New Zealand is the perfect environment for multisport races, with its wild rivers and uncompromising terrain. The Coast to Coast is the most well known of these, and if you want to find out more, you’re where I was about a year ago. The genesis of my multisport journey was a ballot entry I obtained to the Coast to Coast single day event, aka ‘The Longest Day’. I knew the race would be tough, but I’ve done a lot of tough events and thought, “how hard can it be?”.
Multisport sounded a bit like triathlon, and there are indeed similarities. There are three disciplines. Two of them are cycling and running. However, in multisport the third is kayaking. If I had to summarise multisport in one word to anyone coming from a triathlon, cycling or running background that word would be ‘kayak’. This blog charts my journey from a multisport newbie – or more accurately someone who thought they knew how to kayak – into a semi-competent paddler.
I plan to cover the Coast to Coast in a separate post, so will focus on what I learned in my preparation, finishing with the Clutha Classic (a 51km kayak race down the Clutha River from Wanaka). If you just want to read about this race, which is pictured in the featured image for this post, jump to the end of this blog.
The three main lessons I learned about multisport are listed below. They start with kayaking but include a couple of other things I came to realise.
1. It takes practice to get good at kayaking. There is a strength/fitness element but also a skills one. If you had never ridden a bicycle, you’d expect it to take a few weeks to gain skills and confidence. Kayaking is the same. After a while the balance and boat handling improve naturally. And taking the cycling analogy one step further, multisport is not about just learning how to ride a bike, it’s about riding a bike on off-road mountain bike trails for several hours.
2. You need to organise your own support team. Events like the Coast to Coast and Motu Challenge require you to have a support crew. It took a while for the fact that my entry fee did not cover any support to dawn on me. For the Coast to Coast, luckily I was able to obtain a paid support package from Team CP. (I was on the waiting list for a few weeks before being offered a place.)
3. Don’t underestimate how tough these events are. A couple of my build up events put my grit to the test.
First strokes – Waikato River and Lake Karapiro
After a couple of sessions kayaking on our local Waikato River with Richard Clark in a nice stable sea kayak (a Barracuda Beachcomber) I switched to a Star multisport kayak. This felt much quicker and just seemed to fit me better. I had two outings in it on nearby Lake Karapiro, and whilst I felt comfortable paddling around on flat water I was far from proficient.
Paddling with Georgie, who Richard was also coaching, on Lake Karapiro.
The Star kayak on my car by Lake Karapiro. The kayak rack was the first of many new bits of kit that I had to purchase.
Accelerated Grade 2 cert? – Taupo and Mohaka River
With a limited base of kayak training I found myself with Jonathan, who Richard had also been coaching, having our paddling technique and kayak skills appraised by Ben Fouhy. It’s a requirement to have a Coast to Coast Grade 2 certificate in order to enter the race, and we had come to Ben for three days of coaching. Ben and other’s courses are usually four days, but we were hoping to be able to get everything covered and complete the certification in just three.
The morning of Day 1 was spent in our multisport kayaks on Lake Taupo. Ben seemed happy with our basic skills and aside from an enforced capsize and swim to the shore it was uneventful. We then moved to the Waikato River in the section above Huka Falls. After a warning about not paddling in the wrong direction and over Huka Falls – in practice something that it would be practically impossible to do by accident – we started paddling up river towards the Control Gates. Jonathan was the first in the water as we were attempting to paddle up a grade 1 rapid and some kayakers coming downriver obstructed him and make the whole situation somewhat confused. However, it wasn’t long until I joined him when I was caught out by an eddy and flipped. My encounters with eddies were to become a bit of a theme and reflected a lack of practice on the Waikato. After reaching the Taupo Bungy we turned around and heading back down the river. All was good for us to progress to the next stage.
Jonathan and I waiting for Ben by the Waikato River in Taupo.
Day 2. The plan was to develop some white-water skills on the Mohaka River. I hadn’t appreciated that this was not in Taupo but about an hour’s drive away along the road to Napier. Our base for the morning was the Mohaka River Farm. Set in an idyllic valley it would be a nice spot for a weekend break. We were in short white water kayaks. After getting used to paddling them in a straight line we progressed to the point where we ran the grade 2 rapid by the Farm. After lunch, we drove to a put in point further downstream and we set off on a 10km paddle down the river. The rapids were impressive and a bit intimidating but in the white water boats they were not too challenging. We probably would have been okay going down backwards as long as we did not panic.
