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Orton Mere
A few days later , Facebook advertised an event – Orton Mere Div 3 / 4 Slalom & Wild Water Race weekend , organised by Proteus Canoe Club . I had no idea where this was , but the ad looked like beginners were welcome , and there was a SUP class . I messaged the club to check how beginnerfriendly the event would be and if my floating breeze block of an ancient board would be acceptable .
They were encouraging and assured me I ’ d have a great weekend . So I pressed the Enter button before sense got the better of me . As the week passed , I got braver and asked if I could also try my kayak . I ’ d never tried slalom in a kayak before , but never mind . The daftest of plans can be the most fun . At the time of entering , I didn ’ t realise : A – quite what I ’ d let myself in for , and B – that it was quite a special event .
It was the club ’ s 50th anniversary of hosting ranking slalom events , the first wild water race in the Eastern region in 10 years , and the only SUP slalom on the calendar .
Before I arrived at the camping field on a Friday evening , I was sent excellent information , good directions , and phone numbers . I was also introduced to other paddlers , and the organisers ensured I could find my way . It can be pretty scary when you go to an entirely new place and have never met anyone before , but I was made to feel so welcome , and it wasn ’ t anything to worry about . That is until I went to see the course !
I had been promised the little course at Mile End Mill wasn ’ t too different from other Div 4 courses , but the Orton Mere course looked impossibly hard . The photos looked very flat , but the course is laid across a wide stretch of the river alongside a lock , a sluice and a weir . The weir was running full on with a wave train to ferry glide across , with some tight-looking turns at the head of the wave .
Terrified
I had many moments of sheer terror as I realised how steep my learning curve would be . The first 75 % of the course involved lots of technical turns with the potential to get lost . All the gates had numbers above them , clearly crossed out if you faced them from the wrong direction , but with so many turns and weaving around , it looked easy to forget the route . Most of the paddling was upstream , with tight turns into the downstream gates ; the final three gates were down the wave train from the weir but looked to be exactly where the water would push you away from . I spent my evening swapping between being terrified and planning how to paddle the route to avoid swimming or a DNF . I aimed to get a finish .
Friday evening and first thing Saturday is free practice , where you paddle where you choose . Then , before the races start , is the official practice , where everyone queues for