Surfski Racing in BC…Where are we going and how do we get there?

Now that the 2008 Surfski racing season is nearing its end, it might be useful to evaluate the local status of our sport. In helping analyze where the BC surfski racing scene is going it may be helpful to review where we are today. Let’s start by looking at who it is that currently hosts our local surfski races. Based on the Events list on the SurfskiBC blog there were 22 local weekend races available to our surfski racing community. 

• 1) CORA (16)
• 2) Clubs (4)
• 3) Paddlesports businesses (2)

We see that the vast majority (73%) of the races available for surfskiers to participate in were hosted by CORA and its member clubs. Only 4 events were hosted by non-CORA clubs, 3 of those were in Washington State while the other was by a CanoeKayak BC flatwater canoe kayak racing club. Private businesses hosted 2 races, Bowen Island Sea Kayaking’s Round Bowen Challenge and Deep Cove Outdoors’ Tour de Indian Arm. In addition, 2 weekday series: Deep Cove Kayak Center’s Tuesday Night Race Series and the MEC Big Chop Summer Paddling Series are also hosted by private businesses.

Clearly CORA is playing a significant role in providing racing opportunities for surfski racers. For those who may not be aware, CORA is Canadian Outrigger Racing Association, and according to their website, the CORA mandate is as follows:

• To foster and develop the sport of outrigger racing in Canada
• To set standards of equipment and safety for outrigger racing in Canada
• To organize outrigger races in Canada
• To represent Canadian outrigger racers at international forums for outrigger racing.
• To qualify Canadian outrigger racers for participation in international outrigger races.

Clearly CORA is an outrigger canoe focussed organization, which should not come as a surprise. CORA member clubs have recognized that surfskiers and outrigger canoeists prefer similar race courses and water conditions. Thus it was easy for CORA races to accommodate surfski racers at their events. And for the most part surfskiers have received equal recognition by way of top finishers awards, even being included in CORA’s season long CORA Cup Series. Recall that promotion and development of surfski racing is not the mandate of CORA…but clearly CORA is providing tremendous support for the success of our sport. Could they do more…perhaps…but should we expect they do more…absolutely not with their current mandate. 

If having many weekend surfski racing opportunities is important to the development of our surfski racing community then we likely have a few options to consider: 1) work with CORA to improve the events so they better meet the needs/desires of our surfski racing community, 2) our surfski community could start our own organization responsible for hosting events and guiding the development of the sport, 3) find a way to encourage clubs and/or private businesses to host more of the events preferred by surfskiers. Clearly option #2 would appear to be a very ominous task…and it is not known how far CORA is willing to go at making changes that might make more of their events more attractive to surfskiers, particularly if it may require expanding their mandate to formally do more to help develop surfski racing. 

Perhaps it is important to ask some questions about what is important to our surfski racing community wrt to how our sport develops.

• 1) How important is racing to development of our sport?
• 2) Should non-competitive group surfski paddling receive greater attention?
• 3) What type of racing do we want…weekend single day racing…weekend 2 day racing…weekday racing?
• 4) How often should races be scheduled…weekly, biweekly, monthly?
• 5) What can be done to encourage more of our many surfski paddlers to take part in more races?

 Here are some things that were done in 2008 to try to encourage more participation at races:

• 1) Think International Surfski Challenge was created to encourage more of the BC and Washington State surfski racers to come together for a fun competition between nations at the May 3^rd Lake Whatcom Classic and May 4^th Tour de Indian Arm.
• 2) Round Bowen Challenge was restructured, adding a short course option and an outrigger canoe relay, and making the commitment to select a course direction to optimize downwind racing conditions. In addition prize money was awarded to new time records set for rounding Bowen Island. Also the entry fee was reduced while maintaining the high standards of the event.
• 3) Surfski manufacturers Think Kayaks and Epic Kayaks have donated surfskis to be given away as draw prizes in such a way that racers competing in more races have greater chances to win. A Think Evo surfski was given away by Deep Cove Outdoors at the Round Bowen Challenge. Another Think Evo will be given away at the MEC Big Chop season ending party. An Epic V10 will be given away at the Deep Cove TNR season ending party.
• 4) The SurfskiBC blog was created as a central location to provide information on all local surfski racing opportunities.

