Following in the footsteps of Eddy Mercx, Chris Boardman and Miguel Indurain I have borrowed from cycling the one hour challenge. Simply paddle as fast as you can for 60mins in the best downwind conditions you handle. Record location, tide state, wind speed and direction and post here. Even better record with your GPS and add a link to the file so that others can try and beat your distance covered.

Why do it?! Well apart from fostering some friendly rivalry and bragging rights through the hard winter months prizes are up for grabs!

The winning distance of the Fenn 1Hr Down Wind Challenge and the fastest Fenn 10k time will receive either a brand new full carbon split shaft Fenn 4 or 5 OR a two hundred pound discount from a new Full Carbon 11.5kg Mako Elite. Whats stopping you? get onto Google Earth and start planning your courses.

Categories are simply open, single person powered (with paddles) water craft, I would like to have more categories but the funds will not stretch that far!

Doubles are welcome to submit times but will not qualify for prizes.

Conditions:

Details need to be corroborated. We will need info of start and finish points, ideally using some form of GPS or even better upload the course to Google Earth, note the conditions – tide (flooding, ebb and height), wind direction and strength. This way we can compare like for like, also it is a way of helping other paddlers get out on the water safely.

Follow up dates on Ocean Sports Facebook and Twitter