Upcoming Event

Gorge Rowing and Paddling Centre in Victoria.

Saturday January 10th

9 km or 3 x 3 km relay or both

Long race starts at 10:00 am, relay race starts at 11:30 am.

$15.00 entry fee, refreshments and lunch provided.

check out our website for further details and map of the course

http://www.gorowandpaddle.org

Matt’s Deception Pass Dash report

The “Deception” begins immediately as you check out the course from the bridges that cross high above the steep canyon walls of the double-pass channel. The day before the race it looked pretty flat to us in the calm winds and slack tide of the setting sun. The next morning the winds were blowing and the swell was making it’s way into the start bay. It was looking a bit more sketchy even from shore. Chris was happy he was wearing a drysuit like most of the other competitors. Jean was happy he was using Chris’ wetsuit pants and not his usual sprint-dude speedo swimsuit thingy and tank top. The start area was very open and you could warm up by surfing some nice waves. It reminded me of the strart of the Hong Kong race – just colder.Okay, the race:

It started bang on time. About 135 registered. 100 started (80 finished). Chilly. Jean took off at a relaxed, but strong pace straight into decent size rollers with a chase pack behind him. Don K coming in from the left on his own. It was pretty bouncy and your boat was clearing the waves up to mid thigh on some of the steeper waves. Jean and Don soon had much open water on all the other boats. Approaching the first Island it got a bit more crazy with boats rounding on different arcs. The reflecting waves, giant bullwhips, and the general mayhem of many big, long, pointy boats turning broadside to the waves in a frantic race to get heading downwind added to the challenge. Jean went very wide while Don K went quite tight to the island – maybe a ballsy effort to make up some time on Jean. The waves around the island were quite discombobulated and I caught a surf just in time to avoid being bisected by a double outrigger.

Once around the island you could catch some nice clean waves and pound a few bullwhips at the same time as you charged down the wave. Weedguards are good! This was where Jean said he made some time on Don as he caught a few long runs. Having the the energy and fitness to push hard for a dozen strokes and catch the waves really paid off as the rides were quite long and there was some placings to be made or lost here for sure. As we got closer to Deception Pass it was time to decide whether to go into the eddy behind the centre Pass Island or run up the right shore. Most went left and hugged very tight to the island as the ebb current was already quite strong. Staying out in the middle was slow-bad. GPS are good! It reminded me of paddling up the eddy of skookumchuck when the tide flow is still mellow – boils, rockwall, a few small reverse eddy waves to push you up. Those who moved left later certainly lost some time to the early eddy riders. I was surprised to see spectators and a safety kayak right there at the end of the island cheering you on. Nice! 10 metres above the Pass island you peeled out into the current and headed for strawberry island. I felt there was eddy shadow very far below Strawberry Island so I pushed left more than the group ahead. Getting close to Strawberry a racer in a V-10 who was on my wash for a while pushed on past with a strong, powerful, higher tempo stroke. Jean was now clearing Strawberry on his way back at the very same time as the V-10 fellow made his pass on me. “I guess zee Frechman has us” he said in humour as Jean was way ahead in his Think Legend. I hung comfortably on the back until we rounded the island and were hit with a hard headwind. Headwinds + strength and power is good! Wish I had some at this point. Lost a lot of time here. We followed the meandering currents down towards the Canoe pass in the strong headwinds. As I approached the bridge, there was a gust of wind so hard it momentarily pushed my bow down and rolled my boat on it’s side while I death gripped my paddle. It only lasted a second or two and a minute later all the winds calmed. Soon after I saw the racer in front of me suddenly speed up and zip out of sight around the downstream side of the bridge. It seemed like what a whitewater kayaker looks like on the entry tongue into a bigwater rapid. Then, a few moments later…. yes, IT WAS a guy droping in on a nice bouncy, twisty, upper Thompson-like bigwater wave train. Very cool, and also cool to see a few more safety boaters hovering in the eddys.