Having reviewed the races that were available to our local surfski community in 2008, let’s look at which weekend races attracted the most surfskiers.

• 1) June 8 Round Bowen Challenge [33]
• 2) May 3 Lake Whatcom Classic [30]
• 3) May 4 Tour de Indian Arm [30]
• 4) August 19 Howe Sound Downwind Run [28]

The other races in the SurfskiBC race series attracted anywhere from 9-16 surfskiers per event, with the average being 12 per event.

Hmmm, so what was it about the 4 races that attracted the biggest turnout of surfski racers? Perhaps it is the ‘special’ event feature that is attracting the biggest surfski racing crowds.

Round Bowen Challenge was well publicized and has the potential to offer some of the most challenging, varied and scenic paddling conditions in the Vancouver area. And some paddlers were looking forward to challenging the round Bowen Island time records. And the excellent post race salmon BBQ party and prize give away is always a popular feature of this event. The opportunity to win a free Think Evo surfski was certainly attractive too.

Lake Whatcom Classic and Tour de Indian Arm were part of the Think International Surfski Challenge which created a fun cross border rivalry leading up to the weekend’s racing.

Howe Sound Downwind Run had many surfskiers excited about the prospects of racing in downwind conditions.

It is not clear whether the races that attracted much fewer surfskiers resulted from the events being perceived as ‘less special’ or if there were other factors at play. For example the event hosted at Gibsons provides the potential for fantastic paddling conditions and the organizers do a great job of making this a fun event including a very good post race BBQ after the Saturday race. The early start of Sunday’s race may have contributed to a low turnout of racers who only wanted to do the short course race. Whatever the reasons, it can be very disappointing to show up for a race to find only few paddlers on hand to take part. Part of the attraction of racing is to have many other racers to compete against and with whom to share the experience. Clearly there are always going to be challenges in getting big numbers of paddlers to races: family and work commitments…the Canada/US border is a pain in the neck and seems to be getting worse…ever increasing gas prices affect all of our ability to travel to races…and high ferry costs which most affect the Islanders since many surfski races are currently hosted on the mainland.

Let’s look at how many weekend races were participated in by those of us making up our surfski community using the SurfskiBC race series events. Note these totals include all participating kayak and surfski racers and for the most part only surfskis participated in more than a single race of the series.

Races	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Kayakers	101	27	8	9	4	3	2	1	0	1

 It is strikingly apparent from this data that very few people are doing multiple weekend races. At this point in the development of our sport it would seem we don’t yet have the numbers of surfski racers able to support the frequency of racing opportunities currently available to us.

It is worth noting that the Deep Cove Tuesday Night Races are very popular with our surfski community with 20-30 skis being common at these fun races. The MEC Big Chop series is gaining popularity amongst the surfski crowd, usually being represented by 6-10 skis.

So what can be concluded from all this information?

Well, assuming there is agreement that only a dozen or so surfskis at an event can be considered poor turnout, it looks as though our surfski racing community is currently capable of adequately supporting far fewer than the currently available number of events. Perhaps we’d be better off having only 5 or 6 weekend races throughout the season, with each of the events being made more ‘special’ to our surfski racers. Interestingly the 4 races that attracted the biggest turnout of surfskiers all had race distances of about 20-35 km. Perhaps our community find it more worth the financial and time investment to travel to a race when the course is of a considerable distance and/or challenge.

In this scenario one could imagine that the multiple weekday race series can fill the gap for those surfskiers looking for more frequent racing opportunities.

Of course another option is to maintain the status quo…it may well be that over time more and more surfskiers will compete in more and more weekend races…or not.

August 21 MEC Big Chop

Tonight was the penultimate event in the 2008 MEC Big Chop Summer Paddling Series and 56 paddlers turned up for some fun on the water. Surfers Loop was the chosen course for the evening’s race, taking paddlers out to the sand barge buoy, then heading southwest to a flag near the yacht club, heading back east to a marker off dog walkers beach, back out around the sand barge buoy then running in to the start/finish.

