Hello, The Discovery channel is running their coverage of last year's 528 km Eco-Challenge race which was held in Australia. Competitors are told the race route only a day before the event begins. This event includes bushwalking, cliff climbing and rappelling, river canoeing and some class IV rafting, bicycling and 50 miles of seakayaking as well as venemous spiders and snakes, saltwater crocs, hallucinations, etc. Competitors participate in a pre-qualifying test. However, in tonight's episode (the documentary began last night and continues for the next two nights and airs again in its entirety on Sunday, April 26), it becomes evident that one of the challengers is in trouble when it is discovered he cannot swim (a portion of the race course involves swimming a very short distance across a gorge to climb a canyon wall). A big part of the race involves competitors knowing where they are and where they are going. Many end up lost. In the '95 Eco-challenge, the leading team realized the following team was hot on their tails. Seeing an opportunity for an edge, the leading team paddled off-course, turned off their head lamps and wait for the following team to pass them in the dark heading in the wrong direction. Then the leading team back-paddled to return to the correct course and on to victory leaving the following team lost in the dark looking for missing headlamps. In the seakayaking portion (not shown on the Discovery documentary yet), many of the competitors find themselves in over their heads (no pun intended). It's obvious watching some of the preview footage that many have spent little if *any* time paddling sea kayaks. One of the teams that had to be rescued at sea was the Navy seals team. The winning team of the '97 Eco-challenge (same winner of the '96 Eco-challenge) consisted paddlers with a lot of experience. I can't help but wonder how many competitors heard about the "sea kayaking portion of the race" and thought "flat water." One of the team members of the winning team, Nagle of Eco-Internet, will be paddling this year's Texas Water Safari. I've been scratching my head over what "tests" were conducted to determine qualifications. The challenger claiming to have never paddled a canoe before is from one of the least experienced teams (backpacking with items such as a walkman and cheese board) but happens to be bringing a lot of publicity to the race via participating in the name of charitable organizations. Anyhow, the coverage so far has been very interesting and with some really nice cinematography. Websites to check out for more info and war stories.... http://www.moutainzone.com/features/eco97/index.html http://www.ecochallenge.com http://www.discovery.com/indep/ecochallenge/schedule.html http://www.yuri.harvard.edu/~nagle/ (website of captain of Team Eco-Internet, Eco-Challenge's 96 and 97 winners) Cheers, Jackie _ _ _ _ _ \\ / \0/ \ / \0/ \ \\ " " `\ ,sSSs,\, )\w/( ,sSS..)/{) <<..> sSSS_v)/ \ )<*> sSS[(\_]___\ <(_/_o_o_ 'sS[_`-+---+) \----+-------+-------'---`-----\-------------') ~~~~~~~ ~~jf ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ~~~~\~ ~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ o \ o \\ o o \\ o o ` (\ o o >jf:-) o (/ o *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************
On Mon, 20 Apr 1998, Jackie Fenton wrote: > The winning team > of the '97 Eco-challenge (same winner of the '96 Eco-challenge) consisted > paddlers with a lot of experience. I can't help but wonder how many > competitors heard about the "sea kayaking portion of the race" and > thought "flat water." One of the team members of the winning team, Nagle > of Eco-Internet, will be paddling this year's Texas Water Safari. > http://www.yuri.harvard.edu/~nagle/ (website of captain of Team > Eco-Internet, Eco-Challenge's 96 and 97 winners) I've done a couple of races with/against Rob Nagle. Last summer I did support for my brother during the Sea To Summit triathlon. The sea to summit starts in Portsmouth NH with a 12.5 mile kayak paddle up the Piscataqua river, followed by a 92 mile bike ride up to Conway NH, a 4 mile run up route 16 to the Tuckerman's ravine trailhead and finally about a 4 mile climb up Mount Washington on the Lionshead or tuckerman's ravine trail. Rob won the Sea to Summit, he passed my brother during the run, Rob's time was about 8 hours 30 minutes. For those who might have climbed Mount Washington Rob did the climb in about 90 minutes and averaged above 20 mph for the bike ride. The weekend after the sea-to-summit Rob Nagle and his paddling partner (Ed Duggan), who had also done the sea-to-summit, won the tandem surf ski division in the Blackburn Challenge. The Blackburn is a 19 to 24 mile open water race around Cape Ann (Gloucester) in Massachusetts. During last years race, the northern leg of last years race was rough enough that a 6 man outrigger flipped as it headed around a point. The texas water safari sounds like something Nagle would love. kirk who once realizes that the 19 mile canoe race I'm doing this weekend should be "childs play". *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************
Kirk Olsen wrote: > Last summer I did support for my brother during the Sea To Summit triathlon. > The sea to summit starts in Portsmouth NH with a 12.5 mile kayak paddle > up the Piscataqua river, followed by a 92 mile bike ride up to Conway NH, > a 4 mile run up route 16 to the Tuckerman's ravine trailhead and finally > about a 4 mile climb up Mount Washington on the Lionshead or tuckerman's > ravine trail. > So when is this race being held this year? Not that I am in any kind of shape to do it, but I would like to cheer those who do on. Mike The only substitute for good manners is fast reflexes. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************
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