damien's african adventure
Where's Damien? (2)
Results in the Avon Descent in August won Damien an all expences paid
trip to South Africa to compete in the Fish River Marathon.
Damien has been in South Africa for three weeks now, and has paddled
the course of the Fish River Marathon in stages in preparation for the
race this Friday and Saturday. This is an 80 km race on what is basically
a man made river that was constructed to offer water for farm irrigation.
There are a number of weirs to be negotiated, two of these are portaged.
Most weirs are up to two metres in height and require special skills to
run these. Most paddlers go into them at a 30 to 45 degree angle to avoid
tail slam and boat damage. On the road out from Pt Elisabeth to Craddock,
then to the river, the road is covered with babboons in much the same
way as the Nullarbor Plains is covered with roos. DAMO has been "attacked
" by a puff adder (they swim in the river) and have a habit of lunging
at passing paddlers.
All has been going well in training up until yesterday when Damien wrapped
his borrowed kayak around an obstacle on one of his river runs. A trip
to Craddock saw the boat professionally repaired and latest reports from
Damien is that the boat is as good as new. I will e-mail further news
after the weekend when we will have race results.
Cheers,
Dug (a proud Dad! - Ed.)
Where's Damien? (1)
A report on Damian Catran's recent exploits by his dad, Dug.
About halfway through July, Damien quit his job in Brisbane and flew
to Perth complete with his K1 kayak. It was quite funny watching the boat
being loaded onto the plane at the airport.
He then spent time on the Avon and Swan Rivers topping up his training,
and over the weekend of 2&3 August competed in the annual Avon Descent.
There was 70 competitors in the men's K1 event alone, with nearly 750
competitors in all. The weather was crisp in the mornings, but fine and
mostly sunny for the two days.
At the end of 55kms on the first day Damien was placed 3rd and 13 minutes
ahead of a well known paddler, Eddie Stalwinder. After nearly 4 hours
on the second day Damien pulled into a supply area at the bottom of Bells
Rapids (last of the white water) took on fresh drinking supplies and spent
a small amount of time emptying his boat of water as his foot pump had
failed in the middle of all the white water. At this stage, Eddie paddled
past and when Damien got back onto the water he was approximately 1.5
minutes behind. Over the next 2.5 hrs Damien got as close as 45 seconds,
but on crossing the finish line he had dropped back to 3.5 minutes. Although
he crossed in fourth place, his time from the previous day meant that
he had taken third place, an almighty achievment.
Damien was about to pack up and come back to Brisbane when he was approached
by the South African organiser of the Fish River Marathon and asked to
make himself available for this race. He couldn't say "Yes!"
fast enough, so he is still in Perth and is due to fly out later this
month. In the meantime, as he is not working, he has been asked to travel
further into South Africa to paddle in another marathon two weeks after
the Fish River.
Two weeks ago Damo paddled in the WA State Down River titles. I have
not seen any DR boats in Brissie but they are quite different to sprint
boats, and even though this was the first time Damien had paddled one
of these, he managed to finish third. Last weekend was the Australian
Titles for DR boats and once again Damien was there and over the course
of the weekend managed to do well enough to get selected on the "B"
team for the World Champs to be held next year in Spain (I think). He
was one of only two Perth paddlers to gain selection.
Doug Catran
This page last updated Friday 19 December 2003
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