Shortly after the start Shane (V10) found himself alone off the front with Sean (V10 Sport) leading the chase pack with Jeff (Evo) on his left slip and John (Millenium) riding stern wash. Despite Sean’s attempts at convincing Shane to slow his pace to let us catch up, Shane’s lead continued to grow throughout the race, finishing almost 2 minutes clear of the next paddlers. In the ‘chase’ pack Sean was doing a great job setting a good pace…we were doing 11.5 to 12 km/h for much of the race. At some point along the way John fell off the pace, dropping back out of the race for 2nd place. As we approached the finish Shane swung around to join us for the sprint to the line…Jeff managed to edge out Shane at the line with Sean hanging tough close behind. Shane pointed out to Sean that he doesn’t slow down to let us stay with him for just this reason…he is not certain he will be able to win the sprint. Fortunately for Shane dealing with finishing sprints hasn’t been an issue this year, when he wins it is usually by a big margin.

The final race of the 2008 MEC Big Chop series will be on September 11, which will be followed by the season ending wrap up party…you need a ticket to get into the party and to be elligible to win the more the $8,000 worth of prizes that will be given away.

August 17 Canadian Small Boat Champs at Jericho

On the August 16/17 weekend Lotus and Jericho Outrigger Clubs combined to host the Canadian Iron Outrigger Champs and the Small Boat Champs. Based on the number of outrigger participants at Sunday’s small boats race it would appear that the OC-6 event was the bigger priority for most paddlers…a fairly common theme amongst the OC community. Fortunately (I think) the organizers usually get a good turnout of surfskis for their small boat events…although even the surfski crowd was a bit on the thin side at this event. It was unfortunate that there was no representation from the many island paddlers…their absence may be partly explained by the unwillingness of the race organizers to accomodate the women surfskiers to race with the men…unless they wanted to race ‘unofficially’…whatever that means…no prizes?…no entry fees? I’ve heard grumblings that the men and women OC races could possibly start to be combined…apparently the main reason for splitting the races was due to boat availability limitations…this is apparently now much less of an issue than in past years.

So at 10:30 am Katja (Legend) and Carolyn (S1X) raced their surfskis alongside 3 gals in OC-1 and about 6 OC-2 crews. Shortly after the start the wind started to pick up…some of us guys were seeking shelter under from the sun under a big tent…the wind was threatening to pick up the tent. Whitecaps started to build out on the water…Katja says that at times she was making no forward progress while paddling against the strong gusts. Fortunately the strong gusts were intermident, although judging by the lean of the many sailboats, there was still a fairly consistent wind stirring up the water. Things started to get real interesting for the racers out past the last dolphin, the stretch leading to the red bell can was real bouncy…apparently the waves were coming from all directions…and the wind gusts added to the chaos. Carolyn took a swim in this section but managed to get back on her ski without difficulty…with is in stark contrast to her remounting exploits at the last Deep Cove TNR…interestingly she found that it was easier to get back into her boat without wearing her pfd, despite the rough water conditions. The Deep Cove TNR’s require wearing a pfd while the CORA races typically require the pfd be on the boat if not worn. At the finish Katja came in behind a couple of OC-2’s…Carolyn was a short distance behind.