Chris reported being poached like an egg in his drysuit leading up to this section, but happy he had it through the next part. Jean was long gone out of my view by this point.

For the next 15 minutes I, and all the racers charged through the smooth curling waves(about 5 feet- 7 feet if you have not seen real 5 footers or are boasting to friends) until we reached the island we first rounded just after the start. I seemed to avoid getting any of the waves breaking on my deck by letting the boat roll, some stroke tempo changes, and luck. It was great fun, but also a bit tense for a bit, and my control wrist was starting to remind me of it’s noble efforts and a swim would not be so fun. A super-stud jetski sheriff blasted over to me, getting some air in the process, and seemed to be happy with me after getting the “all cool here” nod, he jetted off to fish out some other paddlers. What a good job that guy had today. Chris, who was just behind me (sucka!), saw a sealion bust a move out of the water and crash down in an spash.

Rounding the island was easier this time as there was less traffic, but the bullwips were lurking at, and below, the surface. Around the Island and on the final leg to shore there was some big swell waves that had the steepness to make for a really dynamic and long ride(no paddling, Oscar style). I figured it was a great time to be cool, relaxed and then hit is super hard and catch some. I got a bunch of nice steep rides, got swamped hard on the backside of a few big ones, then once the boat was moving again made the big charges to get the good ones again. It is difinitely faster than just going at a static grinding speed, but sometimes you pay the price of almost coming to a stop when the surf ends in cockpit-filling swamp. I think I made a good chunk of time on the racer in front of me, but was still about 30 seconds behind as I surfed accross the finish. I was super happy with the think Evo as I am sure I would have been slower if I had been in a more tippy “faster” boat.

Chris took a swim before the finish line in the area where there were some big waves and reflecting waves coming off the right side of the bay. Took him a few tries to get on even in his trusty Evo with the clusterflacktosis wave conditions. So he lost a few minutes there.

Jean cruised to victory a few minutes ahead of second place.

A very well organized race with many sea kayak fanatics, a good number of surfski racers and a few very good outrigger racers. Tons of prizes, great food, and a lot of friendly people followed. A very nice State Park to finish at and the sun came out in the end. All were super stoked. Jean loved the course and he had raced a few of the big ones in Europe and South Africa.

You should be able to get full results here soon. Check out the video of the race here.

Anyone recognize this steely-eyed dry suit emblazonned surfskier?

Check out some of these cool photos of the big wave train confronting the racers.

Matt Kelly
President
www.predatorhelmets.com
sales@predatorhelmets.com

 

 

 

 

 

Surfski Racing TEAMS…What does the future hold?

Dynamics are underway in the international surfski racing community whereby paddlers are being ‘signed’ to specific teams. At this point there has been little definition of what ‘signed’ means, perhaps we’ll hear more about this over time. A recent article on surfski.info shows a photo shoot of the new Epic Riders, which looks to be a team of 11 surfski and kayak racers wearing Epic emblazoned uniforms and proudly holding Epic paddles. It is not clear how this team will function, particularly in races, but clearly based on the quality of the paddlers, both male and female, a key objective of this team approach is to garner high profile advertising for Epic products at surfski races.

Look at the pre-race photos of the Dubai Shamaal Surfski Race and it is clear that Fenn is also buying into the team approach, although to what extent is not yet evident. Just as many paddlers can be seen strutting their stuff in Fenn labelled race jerseys, which presumably means these paddlers have received some level of sponsorship from Fenn. At the recent NY Mayor’s Cup there was a small group of surfski paddlers wearing Think race jerseys, again presumably indicating some level of sponsorship for the paddlers. At US surfski champs it is common to see paddlers wearing Huki race shirts…perhaps indicative of paddler sponsorship.

With Epic’s latest move to formalize the Epic Riders team, will the other surfski manufacturers soon follow suit…or will they wait to see how effective is the Epic Riders team approach?

