July 15 Deep Cove TNR

Another beautiful evening in Vancouver’s summer paradise…the sunny weather attracted a big crowd at this evening’s Tuesday Night Race. The course was a bit of a snoozer…round Hamber, Boulder and Grey Rocks…not sure how many times we’ve done this short 5.0 km route this season, seems like alot…but the many surfskis on hand made for fun and challenging racing. Off the start Rene/Brian launched their double Millenium into the lead with Gareth (Robberg Express) working hard to stay on their left slip. Jeff (Mako XT) just missed out on the ride…my muscles tied up just before I could settle on Gareth’s left slip, so I rest a few moments and dropped back onto the left slip of Chris’ Evo…he is really liking his new lightweight kevlar Evo. Just behind there was a big pack of racers who looked to be strung out in 2 long lines. There was little wind or current tonight and only the odd motorboat wake to shake things up a bit. Recovering after the start Chris and I tried to work together to close the gap on the leading boats but despite our effort neither of us could raise the pace enough to make much gains. Our efforts did help open a small gap to our pursuers…but that was only temporary. After passing through the narrow channel beside Hamber we proceeded to round Boulder…the leading trio had settled into a comfortable pace staying about 50 m ahead of us. After rounding Boulder Chris wanted to make another push to try to catch the leaders…my tired body wouldn’t respond when it was my turn to pull. We rounded Grey Rocks, taking care to avoid running over the open water swimmer, still behind the leaders and there was some new excitement brewing in behind. As we re-entered the main channel that would take us back to the cove a quick glance behind indicated the K2 crew of Kiran/Katja was coming on strong for the finish. Just after rounding the white 5 knot buoy at the cove’s entrance Kiran/Katja (Sagitta K2) pulled alongside Chris and myself. We were now heading directly into the sun making visibility a challenge so I could not see what happened at the front but apparently Gareth finished first ahead of Rene/Brian.  Gareth always worries about the ethics of a single ski drafting a double ski for the entire race then challenging for line honours…I tell him to treat the double like any other boat…it is up to them to ‘let’ you draft them and take their chances at the finish…if they are not able to drop you off their wash then they should save enough energy to outsprint the single ski at the line…it’s all fun racing. In the final stretch there was a long sprint to the line by our pack of 3 boats with Kiran/Katja just edging out Chris. We were followed by a large group of skis that included: John (Millenium), Daryl (Legend), Martin (V10), Sean (V10 Sport) and a few others. There also looked to have been a close race between Jodi (V10) and Lina (Mako XT), these gals are continuing to get better and better at surfski racing.

On another note there were at least 2 surfskis, 2 double sea kayaks and 1 OC-1 with pfd-less paddlers at tonight’s race…would be nice if the TNR race organizers would clarify whether it is a requirement or a recommendation that race participants wear a PFD at these races. If it is only a recommendation I’m sure there are others of us who would welcome the freedom to make this choice for ourselves. If it is a rule put in for reasons of importance then perhaps it is time for the race organizers to stop turning a blind eye to those who break the rule…otherwise it sends a bad message to those of us who do comply with the wishes of the race organizers.

Note, the Robberg Express that won tonight’s race and the Mako XT that came in 5th are both for sale if anyone is interested.

The SurfskiBC Race Series standings have been updated to include the results from last weekend’s races at Gibsons. Here are the current series points leaders.

Overall Championship leaders	Long Course Championship leaders	Short Course Championship leaders
1. Jeff 109	1. Jeff 55	1. Shane 82
2. Shane 92	2. John 52	2. Jonas 67
3. Ian 75	3. Ian 50	3. Jeff 54
4. John 73	4. Larry 49	4. Mike 36
5. Mike 70	5. Katja 45	5. Gareth 30
6. Jonas 67	5. Don K. 45	6. Ian 25
7. Katja 66	6. Ben 37	6. Paul 25
8. Larry 60	7. Mike 34	7. Bob 23
9. Paul 50	8. Shaun 28	8. Chris 22
10. Ben 46	9. Morris 27	8. Don C. 22

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

Deep Cove Webcam

Ever want to know what the Deep Cove water conditions will be like at the Tuesday Night Races before you get there…well now you can…check out the new Deep Cove Webcam.

