Race Results: April 14 at Deep Cove

Tonight’s race was an out and back 5.2 km course around Lone Rock Point. There was an incoming tide to think about in planning our race path and the water was flat calm. Once again there was a big turn out of surfskis making for some quite exciting pack racing. Right from the start racers were seeking out wash to ride and boats to draft behind, allowing packs of surfskis to travel faster than the individual racers would on their own. Once again Jean took to the front setting a comfortable pace for himself…a blistering fast pace for the rest of us. Rather than doing a boring race on his own off the front, Jean slowed enough to allow me to sit on his left slip while Jon took up position on my stern…then there was a pack of skis strung out just behind the leading trio. About 2/3rds of the way out Jean bumped up the pace from about 12.5 to 13.5 km/h…I managed to stay on his slip but Jon lost contact and was now on his own.  At the turn Jon was about 4 boat lengths off the lead with a pack of skis chasing hard a similar distance behind him. To avoid some of the incoming current we moved to more of an onshore line on the return leg, picking our way through the oncoming racers. As we entered the cove Jean decided I should take the lead…I’d been sitting on his wash the entire race. Fortunately just after he slid back onto my right slip the safety boat came upon us to shoot some video of our race…nice to have some proof that I took a turn working on the front…although they could’ve edited out the part where Jean was yawning at the slow pace I was pulling as along. As we neared the final stretch Jean started to play with my head…he’d do a really hard paddling stroke to make it look like he was starting to sprint…his one powerful stroke would launch his ski up to even with mine…I’d react with 2 pathetic ‘power’ strokes of my own, with very little effect on my boat. After a couple of these I made my move…mostly just to get my beating over with…from the video it was impossible to see my acceleration due to the speed Jean was able to answer with. Fortunately we did our sprint far enough from the line that Jean was able to open up a big gap, then he shut it down just coasting to the line…here was my chance. Jean looked back to see that I’d shut down my sprint…as he slowed I started to pick up the speed again hoping to catch him before he could cross the line…unfortunately he saw me coming and started paddling again…doh!

There was a great race for the next finishing places…check out the photo that captures the action.

Also, here is an in race video of the action from a little farther back in the pack.

Jon leads to the line a pack of speedy surfskiers