1:00pm Thursday afternoon…”Chris, it’s Jeff here…the wind is howling…wanna meet early to paddle in the waves before tonight’s Big Chop race? Oh, yeah…5pm at Vanier Park…see you there!”
When we arrived the wind was still howling…the big Canadian flag was fluttering violently in the wind. There were some cool rollers steaming into the Creek…things looked promising. We quickly launched and immediately pushed into the wind heading out into English Bay. My ball cap had to be really tight to ensure it stayed on my head…the wind was fierce and progress was slow as we plowed over wave after wave. After a cautious turn to avoid being dumped we quickly picked up some great runs…there were so many steep waves it was so easy to catch waves and to link the runs…what a blast. After a second out/back loop, albeit a shorter one…it was hard work pushing into the waves/wind…we then made the call to drive up to Jericho for quick downwind run before the start of the race. The 3 of us quickly registered for the race, Darrell had now joined Chris and I…then we sped off to Jericho. Jericho was buzzing with wind surfers and sailboats…we quickly launched and headed offshore to get into the faster moving waves…then we were off…yeehaa…total downwind paddling…this is so cool! Darrell stayed on an inside line while I continued to quarter offshore to get into bigger and bigger waves, Chris split the middle. All of us got some great runs on our Evo surfskis. When we arrived back at the entrance to False Creek Chris came in just behind me but Darrell was no where to be found. Chris and I discussed our options, he too had seen Darrell taking a very inshore line. We decided Chris would go attend the pre-race meeting since it was now just before 7:00pm, while I would paddle out to look for Darrell. Darrell was no where to be seen on the water…I was starting to get worried…but since he was on an inshore line I figured he was staying close enough to shore such that he could bail out on the beach if need be. Looking over to my left I saw Darrell putting down his surfski on Kits Beach, he then gave a wave and some sort of OK signal…seeing he was alright I gave a wave and turned to ride the waves back into the Creek. Apparently Darrell got dumped but quickly remounted his ski only to get dumped again, this time though his leash came unattached…nothing broke, it just came off…fortunately he had ahold of his ski so it didn’t blow away from him. An OC-6 came by to help Darrell back into his ski…at this point he made the wise decision to head for the beach…no point in risking things further now that his leash was not functioning…a little common sense goes a long way to a fun and safe surfski experience.
I arrived back at the start just as racers were lining up…tonight’s race was divided into 3 classes…the Little Choppers headed into False Creek to round the southern most Cambie Street Bridge support then returned to the start/finish dock…Big Choppers did the same loop but twice using a red flag opposite the start/finish dock for the turn…while the advanced Big Choppers first headed out into the waves to round the red channel marker before doing the 2 loop circuit in False Creek.
The start was painfully slow as we battled the wind and waves out to the red channel marker…Alan made a long awaited appearance at tonight’s race and quickly moved off the front…despite his having paddled only a half dozen times since about this time last year. By the turn Alan was about 100m ahead of Jeff with another gap back to Sean being followed closely by Chris. The ride in was fun with lots of waves to ride…once in the harbour things melowed but the pace stayed high. I seemed to be slowly but surely closing the gap on Alan…hmmm, I think he is toying with me…oh well, not much I can do about it but to try to catch him. We rounded the bridge support without event, Alan still holding a nice lead. Alan looked to be paddling along quite comfortably…not a surprise! Chris had now caught up to Sean as they approached the bridge turn. I continued to close the gap on Alan and by the turn it was only about 30m. I carried some good speed on the small waves running into the harbour and this allowed me to close up to only about 2-3 boat lengths of Alan. After taking a few moments to evaluate the situation…otherwise known as rest…I proceeded to move to Alan’s right to try to make a run at moving onto his side wash. Yeah…right! I’ve heard it mentioned before that Alan seems to have eyes in the back of his head…as expected Alan slowly began to open the gap…by the time we rounded the bridge support it was back up to 100m…nicely done! 
As they approached the bridge support for the second time Chris had now moved about 100m clear of Sean. At the finish Alan had opened up an over 200m lead on me…then Chris followed by Sean. Carolyne was the only women surfskier to brave tonight’s conditions.
The race organizers made a good call to alter tonight’s course…it would have been impossible to keep track of everyone…and the safety boats probably would have capsized in the waves.
Once again there was a big post race feast…sans beer which Ryan has promised will return next race…and I was lucky to win Riders sunglasses, the prize I’d been secretly hoping to win for some time now, Ryan won the Stohlquist pfd and to everyone’s surprise Sean did not win the Accent wing paddle, although he did win a MEC kayak paddle bag…the paddle was won by a young fella visiting from France, he was totally stoked!
This weekend is the Gibsons event with a 27 km race at 1:35pm on Saturday and a 14 km race at 8:45am on Sunday…see you there!
