“We’d only kayaked at night once before. And that was by accident.” That’s not a sentence you expect to hear from someone who has just done their first ever Canoe Classic.

The Hawkesbury Classic Paddle is a 111km overnight paddle from Windsor to Mooney Mooney along the majestic Hawkesbury River: an ultra-marathon paddling event.

And don’t be fooled. When we say it’s an overnighter, we don’t mean the glamping kind.

In fact, there are no tents needed at all, because there’s no camping. Yes, there are pitstops along the way, and checkpoints to register at, but the idea is that the paddling starts mid-afternoon and continues throughout the night, with people arriving at the end point in the early hours of the morning.

Or later, for those who are a bit slower.

Or, for those like Rhys and his dad Laurence in their first attempt, not at all.

The pair only made it as far as Wisemans Ferry, completing just 65 of the 111km, but that in itself was an impressive effort, given the challenges Rhys faced in this preparation for the event.

 

Setbacks

The whole “paddling 111km overnight is an awesome idea” thing started for Rhys in 2023 when he and his parents turned up at Mooney Mooney the last weekend in October to help as volunteers for the annual Hawkesbury Canoe Classic paddling event.

Rhys looked around at so many people volunteering, paddling, and being support crew for what has been Arrow’s biggest fundraising event for the past 30 years, and thought, “You know what? This is cool. This is really cool!!”

Rhys dusted off the family kayak – an inflatable one – and started training with his mate Lenny (not his real name) every weekend. But before long, disaster struck: the inflatable kayak became a deflating one, and Lenny pulled out of the event.

But this wasn’t the least of Rhys’ problems: The HCC has rules. One is you can’t use an inflatable craft, and the other is that if you’re under 18 years of age you can’t paddle the event alone. You must be in at least a two-person boat.

“Disaster!” Rhys thought… but only briefly.

 

Rhys eats setbacks for breakfast.

It seems Rhys eats setbacks for breakfast. Maybe that’s because he learned to thrive despite difficult circumstances early in life. He was diagnosed at just 18 months of age with Acute Myeloid Leukaemia. After countless blood transfusions and many rounds of chemotherapy, Rhys pulled through and is now using his experiences during childhood (“Don’t all kids go to hospital twice a year for blood tests?”) to fuel his passion for raising awareness of the simple things young people can do to help others with cancer.

He has created Donate for Life, an organisation which aims to increase awareness among young people that they can, once they’re 18 years old, donate blood products and join the national stem cell registry to help cancer patients. Rhys hopes “that by doing these kind acts, young people might begin to consider helping others throughout their adult life, making our world a better place.”

Rhys has also taken that same “Yes I can” approach to his paddling setbacks: he got his hands on a proper kayak (with help from Make a Wish) and managed at the 11th hour to convince his dad, Laurence, to join him in paddling the event.

Rhys says that even with these setbacks, not participating in the event never came into his mind. “Even without a kayak, I kept training,” Rhys says. “My partner dropping out threw a big spanner in the works, but my dad took one for the team. He was concerned about the current and the wind, but I told him ‘Dad, we are not thinking like that’.”

 

Accidental nighttime adventure

They trained together as often as school (for Rhys) and work (for Laurence) would allow, with Rhys also hitting the cross-training hard when he wasn’t on the water. They paddled together most weekends, but the furthest they’d kayaked in one go was just 40km, and they only once paddled at night, and that was purely by accident.

“It was a Friday afternoon after school, and we were like, ‘OK, let’s just go!’ So we went kayaking down at Bobbin Head, heading towards Cottage Point. When we got there the sun was already starting to set, so we had to paddle back in the dark. All the yachts we passed were just like ghosts; it was that kind of dark. So yeah. It was an accident that we were out there at night.”

 

The big day

Come the big day, Rhys and his dad Laurence were lined up at the start at 4pm, ready to go.

They had a flying start and were doing well, but despite their best efforts everyone was overtaking them. Even the stand-up paddle boarders!

Convinced that it was just early race excitement, and that they would overtake their competitors throughout the night, Rhys and Laurence continued to paddle at a steady pace with Rhys as the engine and Laurence in charge of navigation.

The duo made their way through the various safety checkpoints eventually reaching the first major checkpoint at Sackville, Checkpoint D. By this time, the sun had already set, and they were coming second last in their category.

