This past weekend I helped out as land crew for Sean Smith (aka @fatpaddler), as he navigated the waters of the Hawkesbury River in NSW, to complete a mammoth 111km kayak challenge.
The Hawkesbury Canoe Classic is a charitable event which has both a competitive and less so stream to it (no pun intended) while ultimately raising money for the Arrow Foundation.
Sean set himself the goal to complete it, as a personal challenge. Being a largish man (hence the call sign fat paddler) and having suffered numerous physical injuries and personal challenges because of them, he got back into kayaking as a means to reclaim his health.
Watching him steel himself through a seriously challenging event was inspirational and reminds me that we all have to add some things to our bucket list. Reasons to step outside our comfort zone and not just trudge through 80 years of life in a numb state of mind. Life gets in the way. Yes it does! But it does for everyone.
We all need something to test us, challenge us, make us break through our existing comfort zones. This is the only way we can grow as humans.
There were people of all shapes and sizes, levels of fitness and with their own motivations to complete such a challenge. Some did not make it while others got to walk away saying “I did it!”. The first ones in finished in just over 9 hours while Sean came in in just over 18 hours. Starting at 4pm on Saturday and finishing mid morning is a monster effort.
As land crew we drove between the 4 land based checkpoints, and provided support, food, liquids etc for the paddlers as they come through. It was a busy night all round.
For Team Fatpaddler we felt the social side of the event was all part of the overall event. Personal challenges do not have to be in isolation to those around you. What was astounding was the seriousness that seemed to hang across the event. We did our best to disrupt that. Not that the cause or the effort was not serious, but those in support and those on the water seemed to have missed the point a little.
One of our crew who paddled it 20 years previously noted how much the atmosphere seemed to have changed. He himself raised $15k this year for charity through it, while Sean raised $3.5 k. Both took the vent very seriously but also maintained a humorous and lighthearted approach to the overall event. Both were disappointed in the lack of atmosphere exhibited during the lead up to the event. The day spent getting ready and getting geared up at Windsor was very low key and people pretty much kept to themselves. For the paddlers I can understand this, but it could have been so much more.
Team fatpaddler made it’s own statements with our leery red shirts and constant laughter and joking about. We took this with us on the road in support, often to looks of disapproval from others in the different land crews. As the night wore on and our chants of “go fatty” etc were heard loud and proud about the checkpoints, we slowly started to break through and engage in some humorous and fun banter with others around us. It was a shame that did not happen more naturally.
Nothing we did was aimed to bring down the role of the paddlers and we ended up with others wanting to be part of our fun. I think we made an impact. Small as it may be.
It seems sometimes we all take ourselves to damn seriously. Lighten up. You can do hard stuff with a happy spirit. In fact it makes even more of a difference if you do.
Praise to every paddler, even the pushy arrogant ones on the water that made jibes to Sean and were out and out rude, hopefully you will grow up and be truly supportive some time in your life. He achieved so much more than you are likely to ever, even if you finished in super fast times, your absolute lack of humility and respect for those with bigger challenges than you astounds me!
Big praise to Sean and Ned. You guys were awesome!
Well that’s what ireckon anyway!
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