The main thing that sticks in my mind was our swimming drill, which took place across a rapid half way down the river. Ben asked us to swim across to the other side – which looked improbable and quite frightening – and then on the swim back to practice catching a throw line and being pulled back to shore. Fortified with a large dose of adrenalin I blasted over the rapid, which was not as hard to swim in as I thought. Bear in mind though that I was wearing a personal floatation device (PFD). However, I then had difficulty pulling myself out of the water on the other side. My body felt unnaturally heavy and I belated realised unexpectedly cold and wet. That didn’t make sense as I was wearing a drysuit, which I had hired from Ben for Days 2 and 3. It was only when I hauled myself out of the water that I realised I had forgotten to ask someone to do up the zip across the shoulders on the back!
After letting out most of the water and I eventually made it back over the river and flopped onto the shore, soaked and getting quite cold. Luckily I had some dry clothes – kids, always take a drybag with spare clothes – but then had to leap in the river another time to practice grabbing the throw line. This I did and when Ben said I had to do it again I thought he was having me on. However, I had held it on the wrong shoulder – it should be the the one furthest from the shore – so I really did have to do it again. That done, we were on our way and soon at the get out point. Eddy from the Farm met us with Ben’s truck and we drove back together. The Farm is run by The Brethren movement. Other than to comment that it is an beautiful location to base a community, my only encounter with one of them was with Eddy who was very pleasant.
Our first view of the Mohaka as we descended to the Farm. We were to paddle through this s-bend, which contained some powerful eddies, on the afternoon of Day 3.
Waiting for the air to warm and the frost to melt before starting our kayaking. We did the course in mid-August, winter in the Southern Hemisphere.
On Day 3 we were back at the Farm in our multisport boats to repeat yesterday’s run down the river and then to do a longer and more challenging run from the Farm all the way to the get out point. The main differences to me were that you had to paddle hard to stay stable when the rapids kicked up and the multisport boats were more prone to being caught and flicked around in eddies. That was the area were it became apparent I needed more practice. Jonathan and I did well I think – Ben had said that he had been considering passing us – but it was still clear that we needed to do more. Ben commented that he had never passed anyone after three days so we didn’t feel too bad. Whilst from a safety point of view we were there – we both had plenty of practice self-rescuing – speaking for myself I still didn’t feel comfortable in the multisport boat on the bigger grade 2 rapids. I felt I needed more practice so having to arrange another day or two with Ben was a good thing. It was a fun three days, and a reminder that it is always hard to fast track skills that come naturally with practice. On Day 3 we didn’t have the help of Eddy and his shuttle service, so we had to use Ben and my car to self-shuttle. I think we crossed one section of road 8 times! It was a tiring day; I arrived back in Hamilton with Jonathan at 10pm.
At the get out point on the Mohaka.
You can only get returns if you invest – Lake Rotoroa (in Hamilton), Waikato River and Whanganui River
Following our adventures on the Mohaka I had a guilty three weeks where, in spite of remembering Ben’s words that we needed to ‘invest’ in the kayaking, I only trained a handful of times because I was in the South Island on a couple of holidays. I did however buy the Star Kayak that I had previously borrowed from Richard, though I don’t think that is what Ben meant by ‘investing in kayaking’. Jonathan and I did head out for a session on the Waikato River one evening which was surprisingly unnerving. Even where the water did not seem turbulent the current was strong, probably moving at about 5kph. And in various sections the river swirled up in boils that threw our kayaks around.
And so it was that I was feeling nervous as I drove to Taumaranui with Jonathan and Georgie for another day with Ben on a 25km stretch of the Whanganui River. We were joined by another Mark. All of us had entered the Coast to Coast – in fact Mark had completed it last year – and were keen to get some more paddling experience. I felt more confident and did not fall in, although I had a close shave when I was paddling up a rapid with Ben in an exercise to test ourselves a bit. In fact none of us fell in and I could sense Ben’s disappointment that we didn’t set off to try the up rapid paddle multiple times – although Jonathan did do it twice – even though it probably would have helped us develop as kayakers. I think he felt we weren’t getting sufficient value from his guiding. But from my perspective what I wanted was a confidence boost and an enjoyable day out, which is exactly what the day provided.
At the end of our paddle down the Whanganui. Georgie, Jonathan, Me, Mark and Ben.
Sorting our kit out and wondering how we are going to get five kayaks on Ben’s ute.