July 10 MEC big Big BIG Chop race

1:00pm Thursday afternoon…”Chris, it’s Jeff here…the wind is howling…wanna meet early to paddle in the waves before tonight’s Big Chop race? Oh, yeah…5pm at Vanier Park…see you there!”

When we arrived the wind was still howling…the big Canadian flag was fluttering violently in the wind. There were some cool rollers steaming into the Creek…things looked promising. We quickly launched and immediately pushed into the wind heading out into English Bay. My ball cap had to be really tight to ensure it stayed on my head…the wind was fierce and progress was slow as we plowed over wave after wave. After a cautious turn to avoid being dumped we quickly picked up some great runs…there were so many steep waves it was so easy to catch waves and to link the runs…what a blast. After a second out/back loop, albeit a shorter one…it was hard work pushing into the waves/wind…we then made the call to drive up to Jericho for quick downwind run before the start of the race. The 3 of us quickly registered for the race, Darrell had now joined Chris and I…then we sped off to Jericho. Jericho was buzzing with wind surfers and sailboats…we quickly launched and headed offshore to get into the faster moving waves…then we were off…yeehaa…total downwind paddling…this is so cool! Darrell stayed on an inside line while I continued to quarter offshore to get into bigger and bigger waves, Chris split the middle. All of us got some great runs on our Evo surfskis. When we arrived back at the entrance to False Creek Chris came in just behind me but Darrell was no where to be found. Chris and I discussed our options, he too had seen Darrell taking a very inshore line. We decided Chris would go attend the pre-race meeting since it was now just before 7:00pm, while I would paddle out to look for Darrell. Darrell was no where to be seen on the water…I was starting to get worried…but since he was on an inshore line I figured he was staying close enough to shore such that he could bail out on the beach if need be. Looking over to my left I saw Darrell putting down his surfski on Kits Beach, he then gave a wave and some sort of OK signal…seeing he was alright I gave a wave and turned to ride the waves back into the Creek. Apparently Darrell got dumped but quickly remounted his ski only to get dumped again, this time though his leash came unattached…nothing broke, it just came off…fortunately he had ahold of his ski so it didn’t blow away from him. An OC-6 came by to help Darrell back into his ski…at this point he made the wise decision to head for the beach…no point in risking things further now that his leash was not functioning…a little common sense goes a long way to a fun and safe surfski experience.

I arrived back at the start just as racers were lining up…tonight’s race was divided into 3 classes…the Little Choppers headed into False Creek to round the southern most Cambie Street Bridge support then returned to the start/finish dock…Big Choppers did the same loop but twice using a red flag opposite the start/finish dock for the turn…while the advanced Big Choppers first headed out into the waves to round the red channel marker before doing the 2 loop circuit in False Creek.

The start was painfully slow as we battled the wind and waves out to the red channel marker…Alan made a long awaited appearance at tonight’s race and quickly moved off the front…despite his having paddled only a half dozen times since about this time last year. By the turn Alan was about 100m ahead of Jeff with another gap back to Sean being followed closely by Chris. The ride in was fun with lots of waves to ride…once in the harbour things melowed but the pace stayed high. I seemed to be slowly but surely closing the gap on Alan…hmmm, I think he is toying with me…oh well, not much I can do about it but to try to catch him. We rounded the bridge support without event, Alan still holding a nice lead. Alan looked to be paddling along quite comfortably…not a surprise! Chris had now caught up to Sean as they approached the bridge turn. I continued to close the gap on Alan and by the turn it was only about 30m. I carried some good speed on the small waves running into the harbour and this allowed me to close up to only about 2-3 boat lengths of Alan. After taking a few moments to evaluate the situation…otherwise known as rest…I proceeded to move to Alan’s right to try to make a run at moving onto his side wash. Yeah…right! I’ve heard it mentioned before that Alan seems to have eyes in the back of his head…as expected Alan slowly began to open the gap…by the time we rounded the bridge support it was back up to 100m…nicely done!

