Exploration
See the canoeist kayaking the wrong way against white water with the same weight as eight elephants in this video and read the interview.
Clarke is no stranger to hard work on the water. But to stretch his kayak training even further he decided to paddle 300m against the tide and up Prague's Troja river.
As Joe reveals in the interview below, battling 16,000 litres per second (the same weight as eight elephants) as well as obstacles wasn't easy...
I started to panic a little bit about whether I’d make it up.
Joe, what was the challenge about?
I like to approach things a bit differently and think outside the box. I’d been coming to Prague for training camps since I was young. I normally always go down the course, so I decided to go against the flow and see what was possible. It’s easy to think that kayakers only go down courses with the flow of water, but sometimes we need to work against the flow as well.
How did it go?
After the first few attempts I thought I’d bitten off more than I could chew. After about 20 plus tries I hadn’t made it past the bottom drop which was the steepest and hardest feature on the course. I started to panic a little bit about whether I’d make it up. Your energy is like a battery and the more work I was doing the less my battery had in it. About three attempts after that panic though I managed to make it up the bottom drop and thought, ‘OK, we’ve got one on video, it’s all good’ – and I did the rest of the course with no problem. But with all that work my arms were burning! I was so thankful to make it up.
It was a 'hallelujah' moment when I realised I’d made it. My arms at this point were full of lactic and just hurting.
Did you have a 'hallelujah' moment when you finally made it up?
I can only describe it as like climbing a mountain. You’re going to the top and if you don’t paddle at the top of mountain you just fall back down the same side again. You need to get to the top and keep pushing hard and then once you’re past the peak it almost feels like you’re going downhill as it’s so easy! It was a 'hallelujah' moment when I realised I’d made it. My arms at this point were full of lactic and just hurting.
What preparation did you do for this challenge?
I currently follow quite a rigorous training schedule anyway, so not much changed in my preparation for this challenge – but a few things did. For example, in the gym I focused more on the power aspect of my fitness, so that I could fire off two or three strokes quicker and get the boat running at top speed.
Will this be part of your training going forward?
It certainly has given me food for thought. It was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be! I got a really good work out but the frustration levels were really high – I might want to find one that’s a bit easier and that I can make it up more regularly.
It’s about bringing the mind and body together in harmony.
Overcoming so many failed attempts must have taken some serious mental strength…
When I failed I wanted to do it again as soon as possible. But I also had to tell myself I needed to give my arms a bit of rest, otherwise it was going to be like a snowball effect and I was going to get worse and worse. I told myself to be calm, relax, think about it, try not to do it too fast and just do it. It’s about bringing the mind and body together in harmony. My mind wanted to but the body wasn’t quite ready. The last factor I needed was to think about tactics and pull all three together at the right time to get that eureka moment when I made it over the lip. On the successful attempt I’d taken a rest and thought about what I was doing, rather than rushing the process.