2007 TEVA Lea River Extreme Race

Friday October 12- Sunday October 14, Lea River, Weindorfers Retreat, Tasmania

·          Friday 12:          Kayaking Movie Night

·          Saturday 13:      Extreme Down River Race

·          Sunday 14:        Mass Start Head to Head Final

·          Sunday 14:        Teams Ball Race

The 5^th annual Teva Lea Extreme Race was again, the highlight of the winter white water calendar in Tasmania and another memorable weekend for competitors, spectators and sponsors alike.  2007 boasted the largest field of local, interstate and international competitors in the race’s short but colorful history and the standard of creek and extreme boating demonstrated by the competitors was a testimony to the increasing depth and popularity of extreme kayaking in Tasmania and the rest of Australia.

The Lea River is a steep and beautiful natural flow river nestled on the edge of the Tasmanian highlands, not far from Cradle Mountain.  The river level on Saturday was low-medium flow which was absolutely perfect for the race in regards to participation and safety.  There were 25 teams entered and also a reasonable spectator and rescue fleet of boaters also.

Hobart’s Dan Hall and Justin Boocock won this year’s main event collecting the infamous “Bull” trophy; 2006 champions Andrew Maynard and myself finished 2nd, followed by Ben Maynard and Tanya Faux in 3rd.  Carol Hurst and Kate Mollison dominated the women’s division, and also recorded a top 10 finish outright.

After the Saturday’s main race; Ben, Andrew, Dan and I decided to make the most of the water and did three more runs down the river.  It was just great to be out paddling down a flowing and beautiful river with your mates all day long amongst an atmosphere of adventure and adrenaline, arising from the enthusiastic kayaking community embracing the event and the weekend’s action.

One paddler injured their shoulder (not dislocated) on Saturday and that was the only reported incident, perhaps the most incident free day in the race’s history!!!

The presentation evening and dinner evolved into a great party with live bands rocking the crowd, dancing and partying until the early hours of Sunday.

On the Sunday morning, Ben and I got up early and headed up to the river for a quick trip down before the racing started again.  We were pleasantly surprised by a significantly higher river level.  We bombed down, finding it much whiter, fluffier and bouncier than the Saturday.   After warning Ben about the re-circ on one of the upcoming holes, I proceeded to plough directly into the guts of it; got surfed, did some retentive maneuvers and then flushed out and we paddled on.  We started to ponder what carnage was to come during the races later that day.

There were two separate races on Sunday.  The top 8 paddlers from Saturday’s competition were racing head to head (mass start) down the course to determine the fastest boater of the weekend while the next 12 ranked paddlers competed in a ball race (always promising mayhem).  The ball race paddlers were set off about 5 minutes before the mass start race final so therefore we were racing through all the carnage of the ball race. 

For the races, the river had risen even more since Ben and I did that warm up run and was now solid white-water, very pushy and with some solid holes.  I got thoroughly smashed at plastic surgeon somehow managing to negotiate the main falls backwards, upside down and boofing completely airborne of the main fall in this position landing upside down and on my head.  I rolled and continued to race, the crowd was obviously impressed and yes; this was recorded on video.

Dan won the final race establishing himself as champion of the Lea; Ben, 2nd and Andrew 3rd.  I was pretty shaken after my little episode at Surgeon and did not paddle too well for the remainder of the race. 

After the head to head final, 6 of us decided to do a third run for the day down the continually rising and increasingly challenging river.  By this time; early afternoon, the river had now risen to a level higher than I had ever seen it or paddled it before.  It was one of those trips were you are driven by a mixture of anxiety and adrenaline, we charged it, running everything blind in familiarity, partly because we had to paddle hard to hit all the lines and punch all the holes and part because the river was still rising and we were keen to get though the canyon before it go to high. 

Each rapid and waterfall delivered its own surprise punch and each paddler was humbled by the river at some point during the run.  We all managed to spend time underwater, upside down; many of us taking interesting approaches, lines and landings of the Surgeon falls, with one paddler (who shall remain unnamed) receiving a thorough flogging in a hole and swimming close to the end of the trip. 

We made it to the lake, stoked, excited and satisfied with what had been an awesome day and a ripper weekend of paddling.  Then we contended with the gusty headwinds across the lake created by one of the many fronts passing and dumping showers all day long.  This was an epic way to finish off what had been an epic weekend. 

The paddling was tops, the river flows were sweet, the weather was rubbish (as usual) and the Teva Lea Extreme race and weekend was another huge success..  The fantastic ongoing support of extreme kayaking in by Teva must be acknowledged and their support has made this weekend the annual highlight it has become.   

Special thanks to Leigh Whighton – Kayak4Play for his hard work and organization of the weekend. Stewart Bennett".