The Equipment

I seem to be spending a fortune at the moment. The big expense, the boat, is going to have cost me about £500 after I take into account the petrol, the fuel pump man, and the diesel that was part of the expedition to collect the boat. On top of that I had to get a roof rack, (technically I was going to have to get a roof rack anyway as I have just got a new car but it feels like this DW quest pushed the need for one higher up the list). Then I had to get V-bars, I didn’t need them for the Surprise as she is a solid boat but Petra is a more fragile creature and I didn’t want to stress the hull in transit. I have wanted wing paddles for a long time and a cheap set was thrown in with the sale of another boat, for £40 they’re great but the plastic wings are a bit heavy for my liking, so I am on the look-out for a much lighter set with split shafts. So, what’s that? About £850 so far.

Today I started to wonder how much more I would have to spend, so this post is an exploration into what equipment I still want/need, and I want to explain what kit worked for me and what I am going to improve it with. Which then brings me onto my secret narcissistic desire that this blog has been found by another DW hopeful who like me, is trawling the internet looking for information and help, and that this blog is the one which gives the answers they have yet to find… If that’s you reading this… You’re welcome.

What equipment did I need for the DW a couple of years ago?

Boat. Mine was heavy. It got me to the end but I wanted a faster, lighter craft. Well I have a faster boat, at the cost of stability.

Paddle. I completed my first DW with my general purpose paddles. They are great and were quite expensive when I got them. Cranked carbon shaft, and tear drop blades. But I wanted wings. I admit it might be partly because everyone else had wings, but they must do more than look good. I now have wing blades and they do seem to be making a difference. I just want some better ones now.

Clothing. Starting from the bottom…

Footwear. I have a pair of neoprene boots and a pair of neoprene socks they weren’t too expensive and are good bits general kayaking kit. I’m pretty certain I wore the same ones for the last DW and my feet were not cold then. It worked for me then, it will work for me now.

Legs. I have a pair of dry trousers which I got for white-water paddling which were great on DW especially when I fell in trying to get out at a really high portage. I’m probably going to wear those again. Underneath though I wore a pair of tracksuit bottoms that I bought about a week before Easter, I didn’t wear them in the boat until race day and regretted it, they were not cut for kayaking. I think I will try and find some kayak specific long-johns (and will use them during training).

Middle. I have a really nice Nookie thermal softcore that I have owned since forever. I was devastated when I tore a sleeve a few years ago but my wife modified it and turned it into a shorty which I still wear paddling. I think I will have to get a new long sleeve one before the race. As the outer I have a white water dry cag which I wore for the race which was not so good. While I remained very dry, the rubber gaskets at my neck and wrists became uncomfortable for the long duration paddling, so I am going to have to find something to replace it this time. I like the look of the Palm Tempo so I currently have that on the list.

Hands. Poggies. Stupid name for a brilliant bit of kit. The first day of paddling I wore these really warm 5mm neoprene kayaking gloves, they were nice and toasty but held water against my skin for 9 odd hours, this made my hands do that wrinkly thing that you get in the bath but a thousand times worse, it was excruciatingly painful after I took the gloves off at the end of the day. Fortunately for me (less fortunate for my friends), my scout leader friends who were also doing the DW had not made the first day cut off time but did have a pair of poggies, so I was able to borrow some for the remainder of the race. I subsequently bought myself a pair for another race (The Great Glen Paddle. That is another much less successful story, and my planned return to that race will be another chapter in the future) so as long as I can find them at the back of the kayaking cupboard I am good.

Head. Fleece hat. I might treat myself to a new one but I am sure the hat I wore the last time is kicking about somewhere. I have also treated myself to a rather fetching beard and will keep for the race it so my chin stays warm. If you do have the opportunity to get one, I can heartily recommend them as they are cheap and make you look very manly.

Buoyancy aid. I have a jolly expensive one which I bought for my white water paddling and coaching and I think my wife will kill me if I plan to get a marathon specific BA. The cut is not too cumbersome and it is very comfortable.

Spraydeck. I saw lots of DW crews with zipped spraydecks and wondered what was the point of them? It wasn’t until I got onto the Thames section where decks were compulsory and put my own full deck on that I realised how much warmer they kept my legs, so I’m a convert, a zipped spraydeck means you can get the benefit from the cover without losing too much time during portages. Fortunately for me a zipped spraydeck was thrown in with the sale of one of the boats so I don’t need to splash out on one of those. 

