It’s official. I don’t like her!

It was only a matter of time before I decided enough was enough. She was just too unstable, one wrong move and I was punished, and far too harshly in my opinion. No man deserves to be dumped in the water for no reason whatsoever and as a result Petra, the Popes-Canoe Thruster is up for sale! I think I had realised that I wouldn’t be able to tame her in time for the DW a few weeks ago but I finally admitted to myself that the boat wasn’t for me this weekend. Hopefully we will find a buyer and be able to get another boat soon but until then I still need to get out there and get paddle fit… So Sunday I did.

The plan for the weekend was pretty simple; paddle for as long and as hard as possible so that I would feel the workout in the morning. Unlike the training I have been doing so far which has focused on learning to handle a K1, this time I was happy to take out pretty much anything that floated and intended to just get the muscles firing. One of my favourite boats is my Pyranha Speeder, she is a kind of hybrid between a down river racer and a white water kayak, stable and has a good turn of speed considering her weight, ideal for this weekend.

I collected my DW partner and headed to Shoreham which is about half an hour drive for me, to put on the River Adur. As it’s tidal we had to take tide times into account, so aimed to hit slack water for a paddle upstream and a falling tide for the return.

As I was hauling my Speeder along while my friend had her much lighter and more slippery K1 I was always going to struggle to keep up but I gave it my best and I don’t think I held us up too badly. I did have to use all of my river craft and wash hanging skills to maintain the pace she was setting but for about an hour we paddled quickly and non-stop.

I had made a pretty big mistake though. For some reason I decided a dry suit was a good idea (I appreciate the K1 fraternity don’t wear such cumbersome equipment but I don’t like being cold and wet). The weather was warmer than I gave it credit for considering we are at the end of October, and I also had my neoprene spraydeck and buoyancy aid on so after that hour I was practically steaming inside my waterproof, man shaped, bag. Even the (part accident/part deliberate) dip when I got out the boat when we stopped for a comfort break did little to cool me down.

The tide turned, and we followed suit enjoying the double advantage of a falling tide and river flow. I was starting to struggle to steer the Speeder toward the end, I’m not sure if it was due to the moving water, or the fact that I was getting tired and my edge turns (There’s no rudder on a Speeder) were getting sloppy, but I was glad to see the get out beach.

This week was the biggest paddle we have done together and certainly the longest I have been in a boat since early July, covering a little over 14kms, worth just under two hours, with an average of about 8kms an hour (or as we were on tidal waters… 4.3 knots). My dry suit was a bit of a misnomer though as the clothes I was wearing underneath were soaked with sweat and I probably would have finished drier without it.