By the noon start of the men’s race the wind had subsided significantly, there was still a breeze but there were no longer strong gusts to contend with. Twelve single skis and 1 double ski lined up with 27 OC’s for the start which was the usual mass of paddlers pushing the line despite the requests of the starter to do otherwise. Some paddlers didn’t appreciate the starters technique of racing back and forth in front of the line of racers creating big waves which can be a challenge to some in tippy boats, particularly when standing still at the starting line. Shane went to the front right off the start and it wasn’t long before we were a long line of 6 boats, Shane (V10) leading 2 OC-2 crews then Bob (V10), Terry (V10) and Jeff (Evo)…with Pete not far behind in his Legend surfski. About half way out to the turnaround point the 3 skis making up the tail end of the line found ourselves drifting away from the leaders. First Terry then I tried to help Bob in closing the gap but none of us had what was needed to rejoin the front pack. So now there was the leading group of 3 boats led by Shane and our chase group led by Bob. As we approached the bell can the water became bouncy with rather chaotic sets of waves moving in many directions. Bob was moving masterfully through the waves not phased at all by the conditions. Bob led us around the turn then our paths diverged…I moved offshore hoping to take advantage of bigger and faster moving waves on the run back to the beach, while Bob took the more direct route along the line of dolphins, Terry looked to have split the middle between these routes. The offshore route wasn’t feeling very fast…there were some good sized waves but the majority of the sets were heading to my right, and it felt like I was spending alot of time stalled between waves. Off to my right Bob was making great time, he was openning up a signficant gap…seems I’d chosen the wrong line. At this point I had to stick with my choice to see if perhaps it would help me catch back up to Bob. Soon Terry had moved to the more inshore route and was beginning to move past me too…ok, enough is enough…I angled toward the shore, catching a few runs along the way. Soon I was able to catch Terry, the waves on this line were not big but they were travelling in the right direction…toward the finish line…so by accelerating hard I was able to catch many waves…it wasn’t a very restful situation but the waves were giving quite the boost in speed. By now Bob was approaching a different time zone so I was focussed on putting distance between myself and Terry. Terry wasn’t having as much success at catching the smallish waves…he may have had some weeds collected on his rudder. Just before the finish I managed to catch a timely set of waves that allowed me to surf past the OC-2 crew of Liam and Hugh who had eased up during the second half of the race. For more information on the race check out Bob’s report on the SurfskiBC yahoo group, with pictures.

Finishing order of the surfskis (men’s race):

1. Shane  2. Bob  3. Jeff  4. Terry  5. Pete  6. Gary  7. Mike  8. Sean  9. Matt  10. Micky  11. Ben/Eric  12. Warren  13. Gary

This was the final race of the SurfskiBC Short Course Series…Shane Martin is the Champion outdistancing the field with a total of 122 points, 40 points clear of the next closest competitor…congratulations Shane!!!

Here are the racers who made the top 20 of the SurfskiBC Short Course Series:
1. Shane 122
2. Jeff 82
3. Jonas 67
4. Ian 50
4. Bob 50
5. Mike 36
6. Gareth 30
7. Katja 25
7. Paul 25
8. Chris 23
8. Don C. 23
8. Pete 23
9. John 21
9. Dion 21
10. Kathleen 20
11. Nathan 19
11. Terry 19
12. Don K. 18
12. Jonathan 18
12. JF 18
13. Ben 15
14. Brandon 13
14. Lucas 13
15. Larry 12
15. Sean 12
16. Reid 11
16. Matt 11
16. Cam 11
16. David 11
16. Gary 11
17. Ken 10
17. Shannon 10
17. Ken 10
17. Mike 10
18. Rick 9
18. Mark 9
18. Jerome 9
18. Dave 9
18. Sheila 9
19. Daryl 8
19. Micky 8
19. Kim 8
20. Reivers 7
20. Lina 7

Video of August 12 Deep Cove TNR

See for yourself who needs extra practise at remounting their surfski.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oceCKIRDS7E

August 12 Deep Cove TNR, Gary’s view of the race

The winds and water were very calm, the skies very grey; however, a good temperature for racing. The course was something like, go around Grey Rocks then around Boulder then back to Grey Rocks then over to Hamber and back to the 5 Kt buoy where surf skis had to do a wet exit/entry, then back to the dock.

Surf skis made up most of the starting line. I lined up my EVO on the right side with the following cast on either side: Ben and Eric Fast in a double ski, Chris D, Sean G., Brigit and Brian Wong in their wooden double, Lina, & Rene Chong (no John George he still has a bad shoulder).

As the go ahead signal was given, everyone was off. Even though i was totally focusing on paddling as hard/fast as i could, i couldn’t help but catch snippets of other paddlers and just how fast their arms were moving. One person’s arms, whom i didn’t take the time to recognize, was moving so fast that i quickly looked to see if their form was sloppy and much to my surprise, it wasn’t. Needless to say this person quickly was 3 boat lengths ahead of me as well as at least 10 other boats. It made me think of just how many really REALLY good paddlers are out there.

