2025 Cromford Peak Challenge
It’s been almost a week since we wrapped up the 2nd iteration of the Cromford Peak Challenge and it was a huge privilege to welcome over 80 paddlers and the friends and families to our very special training spot on the River Derwent in Derbyshire.
Building on the success of last years event, we tweaked the plans and schedule and set about developing an all inclusive, family-friendly multi-discipline paddling competition. That’s a mouthful innit!
Saturday morning dawned and after a team had been working in the previous week, the River Derwent looked epic, sandwiched between the historic Cromford Mills and Willersley Castle Manor Adventure, both of them helping us in massive amounts to be able to get the event up and running. The Slalom course was set ready for Sunday, so there was time after registering for paddlers to get to know the water. After a quick(ish) briefing, the Downriver race was the focus of racing for the day. Paddlers amassed upstream of the castle for an individual top to bottom run of the course, around 1km in length. There was a vast array of craft on the water, WWR kayaks, slalom kayaks, whitewater boats. A thanks to Jamie Christie and his girls Emma and Kerry for their help and loaning out WWR kayaks for any that wanted a go!
Once we’d recovered from racing, there were slalom sessions for junior paddlers coached by visiting Slalom Superstars and Olympic medallists past and present - Chris Bowers, Adam Burgess, Ben Haylett and Kimberly Woods all ran coached sessions to help kids as young as 6 develop their skills and have fun on the water. Thanks to the Superstars and the kids - it was so good to see them all having so much fun. The Superstars stuck around to sign posters, T-shirts, helmets and the like, and talk to the kids about their paddling. Thanks folks!
Sunday was Slalom day. Time in the morning for everyone to hone their lines and learn a bit more about slalom racing before each paddler had two runs down the course to see who was the fastest in each class between the gates. So much fun and cheering from paddlers, families and spectators alike there was a real buzz around the river. Well done to all competitors for giving everything and helping everyone else out along the way.
Another daily prize giving at 4pm, and onto a second evenings socialising at the Castle. Another fine dinner provided by the crew at Willersley, and then we had top-notch entertainment from local (and internationally renowned) musical sensation John Gill! John’s a supreme wordsmith and he can summon lyrics seemingly at will to entertain any audience. We weren’t disappointed, with some epic sing-alongs, crowd involvement thanks to Darryl Dude on the cymbal(!), all left us with a smile and many more happy memories.
And on to Monday, Kayak Cross day! Using the same section of river as the Slalom, but this time starting on the mighty ‘cross ramp, paddlers would slide into the river and head down the Kayak Cross course of 8 gates. Each paddler had an individual Time-Trial run, and then the fast and fortunate paddlers would be seeded into semi-finals and progress into finals. Tensions were high, with heats of 2 or three paddlers launching together off the ramp the action and atmosphere was electric! Some very entertaining and crafty paddling brought us to finals for each category, but the memory of the day for me was the sound reverberating through the valley from the support and excitement watching the racing! Thanks must go to Pyranha for the loan of boats for the event too, as well as our bunch of safety kayakers over the weekend - Ollie, Harry, Gav, Rob, Joe, Will, Chris, Ben, Dave, Darryl & Dale Dudes.
One final prize giving after the event not only saw us crown the champions of the day, but also Overall weekend champions in each class. On top of this, there were spot prizes for the many notable achievements we’d seen over the whole weekend. Well Done to you all and thank you.
A huge thanks and well done to everyone involved over the weekend and in preparing for the event beforehand. These things only happen when we all come together and the whole weekend was such a good example of that. Also, special mention to Louise from Charlie and Jane for supplying such fantastic looking medals for the event, attending on Sunday and for being our (somewhat reluctant) medal presenter.
Thanks also to our supporters of Paddle Peak who make any of this possible; Peak PS, Cromford Mills, Manor Adventure at Willersley Castle, Pyranha, P&H, Ainsworth Paddles, Paddle UK, Acclimbatize. Mount Cook, Rapid Horizons, Thornbridge Brewery, Dagger Kayaks, and Charlie and Jane.
The results can be found by clicking the link below
See you again next year!!!
