Gibsons race weekend

Jeff/Katja (Mako XT), Larry/Kathleen (Mako XT) and Bob (S1X) early in Saturday’s 27 km race

Start of Sunday’s race

Shortly after the start of Sunday’s race

Racers spread out while leaving Gibsons

Katja (Legend) and Kathleen (S1X Special)

Katja (Legend) and Jodi (V10)

Sunny skies, great water conditions, poor attendance…that about sums up this weekends surfski racing at Gibsons. This was the 10th edition of this race, the second for which they’ve included a long distance surfski race on Saturday along with Sunday’s short course. Gibsons Paddling Club race organizers will be taking a break from hosting this event…they may host the event every second year so we could possibly see it back in 2010. But based on the interest in this event by our surfski community I don’t think it will be greatly missed…which is a shame as the organization of this event is awesome and the race courses provide interesting and challenging paddling conditions. I find it amazing that people still tell me we need more good surfski races to help grow our racing scene…the turnout for this event suggests otherwise.

Saturday’s race began at about 1:30 pm, the surfskis started 5 minutes after the men’s OC-6 race. The course for both groups took paddlers south out of Gibsons heading out the channel to round the Popham then Worlcombe Islands, then down the channel along Bowen Island, rounded Hut Island, passed by Keats Island, crossed the channel to the mainland where we rounded a green channel marker then proceeded along the coast back to Gibsons, a distance of 27 km. After the big group of something like 20 OC-6’s set off on their race our small group lined up and were released 5 minutes later. Katja/Jeff accelerated hard off the line but due to the headwind we were not able to lose the all the others as was our plan…after rounding the green lighthouse marker which paddlers had to pass on the left Bob had attached himself to our stern, Larry/Kathleen were lurking close behind as well. As we moved into the rougher water Larry/Kathleen had moved off to our right (or maybe we had moved left?) and Bob was still on our tail. Recalling last year that Bob mentioned not feeling overly comfortable in the rougher water…and not wanting to pull him along any longer than we had to, as soon as the water got rough we cranked up the pace and was able to shake him lose. Having shaken Bob off our wash we then turned out attention to Larry/Kathleen…we knew they would be feeling totally stable in the Mako XT so the rough water wasn’t going to effect them at all. Soon after passing Keats we encountered a nice set of waves moving a little left of where we wanted to go but we accelerated onto them and picked up some nice speed which we were able to hold for a good distance…this little manuever allowed us to open a sizable gap over the other double. From here on we focussed our attention on the OC-6’s…16 minutes into our race we passed the first of these boats…we would spend the rest of the race tracking down these big boats. The scenario for passing an OC-6 is pretty much always the same…we’d move up alongside the OC-6, their steersperson would see us and call the crew to pick up their pace…they’d stay beside us for a few moments then either they’d tire after 10 or 20 strokes and start to drop back or a wave would come along that we’d catch to speed away on. The only difference is that each OC-6 we caught took longer and longer to pass since we were catching faster and faster crews. No point in going into too much detail of the rest of the race other than to say overall the water conditions were a good challenge, pretty much the entire course was in waves and wind…the section from Hut to the mainland was a crosswind but for some reason the pace was still quite high for most of this section…perhaps there was current helping us along. The last stretch was a bit of a slog into the wind but with the finish line so close it wasn’t a big deal. By the end we’d caught all but 6 or 7 of the OC-6’s…I think only 3 finished with a better time.

1. Jeff/Katja (Mako XT) 2. Larry/Kathleen (Mako XT) 3. Bob Woodman (S1X) 4. John (Mako 6) 5. Chris (Evo) 6. Sean (V10 Sport) 7. Ken Crosby (S1X)

The rest of the afternoon/evening consisted of some Polynesian dance entertainment, a scrumptious BBQ, some beers and race video watching, more beers and nachos at the pub, and finally a beer and cake nightcap while watching more race video before tucking into the sleeping bags.

