Taming The Tarn - Patrick Cruywagen’s Paddleboarding Adventure in France

For paddleboarding enthusiast Patrick Cruywagen, the Gorges du Tarn in southern France offered an irresistible challenge—the Tarn Water Race. Known as one of the most beautiful paddleboard races in the world, this 78km course winds through a UNESCO World Heritage Site of extraordinary natural beauty. Despite weather disruptions and unexpected hurdles, Patrick's journey through the gorge was filled with breathtaking scenery, adrenaline-pumping rapids, and unforgettable moments. This is his story of adventure, determination, and a deep appreciation for one of Europe’s most iconic paddleboarding destinations.

Before this race, I had never been to the Gorges du Tarn, but after watching countless YouTube videos about the Tarn Water Race, which starts at the top of the gorge in the gorgeous village of Saint Chely du Tarn and finishes 78km downstream at Saint Rome du Tarn, I just knew that I had to come and do it at least once. It was just too beautiful a paddling opportunity to pass up on. For a place to be declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site, it must be an area of extraordinary beauty, and the Gorges du Tarn certainly ticks this box repeatedly with each turn of the fast-flowing river.  

As we registered for the race in Malene and picked up our bibs and trackers, the forecast from the race director Pierre Toussaint, was not very good: “According to all the top weather apps we are in for an afternoon of thundershowers tomorrow, so we have had to shorten the race to 18km.” I won’t lie, I was massively disappointed, especially after traveling all the way from the UK. Plus, the hours and hours of training the last few months, only to be now told that we would be paddling less than a quarter of the route!

I quickly snapped out of it and told my crew that we should go and paddle the first 10km of the route, that way we could see what we were in for while at the same time making the most of our time in this beautiful place. Plus 18kms is not far and should be a doddle.

I live in the Midlands of the UK and usually paddle on rivers like the Ouse, Nene, and Thames and they only ever get decent flow during the winter rainstorms. As soon as I put my Red Sport 14 + board into the see-through waters of the Tarn, I knew it was very different from what I was used to, without any paddling or effort we were easily doing 5km/h. If I paddled, then this quickly increased to around 8km/h. We encountered some tight turns and small rapids and one of the other British paddlers, Michael Frost
took a swim at one of the rapids, it looked rather refreshing. The scenery was
out of this world and after a little more than an hour and a half, we were back at Malene.

On race morning we got another message that the thunderstorms were only expected to arrive in the afternoon, so they had decided to make the course 31km now. This meant a few minor adjustments to the amount of food and water I was going to carry with me as I was confident of covering the distance in less than 4 hours. I would’ve had to carry significantly more food supplies if we were doing the full 78km race.

The night before the race we stayed in a small cottage less than a mile away from the start. This meant we did not need to take the shuttle to the start and could get a precious few extra minutes of sleep. To get to the start we had to cross the big bridge into
the quaint village of Saint Chely du Tarn, where we were greeted by the sight of over a hundred paddle boards all lying on the white beach below. A lively DJ pumped out some motivational tunes while some of the paddlers performed energetic dance routines as part of their warm-up. I had to pinch myself as I stared downstream and saw a few white waterfalls tumbling into the Tarn. My dream of taking on the Tarm was about to come true and when the start horn eventually sounded it certainly did come true! All I had to do was get to the finish line in one piece. I was not worried about racing and my focus was on enjoying the incredible gorge while navigating down it. Not so for many others who just went hell for leather from the start. A poor pair of girls on double SUP ground to a sudden halt on the first shallow bit, and went hurtling forward, while the board shot backward and nearly decapitated me. I caught it and returned it to them.

Soon the field fanned out and I could only see a few paddlers around me. Some of the technical bits looked familiar as we had paddled them the day before. This time I was a little nervous and even went through a rapids and tight turns section backward, fortunately, a lady on a Red Elite board struck up a conversation as if my going backward was the most normal thing in the world.

After about an hour we got Malene and the first portage. When I paddled it the day before we kept right and popped our boards safely over the wall and rocks before hopping in again. Now a marshall was instructing us to keep left. He then told me to head down a chute, I moved forward on my board to try and save my fin but came off my board at the bottom of the chute in spectacular fashion. I quickly jumped back on again. I could feel something was not right with my board. Every paddle stroke seemed to be in a different French province and controlling the board was proving to be impossible. I steered to the side of the river and flipped the board over, my river fin had been chopped off at the bottom of the chute and all that remained was half a bolt in the bottom of my fin box. Luckily, I had a longer racing fin with me and I quickly put it on. I would have to be very careful now during the shallow bits due to the longer fin. I straight away felt the benefit of the longer fin as my board tracked beautifully now. During the shallow sections, I would kneel on the front of my board to ensure the fin did not anchor itself in the river sand or pebbles.

The deeper we got into the gorge the more stunning it seemed to get. I watched other more experienced paddlers and learned from them. The quickest option was not always the shortest distance, they picked a line that had the most flow and this made a massive
difference. At Pas de Soucy we got to an optional portage, the alternative was a chute and I only had one fin left so opted to portage instead. After 20km we got to Las Vignes and then must do a 2km long portage. Fortunately, my board was not that heavy, and I was able to run the whole way despite the heat and the hills. I must’ve passed about 20 paddlers during this section. It was without a doubt the longest portage I had ever done and all that running training certainly came in handy.  Once back on the water, the rapids started to come thick and fast, I just took the line that the safety crew was suggesting. The intensity of the rapids was also starting to ramp up. I was now spending more time off the board than on the board during the rapids. I had a small speaker on my board and decided to put it on.

As we approached the Grade 3 rapids at La Salieri Queens Don’t Stop Me Now was playing. It’s a long rapid and I fell off on the first section but was quickly back on my board. I was determined to try and do the rest on the board. It was all going well and just after the safety kayaker gave me the thumbs up it quickly went south. I came over what felt like the lip of a deadly grade 6 rapid and there was this massive unavoidable rock right in front of me. The board went over it but my brand-new Red Carbon racing fin was snapped clean off. I did my best Superman pose as I once again flew off the board. I was able to recover my paddle and board. The current was strong now and there was no time to try and look for or borrow a fin. It was less than 5 km to the finish and I was not bothered at this stage.
Despite steering without a fin being a bit of a challenge I was still loving the setting and encouragement from other paddlers. It was just under 4 hours on the clock when I crossed the finish line at the Saunt Pal campsite. It had been my best day ever on a paddleboard. Never have I fallen off so many times before, but this was also my first time paddling a SUP in white water. I certainly want much more of that in the future. It was also the most scenic 4 hours I had ever spent on a paddle board. There are just so many reasons why everyone should go and SUP at least once in the Tarn Gorge, the scenery and fast-flowing waters make it a paddling experience like no other. Forget about any other gorge or river you have ever paddled. It certainly does not get any better than the Tarn. Will I go back again? Well, there is the little matter of that 78km challenge that still needs to be completed.

Getting there

The closest major airport is Montpellier, on the south coast of France. All major car companies are represented at the airport. From here it’s about a 90-minute drive to the
event. If you book in advance you can get some cheap flight and car rental deals.

Logistics

We flew in a few days before the race and used our rental car to go register in Malene on the Saturday before the event. One of our group was not paddling and he dropped us off at the start in Saint Chely du Tarn and then picked up us again at the new finish in Saint Pal la Muse campsite. The night before the race we stayed about a km away from the start in a rented cottage. However, the event does do shuttles from the finish to the start in the early morning hours.

Enter now

For more details on the 2025 event see https://www.tarnwaterrace.com. The entry includes a race T-shirt. You can also book your shuttle and after-race meal when entering.