Water bottle holder. Quickly changing water with your support crew is made simple with the Marsport water bottle holder and bespoke bottles with straws cut to the right length. I’m sure there are other drinking solutions available but most of the crews I saw were using them so it must be pretty good. I have a holder and many bottles from the last race.

Apart from the compulsory race kit (which I also probably have kicking around somewhere) I just need/want to get, Long-Johns, a Nookie thermal softcore top, and a Palm Tempo jacket. Oh. And some carbon wing paddles. Roll on Christmas.

What's in a Name?

It was another lovely weekend to take the kayaks swimming, so on Saturday I headed down to the lake again, joined once more by Hannah my fellow DW partner who was piloting her own K1, and also by a friend of mine who is an excellent kayaker in his own right though doesn’t race. He took out The Surprise, my DW boat from 2013. The Surprise is very stable, and although Hannah has only been paddling for a few months she is more than capable of keeping her boat, A Hobby2, upright. I knew that I would be the one most likely to get wet so I set everyone’s expectations suitably low and let them get on the water before me.

I actually surprised myself with how much more confident I felt this week. It's been seven days since I was last in the boat and I had mostly spent that time mentally battling the kayak demons. As I mentioned I am a long time paddler but this K1 has put me back to school, I haven’t felt like a novice in a boat since I was about ten. Despite much bravado, I am genuinely concerned by the wobbliness of the boat and with the Thames section on the last day, it was only mildly choppy when I ran the 16 mile section and I witnessed several single and double crews take a dunking, so how am I going to fare next year?

After pushing warily away from the side I joined the other two boats circling the lake in an eternal and wide left turn. My support stroke kept me upright a few times and I was able to start to think about my paddling technique rather than just remaining dry. I started to get my leading arm higher, and pull the wing out of the water more cleanly and began to feel the boat behave as I wanted it to. I started to focus on the pedalling motion of my legs driving off the foot plate and realised that my knees were pretty much flat in the boat so I headed to the side to adjust my seat position forward. I think it was about then that I capsized for the first time that day.

Adjusting the seat closer to the footrest seemed to make a big difference to how the boat felt, my weight further forward and with my knees bent slightly above the cockpit coaming I found some additional stability and as a result found a bucket load of confidence. Petra*, the name I have given this boat, is a fast boat and I am a prodigious show off so I decided to try and sprint pass my friends. This burst of speed resulted in swim number two, three and was almost certainly a contributing factor in swim number four. My concern at the moment is that it is only a fast boat if I can paddle it quickly, and every time I try that I capsize, which as you can imagine, is an even slower way to kayak.

Next time out I think we will upgrade to canals. If I fall in it isn’t too far to get to a bank unlike the middle of the lake; we can paddle in a straight line instead of endless wide turns, and can start to practice portaging which should be a great deal more enjoyable with the weight of Petra compared to The Surprise.

*I have developed a habit of naming the boats and bikes I am fond of. Is that weird? The old Avoncraft I named The Surprise after a boat in a film, and this new boat is no exception. I also think that names should have a reason and this boat was christened the day we got her. Why Petra? Well Hannah was driving her car as I didn’t have roof bars on mine at the time, and en-route I filled up with petrol, my car is a petrol. We had made it to within approximately eight hundred metres of the collection address when Hannah’s diesel engine started to burn the petrol I had put in and began to cough and splutter. Hence Petra. While we waited for the fuel man to come out we walked to collect the boat and ended up carrying five plus metres of kayak through the heart of London, in the dark, on a Friday night. A memorable start to the relationship with this K1.

The Boat

My 2013 race was an accident really. I used to live in Shropshire which made the logistics an additional hurdle to taking part in the DW but because of work I had moved much closer to the event, I had also joined a Sea Scout group as leader and kayak coach which in turn prompted one of my new neighbours to very kindly give me his old K1 after he saw numerous boats atop my car. The boat was (and still is) in beautiful condition and compared to the general purpose boats I had access to, seemed ideal for a DW attempt. Then at some scout meeting or other I mentioned that I was thinking about doing the DW race in this K1 and before I knew it two other leaders were taking part as well.

