Thrills and spills as the ocean ski racing season kicks off
Nick ‘Twinkle Toes’ Valentine will have a race wrap-up coming your way shortly but needless to say last Saturday’s first ski race had it all.

La Patada Ole!
This weekend sees the PDs heading up to arguably one of the finest paddling locations in Australia to build on their single craft ocean and race skills. Fingal Bay, Port Stephens is the site of La Patada Single Crafta.

In late breaking news Edmond Tan has thrown down the gauntlet and is challenging all comers to go one-for-one in a chilli eating comp at Saturday night’s fiesta. BYO chillis if you dare. Look out for a full report on this one next week.

And for those left behind…
A last minute change of Hoe Horo dates unfortunately sees the second race clash with La Patada. For those interested in doing the race see the PD Calendar for info. Also if you are going can you please let Billy know.

Club OC2 For Races
There have been a number of requests for using the OC2 at upcoming races. I’m yet to work out the best way to share it around but will get back to you once I do. If you have any ideas on how you’d like to see this done please email Billy.

Training

What should I be doing?
Building on last week’s thoughts, here’s some more info on what you can be doing on the water at the moment.

Base Building – As well as paddling continuously at a steady Level 2 for the entire session the other key to building base is extending the duration each week. As an example, week one might be 45min, week two 1hr and week three 1hr 15min. On week four drop back to 1hr for some recovery then build up again from there. Long course paddlers should be aiming to regularly get to 2-2.5hrs, short course 1-1.5hrs. Those wanting to do the 20 Beaches or the downwind OC1 nats need to have 3hrs in their sights.

Free Speed – We’re setting ourselves up to go faster for no more effort by using the first 5 mins of every session and race warm-up to think through all the components of our technique. All we’re doing is focussing on it at the start and we’re going faster for the rest of the session. Awesome! New tips on free speed next week.

Tag Along Sessions
While we’re still working on being able to legally run club sessions some PDs have kindly put out the following sessions for you to join in with. As these are not PD sessions the responsibility for safety rests with all those attending including you if you decide to go. Please contact the person below in advance to ensure they’re still going out on the day.

• Tue and Thu 5:30am, Sat 7:45am Time Trial, Rose Bay (Suzy K)
• Tue 5:45am, Balmoral, Paddle/Hill Run, Balmoral (Clairedy)
• Wed 5:45am, Ocean Paddle, Balmoral (Billy)
• Thu 5:45am, Balmoral (Linda)
• Fri 5:45am, Kirribilli (Neil/Susie)
• Sat 6.30am, Ocean Paddle, Shelley Beach, Manly (Linda)

If you can add other sessions to the list please email Billy.