drink

For long distance races, most paddlers (in South Africa at any rate) use drinking systems comprising a plastic bladder, a rubber tube and a clip. In order to drink, you’re obliged to stop paddling momentarily in order to insert the tube in your mouth and to undo the clip. And when you stop drinking, you have to pause again to fasten the clip to prevent your juice from draining into the sea.

Clearly you want to minimise breaks to your rhythm – so most paddlers leave the tube in their mouths for extended periods.  And therein lies a problem...