Mahony Fenn: You Hit That First Rapid And It All Kicks In

Clairsy & Lisa chatted with Mahony Fenn about the weekend’s Avon Descent. Mahony had competed 24 times, and the guys asked about the course and how long it took. Lisa marvelled at someone completing it on a stand-up paddleboard. Hear the full chat here.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So the Avon descente the two day, one hundred and
twenty four kilometer adventure challenge from northern to Bayswater. Yep,
I forgot to pencil it in again.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Oh did you it was very lots of water now
of the weekend?

Speaker 1 (00:12):
Well, because sometimes there isn't. Yes, I mean, I don't
know which is more harrowing, but we'll find out. Because
money fan is joining us. Good morning, money Money, good morning.
Now you've done the av On Descent again, have you?
How many av underscents have you done?

Speaker 3 (00:28):
Now? This one was my twenty fourth.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
As oh, you are a repeat offender.

Speaker 3 (00:34):
I am a repeat offender.

Speaker 1 (00:35):
You must be doing it every year?

Speaker 3 (00:38):
I try to.

Speaker 1 (00:38):
Yes, And and so how would the water levels and conditions?

Speaker 3 (00:43):
Oh they were magnificent.

Speaker 1 (00:44):
Okay, it was actuallyn't go.

Speaker 3 (00:46):
For a while, but oh yeah, it was made it
a wild ride down the river.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
That's terrain craft.

Speaker 3 (00:53):
Yet nobody wants to lift that. No, no, no, they're
quite heavy by the end of it. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:01):
I would imagine over these that number of views you've
had a few times you've had to lift them up.
And we've had low rainfall as opposed to a near
record rainfall this time.

Speaker 3 (01:09):
Ah. Yes, there are some years where I've definitely walked
what it feels like more than half of the race
carrying you.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
Yeah, I know that people do it in power boats, kayaks, squeeze.
I didn't realize people were doing the sme thing on
a stand up paddle for well.

Speaker 3 (01:24):
Really what yah? We had we had our first better
to do the first the whole race on a stand
up paddle board. That is amazing.

Speaker 1 (01:32):
For that, that is incredible. She must have a superhuman strength.

Speaker 4 (01:36):
So what what were you in?

Speaker 3 (01:39):
I'm in a power boat.

Speaker 2 (01:40):
Yes, you're you're you're.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
You're sensible, very good. So how does one prepare for
the Avon descent?

Speaker 3 (01:49):
We do have as part of the club, we have
races each month. Okay, so we are we are in
the boat quite frequently, but for the Oven descent, it's
normally a boat building frenzy.

Speaker 2 (01:59):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (02:00):
And you're in a club, yes, so the power doing
you racing club.

Speaker 2 (02:06):
Money?

Speaker 4 (02:06):
Are the times, especially when you've got such so much
water around up to this record rainfall where your Meryl
Streep in the river wild because I was thinking.

Speaker 2 (02:13):
About that movie and you don't like it. Out of control,
it's just going.

Speaker 3 (02:15):
Crazy, Uh, we yes, there are definite parts you feel crazy,
and we feel like we were quite happy with our event.
We did not go upside down once. We stayed upright
the whole time, not necessarily in the boat, but definitely upright.

Speaker 2 (02:30):
Well done.

Speaker 1 (02:31):
Merrill was really buff in that movie, wasn't she was?

Speaker 2 (02:34):
She's been working out.

Speaker 1 (02:35):
Yeah, now we imagine it's quite the adrenaline rush. We're
talking about adrenaline rushes this morning, So can you explain
that how adrenaline rush works. I wouldn't know. I don't
do anything exciting.

Speaker 3 (02:47):
This is well my I mean personally, I always feel
like I'm about to throw up before I actually start
one of these races. Fabulous, so nervous, and then you
hit that first rappord of the morning and it it
all kicks in and off you go, and then it's
pumping and you were just let's go, let's get it going,
and then you get down to the bottom of each
rap and you're like, yes, we've made it.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4 (03:11):
Are you very vocal as you're going money? Are you
one of these people go yeah and you screaming your
way through it? Or you're pretty quiet and focused on
what you're doing.

Speaker 3 (03:17):
I tend to be a little bit more focused. My
driver is very very vocal about it. He is very
excited when we make it down one of one of
the rapids upright, and well we did. Yeah, we were
very pleased with some of our rapids. This sun, that
extra water flow just made it amazing, super fast.

Speaker 1 (03:34):
I did actually go white water rafting once in Sabah,
you know Codo. Yeah, in Sabar and I fell out
and it took about twenty minutes to.

Speaker 2 (03:44):
Get me back. Well did they call you, bob into
the raft just go without me? Did they throw your
log a log? Oh? Money?

Speaker 1 (03:55):
How long did it take you?

Speaker 3 (03:56):
By the way, Umm, I think we were about two
hours also to do day two.

Speaker 2 (04:05):
That's brilliant.

Speaker 3 (04:07):
Over two hours, I think.

Speaker 1 (04:08):
So now straight onto training for the next one.

Speaker 3 (04:10):
Is it? Yeah? We do have our next event on
the long weekend. That's the longer races. It's a three day,
three day race from Bridge down to Augusta and no injuries.

Speaker 2 (04:21):
Money you okay?

Speaker 3 (04:22):
I yes, a little sore, but I'm pretty good.

Speaker 1 (04:27):
Bridge down to Augusta though. This must be part of
the reason why you do it. What a beautiful way
to spend a weekend.

Speaker 2 (04:32):
Yeah, you're looking at well, you know you're in it,
you're

Speaker 1 (04:36):
Breathing it, and I think thanks many