Go Hard or Go Home: Licensee David Ripo on his Texas white-water challenge

The trainer and the person behind this hugely ambitious idea is Hannah White, who knows all about endurance challenges, having sailed the Atlantic three times solo. I - along with three other Essex publicans - was picked to take part in the show.

Taking on this challenge and appreciating I had an awful lot to do to get my self into shape, I committed to the gym six days each week and maintained healthy diet, excluding alcohol.

Five weeks after starting this new regime there was clear signs of it working, I had lost several pounds and felt much healthier, at the eight week mark I had lost a stone.

Difficult​

During the eighth week of our training we were told our challenge, taken to Lee Valley white water center, and shown a film of the previous years Texas Water Safari Race. Alligators, snakes, 100+ degree heat, and the death of a competitor, made us appreciate how difficult this challenge was going to be, not having paddled a canoe before, made it even more surreal.

After notching up more than 150 miles of canoe training on the River Chelmer with the Chelmsford Canoe Club, prior to leaving for Texas, it gave a huge boost to our confidence.

I was still training five days a week in the gym and paddling at least 10 hours a week, and became more confident by the day.

My canoe partner for the race was Nick May from The Alma Inn Harwich, he and I trained hard enough to know we was going to get through the race, timing, speed and strength were the key points. In training we paddled an average of three miles per hour, for the race we was going to have to increase our speed.

Determined​

Flying out to Texas from Heathrow on 5 ​June, excited, determined and fit, the first day we met with the canoe builder John Bugge, who has competed in the Texas Water Safari on 32 occasion with 22 wins under his belt.

We spent two days training in the San Marcos River to help us get used to the river flow, obstacles and the heat.

Our 86 mile race will take us the longest length of the San Marcos River and into the Guadalupe River, starting on Saturday 8 ​June at 9am and ending in Gonzales the next day before nightfall.

There are dams, bridges, low clearance crossings, white water rapids and other challenges including aggressive alligator gar, alligators, sharks, poisonous water moccasin snakes, fire ants, mosquitos and poison ivy hanging from every tree you pass on the river.

We carried an anti-serum injection in the boat as part of the first aid kit, racers have to take all food and equipment needed with them, receiving only water and ice along the way.

Some of the portages on the race were colossal, in some places 30ft dams to climb over with the canoe. As the miles added on, so the canoe became more cumbersome and difficult - so different from the experience in the Chelmer River.

Darkness​

Our first stopping point was Luling. We had travelled 43 miles, non-stop, eating drinking and paddling at the same time, we were running late, it was 8pm and getting dark quickly.

With no means of knowing your speed or your position, we knew we mustn’t stop, the darkness came and the river went black along with the sky, we fitted our head-light torches, and with the small beam, carried on down the pitch black San Marcos River, no light, no other canoes, no building and no people (at least none that we could see).

The single biggest problem at this moment was the hundreds of decaying submerged tree trunks that littered the rive, through its entire length. Hitting these capsize the canoe instantly, putting you immediately in the river, struggling desperately to get the canoe upright again, and you back in it.

During the day, this cooled you down. At night, it didn’t seem such a good idea, we couldn’t see the banks of the river, we new it was around 200ft wide, and believed we were roughly, in the middle. The poisonous water moccasin snakes that continually banged against the side of the canoe whilst we tried to make headway, were off-putting, increasing our determination not to end up in the water and testing the serum.

Adrenalin and fright combined helped us paddle faster, our concentration levels at that time were quite high enabling us to arrive at Luling at 9.30pm. It really was a pleasure to stand on something solid after 14 hours of non-stop canoeing.

Tired​

The next day saw us start at daybreak in a torrential downpour with full blown lightning strikes for over four hours. Being in a metal boat in a river with lightning cracking all around you seemed to make the experience of the poisonous water moccasin snakes the night before almost uneventful.

With less portages on the second leg of the journey, we hoped it would speed us up, the storm finished around midday but had left us with no food, as our boat had tipped over several times, hitting submerged tree trunks and stone boulders whilst tackling the white water rapids.

We couldn’t replace this, so water and ice was all we had to sustain us - I knew we should have had breakfast.

The last dam was Gonzales dam, the biggest in the race, described as, 'very dangerous'. There is no denying how tired we both felt at this stage, pulling the canoe out of the water to portage it 300yds around the dam took it out of us, but we new we was on the last stretch; two miles of paddling would see us at the finish line.

Achievement​

We arrived and finished the race at Luling, at 7pm, knowing we had achieved something very important to us. Four publicans started the race, but only two finished. I was very pleased with our effort and performance.

This was an opportunity of a lifetime, it has given me the chance to prove to myself that getting fitter is achievable, keeping fit is possible and setting yourself a goal, at whatever level, can be achieved if you put your mind to it.

The episode featuring David and the other licensees will be shown on Channel 5, 27 January 7.00pm​