The 2025 Hawkesbury Classic, one of Australia’s most iconic overnight paddling events, offered competitors a choice of three distances: 30 km, 65 km, and the full 111 km course.
For this year’s race, the Academy was represented in the premier 111 km event: Dmytro Medvedyev who teamed up with James Pralija to take on the challenging 111 km distance in a double ski, while teammates Alex Roberts and Naomi Jonson entered the same course in a K2.
Alex and Naomi delivered a strong performance but were forced to withdraw after completing approximately three-quarters of the course. Dmytro and James continued through the night to finish powerfully, ultimately securing the overall win.
Read Dmytro’s and James’s detailed race reports below.
HCC Race Report - by Dmytro Medvedyev
I hadn’t seriously considered paddling the Hawkesbury Classic until last year. The idea of paddling for nine hours straight just seemed too hard — something beyond what I could do.
But after completing several ultra-marathon races over the past few years, the Hawkesbury Classic eventually found its way onto my radar. I still thought it would be incredibly tough in a K1, but when my good friend and accomplished marathon paddler James Pralija asked if I’d be interested in racing it in a double, it suddenly seemed much more achievable. So, our preparation began.
We logged plenty of long training sessions, often with our teammates Alex and Naomi, who were set to paddle the race in a K2. James decided we’d use a double ski — a bit longer and slower to accelerate, but noticeably more stable, which we’d later be thankful for.
We were also fortunate to have Peter Manley on our side. A regular participant in this event, Peter had to skip this year’s race due to a shoulder injury and generously volunteered to be our land crew instead.
We arrived at the race venue early in the afternoon, got our boats scrutinized, and completed our final preparations — checking hydration bladders, gels, solid food packs, and spare warm clothes for the checkpoints.
The Start
Our race plan was to paddle strongly through the first half and cover as much distance as possible while it was still light and the tide was helping us. We started at 5 PM (in the latest group) and immediately faced a fairly strong headwind for the first half hour — not ideal for our plan. Luckily, the wind soon dropped, and we began to take full advantage of the outgoing tide, swapping leads with Alex and Naomi and maintaining an average pace of around 14 km/h.
Watching my heart rate, I realized we might be pushing a bit too hard, so I tried to conserve energy whenever I could while recovering during their turns in the lead. With James having done this race several times before, and Naomi being an experienced Hawkesbury paddler (she must’ve finished it a dozen times!), I trusted that our experienced partners knew what pace we could sustain.
Through the Night
We skipped the first big checkpoint at 30 km and continued toward Wisemans Ferry, our first planned stop. The section was fairly uneventful, apart from a brief scare when we hit our rudder while overtaking a slower boat on the inside line. By the 50 km mark, we had caught nearly all the paddlers who had started 30 to 60 minutes ahead of us, except for a couple of doubles, who reached Wisemans just minutes before we did.
We covered the first 60 km in 4 hours 20 minutes, much faster than I had expected. But we knew the second half would inevitably slow down — the tide would turn against us, and we’d lose the light.
At Wisemans, Peter and Andrew Pratley (who was looking after Alex and Naomi) were ready and waiting. They helped us out of the boats, refilled our hydration packs, and handed over gels, food, and warm clothes.
After a quick stop — plus a few extra minutes waiting for the ferry to cross — we set off again. For the next few kilometers, both doubles paddled together, but soon Alex and Naomi started to slow. Even at a steady pace, they were struggling to keep up. We decided to stop at the next checkpoint to check on them.
Unfortunately, Alex had pushed himself beyond his limits and hit the wall. They faced a tough decision: this checkpoint was the last with road access. Continuing would mean another 30 km in the dark, against the tide, without a safety net. In hindsight, they absolutely made the right call to withdraw there.
The Long Push to the Finish
It was a setback to lose our teammates, but after a brief regroup, we decided to continue — with a key adjustment. We swapped seats so that I would take over navigation and set the tempo. It took a while to get used to steering and reading the GPS in total darkness. At one point, we even ran straight into some tree branches. Thankfully, as the moon rose, visibility improved and the river became less mysterious.
With about 15 km to go, another challenge struck — James’s shoulder started giving him serious pain. Soon, he was in agony, but with no nearby roads or beaches, stopping wasn’t an option. Fortunately, the next checkpoint had painkillers, which gave him enough relief to continue. We found that lowering our arms and adjusting our paddling rhythm made the pain more bearable.