It will be interesting to see whether the team approach will take hold in the international and even in our local surfski racing communities. Will we see the start line of our surfski races look more and more like a bicycle racing peleton with most of the paddlers outfitted in a multitude of team uniforms? And if our sport does move toward a team system, who will be backing the teams? The surfski manufacturers are the obvious choice; clearly Fenn, Epic, Huki and Think (and others) will benefit from having paddlers showing off their company logos and doing well in races while paddling their boats. What about the folks who sell surfskis and other paddling equipment…will they jump onto the team bandwagon? Clearly stores like MEC, Deep Cove Outdoors, Ocean Paddlesports, Pogue Sports and Ecomarine could be expected to benefit from having paddlers showing off their logos to the paddling community and race spectators. But off course this brings us back to the term ‘signing paddlers’. Any business getting involved in backing a team of paddlers is going to need to get back more from the deal than they put in for the investment to pay off. So clearly the cost of ‘signing’ on the team of paddlers is going to be a significant issue.

Hmmm, well what could ‘signing’ mean?
Ø Professional team…paddlers paid to race in a certain team’s uniform and using the team’s equipment.
Ø Equipment sponsored team…paddlers are provided the boat and/or paddle that the team’s racers use.
Ø Entry fee sponsored team…paddlers have their entry fees to particular races paid for by the sponsor in exchange for racers wearing team uniform and/or using the team’s equipment.
Ø Club team…paddlers represent their paddling club by wearing the club’s team race jersey.

Obviously a Professional Team of paddlers is the extreme edge of the ‘signing’ spectrum…but we can all dream, right! It would seem that manufacturers would be most suited to an Equipment Sponsored Team since they would have the most to gain from having their products do well at races. Perhaps paddle sports businesses that sell surfskis and paddles might also adopt this team approach, although their team might be made up of a variety of different product lines that the store carries. An Entry Fee Sponsored Team could be backed by most any business, especially since most paddlers own their own surfski. In exchange for wearing a team jersey and/or having sponsor’s stickers placed on the boat and/or paddle, racers have some of the expenses to take part in the races paid for by the sponsor. Club Teams can be simply paddlers wearing their club’s colours to show pride in their club or perhaps businesses can donate to a club in exchange for some sort of logo display. Clubs can then choose ways to motivate their members to take part in events to satisfy the sponsor.

So what effect would teams of surfski paddlers have on our local racing?
Not surprisingly it is likely that the fastest paddlers are still going to win the races no mater what team jersey they are wearing or which equipment they are using. Perhaps the biggest effect could be the numbers of paddlers entering the races. For example if paddlers were part of a team they might feel obliged to take part in more races. As well if paddlers’ entry fees will be paid for they might take part in more races, particularly if the ‘signing’ agreement was for a package of races. One would expect the highest-level paddlers would be in demand by the teams so it would be expected that more of these faster paddlers would take part in more of the local races. Having more and more faster paddlers taking part in our races will raise the level of our local racing scene and will motivate more paddlers to strive to achieve higher levels of performance.

Does surfski racing need teams?
On the international stage it may well be that team racing could become more of a factor in determining the outcome of races. Just look at the line up of the 2008 Dubai Shamaal Race to see that the level of competition at the most ‘prestigious’ events is becoming stronger and stronger. With all these super-fast paddlers vying for the ever-increasing prize monies being offered up at surfski races it is going to be harder and harder for individuals to take victory. It may well be that team strategy could become more and more important in determining the outcome of these highly competitive races. Locally, team sponsorship can have benefits on our racing scene, but at the relatively early stages of the development of our local surfski racing scene it is likely that key sponsorship will be better served to help event organizers offer more and better races for our surfski racing community…a community of that is rapidly growing both in our numbers of surfskiers and in our skill level.

What ever happens, it should be fun to watch.

The next question is how long it will take for surfski.info to become an online bookmaker…taking bets on the race results…they are getting closer to this with their recent addition of online ‘pick the results’ for surfski races…you can even win prizes. Keep up the great work Alain and Rob!