Allure of the Tarn
Before this race, I had never been to the Gorges du Tarn, but after watching countless YouTube videos about the Tarn Water Race, which starts at the top of the gorge in the gorgeous village of Saint Chely du Tarn and finishes 78km downstream at Saint Rome du Tarn, I just knew that I had to come and experience it at least once. It was just too beautiful of a paddling opportunity to pass up on. For a place to be declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site, it must be an area of extraordinary natural beauty, and the Gorges du Tarn certainly ticks this box repeatedly with each turn of the fast-flowing river.
image [https://cdn.magzter.com/1350921236/1723190107/articles/FQMT8A2p21723206313393/1811998182.jpg]
As we registered for the race in La Maléne and picked up our bibs and trackers, the forecast from the race director Pierre Toussaint, was not very good: “According to all the top weather apps we are in for an afternoon of thunderstorms tomorrow, so we have had to shorten the race to 18km.”. I won’t lie, I was massively disappointed, especially after traveling all the way from the UK. Plus, the hours and hours of training over the last few months, only now to be told that we would be paddling less than a quarter of the route!
I quickly snapped out of it and told my crew that we should go and paddle the first 10km of the route, that way we could see what we were in for while at the same time making the most of our time in this beautiful place. Plus 18kms is not far and should be a doddle.
image [https://cdn.magzter.com/1350921236/1723190107/articles/FQMT8A2p21723206313393/8889719812.jpg]
I live in the Midlands of the UK and usually paddle on rivers like the Ouse, Nene, and Thames and they only ever get decent flow during the winter rainstorms. As soon as I put my Red Sport 14+ board into the see-through waters of the Tarn, I knew it was very different from what I was used to - without any paddling, or effort, we were easily doing 5km/h. If I paddled, then this quickly increased to around 8km/h. We encountered some tight turns and small rapids and one of the other British paddlers, Michael Frost, took a swim at one of the rapids, it looked rather refreshing. The scenery was out of this world and after a little more than an hour and a half, we were back at La Maléne.
image [https://cdn.magzter.com/1350921236/1723190107/articles/FQMT8A2p21723206313393/xIlX5Hr-T1723206420901.jpg]
Weather Warning
On the morning of the race, we received another message that the thunderstorms were only expected to arrive in the afternoon, so they had decided to make the course 31km now. This meant a few minor adjustments to the amount of food and water I was going to carry with me as I was confident of covering the distance in less than 4 hours. I would’ve had to carry significantly more food supplies if we were doing the full 78km race.
image [https://cdn.magzter.com/1350921236/1723190107/articles/FQMT8A2p21723206313393/3338378293.jpg]
The night before the race we stayed in a small cottage less than a mile away from the start. This meant we did not need to take the shuttle to the start and could catch a precious few extra minutes of sleep. To get to the start we had to cross the big bridge into the quaint village of Saint Chely du Tarn, where we were greeted by the sight of over a hundred paddle boards all lying on the white beach below. A lively DJ pumped out some motivational tunes while some of the paddlers performed energetic dance routines as part of their warm-up. I had to pinch myself as I stared downstream and saw a few white waterfalls tumbling into the Tarn. My dream of taking on the Tarn was about to come true and when the start horn eventually sounded it certainly did come true! All I had to do was get to the finish line in one piece. I was not worried about racing, and my focus was on enjoying the incredible gorge, while safely navigating down it. Not so for many others, who just went hell for leather from the start. A poor pair of girls on a double SUP ground to a sudden halt in the first shallow area, and went hurtling forward, while the board shot backwards and nearly decapitated me. I caught it and returned it to them.
image [https://cdn.magzter.com/1350921236/1723190107/articles/FQMT8A2p21723206313393/UJBDS0i8m1723206504566.jpg]
Race On
Soon the field fanned out and I could only see a few paddlers around me. Some of the technical bits looked familiar as we had paddled them the day before. This time I was a little nervous and even went through a rapids and tight turns section backwards, fortunately, a lady on a Red Elite board struck up a conversation as if my going backwards was the most normal thing in the world.
image [https://cdn.magzter.com/1350921236/1723190107/articles/FQMT8A2p21723206313393/2829287822.jpg]
Shallows
After about an hour we got La Maléne and the first portage. When I paddled it the day before we kept right and popped our boards safely over the wall and rocks before hopping in again. Now a marshal was instructing us to keep left. He then told me to head down a chute, I moved forward on my board to try and save my fin… I quickly jumped back on again, but I could feel something was amiss with my board. Every paddle stroke seemed to be in a di...