OK back to my race. After a bit of jockeying i was headed towards the turn heading south. Just before the turn, I had Sean G (V10 sport) about 5 boat lengths away from me and I was tailing Mike Billy. Just like most of the previous races, this is where my pace seems to taper off or my stroke is less efficient but Sean began putting distance between us. As i rounded the turn, i managed to stick to Mike’s tail and Mike following right behind Caroline. Ben/Eric were also just ahead. We kept this ranking up until closing in on Grey rocks and then Jodi B.(V10) came zooming by all three of us with Ben/Eric also opening up a sizable lead. I was really trying to stick with Mike & Caroline but was falling off his tail. Both of these paddlers have improved alot over the season. I dont know where Caroline was finishing in the beginning of the season, but I know i barely beat Mike a few times and now he has a definite edge on me!.

Each time i caught up it didnt take long for me to fall back a boat length. Caroline was hanging tough and i believe these two took turns leading, but either way i was struggling hanging with them. As I approached Hamber, Mike was about 10-15 boat lengths ahead of me and it looked like Caroline had opened a lead on Mike. Heading back to the cove, i think Caroline had a decent size lead on Mike and Mike was still about 10-15 boat lengths ahead of me. I tried to increase my stroke rate and it seemed like i was making some ground on Mike. As we went into the 5Kt buoy i saw Caroline re-mount and then spin over. Mike was already in the water and i decided to paddle a little bit away from the buoy just to give other folks some room. I had just recently tried out the ’side saddle’ approach and found it to be 100% hands-down better than the ‘cowboy’ style (at least for me), so i tipped over and got back in super fast. As i took a second to catch my breath i noticed Mike and Caroline were still having problems getting back in. Seeing the safety boat there I knew they were not too far from help if they needed it so i began to paddle back. I actually considered the race over because in my mind from a pure paddling contest, whoever made it to the 5Kt marker was the winner. Since nobody seemed to be near me, I took this time heading back to focus on my technique…sit up straight, extend the arm, etc, etc. So i’m paddling towards the finish at a decent pace still trying to analyze my stroke and i see out of the corner of my right side some yellow. I ignore it and then a few seconds later my eye catches it again. I turn to the right and here is someone in a Legend looking like they are heading for a gold medal. Obviously he didnt agree with my ‘first one to the 5Kt buoy wins’ theory. Luckily, I only had about 20 boat lengths to the finish, but needless to say, I had to crank it up real hard to stay ahead at the finish line.

The race video at the Raven was pretty good, lots of good shots of folks trying to re-mount their skis. Chris D told me he had to bail out of the race half way to the 5 Kt buoy at the beginning. Seems like he pulled a neck muscle (hopefully not too serious)…he tells me he was in the lead before it happened although there wasn’t any video to support his claims!

August 12 Deep Cove TNR

The drizzly skies dried up in time to give us some comfortable conditions for racing last night at Deep Cove. The water was very calm, the tide was slack so there were no currents to contend with and the cooler conditions seemed to have kept most of the powerboats off the water…these conditions combined to make for exciting pack racing.

