Parkes kayaker Andrew Rice has been paddling for about 20 years and come October 27, he’ll be participating in his fourth Hawkesbury Canoe Classic (HCC).
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The HCC is 111 kilometre overnight double kayak event, beginning at 4.30pm from Windsor where athletes paddle overnight to Brooklyn, on Sydney’s upper north shore.
By day you usually find Rice working on his family’s mixed crop and livestock property to the east of Parkes at Cookamidgera or running his own agricultural and management services business.
But in his leisure time, you’ll find him in his Mirage 730 (Kevlar – fibreglass) kayak that’s 7.3 metres in length.
He’s owned up to seven kayaks at one time and he currently has six.
Rice will be taking part in this year’s Classic with his nephew Steven Hertslet, who’s in Year 10 at Farrer Memorial Agricultural High School in Tamworth.
Rice competed with his youngest daughter Kate last year, Cowra man Baden Dickson in 2016 and with Doug Reckord from Tathra in 2015.
“The HCC is physically challenging, but the main requirement is the right mindset to just keep paddling, even when it hurts and exhaustion has set in,” Rice said.
“The fastest get there in around eight hours, while the rest of us take between 12 and 16 hours, battling the incoming tide for part of the trip.
“Our fastest time has been 14 hours and 47 minutes.”
Rice’s land crew this year will be his wife Virginia, who’s a teacher at Holy Family School and Hertslet’s mother Kathryn.
“This will be Virginia’s fourth HCC as land crew, our other daughter Emma is paddling with Duval College this year,” Rice said.
“This is Emma’s second HCC, her last being in 2017 and uur eldest daughter Meg paddled in 2016.”
Emma is a second year student at the University of New England, studying agricultural science.
But the Classic is not just about the paddle, the HCC Association Inc raises funds for medical research.
The major beneficiary is The Arrow Bone Marrow Transplant Foundation. This charity provides research for leukaemia research, and other blood diseases.
They also offer a number of patient support for people undergoing leukaemia treatment.
Rice said he’d love to see some other locals at this iconic event which has been running since 1977.
“Over the last three events I have been amazed at the different levels of fitness and ages of paddlers that successfully complete the event,” he said.
“You definitely don’t need to be an ironman/ironwoman to make it to Brooklyn.
“As the event starts around 4.30pm – to avoid motor boat traffic, especially water skiers – paddling in the dark makes navigation challenging.
“On moonlit nights the scenery is awesome, but when there’s no moon, knowing where to go gets tricky.
“Personally I have loved the camaraderie of paddling with someone else in a double kayak. When you round the last bend and get sight of the Brooklyn bridge, the feeling is awesome.”
If anyone is interested in supporting Rice and his nephew, they can access their sponsorship page via https://registration.canoeclassic.asn.au/sponsorship/code/1i2oR73L_eR5Iens2nAHPA
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