Before this race, I had never been to the Gorges du Tarn, but after watching countless YouTube videos about the Tarn Water Race, which starts at the top of the gorge in the gorgeous village of Saint Chely du Tarn and finishes 78km downstream at Saint Rome du Tarn, I just knew that I had to come and experience it at least once. It was just too beautiful of a paddling opportunity to pass up on. For a place to be declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site, it must be an area of extraordinary natural beauty, and the Gorges du Tarn certainly ticks this box repeatedly with each turn of the fast-flowing river.
image [https://cdn.magzter.com/1350921236/1723190107/articles/FQMT8A2p21723206313393/1811998182.jpg]
As we registered for the race in La Maléne and picked up our bibs and trackers, the forecast from the race director Pierre Toussaint, was not very good: “According to all the top weather apps we are in for an afternoon of thunderstorms tomorrow, so we have had to shorten the race to 18km.”. I won’t lie, I was massively disappointed, especially after traveling all the way from the UK. Plus, the hours and hours of training over the last few months, only now to be told that we would be paddling less than a quarter of the route!
I quickly snapped out of it and told my crew that we should go and paddle the first 10km of the route, that way we could see what we were in for while at the same time making the most of our time in this beautiful place. Plus 18kms is not far and should be a doddle.
image [https://cdn.magzter.com/1350921236/1723190107/articles/FQMT8A2p21723206313393/8889719812.jpg]
I live in the Midlands of the UK and usually paddle on rivers like the Ouse, Nene, and Thames and they only ever get decent flow during the winter rainstorms. As soon as I put my Red Sport 14+ board into the see-through waters of the Tarn, I knew it was very different from what I was used to - without any paddling, or effort, we were easily doing 5km/h. If I paddled, then this quickly increased to around 8km/h. We encountered some tight turns and small rapids and one of the other British paddlers, Michael Frost, took a swim at one of the rapids, it looked rather refreshing. The scenery was out of this world and after a little more than an hour and a half, we were back at La Maléne.
image [https://cdn.magzter.com/1350921236/1723190107/articles/FQMT8A2p21723206313393/xIlX5Hr-T1723206420901.jpg]
Weather Warning
On the morning of the race, we received another message that the thunderstorms were only expected to arrive in the afternoon, so they had decided to make the course 31km now. This meant a few minor adjustments to the amount of food and water I was going to carry with me as I was confident of covering the distance in less than 4 hours. I would’ve had to carry significantly more food supplies if we were doing the full 78km race.
image [https://cdn.magzter.com/1350921236/1723190107/articles/FQMT8A2p21723206313393/3338378293.jpg]
The night before the race we stayed in a small cottage less than a mile away from the start. This meant we did not need to take the shuttle to the start and could catch a precious few extra minutes of sleep. To get to the start we had to cross the big bridge into the quaint village of Saint Chely du Tarn, where we were greeted by the sight of over a hundred paddle boards all lying on the white beach below. A lively DJ pumped out some motivational tunes while some of the paddlers performed energetic dance routines as part of their warm-up. I had to pinch myself as I stared downstream and saw a few white waterfalls tumbling into the Tarn. My dream of taking on the Tarn was about to come true and when the start horn eventually sounded it certainly did come true! All I had to do was get to the finish line in one piece. I was not worried about racing, and my focus was on enjoying the incredible gorge, while safely navigating down it. Not so for many others, who just went hell for leather from the start. A poor pair of girls on a double SUP ground to a sudden halt in the first shallow area, and went hurtling forward, while the board shot backwards and nearly decapitated me. I caught it and returned it to them.
image [https://cdn.magzter.com/1350921236/1723190107/articles/FQMT8A2p21723206313393/UJBDS0i8m1723206504566.jpg]
Race On
Soon the field fanned out and I could only see a few paddlers around me. Some of the technical bits looked familiar as we had paddled them the day before. This time I was a little nervous and even went through a rapids and tight turns section backwards, fortunately, a lady on a Red Elite board struck up a conversation as if my going backwards was the most normal thing in the world.
image [https://cdn.magzter.com/1350921236/1723190107/articles/FQMT8A2p21723206313393/2829287822.jpg]
Shallows
After about an hour we got La Maléne and the first portage. When I paddled it the day before we kept right and popped our boards safely over the wall and rocks before hopping in again. Now a marshal was instructing us to keep left. He then told me to head down a chute, I moved forward on my board to try and save my fin… I quickly jumped back on again, but I could feel something was amiss with my board. Every paddle stroke seemed to be in a di...
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Sup International (Digital) - 1 Issue, Issue 44 - Mid Summer 2024