The race day was a scorching 25C with offshore winds. The first 15km of the race went really well. With a light tail wind I was able to catch some runners and kept up a good pace.


That all changed on the second half, turning around the far side of the island we paddled straight a strong headwind. This turned the windward side of Rangitoto into a washing machine. The waves made it nearly impossible to paddle, and the fact that my butt and legs were now numb andor screaming in pain from the hour and a half I had been paddling already.

To try and give you a idea of the waves, imagine paddling directly behind someone; when there was a wave between us (them going down a wave and you are going up the back) it was impossible to see them. Slugging my way through this I made it to a more sheltered area of the bay for the last 4k paddle in. At this stage the heat was getting to me, remember NZ is in the ozone hole. This wasn't the biggest concern however as my bum/legs were on red alert, I have never had such pain from paddling, but I guess that is what you get for paddling nearly 3 hours on a ill fitting surf ski. Making it to the beach I through my boat and paddle on the sand and stumbled my way to the finish line with a time of 2:58min, coming in 33rd place overall and 19th in my age division. Strangely enough when I finished it was only my lower body that was fried, my arms and torso could have kept going for a while yet!


After a recovery nap back at home I went to the banquet and prize giving. Talking to the more experianced surf ski racers they said those were the hardest conditions they had ever seen, with the headwind making it seem like a much longer race. That made me a feel a bit better considering my time. At the prize giving the international paddlers (me included) we called up to the front and presented with a carved bone necklace symbolic of safe travels over water. It was a nice and appropriate momento.

Well I apologize again for the long breaks between postings, and will do my best to be a little more frequent with them in the future. This week I went to the Nine Inch Nails concert, which was a sweaty, squished good time. Tomorrow I head to Hamilton for my flatmates 21st, and Sunday I fly out to Vanuatu for a week of diving and snorkelling! I will let you know how it all is in my next post.