Moreton Bay Ocean Paddle ‘23

Here’s my video from the Brisbane Paddlers Moreton Bay Ocean Race which is the first of four in the Paddle Queensland Ocean Race series for 2023.
Unfortunately I contracted covid in the week leading up to the race which put a sudden halt to my training and prep, and left me lethargic and doubting myself on the day. There were a few parts of the race where I normally would’ve challenged other paddlers for wash position or myself to hang on a wash or catch a runner where during this race I was conscious of not over pushing and rather trying to keep my heart rate down.
That being said, I still felt like I paddled well and although I could’ve finished higher I’m pretty happy with the 21st spot, which also happens to be one of my best finishes to date.
I was planning on recording this in 360’ but accidentally changed the settings to single lens. I’m undecided if this was a good mistake to make or not, on one hand I was hoping for some awesome 360’ footage, on the other hand the battery wouldn’t have lasted the entire race…
The race started in Nudgee Creek, I think with an incoming tide and against the wind but it was still a fast start and first km, but somewhere near the end of that km things slowed right down with very shallow waters at the mouth and paddling directly into the wind and waves for the remainder of the next 4km, with my average km/h splits being 12.6/10.7/9.5/9.5 km/h over those 4 kms.
Just after 4kms in we turned around the marker buoy, I had a bad line where I got pinched against the marker but came away unscathed and then things picked up nicely for the next 9 or 10kms. You can see in the little video that I headed far to much left despite cutting right across the runners quite a lot and the last km or so was spent paddling very much at a right angle to the runs. I’m not sure if choosing the inside line cost me much in time, but potentially. I’m also not sure if my ability would’ve allowed me to head much more right even if I wanted to. The runners weren’t the biggest but being sheltered by Moreton island means it was just the wind runners without any noticeable swell to contend with so when they did line up they were great, and pretty easy to link up and carry the speed forward.
I would welcome any criticism on what I could do better to stay on the runs for longer and link up better, I definitely feel that everyone else seems to sit on the runs for longer, even with less paddling.
Overall I loved the race, and I can’t wait for the next one.
As always I paddled my Fenn Elite S with my Gara Odin paddle. I was kitted out in my long sleeve Rapid Dry shirt and paddling pants from ‪@sharkskin2190‬ and this was filmed using my ‪@insta360‬ x3 camera.
Hope you all enjoy the video, please like, comment, and subscribe…

[@cliveholloway7458]

That looks like fun! How long did the whole paddle take?

[@purepaddling8534]

1 hour 19 mins, it was extremely slow punching out into the wind over the first few kms but reasonably quick once we turned at the buoy u til the last km or so when I had to cut back across. Definitely not my fastest down wind paddle, but still great fun.

[@LetsGoPaddling]

I like when cadence and track's BPM match - that makes watching much more enjoyable and you have quite a few scenes like that here 😁

[@purepaddling8534]

That’s really hard to get right, I used to time the change of clips with the changes in the music but it makes the video a fair bit longer or the clips a whole heap shorter. Appreciate the feedback though, very welcome to leave more 👍👍