Get behind STARBOARDs NSW team riders Ben and Neelie Brown as they take on 111klms in the Hawksbury Classic race on Sat 26th Oct!!! That's right 111klms it is Ben 2nd year doing the race and he has been training this year so he is keen to better his time from last year of 12hrs and 45mins...Neelie is keen to take on the mental challenge of a race of that distance ..With 2 kids under the age of 5 they have been sharing parent duty and training time by paddling a lot when the kids are asleep ie one going at 430am and back to feed the kids and the other going at 630pm after work and kids have been feed and paddling into the night..
I will do my best to post some event photos and their record times after the event!!! Rod

Epic stuff mate, good luck and happy paddling:)

111km is crazy. That's awesome good luck

Petehoppo said..

I'll be another crazy paddler joining them this year. All up there are 7 SUPs entered with 4 of us from the central coast.

That is awesome news to hear and great to see SUP's getting involved in these events which have traditionally been focused on other paddling craft.

It is such a well run event and it is amazing when you are paddling down the river at 2am to look up and all you see are green lights from all the other craft floating down the river.

Hope you get as good weather as we had last year.

I dream about only having to paddle these short races

Drove up and bought Bens 2nd hand Allstar early this year, nice family, I wish them the best of luck!

surf4fun said..

I am sure after Ben's performance last year he is hungry to beat his time. You learn a lot from this race and the second time around is a lot easier as you are more mentally prepared for what is to come.

Good luck to both of them and also to Thomas Nador who is travelling over from the west to give the race a crack.

It would be good to see more than the 5 SUPs who entered last year give the race a go.

Hopefully this time Ben's support team can beat him to the check points rather than the other way around. He should be faster this year for sure. Now we just need to convince them to try a wild card into the NSW team for the Nationals as they missed the States.
Good luck guys.

Hopefully I can stay with benny (at least for the company & to keep me awake) Can't believe he talked me into it too!
At least if I can make the finish no race distance will be too daunting after it

Good luck to all going in it this year, hope you get some good conditions. Have an awesome paddle !!

There were 6 starters yesterday with 4 of us from the coast.
We started at 4:15 with a solid headwind and incoming tide which made the first 15k very tough. Ben and Neeli had both been unwell leading up to the race so I think Ben decided to stick with Neeli and help her through her first HCC. Myself and Rob punched into the breeze and tide averaging about 7.1 kph until the tide finally turned an hour and a half later than we expected at about the 25k mark. Rob pulled away from me it got caught at the Sackville ferry so we ended up pulling into The first check point at 30k together. I had carefully planned my equipment with my land crew and icwas refuelled and back on my board in about 3 minutes as I didn't want to waste the tide which had finally turned in our favour. Rob was a little slower out of the checkpoint and I knew it was going to be harder for him to pull me back in the dark so I paddled like mad to Wisemans ferry which is about 60k I made another quick 4 minute stop to refuel and jumped back onto the board and headed for the finish against the incoming tide which knocked my speed back again and unfortunately the run out I was hoping for to the finish didn't happen due to the tides being later than indicated on the charts. In the end I was stoked to finish in 13:15:36 which is amazing considering my goal 3 months ago was just to finish but after some training I decided 14 hours was possible.
Ben and Neeli paddled in at about 7:30 making their trip down the river about 15 hours and unfortunately Rob had to pull out at Wisemans Ferry with bad cramps.
Andrew from Currumbin finished in 13:34:30 and I'm not sure how Mark on the starboard tourer had to pull out at Sackville

This was my first HCC and it is an amazingly well run event.

I've got to thank Mark from ESS Erina for hooking me up with the carbon JP race board which went really well on the flat water and was nice and stable in the dark!

Hey Pete,

Outstanding paddle on Saturday night and a pleasure to share the river with you.

Look forward to next years event and hopefully there won't be a head wind and an incoming tide to start the race with!

robg1703 said..

Great paddle Pete, Ben & Neelie. I'm kicking myself I didn't finish the whole 111km especially since i'm not sore & back doing a downwinder & surf sup yesterday. Great event & should be back next year to give it a crack. Other than the cramps (must remember salt tablets next time) everything else went to plan (thanks Benny for the tips)

Not bad for such an old bloke.