Wacko, National Whitewater League and other stuff!

Last weekend everything came together for a great weekend up in Wicklow for Wacko on the Jacko. The lads from the Shackleton course were helped out by Brian and the lads from Total Experience and they had everything organised down to a T. They even booked the rain for the Thursday night before the race! The schedule was a long distance race and then BoaterX on Saturday, and then a team race on Sunday. When we showed up on Saturday there was a savage amount of water coming down the Annamoe and a rumour went around that the Glenmac might be running, so me, Dave, Barry and Andrew went for a quick spin on that instead of a practise run on the race course. It turned out that the rumour was wrong and that any water that had fallen on the Glenmacnass had well run off at that stage but we scraped our way down anyway since it beat walking! Never mind that it resembled a rocky ditch more than a river, I have now paddled the Glenmac :P

The race run went fairly well, I did the best time I could have and I didn't really get caught up on any rocks or anything but all this college work and lack of paddling is definitely affecting my speed across the flat sections; the best I could do this weekend was 10th place. After the individual runs were done it was time for the real highlight of the weekend, the boater cross! Heats of 4, 1st two from each to touch a banner at the end go through to the next round and physical contact is strongly encouraged! People racing through Jacksons 4 at a time provided endless entertainment for everyone on the bank and local lad Dave Holden came out the deserving winner in the end. Unfortunately I went out to ridiculously tough competition in the second round, after a rugby match in the bottom eddy for the finish banner!

Photo by Aidan Dunne

 

We were well looked after on Saturday night by Diarmuid Ryan and the rest of the UCD paddlers, who must have the comfiest sofa in a student house in the entire country! So a massive thanks to them for that! Sunday morning brought the team race, falling water levels and baltic weather conditions! I was on a team with Eoin Farrel and Ethan O'Brien and we had a smooth, clean, but unfortunately not particularly fast run. In the end the team title was taken by Eoin Rheinisch, Dave Holden and Paddy McGovern. I haven’t seen the times but I doubt that any other team came close to them! By the time we were leaving for Limerick it was snowing, with the weather only forecasted to get colder over the next couple of days. ...I can’t wait for spring to arrive properly!

Wacko was the penultimate event in the inaugural Irish white water race league/ national extreme race league. First place this year went to Mickie Brennan, who had the title sewn up from his results in previous events. The league has been dedicated to the memory of Colm Johnson, an Irish, UCC and ULKC paddler who passed away in Norway last summer. Unfortunately the event that I was meant to be organising, the Clare Glens Race, didn’t happen this year due to the lack of water but hopefully over the next few years this thing gathers momentum, preserves Colm's memory and promotes white water paddling and friendly competition like it was intended to do. The numbers at the last few races, especially Wacko and Galwayfest have been huge, so hopefully that's a sign of some more great leagues in the future! A big thanks to Orky too, who has put loads of work in behind the scenes coordinating events and scores and generally making the league happen.

I'll be starting co-op, college work placement, in May so there won’t be any big summer trips this year, but since I'll be finished at 5 every day hopefully I'll have time to get some serious training in. The plan at the moment is to come back in much better shape for next season's races. The slalom Irish Open and team trials are on in two week’s time too, so I must get a decent bit of time in the slalom boat before they come around!

Anyway, that’s about it for the moment!

Keyes