Before they knew it, it was 10.30pm, and the pressure was on to arrive at the next checkpoint at Wisemans Ferry by 2am. It was now a race against time.

Rhys and Laurence continued to push through the darkness of night, with only a head torch to navigate. Despite the pressure of the race, Rhys and Laurence took the opportunity to soak up the “unbelievable and breathtaking experience” of paddling at night as they watched water evaporate around them and felt like they were “paddling through a cloud”.

Eventually they could see the lights of Wisemans Ferry in the distance. The clock continued to tick over, reaching 1.30 am – just 30 minutes to go! They paddled their hearts out, faster than they ever have in their life, pushing and pushing. Rhys said to himself “I have not trained for a year just to back out. I can do this.”

But unfortunately, the same couldn’t be said for Laurence who by this stage was feeling the physical effects of the long-distance paddle, his arms now aching on every single stroke.

Disappointingly, the team arrived at the checkpoint at 2.05 a.m., just 5 minutes after the cutoff time! This marked the end of the paddle for Rhys and Laurence.

 

Perspective

It took 3 weeks for Rhys to get over the disappointment and come to terms with the result. But with hindsight – as well as some encouraging words from his mum – Rhys has been able to see the enormity of what he and his dad have achieved by being a part of the Hawkesbury Canoe Classic.

“67 kilometres is actually a really great achievement,” he now says.

“This experience has been one of the most empowering experiences that I have ever had in my life.”

Rhys is now treating 2024 as a stepping stone to this year’s event. His aim? To complete the full 111 kilometres in 2025 and beat the stand up paddle boarders to the finish line.

“Failed once, I will get it next time,” he says. “I’ll be doing it again this year for sure!”

 

A spot of fundraising

Beyond the paddle, Rhys achieved something else remarkable: he raised over $2,000 for Arrow!!

As well as being an ultra-marathon event that is known as one of the biggies on the paddling calendar, the Hawkesbury Canoe Classic is also a fundraising event. For more than 30 years, the HCC has been supporting the work of Arrow, the Bone Marrow Transplant Foundation, and has generated more than $4M over that time.

The HCC event requires each paddler to raise at least $200 – which Rhys exceeded, raising roughly ten times that amount.

Rhys took his pro-active “can do” approach to his fundraising commitment, too. He “pestered family and extended family” but he says it was actually Cosmo, his Dalmation (who doesn’t even like paddling!) who raised most of the money.

Rhys regularly walks Cosmo around the local streets, so he put a photo of her on a flyer which he put in letterboxes in the local neighbourhood and wrote “You know this dog? Well, the guy on the other end of her lead is doing this really crazy thing…” and went on to explain the Canoe Classic, and ask for a donation via a QR code.

Simple and effective.

 

Why you should paddle too

The Classic also gave Rhys a new-found passion – the love for kayaking.

“I absolutely love kayaking,” he says. “I really like the serenity of just paddling and it being so quiet and peaceful. I enjoy being able to sit in my own thoughts. It’s a really nice getaway from the hustle and bustle: You’re completely out of signal, in the middle of a river, no one near you, and you’re just paddling. It’s awesome.”

It’s helped both his physical and mental health – and he recommends the Hawkesbury Canoe Classic event to anyone, including those with little paddling experience, with a word of advice:

“Be prepared. Start training now, and plan what you’ll take with you. I recommend a head torch, changes of clothes and gloves, a paper map that you’ve laminated, and plenty of water and high energy snacks. That’s skittles and gummy bears for me, but you might like something else. After that, you need a good mental attitude. It’s not just a physical challenge; it’s a mental one. You have to be prepared to push yourself to keep going,” he said. “Oh, and if you’re as slow as we were, you might need a tent after all!”

 

Join the Hawkesbury Canoe Classic 2025

Registrations for the Hawkesbury Canoe Classic 2025 are now open!

The event takes place on the weekend of the 8th – 9th November 2025, with great moonlight and tides forecast.

Take your choice of event from Windsor including:

· 111 kilometre Classic to Mooney Mooney

· 65 kilometres to Wisemans Ferry (just like Rhys and Laurence did!) or

· 31 kilometres to Sackville.

No matter the distance, you are guaranteed a challenge and a memory you will never forget.

Register now at: www.canoeclassic.net/enter

To see more of Rhys’s adventures and 2024 Hawkesbury Canoe Classic experience, check out his video here .
It’s well worth the watch!