Ok so it wasn’t 30 odd degrees, the sun wasn’t shining and the water is not a turquoise blue but this was an awesome downwind with great possibilities. Myself and three guys from VOtwo (Andy Dave and Foy) paddled form Swanage to Boscombe on a great south-westerly wind. After work I headed across on the car ferry towards Swanage. We launched from the east corner in Swanage Bay headed out for a few hundred meters then cut across towards the cliffs and “Old Harry’s Rocks”. It is such a beautiful coast line and great views with the cliffs towering above us. The tide was low so we could not get too close to Old Harry but close enough to get some great shots!! After Old Harry there is a great line to Boscombe Pier, leaving you at one stage over 3km out to sea.

When you come around Old Harry you have the whole of Poole Bay in front of you and first is to negotiate the Harbour Channel, you have to keep an eye out for the ferry and the container ships, but that’s all in the fun(yeah?)! Being quite far out to sea you do miss a few landmarks, one is the Sandbanks Peninsula which is one of the most expensive pieces of land in the World behind the likes Hong Kong and Dubai!! But not to worry as you will see it when driving over to start in Swanage!! Ok back to the paddling then……there are a few tall buildings around Bournemouth Pier and Boscombe Pier so its easy to pick out line. You want to be aiming for Boscombe Pier, which is the furthest pier away from you. Once you get into the open water after the channel the runs really pick up and we had a great time screaming past Dave who had the camera on his head trying to cut as close as possible without taking him out to get some great footage.

We left it until quite late to set off and we did finish when it was slightly dark(oops!), but it was great. This would make a fantastic race – rumour has it that on the 8th of May 2011 it will be a fantastic race. Attracting the best paddlers in the world….so watch this space!! Imagine after the Euro Challenge coming over to the UK for this race!! mmmmm got you thinking hey??

In total it was just over 15km of pure downwind!! Hopefully Dave will be putting a video together from the footage off his headcam….soon….no pressure Dave!!

Wind is perfect this week, so we are doing another course run on Tuesday after work.

Well back to reality and back to work! I had a great time in Portugal. Portimao Marina is such an awesome venue. We stayed at the Hotel on the Marina and our balcony over looked the Marina while our roof terrace over looked the race start!! Definitely be staying there next year!!

THE RACE – We had the final brieifing at 14:00 and then had to go through boat control, it was really hot so we all had to have at least 1 ltr of fluid on our boats to get through boat control. The start was delayed a further 20min as we had to wait for the helicopter, and by this time I was melting!! Finally we got off and the first 600m was in the harbour so just a lot of boat wake, then we hit the first hotspot which Sean Rice and Michele Eray took. After that it was a hard,hot slog into the wind to the top turning bouy. I felt like I was going so slow I had convinced myself that I had weed on my rudder!! That pretty much drained my whole body, the headwind was awful, then when we turned to go downwind we did not have much help at all. I knew the line I wanted to go so I stayed out quite wide and saw I was catching the group in front of me who were a bit closer into shore so I stayed on my line and never saw them again. Coming into the Harbour and paddling the last 600m on the flat felt like it was not going to end. It was a tough race, but thats what racing is all about.

Michele Eray raced an awesome race and took the Ladies prize, with Beatrice Gomes second and myself third, while in the men Jasper Mocke took first place followed by Barry Lewin and Sean Rice.

Than we had the prize giving followed by dinner and a party!!! Wow the Portugese know how to party!!

On Sunday we had knock out sprint competition, same as what Nelo did at The Summer Chalenge. But this one was after the party the night before….so heat and hangovers don’t mix!! Luckily for me the ladies race was a straight final. Beatrice Gomes took the title with Michele Eray 2nd and again myself 3rd…..something about 3 for me!!

The mens heats where great to watch and by the time the semi finals had started a nice shore dumped had picked up. So it was great fun, well fun for those of us who were watching, maybe not so much fun getting slammed on the sand. The final placings for the men 1st Jasper Mocke, 2nd Luke Morrison, 3rd Sean Rice.

The organisation that went into this race was amazing, the volunteers need a big thank you. These kids spent all day in the sun and then when we finished the race they made sure our ski’s were on the rack before I could even look back after running up the beach and they were all there first thing on Sunday to help with the next event – great work!! Next year I think I need to go for a bit longer, my excuse is that I need to get use to the hot weather….but really its just such a great place four days was not nearly long enough!!

These European races are getting bigger and its great to see so much effort is going into our sport!!

Hi all,

If interested I have decided to start a blog to keep everyone up to date on what I am doing. Working, travelling and of course paddling wherever I can!!

Any constructive critism is welcome:-)

Be in touch once I have got the hang of this!!

Chloe