It’s 170 kilometres around the banks of Lake Macquarie, and three local paddleboarders are looking to circumnavigate every metre of the lake for charity.
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Claire Browne, Nicki Day and Neale Martin have been planning on taking the journey around the lake for some time, and finally gathered the motivation to complete it, setting off on the marathon on Friday, October 27.
“We’ve done events and been racing for a few years, and we were speaking for a long time to paddle around the lake and now we’ve finally decided to do it,” Browne said. “They say it’s 174 kilometres of shoreline so we’ll stay as close as we can to the shore, and on our mapping it’s just over 160 [kilometres] that we have to paddle.”
The trio knew that they had the perfect chance to help support a charity effort as well, and their choice was the Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children Hunter (RIDBC), chosen due to members of Day’s family.
“We had the idea … then thought about it as a fundraiser,” Day said. “With a brother, a sister-in-law and a brother-in-law all with hearing loss, and driving past the centre nearly every day at Floraville, it was an easy choice. I know firsthand what a difference RIDBC services can make for families.”
Starting from the Teralba Amateur Sailing Club from 6am on the first day, the trio are expecting the journey to take three days.
The paddleboating marathoners have titled their planned adventure “SUP'n it Forward”.
The team will aim to cover approximately 60 kilometres a day for the first two days, before easing to the finish-line on Sunday with a 40 kilometre leg.
Browne also confessed that if the trio had to head home each evening while completely the journey they “might not come back in the morning”, and so their families will be staying on a houseboat that will follow behind for them to sleep on both evenings.
“Nicki’s husband will be driving the houseboat for us, so we don’t really have to get off the lake at all,” Browne said. “It was a simpler idea then trying to find a place to say, and if we had to go home we might not come back in the morning.”
The trio are welcoming anyone interesting in joining them for sections of the three-day trip, and a number of paddleboaters from their local club have already confirmed they’ll be attending some stretches.
“We’ve been asking people if they want to join us on sections of the paddle, we all think that having people with us would be fantastic and we’d love to see people get involved with us,” she said.
Although the trio haven’t undertaken the long paddle yet, Browne also revealed if the charity drive and the paddling of the lake goes well, they may look towards it becoming an annual event.
“I think that we will either look to do it again on the lake, or something very similar,” she said. “The RIDBC is definitely keen for us to do it all again if it goes well, and I know that there’s some paddlers that would like to join us when there’s another opportunity for a marathon like this.”
All proceeds raised through their Everyday Hero page will go to the RIDBC, with the paddling trio self-funding their marathon on the lake, as well as the houseboat and equipment.
There will be regular Facebook live updates of their journey, available at facebook.com/supnitforward/, and donations for their charity cause can be made at give.everydayhero.com/au/sup-n-it-forward.