Job done!
First kayak race – Cambridge to Hamilton
Our next challenge was the Cambridge to Hamilton Paddle Race. 26km downstream. As we were waiting in Cambridge watching the boils in the Waikato I was struck by how powerful the river was. When I later checked the flow, the river was full that day, it was 370 m3 per second in Hamilton. To put that into perspective the average flow of the River Thames at Teddington is 53 m3 per second. On its journey between Cambridge and Hamilton the river funnels through some tighter sections, the most notorious known as The Narrows. The river there was only about 10m wide, lined by trees – never a good idea to get stuck in those – and full of enormous boils that dwarfed the ones I had experienced on my previous paddle on the Waikato. Several people capsized, though none near me, and all told I was pretty happy with my race.
I was 26th out of 35 in the multisport category taking 1 hour 50 minutes. The fastest multisport kayak was 1 hour 35 minutes. Jonathan finished 4-5 minutes ahead of me and Georgie a few minutes behind. We all stayed upright though the other two experienced much more excitement in The Narrows than I did with some near collisions and kayak pile-ups. As one of the faster categories of kayak we were one of the last to start. Ahead of us were sea kayaks, stand-up paddle boarders and people in canoes. I was impressed by the paddle boarders; although in my mind the river is fearsome it clearly isn’t to those that are more used to it.
In order to finish the race you had to exit your boat and clamber up a muddy bank. It was chaotic. I helped hold Georgie’s boat when she arrived, totally screwed it up and tipped her into the river. It was actually the only time that Georgie has fallen out of a kayak since I’ve met her.
First attempted multisport race – Motu Duathlon
The next event in my multisport calendar was the Motu Challenge. In the meantime I continued to paddle a couple of time a week on the river, which at the start of October swelled to be to be over 500 m3 per second. Familiarity definitely made things seem easier and I ended up feeling much more comfortable on the swirls and boils. Unfortunately the Motu brought home my Lesson 2 of multisport which meant I failed before I even reached the start line. You need a support crew and I didn’t have one. The Motu organisation did however have a bike shuttle for non-kayaking events so I ended up switching to the Long Duathlon, 65km of gravel riding up into the forest covered hills south of Opotiki, a 17km run, and a 87km road cycle.
After a fast bunch ride of about 15km on tarmac, we split into groups as we became strung out along on the gravel road.
The pace was fine for me on the first climb but on the descent I was nearly dropped – I guess I am just not very good at descending gravel quickly – and all the small efforts I had to make to stay with the group meant it was far from restful.
On the second climb Jonathan, who I was riding with, rode off the front of the group – he is strong – and I settled into a more steady pace for the rest of the ride. There was some cold wind and drizzle and I became concerned that my hands would be too cold to change my shoes at transition, which was in the village of Motu. Although the organisers were transporting kit they weren’t helping us get changed – that said one of them did offer me a lolly (which is what chewy sweets are called in NZ) which was a nice gesture.
The run was okay. My legs worked at a steady pace of around 5 mins/km. Most of it was on gravel with a 7km trail in the middle. For food I was carrying a packet of sugary snake sweets and nibbling one every kilometre or so. Actually they were not the best choice as they were hard to chew whilst running.
This photo is only 5km into the run and already I look a bit wild-eyed. I didn’t drink anything before the run and although I wasn’t feeling thirsty I think I got a quite dehydrated.
Things took a turn for the worse in the second transition. First of all I couldn’t find my bike. That’s not unusual in duathlons/triathlons, but in this case it was because the organisers had packed away everyone else’s transition kit and as most people using the shuttle were doing the version of the race that consisted of just the two bike legs (the Motu 160), only my bike was remaining. Everything looked completely different. Then as I set off on the bike it started to rain. Heavy drizzle driven into my face by a strong headwind. Plus it was cold. 6 degrees according to my Garmin. Luckily I had put on my rain jacket at transition so my core body temperature was okay but my legs became really cold and that helped induce some hideous cramps in my calves, I guess primarily caused by the run. If I got down on my tribars I cramped. If I got out of the saddle I cramped. I was reduced to keeping my cadence high and not pushing hard on the pedals.
