Blue Lake Kayaking

tony
December 10, 2017
birds / New Zealand / Sport

Last Saturday I went in to town early to get the annual WOF for my motorcycle and then went for a ride up around the Blue Lake and Okareka before heading home for breakfast. Passing the Blue Lake I saw that it was being set up for a weekend of kayak racing and decided it would be good to return and photograph the action later in the day. After checking the program online Paul and I headed back in the afternoon to photograph Blue Lake Kayaking.

Poverty Bay Men K1 Blue Lake Kayaking — Poverty Bay Men K1

I have photographed Waka Ama racing at Okareka in the past but never kayak racing so it was a new experience. A 1000m course was set up to run 1000m, 500m and 200m events and the best option for lighting and backgrounds was at the finish line looking down the course. I had taken the D500 and 500mm f4 on a monopod which allowed me to cover the kayaks over the final 100m of the course. I would have preferred a lower shooting angle for the kayaks but this brought the forest on the far shore into the background which was distracting compared to a clean water background. I had anticipated the 10fps frame rate of the D500 would be useful as I was wanting to catch arcs of water from the paddle blades. In reality it was much better to anticipate the paddle cycle and just shoot 2 or 3 shot bursts so for the second day I used the D810 which gave me a wider field of view after the boats had crossed the line.

Bay of Plenty Men K4 Blue Lake Kayaking — Men K4

Poverty Bay Women K2 Blue Lake Kayaking — Poverty Bay Women K2

Arawa Men K2 Blue Lake Kayaking — Arawa Men K2

One of the highlights was seeing Lisa Carrington paddle. We are all familiar with her amazing kayaking performances with numerous World Championship and Olympic medal performances making the news. It’s not often that you get to photograph a World and Olympic champion in your own backyard.

Lisa Carrington Blue Lake Kayaking — Lisa Carrington paddling in the Womens K4 500

For a report and all the results from the Blue Lake Kayaking 2 event see the Canoe Racing New Zealand site.

As an addicted bird photographer it is worth mentioning that the Blue Lake is a good place to photograph Black-billed Gulls. Their presence could not be ignored despite the excitement of the Blue Lake Kayaking. These delicate threatened birds are often lost in swarms of their red-billed relatives but at the Blue Lake seem to have a bit more space to themselves.