Canadian National Adventure Racing Championships
Paddle Panic on the Makami River
Doug Doyle / 28.05.2006
The Canadian Adventure Racing Championship course designer had promised a spectacular race and he did not disappoint the 23 teams participating in the first stage of the May 28 to June 3, 2006 adventure racing championships. The canoe paddling portion of todays’ stage featured nine kilometres of the Makami River and three sets of rapids with three portages, with only one portage being mandatory.
I spoke with Guy Chenier of Team 117 Days’s Inn who recounted his harrowing experience when his teams canoe flipped in the rapids and he was pinned between a large rock in the river and the canoe.
Guy is a multi-sport racer with a diverse racing background in triathlon, marathons, paddling and other outdoor sports.
Guy’s sprint team were one of teams quick to gain a lead from the field and was also one of the first onto the river with Supplierpipeline. He states his team was fighting for first place on the paddle when Supplierpipelines’ boat flipped and seconds later, they flipped as well. Both teams were able to perform a self-rescue and gather their packs and paddles and re-entered the water just before the mandatory portage.
Day\'s Inn re-entered the river and were flipped again by the current and Guy found himself in a serious position of being held under water, pinned against a large rock and his canoe with the current pressing it against him.
He was struggling to free himself but was trapped by his flotation vest being hung up at his shoulder in part of the canoe – he was running out of air and was twisting and turning to exit the canoe and get above water, but nothing was working for him.
He was losing options when he suddenly popped free and was able to swim to the surface and clear the entrapment. He doesn’t know how long he was trapped underneath the water but to him it felt like eternity.
He and his team mates were able to retrieve their packs but Guy lost his long sleeve top which was to haunt him later during the trek due to the significant number of black flies on course.
The team ran forty minutes along the bank and then had to swim across to CP4. They advised race HQ of their predicament and were faced with the possibility of the canoe incident putting an end to their race: the team reviewed their options then decided to continue racing but will likely be unranked due to the loss of their canoe.
Interestingly enough, I was downstream at the time of the incident at the last set of rapids waiting for the lead teams to appear. I was looking for a place to set up for pictures of teams running this rapid and noticed a plaque of the patron saint of paddling, Saint Mary. She was certainly with Guy this morning. I can’t say that about the canoe as of the time of writing this story, the water rescue crew was still trying to retrieve the canoe.
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