After 15km, the road shifted to the north, sparing us from the headwind but leading to short climb up Trafford’s Hill and then a long descend beside the Waioeka River back to Opotiki. Ben had warned us about the first section of the descent and with a wet road, strong crosswinds and a shiver induced handlebar wobble it felt sketchy. However I warmed up as we moved lower and once I passed the kayak transition my ride become much more enjoyable. It was fun watching the kayakers. The river was a beautiful turquoise, the sun came out and although the tank was empty helped by a tailwind I going at a decent speed. The only negative was that I was wearing a pair of old tri-shorts with no padding, the only remnant I could find in my wardrobe from my long-ago triathlon races. A gravel ride and then being rattled around on rough New Zealand tarmac was taking its toll on my nether regions!
As we entered Opotiki I was confused as to where the finish was. There were no signs – classic relaxed ‘kiwi’ organisation – and it was in a different place to the start, so I took a couple of minor wrong turns. However, in spite of that I finished a couple of minutes ahead of the next racer to take third. Talking to him afterwards, he said his latex inner tube exploded on the descent of the pass – he reckoned his carbon rims had overheated – so I was lucky to finish ahead of him, but I guess luck plays a big part in these events. I felt okay after the race though I had to stop and pee about two times after the finish and two times on the drive home. I think my body shut down a bit and was not really absorbing fluids during the event which might also explain the cramps. All told it was a tough day out. See Lesson 3! Jonathan did really well, coming 12th in the very competitive multisport event, and Georgie also successfully completed the short multisport event (which started with the run leg) and didn’t capsize at all, which based on what I heard from others was a significant achievement.
Grade 2 certificate – Mohaka River
Roll forward a few weeks and kayaking on the river was feeling much easier. I started looking for eddies behind the bridge supports on the river and generally seeking for ways to push myself a bit more. When I met Ben on a November Tuesday in Taupo, I felt confident that I would get sign off for my Grade 2 cert. About half way down the Mohaka – following the same run as before – he told me that my Grade 2 was passed and we could try a few more challenging things. I then fell in twice – in an eddy and trying to surf on a standing wave – and it was pretty clear that there was still a long way to progress. As Ben put it, I’d reached level 100 (a pretty generous assessment in my view) but there was still levels 200 and 300 to aim for.
We worked on trying to improve my paddling technique – so many things wrong but the primary one was that I was not rotating my shoulders enough – which was really helpful. I’m not sure if I can blame trying my new and improved stroke but I also had a very silly capsize coming out of a rapid. All in all though it was a fun day. So much warmer and less stressful than those early experiences several months previously. If there is one thing to take from the experience it is Lesson 1. Time in the kayak makes a big difference. Balance, core strength, confidence and paddling power are all natural consequences.
A different view of the s-bend on the Mohaka. The water level was a lower than on my previous visit which made some of the bends a bit harder – there were less options about where to go.
Newbie no more? – Clutha Classic
Come early December I had the happy coincidence that the Clutha Classic took place at the end of a week that Lillian and I were spending near Wanaka. I arranged the rental of a Barracuda Waimak kayak from Cat at Best Foot Forward. She was really helpful so I would definitely use them again for help with any kayaking or adventure trips.
The little I had been able to find out from google was that there was a rapid called the Devil’s Elbow that seemed synonymous with kayakers taking involuntary swims. In my experience when natural features have devil in their names it is usually a ominous sign. So it was that I nervously killed the two hours after registration while waiting for the start of the race.
I was concerned to see that I was in start wave 7 or 10. That didn’t seem right. I was after all still a newbie and had never been down the river before. One of Cat’s friends, Cath, was also doing the race with her daughter Jessie in a duo-kayak, and they were also generously helping me with the logistics of transporting my kayak to the start and picking it up from the finish. They were in the wave 5 minutes ahead of me and we all felt that we had been given too much of a handicap, which did have some consequence as there were prizes for the first competitors over the finish line. Plus no-one wants to finish last.
All the kayaks lined up for ‘scrutineering’. I love that word, basically it was a check that we had all the compulsory kit. The start was at Eely Point on the shores of Lake Wanaka. I had wondered why Eely Point had that name and Lillian mentioned that I had better stay out of the water or risk being eaten by eels.
My beautiful rented Waimak. Unfortunately we weren’t allowed to get in the water before our starts. I should have taken the boat for a spin before the race as I think I ended with the pedals too close to me (at least compared to my Star kayak).
My neighbour’s nutrition set up. I still need to find something that works well. My plan of keeping snake sweets in the pocket of my PFD worked reasonably well but they were fiddly to extract.
Each wave assembled to the left of the picture before starting with an initial section around the headland.
