Product Review - Sladecraft Comet

This morning I had the opportunity to paddle Mick's Comet (by Sladecraft). The craft I have previously paddled are TK1's, TK2's, K1's and my Mirage 580. I completed the 8.4km lap in around 52 minutes (around 10km/hr) which is an excellent time for me. For comparison, with the same effort (race pace) in the Mirage it takes me at least an hour. The Comet, which classifies as a LREC (Long Recreational) felt 'like' a Mirage, but much faster and with less stability. I felt very comfortable paddling it (no worry at all with stability) and enjoyed pushing it with proper technique and effort without the thought of falling in. It had a nice glide through the water and was easy to turn, and I must say I'm impressed. I would have flown if I had paddled this in the Hawkesbury Classic. It's definately something I would consider using when doing the Classic again.

And so it begins

Well, after the successful completion of the 2008 Hawkesbury Canoe Classic (see my other blog), I felt sad that I now had nothing concrete to aim for. Initially I thought I'd set my goal on the 2009 Winter Marathon series, and maybe do the State Marathon Championships in March 2009.

Earlier in the year I recieved an email about Early Bird entries for the 2009 World Masters Games to be held in Sydney in October 2009. My initial thought was - there's no way I'd be good enough, and immediately put the thought out of my mind. However, whilst surfing the net after the HCC I came across the World Masters web site and began exploring it. I discovered that the marathon kayaking events will be held at Penrith (my old training place), and little thoughts started entering my head. How can I pass up an opportunity of competing in a World Masters Games held at my old training ground, on a river I know very well! I then looked up past results of the World Masters and Australian Masters competitions and was pleasantly surprised - maybe I could do this and not embarrass myself too much. Since the HCC I competed in the State Sprint 5000m Championships as a last minute entry. I won the Open Female Long Rec class in my Mirage 580 in a time of 32:41. I was the only entry in that category, so I was always going to win it - but I was still happy with my time (being in the Mirage). I also competed in a TK2 with Mick, a guy from the club (who is an excellent paddler). We had never paddled together before but clicked straight away. We were the only mixed TK2 entry so we were put in the Mens TK2 class, and we won that (by 2 seconds) in a time of 27:31. That was pretty cool and definately gave me the bug for racing again.

So as I sat at the computer I came to the realisation that this was something that I wanted to do. After 5 years of paddling nothing tippier than my Mirage, I decided to borrow a club K1 to see if I could still stay upright somewhat in one. I hopped in and paddled off straight away - hmm that went rather well. Since then I've paddled the K1 a fair bit and have only fallen out once (when I stupidly looked over my shoulder whilst stationary and talking to another paddler - duh!). And today, I thought - why wait for New Years resolutions, lets start a blog today.....and so it begins, the log of my journey towards the 2009 World Masters Games.