August 17 Canadian Small Boat Champs at Jericho
Posted by bckcrainbow on August 18, 2008
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
gareth said
Jeff,the main reason a lot of the guys from the island can’t make it up is due to the high ferry costs and gas costs.
My memory of the last Jericho wasn’t that great either.There was no recognition of the top surfski paddlers. I paddle for fitness but if you want to get a sport to grow then get competitive – to get competitive organisers must acknowledge paddlers that train hard and dedicate a lot of time for training.The people who win should get recognition. Lucky draws should be secondary.
I felt bad for Jonas who trained hard,travelled all the way up there,paddled his ass off,won the race, and didn’t even get his name mentioned at the awards.Certainly not much incentive to return next time.
Sean said
Gareth,
They did a good job this year of recognising the paddlers efforts this year. Awards for top three in each catagory. They did a good job. Congrats are deserved.
The only downside was that the dinner was on the Saturday (the night before.) I did have to ask myself whether or not the rqace fee was worth it with no dinner or party. The fee was dropped to $10 on the day of the race.
I like Jeff’s idea that they change the days up. That way we’d have more people in their skis. I saw a few of the OC guys pull their skis out after our race was over. Would have been nice to have them compete with us.
Unlike the Gibson’s race, the safety boat even knew there were ski paddlers participating. That was nice. Thank you to Jericho rescue.
Bob said
Good Comments
I certainly enjoyed my race season. It is the first in many years where I actually participated in almost all of my favourite races.
The number of skis out there is growing and TNR sees a good number of people participating. It seems difficult to get the people who are keen on paddling mid-week to come out on the weekend. I think you are going to have a difficult time getting the entire surf ski community out in the summer when people are busy on holidays. I have compiled an email contact list of 96 people consisting of anybody I have ever seen in a surf ski. Many of those have never attended a Tuesday Night Race or other.
With regard to CORA, I think they do a great job of organizing races and I am glad they do it. I think it would be silly to duplicate their efforts. In time, as surf ski paddling grows and SS Paddlers get more active I hope CORA will respond. Judging from Gareth’s comments about last year’s CDN Champs and this year there has been an improvement.
We need to build the bridges of cooperation.
It will take time to get larger numbers out to the races. OC paddling have been around for a long time.
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
It will take an active effort from all the Keeners to drag new people out to participate in SS Paddling. We need to hook newbies into the sport and tell and show them how fun it can be. Give them “non-racing” opportunities to try the sport. Take people out in double surf skis, utilize DCCKC rentals, organize intro sessions. This past year at the Ambleside Paddlefest, Deep Cove Outdoors had our surfski demo fleet and it was the hit of the festival. Certainly the “Tilley Hat” crowd was bucked out of the skis, but they had shown an initial interest. Ther is a huge pre-conceived notion that SS paddling is beyond the ability of most paddlers.
Bob