Ice on the canal

What's one of the last things you want to hear when you reach the start of Waterside C? You're right! "It was minus 8 here last night!"

I remember starting this race in similar conditions years ago, and ice on the canal is not much fun even if you don't go swimming as I did back then!

But for most people, it turned out that some kind barge had broken it up and very little was left for most crews to skate on. I think Max may have suffered the most and retired feeling fairly rough as a result.

NKC had a great turn out for the 3rd time this year, with 16 paddlers finishing. The summary of NKC results is shown below:

                               Psn Class                     Time
Matt Enoch/Adam Norfolk         2 Snr Men K2                02:57:59
Matt Foulger                  4 Snr Men K1                03:21:25
Chris Carter/Zyggy Chmiel       2 Vet/Junior K2             03:28:14
Kat Burbeck/Shuna Braithwaite   1 Snr Women K2 03:29:41
Rex Littlewood                2 Vet K1                    03:44:53
Robbie Ilett/Alex Abraham 11 Snr Men K2                03:47:22
Caroline Jones/Alison Chmiel    2 Snr Women K2 04:01:23
Peter Ilett/Geordie Parker     11 Vet Men K2                04:10:50
Peter Deboer/Ben Nichols 27 Snr Men K2                04:15:50
Max Littlewood Jun Men K1                DNF

More photos by Taal can be found by clicking here

Full results on Waterside Website are here 

Winter Race No. 5

It was a fairly ordinary February Winter Race. The only slightly unusual feature seemed to be that one of the youngest ever winter racers was doing the race in K1. Congratulations to Matilda for finishing in a faster time than I did my first winter race in!

Ordinary though it seemed, there were more swimmers on yesterday's race than can be remembered since the "Blizzard of 72."



None of the paddlers were beginners and all have managed more swirly conditions recently.









So taking that into account, either boats are getting less stable creating greater hazard to their users, skills are deteriorating rapidly or there was some other factor causing the mishaps. What do you reckon?

Some more photos from Shropshire

News Flashes

• Despite cold and windy weather, Abbie/Pat, Zyggy, Max, Rex, Pete/Geordie & Mick/Caroline completed the 20 mile session to Radcliffe & round The Loop yesterday.
• 
  
• Freezing conditions didn't deter Rex and Alison turning their training sessions into Bi-athlon events. We understand that both survived the experience intact and will be out there again in the very near future.
• 
  
• Two paddlers are reputed to have aged considerably during yesterday's training session.
• 
  

Club Chat

So you want to have your say?

You don't like the changes at the club!
You think the money should be spent on something else!
You want more social events!
There are too many racing boats in the boathouse!
Want to get a conversation going!
Why not add a comment on this page?

You want to tell everyone about your open canoe trip and show the photos, but not everyone at NKC has Facebook? Make a post here.

Happy paddler at NKC over Christmas

Who says it was too cold to enjoy paddling during the cold weather. Remember to say "Hi" to Smiley when you see him there!

Nottingham Hasler Race 2010

I don't suppose that Norman knew it would be the hottest day of the year so far when he fixed the date, but the weather was pretty good for this year's Nottingham Hasler Race. We ended up with more entries than in the past few years and the whole day was very enjoyable. There was a good turn out from club members, with many people doing their first ever race. There was also strong support for helping with the organisation.

Well we all know what the inevitable is here...

OK Shaune you can let him come up about now.

Come on duck we can beat this one.

OK Julie, I reckon we can get you promoted here.

Come on Dave, we can win this.

This is fun.

Thanks to Tim N for the photos - more at http://picasaweb.google.com/nottmkc/NottinghamHaslerRace2010

More photos by Jane at http://picasaweb.google.com/jamillar/NottinghamHasler2010