Sporting History is made: The Inaugural Noosa Kayak Olympics

About a week ago several members of my bus decided to go for a quick kayak trip. It was hot, so we stopped for a swim. It was just business as usual until Ben suggested we do a kayak relay race. A few minutes later history was made, and the Inaugural Noosa Kayak Olympics was underway! We devised a series of athletic challenges which entertained us all greatly, and probably confused the hell out of the other kayakers / fishermen on the boat. Rather than describe the events, I'll let the pictures do the talking:

this wasn't an actual event, but I felt like surfing on my kayak. Is there a problem with that?

The first event was a relay: the first two people had to kayak out to the middle of the river, then they had to stand up and walk the length of the kayak before kayaking back to the sand where their partner would then do the same. Here team America/Germany celebrates their victory over team England in the kayak relay event. (Note that team England isn't even close to finishing and weve already finished and taken victory photos)

the seated gladiator kayak battle begins

aaaand, about ten seconds later, it's over. I believe this ended in a tie, since we pretty much swamped at the same time.

here is the standing-kayak-relay, which was the toughest event of the day. There were teams of two: one person would stand on the kayak while the other person pushed them across the river. Once they made it across, the people would switch, and head back. This one really confused the local fishermen as we pushed a kayak with a standing person towards them with great urgency, then tore off on the beach to tag a pole, then switched places and hurried back. Guess that's not a normal occurence for them

me about an eighth of a second before I lost the standing gladiator kayak fight. . .

the members of the Inaugural Noosa Kayak Olympics take a brief break from the games for a group photo