The Surprise, then name I gave to the donated K1 after the ageing Man-o-war in Master and Commander, is an Avoncraft something or other. I am guessing she is about 20 years old but I can’t find any references to the boat anywhere. She is a relatively heavy (about 18kgs) but extremely stable (WF easily over 10) boat and was a solid paddle, especially on the Thames section, but a nightmare to portage. I watched with envy as other paddlers zipped past me in modern K1 racing boats, barely a ripple of wake behind them, they would slide up to the portage and leap out with the boat up in the air in one fluid motion before jogging away to the next stretch as though unencumbered. My portage experience involved a lot less jogging and a lot more straining and groaning. There are a lot of portages on the DW! While I am prepared to do the DW again in the Surprise, top of my shopping list was a newer, slippery, gossamer thin K1.

My 2016 DW attempt, much like three years earlier has also been mostly an accident. For the last few years a very good friend and I have been goading each other into taking part in bigger and better events. She is the reason I accidently ran a marathon this year and she is also the reason I am going back to Devizes. Up until a few months ago she hadn’t even been in a kayak, and now between us we have bought three second hand racing boats. (My back garden currently looks like a fledgling kayak racing club).

The most recent addition to the fleet is to be my ride for the race, a green and yellow Popes-Canoe Thruster. It’s a South African boat which on their website is classed as having a Speed of 3, and a Stability of 3. I’m not sure how that translates to the wobble factors used by Marsport and Kirton but even from the photos I could tell the stability would make life interesting. The boat has gas pedals instead of a tiller which I have been using up until now, controlling an over-stern rudder. It is a fantastic looking boat and for the money we paid it is great value.  

Now, I have been kayaking for a while, on and off for nearly 30 years, and even if I do say so myself I am an excellent paddler but this weekend was the first time I unintentionally had to swim a kayak back to shore for a long time.

Sitting in the boat for the first time on my local kayaking lake was a real wake up call, even with my arm resting on the jetty the boat was trying to roll me upside down. I sat for about five minutes trying to maintain some semblance of balance, my arm hovering close to the side to catch the inevitable terminal wobble. I executed my first technical dismount a few moments later having moved zero metres. While I was emptying the boat it was dawning on me that I might not be good enough for this boat and was contemplating dropping the whole thing… But that’s not the attitude, after a few minutes of soul searching I did get back into the boat for round two. I sat there wobbling again for a few minutes but I did find enough balance to pick up my paddle and start to move forward. This time I cleared the jetty before I fell in. Thankfully the sun was shining and I did feel like I had made a bit of progress. Third time out I rediscovered my low brace, was able to save a few near-swims and got the K1 up to a decent speed, only when I attempted to turn around to head back did I fall in... That was a long swim. My last circuit was a success though, it wasn’t pretty but I was able to step out of the boat onto dry land.

I came away a lot less cocky about my abilities, I know I am going to have to put a lot of effort in to master this boat, but I am also sure that I can overcome its instability, and wow it was fast when I was the right way up. I’m glad I am starting this in September because it is going to take some time to get used to but it will be worth it if I am going to try and beat my previous time.

In the beginning

I don’t really remember when I had heard about the Devizes to Westminster race, it just always seemed to be something I had to do. I’m a keen kayaker and I enjoy the big challenges and this race really pushed my buttons. In 2008 I started a blog to chart my progress, my training, and my preparation to take part in the 2010 DW race. I’m not sure why I gave myself two years to get ready but in the end that attempt was never to be, I had lost sight of my original goal and while I had completed a few events and went to the gym a few times none of it really involved a kayak. By February I realised that the blog was experiencing mission creep and I suppose that’s why I wrapped it up… http://dw-race.blogspot.co.uk/ here is the link if you want to catch up bore yourself with it though.

It didn’t end there though. My obsession with the DW didn’t go away and in 2013 I actually took part in and completed the race piloting a K1 with a time of 26:14:49. I was 32 out of the 39 K1’s that finished the race, I have the medal, I had done it.

I always intended to revisit the DW after that. A decent finish time was second to simply finishing the race but I had quietly hoped for a time that was below 24 hours. My preparation and equipment could have been better and I made a few rookie mistakes that slowed me down. So here I am writing a new blog that will hopefully culminate in Westminster on March 28^th next year.