The final kilometers were brutal — choppy open water, exhaustion, and darkness all combining to test us one last time. Physically and mentally, we were spent, but this was when I truly appreciated James’s choice of craft. In a less stable K2, that final stretch could have been a nightmare.
Then, finally, we rounded the passage between the land and the island — and there it was: the Mooney Mooney Bridge, with its flashing orange light marking the finish.
It was a wonderful night — the river reflecting the full moon, lightning flashing on the horizon, stars everywhere, even a few shooting stars. But nothing compared to that orange light — the most beautiful thing I’d seen all night.
The Finish
A few final strokes later, we crossed the finish line — the first boat to do so. As I later learned, we had even set a new Open Men’s Double record, though at that moment, none of that really mattered. Andrew was waiting to help us out of the boat and hand us some warm clothes. Moments later, Peter arrived with Alex and Naomi, offering much-needed post-race drinks. Together, we packed up and made our way home — tired, sore, but deeply satisfied.
Before the race, I’d asked several paddlers who had done both the Myall and Hawkesbury races which one they found tougher. Some said Myall was more demanding because of its higher intensity. I reserved my judgment until after finishing the Classic — and now, having done it, I believe the HCC is the harder race, at least the way we tackled it. Being more than twice as long and raced partly in the dark, there are simply more opportunities for things to go wrong, even for experienced paddlers.
A massive effort all around — and huge thanks to my teammates, our land crew, and the event organizers for making it such an unforgettable experience.
HCC Race Report - by James Pralija
I have a fair bit of experience doing ultra length paddling races and this was my 3rd HCC. It’s very much my specialty - when Alex and Naomi were getting serious about doing the HCC in a K2, I figured they might want someone to tag along and keep them company. This germinated a few ideas and figured that if they’re chasing a record, having a fast boat to share leads with was the best chance. So I recruited Dimi, not only because he is a top paddler and a great friend, we get really well in boats together and he is as hard headed as I am.
Long prep paddles
We didn’t do as many k’s as I’d have liked pre-race - the longest stint was 25km. But the boat felt right and I had total confidence in us. Getting boats set up for races like the HCC take a lot of fiddling - I had a carbon bar attached to the boat above the footrest to hold a GPS watch and a separate GPS unit with maps, hydration hoses taped to the boat, quick release bladders, seat pads, etc. I knew what we were in for and knew the exact set up required.
First half
The first half was fast - faster than I’d anticipated. But, I felt good and continued to feel better and better as the k’s raced by. I knew both boats pushing hard - my aim was to do 0.5-1km/h faster than the K2 on every lead to try and eek out a little extra gap every to the clock on every lead. I’d been given a target of 8:17 and I fully intended on achieving that. The wash the K2 put out was perfect and allowed us to really rest, with my HR varying from 165-175 when leading, down to 135-145 on the wash. The more we rested, the harder each lead was. I felt great and didn’t need to stop but we pulled a few extra k’s into Wisemans to try and keep the momentum going. We later learned that this is where Alex was really fading - we jumped out of the boats, swapped bladders, put a light thermal on, threw down a jam sandwich and back in the boat. The F1-style pit stop didn’t do Alex any favours as he didn’t have time to get any extra food down.
Second half
I knew the likelihood of wind and bump in the last 10km was high and swapping seats was the logical choice - Dimi is unflappable. We paddled away steadily and got some distance under our belts before my left shoulder started to become a problem - an old issue that hasn’t reared in quite some time. We found a checkpoint and pulled in to try and get some anti-inflammatories (in a comedic error, I had a small bag of them in my kit at Wisemans that neither I nor Pete remembered to pull out). Problem was, it was a big motor cruiser with a small rear deck that I could hang onto, while Dimi was stuck hanging onto a crash bag on the side of the cruiser. With everything leaning left onto a dodgy left shoulder, I was in a world of hurt, so getting paddling again made everything better. They knew something was pretty wrong as about 5ks later, I heard an engine and light somewhere off to our left where I knew there was no road. An SES boat came rocketing up behind us to check that we were alright. So long as we kept paddling and there were no major jolts or bracing on the left, I knew we’d finish.