Before we forget (and I know for a fact that the winner has not), it's time to announce the winner of the
how many times will Bash flip her kayak in NZ? pool.
Even though I dismissed his guess as ridiculous, Hammer won the pool with "0". Trav gets an honourable mention for his "-1" entry (it was negative because I was supposed to help a fellow paddler in trouble but all I did was watch sympathetically as the river swept him downstream toward our guide without a boat), as does Wombat with her guess of "1".
Trav gets bonus points for coming up with the most appropriate names for the rapids on the Waimakariri River: Diamond Splitter, Widow Maker, the Black Hole and the "Sucker"
Baloney gets bonus points for the most accurate description of some of my most memorable moments on the river: "...one partial holy crap, holy crap, HOLY CRAP, almost, partial tip, good to be counted as a .2 of a tip!"
If you count it Baloney's way, I had a total of 0.7 tips in three separate incidents. So if there were an actual prize, Wombat might contest Hammer for it.
NewPatrick - or whatever he is calling himself this afternoon - placed last with 9 tips. Sorry to let you down, mate, but I'll try to do better next time.
My own guess would have been in the 3-4 range including training and race day. But luckily for Hammer, there never *was* a race day paddle.
I went for three unplanned swims in rapids while in NZ but they all happened during river crossings while I was training and racing the C2C mountain run leg. I had one good swim on race day but Richard Ussher said he had several swims during the run and I think Frankenjack had a couple too. Damn those show-off guys - do they have to beat me at *everything*?