Wild Water Racing in WWKC

Wildwater racing is a discipline of canoe racing. The wildwater time trial is the purest of whitewater racing forms - the athlete, the river, the clock. A racing performance is the result of physical conditioning, skill and harmony with the water - and is the only sport where social paddling is necessary to achieve a peak performance. Beautiful water, scenery and companionship make the Wild Water Racing experience compelling. The competitor is free to take whichever route on the river they desire, a freedom of racing unsurpassed in the whitewater world.

 

Races are run in two formats:

 

Classic - A single run over a 15 minute (approximately) course.

 

Sprint - The total of two runs over a 500 metre course.

 

In wildwater racing we use different types of boats these are:

 

 

K1 single seater kayak (paddler sits and uses a double bladed paddle)

 

C1 single seater canoe (paddler kneels and uses a single bladed paddle)

 

C2 double seater canoe (both paddlers kneel and use double bladed paddles)

 

 

Liz Shouldice in Action
WWKC and Wildwater Racing

 

In 2008, 3 out of the 4 classes in the National Senior Championships were won by WWKC members. As of February 2009 WWKCare currently leading the Championship in all Senior classes as well as JC1 and JWK1.

 

 

 

  • WWKC is the Irish Club of multiple International Medallist Lukas Novosad
  • WWKC is the club of Martin McCarthy - ICU coach of the year 2007

 

Willie Irwin

Races

In Ireland the domestic races usually take place on grade 2 rivers, International races usually take place on rivers graded 3 & 4. The domestic season usually consists of 10 races of varying difficulty,examples of rivers we use would include The Avonmore, Castleconnel and the inny.

 

WWKC members travel to all races each Season as well as 2 International trips in Autumn and Spring. Also, as the National Senior Team is mainly made up of WWKC members a large group would usually travel to the ICF Championship races in Summer. 

Keith McGuirk

How to get started

 

The easiest way to get into wildwater racing is to begin training at one of the organised group training sessions at WWKC in one of the clubs wavehoppers (located in the middle shed). These boats are availible for use by ALL members (pre booking for important races is advisable). Group training sessions normally take place on Tues and Thursday nights as well as Saturday mornings, and if your feeling really energetic there is a hardcore group who train daily at WWKC.

 

 

Useful contacts and links

 

WWR Officer - Jason Fitzpatrick jay.ftz at Gmail dot com

 

Further Info - Keith McGuirk keithmacguirk at hotmail dot com

 

National website - http://www.irishwildwaterracing.com

 

C1 paddling - http://www.irishcanoeracing.blogspot.com