The time had come... the opening of the new HPP. As the car stopped in the car park we all rushed out to have a look at the new course. It looked great with about 5 new features (any suggestions for new names?). One of the ideas behind the paddlefest was not to paddle your own boat but demo others, I could not wait to try the new biscuit (it is definitely a wave boat) and Big Dog Kayaks. The National Student Rodeo was also running which meant lots of students (all majorly hung-over by the looks of them) were also at the course. A few of the young burners were already on the course so we joined them and cartwheeled, splitwheeled and looped our way down the course (trying avoid all the swimmers from the duo final of the NSR)! After lunch we found that you could try a sprint C2 (queue scary music). It is a lot harder than they make it look at the Olympics. We decided it was definitly a summer sport. Sam and I managed to get about 20 meters before falling in for the first time and about 50m the second time (that was your fault Sam).

I thought it was a great day and I will definitely be going next year!

See you on the water

Josh