After weeks of waiting, it was finally time to get driving and go north for the first British Universities Creek Race!

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The one thing nobody thought to pack…board shorts! Made do with boxers instead! – Photo by Josh Cartwright.

Scotland mixed with the Earths very half-hearted attempt at spring should be cold and horrible. So it was a pretty big surprise when it turned out to be gorgeous and warm! Everyone had their drysuits and cags, but the one thing nobody remembered to pack was board shorts! Obviously, an opportunity to do a few practice laps of the course couldn’t be turned down, so Ben and I decided to go back to basics: helmet, BA, deck, and boxers.

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An early start to race day – Photo by Nick Wright.

8:00 am and it was time to start to race day. Despite the incredibly low levels of water in the Etive, it was decided that that was where we were going to be racing! So after signing in, collecting goodie bags full of stickers and t-shirts, and shuttling everyone and everything down the road, it was time to get paddling!

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Getting the race course set up and the sponsors started to arrive! – Photo by Ben Johnston.

The race was compromised of 2 sections: Triple Step and Allt A’ Chaorainn. 2 laps of each section went to make a total time for each competitor, with the fastest time winning. To make things interesting, there were 2 touch rocks placed at the back of eddies on Triple Step. Most of the competitors were set off at 1 minute intervals, but the old boys had a mass start for all their laps, resulting in some extreme carnage!

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Nick Ball getting rid of dry suit for some extra streamlining and OOOSH! – Photo by Nick Wright.

After finishing with racing on Triple, and stomping out a wild fire, everyone was moved down the river to the Allt A’ Chaorainn section for the second half of the race. After some re-engineering of the river, the race started again! Straight after the slide was a large flat section with a few shallow rocks to dodge; this did a very good job of sapping everyone energy and making bumping over the rocks on the second half of the river even harder! The most evil rock of all was one barely a few meters from the finish line that caught a lot of people!

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The rock slides on Allt A’ Chaorainn – Photo by Nick Wright.

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The old boys boater X. Because mass starts on narrow rock slides are always a good idea! – Photo by Mick Dickinson

As everyone finished, it was finally time to start walking back to the vans, shuttle back to the ski lodge, sort out who’s kit belonged to who, eat some well-earned food and then do the awards and prize giving.

In first place for the guys was Dave Burne, winning himself a shiny new cag from Rapid Kayak, the race trophy, and £175 from ZET kayaks. Jessica Mueller took first place for the girls, winning a pro deal and an IR union suit.

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A stunningly smooth Loch Lomond made a nice break on the drive back! – Photo by Nick Wright.

Words by Nick Wright.