On Sunday I decided to make the drive and finally visit Jamieson Park Paddle for a Stand Up Paddle time trial. Even though the weather was miserable and raining, I was so glad I got up and made the effort to get there, Jamieson Park is a beautiful part of the world and Mark and Dale have got a good thing going!
I’ve been paddling for a while now, and have been racing socially for little over a year. I’ve always found that training by myself is no where near as beneficial as actually racing, so I have actively tried to enter as many races as possible in my local area. The only problem with racing only in your local area is that you are racing in a small pond, up against the same people every time and never know where you stand in the bigger ocean. This is the reason I decided to cross the city and get up to Jamieson Park Paddle, the Sunday morning time trial is a great way to get everyone from across Sydney to get amongst racing in a social environment.
The competition was fierce with Sam Parker and Dave Kissane battling it out for line honours! Watching these guys paddle is something else! I still can’t wrap my head around how Sam gets of the line so quick! Has definately given me some food for thought!
We were also lucky to have Andrew Cassidy (A.K.A. Casso) from Australian Paddle Surfer Magazine, filming all the action in slow mo. This is such a great tool for watching your techneque up against the top paddlers, I’ve never seen myself paddle on video, and am grateful Casso took the time out of his day to not only shoot the action but put together a top quality edit!
Check out more of Casso’s work at http://www.australianpaddlesurfer.com.au/
I highly reccomend getting along to a time trial at Jamieson Park Paddle, Mark and Dale have some great things planned for future time trails including paddle clinics with some of the best paddlers in the world. JPP time trials would have to be the fastest SUP time trial in Sydney!
If you can’t make it to the time trials, you should still try get to Jamieson Park Paddle when you get the chance, they would have to have the biggest demo range I have ever seen, and are looking at getting even more boards soon!
