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The Hawkesbury Canoe Classic (HCC) is an annual canoe & kayak marathon down the Hawkesbury River in NSW, Australia, 111km from Windsor to Brooklyn. It is held overnight on a full moon and raises funds for the Arrow Bone Marrow Foundation, a cancer research organisation attached to St Vincent's hospital in Sydney.
I take part with my old school (though I never actually did it whilst at school), The Armidale School, and have paddled twice in 2006 and 2010 in a Mirage double sea kayak, and solo in 2009 in my Dad's Pygmy Coho. It's a gruelling event that is as much a physical battle as a mental one, but is immensely rewarding to finish and makes it's path down some of the most beautiful waterways in the country.
I have heard quoted from numerous sources (and agree wholeheartedly) that the HCC is a race of two halves. All the training before hand prepares you for the first 65km to Wiseman's Ferry, and from then on it's 90% a mental battle. You obviously have to keep the food & water up after then, and get back into the boat after the checkpoint, but whether you make it to the end depends on stubborness, determination and your will to finish.
There are a lot of professional or semi-professional competitors who do this race, and it's truly impressive to see them power past you as they catch up after the staggered start. That said, I'd encourage anyone with moderate level of fitness to have a go. If you've not kayaked before, go out and get a boat 6 months prior to the full moon in October, and get cracking for the 2014 HCC! It's 100% worth the torture for the sunrise over the water, the camaraderie amongst paddlers on the river, animal life, the full moon and an amazing sense of achievement. They also give you a sweet bronze medal just for finishing, ain't that nice?
For anyone doing the HCC, there is a fair bit of info available if you look about on google.
The Hawkesbury Canoe Classic website is the best place to start, and the race booklet should be read from start to finish by anyone paddling or landcrewing. It has a huge amount of info written by people who have been paddling and organising it for years, and is a pretty interesting read.
I've got a series of paddler notes that I'll publish on here if I can get permission also.
