Yep, it's another list. This time to help out the support crews. Add your tips to these starters...

1. Make a race plan for the whole weekend. It's a big and long event, and the potential to miss things (gear, the start, support locations etc) is big. Make lists.
2. Run a stopwatch on your paddler from when their grid starts, and note the time they take to get to places. If you can do a bit of maths, you'll get a reasonable idea when to expect them at agreed meeting points. Allow for them getting faster when they reach deeper water, and slower as they get tired.
3. Cheer them (and everyone else) along. They love it.
4. This year you are in for a seriously long day both days. Take a chair, the paper, a thermos and prepare for a lot of hanging around.
5. The roads are narrow and congested with crews and spectators. Allow for this as you move from spot to spot. The finish of Day 1 is particularly bad.
6. Your paddler is going to get very tired, grumpy and possibly not the best judge of their own needs. Make them drink and eat. Make them get back in the boat and keep going (up to a point). Tell them the next boat they are trying to catch is just around the corner. Lie to them if necessary, they may thank you for it later.
7. The course is in fact designed as connected series of bakerys. Northam bakery for a post-start pie, then down to Toodyay for a morning tea hedgehog slice and something to take away for lunch. Gidgegannup bakery on the way home, and then again on Sunday. Bakery on Gt Northern Hwy for Sunday lunch and your choice of many on the flat water stretch at the end.
8. Should your paddler still be racing on the flat water below Upper Swan Bridge, there are lots of spots along the river all the way to the end. Consult the street directory. Your paddler is exhausted, and every time you make the effort to be on the bank cheering will give a lift. You can also sit on the end of Jetties and drop jelly beans into their lap.
9. Support crew can be hard to locate when paddling past an agreed meeting point. Two suggestions for this. If you can, on the Friday beforehand go along the course and agree on the exact blade of grass where you will meet. Secondly, wear something distinctive or wave a suitable flag to make yourself each to spot. Don't go with a bike hooter, 'cos that's what my team is doing.
10....