When I started the wind had picked up and the waters of the lake were choppy. I was a little worried about capsizing before even making it to the river! I was slowly distanced by my group, but that was okay, I planned to take it easy at the start as it was going to be a long day. After about 5km on the lake we entered the Clutha River and benefitted from the river current which must have been 7-8kph as I was averaging about 16kph. The river was on the full side (290m3/s) and whilst I don’t know if that made it easier or harder, the wave trains where choppy with some strong eddies and boils to negotiate. I had a few OMG moments when I nearly tipped but was able to stablise just in time with a paddle stroke. I was feeling pretty happy with myself especially after I made it through the Devil’s Elbow (at 26km) without swimming.
This is a photo I took of the Devil’s Elbow the following day. It is a left hand bluff turn with some cliffs under where I was standing. (It would be a good place to come and watch the race.) I decided to not risk being carried into the cliffs and took the bend on the inside.
However, that took me into the eddy which blasted into me from my right which nearly capsized me. (Photo: Lennon Bright Photography)
Luckily I managed to get my weighted correctly positioned but the eddy reduced me to a complete stop. (Photo: Lennon Bright Photography)
I took some videos of the river the following day at the Red Bridge, which is one bend before the Devil’s Elbow, and at the Devil’s Elbow itself. There are also more pictures of the action at the Devil’s Elbow, including a few capsizes, at Lennon Bright Photography.
After that the rapids continued and at 32km I wobbled, did a weak support stroke and was suspended at 90 degrees for a moment before going over. It wasn’t on a particular big rapid; I think I was just tired and my reactions were too slow to stablise after being bashed by a wave.
Once floating beside my kayak I was in a bind. The river was relatively straight with no eddies to pull in me into a bank and wide enough that although I was trying to swim the kayak to shore I could see I was going to miss a good stopping place after which there was a long line of partially flooded willow trees, best avoided. I think I would have floated there for a long time had one of the rescue crew in a jet boat not come to rescue me. Within a few minutes I was back in my boat and on my way though feeling considerably colder. Too cold. I should have used the stop to put on my paddle jacket. The sun had gone in, the wind had picked up and I was not generating much body heat with my increasingly feeble paddling.
The next few rapids were shaky, not helped by numb fingers. One of them, I’m not sure which, was another section mentioned in our pre-race info known as Shitters Ditch. Luckily I stayed upright though I was conscious of being stalked by the jet boat. I imagined the conversation, “he looks wasted, he needs to paddle harder here, pretty sure he’s going to go in on this rapid”. It was comforting to know they were there but it also gave me the uncomfortable feeling that I may be last paddler on the river. I hadn’t caught anyone who had started ahead of me other than Cat and Jessie, who had stopped by the side of the river just before my swim. And they paddled by me again as I was being helped by the jet boat.
In the last 30 minutes or so my elbows started to hurt, which seems to happen when I up the duration of my paddles, but there were no more large rapids and once I caught sight of the parked cars near the finish I was almost enjoying myself again. The Waimak seemed to handle the rapids well and was easy to keep straight even in the boils. However, I found the seat too shaped for my liking and could not really move my hips but that may also have been because my knees were too high. I felt that I wasn’t able to use the power of my legs in the paddle stroke and the unfamiliar sitting position made my glutes tense up. They were hurting from about 30 minutes into the race. That said these things are to be expected with a rented boat and it safely carried me to the finish with only one dip… just to stop me from getting too cocky.
The 51km of the race route. The Devil’s Eblow is the bend above the ‘e’ in Luggate.
I really was the last person over the line and 63rd out of 80 finishers by elapsed time. I took 3 hours 23 minutes compared to the winning time of 2 hours 48 mins. Not a great result but having finished my first kayak race on a grade 2 river I think I can now say I am no longer a newbie, although still a long way from being a competent paddler, and finish keeping this diary.
Thanks for reading to the end and travelling with me on my multisport journey. I hope it had some helpful information in it. Next stop, the Waimakariri River and the Coast to Coast in February. After chatting to someone at the Cambridge to Hamilton Paddle Race and finding out I could move from the one day to two day Coast to Coast event, I made the switch. I’m sure it will still be hard but it will be undoubtedly less extreme than ‘The Longest Day’.
And finally I’m very grateful to both Richard and Ben for their coaching, and to Jonathan and Georgie with whom I shared many of my paddling experiences.
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