There were many, many surfskis in the race including 3 doubles: Brian/Sasha, Mike/Cam and Ben/Eric. The start was as usual crazy fast, with Chris (Evo) and Rene (V10) shooting out to an early lead…but soon a group of 6 surfskis formed a lead pack…Terry (V10) and Gareth (Robberg Express) took turns pulling the group with Jeff (Evo) sitting on Terry’s left slip, Brian/Sasha, Bob and Ty sat on stern wash. After rounding Grey Rocks we made our way over to Boulder Island…and after a brief discussion agreed that we needed to round the island with it on our right. Terry and Gareth were taking turns setting the pace on the front, but part way across the channel Gareth ‘hit the wall’ as Terry put on a bit of a spurt to accelerate through some motorboat wash. Bob tried to encourage Gareth to sit on the wash but he was hurting…signs of his not having paddled his ski much lately as he was training for the World Championships of tree climbing…and something about a big wad of weeds and shopping bag having wrapped around his rudder…which had mysteriously fallen off by the time we hit the beach. He’ll be back in his boat more these days so I’m sure he’ll be back to his old self by next month’s visit to the mainland. So as we rounded Boulder our group had shrunk to 5, with Terry leading the way, Jeff on left slip, Brain/Sasha had moved onto Jeff’s left slip with Bob and Ty riding stern wash. After rounding Boulder we headed back to Grey Rocks, along the way Brian/Sasha started to show their strength by moving to the front. After rounding Grey Rocks for the second time, and just barely avoiding hitting our rudders on the many rocks hiding just under the surface, we then made our way across the channel to Hamber Island. Again, after a brief discussion, we agreed that the course required us to keep Hamber on our left. Brian/Sasha took to the lead with Jeff on right slip and Terry on Jeff’s slip. As we approached the island Terry moved back into the lead, pulling ahead of Brian/Sasha as we rounded Hamber. I then accelerated onto Terry’s right slip…not wanting him to get too far ahead…and it felt easier to ride Terry’s wash than did riding the doubles wash. From Hamber we headed back to toward the cove, when just before the cove the video boat came by throwing a big wash through our group…the waves were coming from the right and didn’t prove to be ridable based on the direction we were heading…unless you wanted a ride directly into the docks on our left…none of us did. As we approached the cove Brian/Sasha stayed alongside the docks with Terry on their slip…Bob and I figured these guys didn’t know the course so we called out that we had to go out to the 5 knot can to do our required ‘fall of the ski’ and remount prior to the run in to the finish. The video boat had positioned itself at the 5 knot can to record all the wet action. As it turned out Brian/Sasha, Terry and Ty did their wet exits along the docks at the entrance to the cove, with Jeff and Bob doing our swims at the buoy…after remounting it seems most of the boats had recombined for the run into the finish…with Jeff now in front with Terry on stern wash and Bob following Terry…we ended up finishing in that order after a short acceleration to the line.

The post race video showed funny footage of the paddlers getting back into our skis. Is interesting that it is still taking multiple attempts for some of us to get back into our skis…and this is in completely calm water conditions…some of us have practise to do…remember, when you fall in…and you will fall in…it will be in conditions rough enough to knock you off of your ski…thus you need to be able to get back into the boat in those conditions…getting in when it is flat calm should be simple.

Personally I need to practise getting back on my ski while wearing my pfd…I have to change my technique a bit in order to get the pfd over the edges of the ski’s cockpit.

Once again there were great prizes donated by Transitions, Icebreaker, Think and Epic to name a few of the sponsors.

Next races:

August 17  2008 OC1/2/Surfski Championship Challenge ($15 per paddler)

Women: 10:30 am

Men: 12:00

September 20   Length of the Lake  100km race from Vernon to Penticton on Okanagan Lake

Race as a team of up to 5 paddlers/crews or take on the challenge of doing the full 100 km distance.

Bob’s August 7th MEC Big Chop Report

I quite enjoy participating in the Big Chop. It is great to go to a race where I have no responsibility. I get to show up at the last minute and race. Bryan Tasaka organizes a good event with a fun social at the end.Pre-race discussion revolved around water quality as the fecal coloform count in False Creek was through the roof. Welcome to the big city.

My big worry at most races was how I am going to keep Chris Dobrovolny behind me. The guy is getting faster and faster each week I am having to work harder and harder to stay ahead. Because of my training regime or lack there of I am not improving and barely holding ground. Pre-race Prayers for rough water has been my most recent tactic.

Chris takes off like a rocket. Usually race positions don’t change much after the start and whoever can hold 14km/hr for the longest will win the race. The pace was pretty fast with Chris leading and Shane Martin on his right and Jeff on hls left. I am sitting back in the sweet spot trying to hang on knowing that Shane and Jeff are capable of much, much more. Chris knows this too and I am sure he is wondering what the hell he is doing in the lead this early in the race. Later at the after party he confirms my suspicions.

At the first set of motorboat chop Shane makes a break. Jeff who is on the wrong side of the pack makes a heroic effort to cross over and bridge up to Shane but shuts down when he realizes that the opportunity is gone. Chris has some shakey moments in the bumpy water and I pull up in front of him while Jeff drops back onto my sidewash. I make a comment about Jeff hanging back with the social group and grunts something about “lazy asses”…not sure if he was referring to mine or his.

