Eco-Challenge
Running Free in Fiji
John Yip / 05.11.2002
We used the Adrenalin Rush as a setup for our primary race this year which was the Eco-Challenge Canadian Championships, held in Golden, British Columbia on the West coast of Canada where we had a good result and placed 3rd to qualify for Fiji.
With less than 7 weeks between races, we managed to raise $25,000 CDN to cover the cost of the entry fee, get the necessary certifications (I had never whitewater kayaked before - and managed to stay upright in Fiji!), train and organize travel plans. You can imagine how busy that was.
In Fiji, we surprised many (including ourselves) as we made a smart navigation choice at the start and ended up at CP1 in 5th place, just behind our mentors and role models from Team Schick Extreme III from Canada (David Zietsma). We\'d anticipated the billi billi leg and brought the blade and part of the shaft of our detachable Simon River Sport whitewater paddles. Attaching a T-grip, effectively made it a canoe paddle!
With this we moved into 2nd place by CP2!!! This was a thrill of a lifetime, but we knew the \"train\" that was coming behind us: fast and furious. Still, we had the opportunity to hike in the \"lost world\" with Seagate.com, Golite, and Nokia Adventure, some of the legends in the sport. Unlike other teams who used paddles and discarded them after the billi billi section we carried ours for the entire trekking section as we needed it for the packraft leg to follow.
Moving well past CP 6, we entered a nasty leg of the race where it took us over 6 hrs to move 4km!!! Here, we swam, scrambled, slipped, and ran through a creekbed and more jungle. After a 2nd ascent to yet another 4km section, we decided to rest on a grassy knoll in the middle of the river, wide enough for four people and a tarp to huddle in. It rained non-stop: what a change! From extreme heat to extreme cold!
At this point, Team North Face Kona stopped to say hullo. Peter James (whom I met in Ireland) was extremely friendly despite the condition we were in. Shortly after that Jim Mandelli and another team we admire, Team Subaru Canada stopped to chat. We all reconvened at the packraft put-in and were glad to see Subuaru and North Face Kona move forward together, and eventually to the finish line.
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