We awoke bright and early to a cloudless blue sky ready to tackle Sunday’s short course. John’s shoulder was sore so he opted to go for a leisurely breakfast and then a run while we raced. At the 8am pre-race meeting course B was selected for the race since it would offer the optimum downwind paddling conditions based on the day’s water conditions. Racers would head south out the channel, keeping the green/white lighthouse on our right then proceed right along the coast, round the yellow course marker then travel downwind back along the coast across the channel, along the south shore of Keats, round an island off Keats’ south shore then back up along Keats turning right into the channel heading back to Gibsons. The 8:45 am surfski race included mens OC-1 and mens/mixed OC-2 so there was a fairly big field at the start. Wanting to get clear of the OC’s as fast as possible I accelerated hard off the line, keeping the pace high until clear of the dreaded amas. Off to my right Gary Parsons had also started fast and was just ahead along with the father/son OC-2 team of Hugh/Liam. As we approached the lighthouse I had settled onto Shane’s right slip, with JF on his left. Bob/Lucas slipped the nose of their double Mako XT back as Gary and Liam/Hugh moved in from the right…was starting to get tight at the front as we prepared to round the lighthouse…and the rocks that flanked it. Liam/Hugh moved clear of the skis, then as we passed by the rocks Gary seemed to think things were too crowded for him to pass to the left of the rocks with our pack so decided to seek out a path through/over the just subsurface rocks. I don’t think I’ve heard a louder scraping of boat on rock as Gary came to a grinding halt…post race Gary indicated that he was trying to slip over the rocks by edging his ski to the side to keep his rudder shallow…clearly it didn’t work and his rudder punched a couple inches into the hull of the ski…unfortunately it was not quickly repairable so he had to abandon the race. As we continued on the OC-2 remained out front with Shane, JF and I about 2 boats lengths behind. The nearer we got to the yellow turning marker the bigger did the waves get…clearly we were in for some downwind runs on the return leg. Part way along here I dropped back of Shane and JF…the waves were defeating the wash riding advantage so I needed to pace myself to survive the rest of the course. Soon Bob/Lucas came by looking stellar in the double ski, with Jonas sitting on their stern. Apparently Jonas (and Larry) got caught behind the OC’s at the start so lost time until they could clear the amas. As we rounded the turn the lead motorboat decided it would be a good idea to stop just on the other side of the marker, right in the path the paddlers would take…silly guy…sounded like the lead OC-2 had some words of advise for the captain. The first 5 boats rounded both the buoy and the motorboat…I cut between buoy and the motorboat to help show him that perhaps he should get the hell out of our way. From here is was waves at our back, well sort of, some of the waves were coming slightly from out right, but it was some good downwind paddling. Ahead I could see that Jonas was relishing the downwind conditions…he quickly moved past the leaders and opened a sizable gap over Shane who had pulled ahead of JF. Bob/Lucas were doing a great job catching the runs…Bob could be heard calling ‘UP’ when it was time to accelerate the boat…Lucas was having a good’ol time. By the time we’d reached the south shore of Keats they had about 100m on me. Along this section the waves were much more organized but less frequent…but I was able to catch a few more of these runs than was the double so I managed to catch then pass the boys along this section. I was planning to stay with the guys to the finish but when I was alongside a nice wave came by and carried me past them…gotta go with the flow sometimes. Rounding the small island I had about 2-3 boatlengths on the double and I could see JF about 200m ahead…so I decided to see if I could close the gap to JF during this rather flatwater section. By the turn around Keats for the run into Gibsons I hadn’t made up much distance on JF, so the goal now was to stay ahead of the double…they boys were still close by…maybe 3 boatlengths back. In the channel there were some waves but it took a big effort to get on them, and even then it took effort to say with the wave, they were more like ocean swell that I was able to use to hold some boat speed after accelerating onto the wave…but I couldn’t really rest while on the wave. I caught enough of these waves to hold off the double which was closing fast.

1. Jonas (S1X Special) 2. Shane (V10) 3. JF (S1X) 4. Jeff (Evo) 5. Bob/Lucas (Mako XT) 6. Larry (S1X Special) 7. Don (S1R) 8. Kathleen (S1X Special) 9. Katja (Legend) 10. Shannon (Hayden) 11. Jacques (S1X) 12. Jodi (V10)

Next race: July 26  Howe Sound Downwind Run  1:00 pm Porteau Cove to Squamish