He is pretty happy to sit on my side wash and I do some work. I have no fantasy of being able to bridge up to Shane and I know Jeff will pull away soon. My focus is to stay ahead of Chris. As we approached the sand barge tie-up Jeff pulled up and while I sat on his side wash. Chris had fallen off the pace and was about 30m behind.

As we round the sand barge jeff put a big push on. I knew I couldn’t stay with him for long but the longer I did, the bigger the gap between myself and Chris would become, but it wasn’t long before I was eating Jeff’s dust and Chris was closing fast. As Chris approached I decided to ease up and ride his wash. As we rounded the next mark the small waves that were coming from the side now were enough to disrupt Chris a bit and I managed to pull ahead. We stayed in this position until the final turn around the sandbarge. Here Chris took a line further to the left. I thought maybe he was shooting for an incoming current and as I had no idea what the tide was doing I held my line which was about 20m behind Jeff. He seemed happy with this gap. Nearing the entrance to False Creek I could see Chris pulling up on my left. When we converged he was back on my tail….drat!!! I made a big push imagining I was doing a 500m flatwater sprint. I was gaining on Jeff but I suspect he was teasing me. At the finish Chris was a bit back and Jeff was glancing over his shoulder. Had I been lucky enough to catch him I know he could gear down and accelerate. Shane was #1 by a ways. Jeff #2, Bob #3 by the skin of my teeth, Chris #4 but not for long.
Bob

August 7 MEC Big Chop

Another great night for racing in Vancouver…there were not much in the way of waves but the sun was shining. There seemed to be an algae bloom as the water was rather brown this evening…at least I’ve managed to convince myself it was algae…I don’t want to imagine what else it could have been!

Tonight’s race #8 of the 10 event series was on the course known as the back-side-loop, see the above map for details. Tonight’s surfski paddlers included: Shane (V10), Jeff (Evo), Bob (V10), Chris (V10), mystery paddler (Evo), Carolyn (S1X), Leo (Evo), Sean (Fit) and Gary (Fit). Soon after the start Shane pulled away from the pack of 4 skis that had quickly set off on a fast pace…that left Bob, Jeff and Chris to race for 2nd place…Shane ended up pulling out an about 1 minute lead by the finish to win his 5th race of the series. Bob set a steady fast pace through the first 2 markers, with Jeff riding his left slip and Chris yo-yoing on/off our stern wash. After rounding the sand barge marker I managed to get a small push by a couple waves which allowed me to open up a small gap over Bob. There wasn’t much in the way of waves to ride but sometimes one could get an extra boost of speed by accelerating onto the small rollers. I managed to carry this advantage for the remainder of the course…only easing up in the final stretch to give Bob a carrot to chase to the line…although with Chris breathing down his back he may have had all the incentive he needed. Bob crossed the line in 3rd place about half a boat length back of me and about a boat length ahead of Chris.

Carolyn had a good battle going with Brian and Trista in their Nelo Waterman double racing sea kayak, which is quite a sharp looking boat. Brian and Trista have been making vast improvements in their paddling technique over the season…and it is paying off…as Carolyn pointed out that her end of the race sprint was no match for theirs…Carolyn finished about a boat length behind the pair after a close race throughout the course.

The race between the Fit paddlers was dominated by Sean…could it have been due to the lighter kevlar/honeycomb constructed boat Sean was using…more likely it was just a more finely tuned engine.

The post race party was fun…there was plenty of beer to go around…and around…and around.

Think Kayaks added some swag (T-shirts and hats) to the already huge mass of drawprizes…very nice. Chris was the winner of the Stohlquist pfd while first time Big Chopper and novice paddler Niki won the Accent wing kayak paddle.

There are a limited number of tickets ($10) available for the September 11 Big Chop end of season party at Rocky Mountain Flatbread Co…it is likely that all the remaining tickets will be sold at the next race. Last year’s event was a blast and they are apparently giving out something like over $8,000 worth of merchandise…including 2 kayaks…a Seaward Infiniti sea kayak and a Think Evo surfski as well as 2 Accent wing kayak paddles and mega prize packages from Helly Hansen and MEC.

Next racing:

August 17    2008 OC1/2/Surfski Championship Challenge at Jericho Sailing Centre