As they approached the bridge support for the second time Chris had now moved about 100m clear of Sean. At the finish Alan had opened up an over 200m lead on me…then Chris followed by Sean. Carolyne was the only women surfskier to brave tonight’s conditions.

The race organizers made a good call to alter tonight’s course…it would have been impossible to keep track of everyone…and the safety boats probably would have capsized in the waves.

Once again there was a big post race feast…sans beer which Ryan has promised will return next race…and I was lucky to win Riders sunglasses, the prize I’d been secretly hoping to win for some time now, Ryan won the Stohlquist pfd and to everyone’s surprise Sean did not win the Accent wing paddle, although he did win a MEC kayak paddle bag…the paddle was won by a young fella visiting from France, he was totally stoked!

This weekend is the Gibsons event with a 27 km race at 1:35pm on Saturday and a 14 km race at 8:45am on Sunday…see you there!

July 8 Deep Cove TNR…a 2nd perspective

Race report by Chris D.
It was another beautiful evening in Deep Cove…no “jumpers” this time so the race was set to start on time. Some of the usual favourites were not in the lineup tonight…Jeff (wisdom teeth), Mike (in Italy), John (?). Tonight’s course took us out to Jug Island where we had to park our boats and swim to the Island and back. We then paddled around Raccoon Island, across to Lone Rock and then along the shore back to the cove.

It was a fast start as usual. Jim (K-1) jumped out into the lead from the left side of the bay with a string of boats in tow. Terry and Chris jumped out front from the right side of the bay. At this point a decision was needed… move to the left and join Jim’s pack or try to jump on the back of Brian and Sasha’s double surfski, who were trying to sneak ahead unnoticed from the far right. I went for the double and to my surprise was able to stay on their wash until Jug Island. I was paddling a new Kevlar Evo tonight and noticed the extra acceleration of a lighter boat. Normally I am not quick enough to stay on the double’s wash.

As we neared the Island, the two groups merged. Jim was able to move in front of Sasha and Brian. Chris was still shamefully glued to the back of their double and Terry was a couple meters behind. We hit the beach in this order and began the swim. Terry quickly passed everyone to take the lead. It was soon easy to tell the swimmers from the non-swimmers (dog-paddlers). And then there was Chris, who was even being passed be the dog-paddlers. I believe Terry finished the swim first and set off to finish the race in his surfski. When I finally got in my boat, Jodi (V-10) was about 10 yards ahead of me and Rene (V-10) and Katja (Legend) were about 30 yards ahead. I slowly moved ahead of Jodi and set my sights on Rene and Katja. I finally caught them as we rounded Raccoon Island. As we headed toward Lone Rock I had a tumble and almost capsized. A quick leg out saved me. I was having a difficult time because I lost my back cushion during the swim thanks Sean). I eventually caught up and had some luck with a set of boat waves to pull ahead of Rene and Katja.
At this point Lina was just to our right. Lina is really improving her speed these days. She has been racticing her technique at Burnaby lake in a K-1.

As our small group headed for the finish, Rene and Katja made a final push almost catching Chris at the finish line. Lina followed close behind. The lead group was too far ahead of us to see. I believe Terry (Mako) finished in first place followed by Brian/Sasha (Mako XT) then Bob (V10) and Ty, who was paddling his brand new wedding gift (Kevlar Legend).

July 8th TNR at Deep Cove

Posted by Gary C.

You couldn’t ask for a better night weather-wise, nice and sunny, barely a breeze and the tide I think was coming in slowly (although throughout the race it seemed to be all over the map).

Short Race course was to the beach across Jug, beach the kayak, swim to Jug and back, go around the light at the entrance to Bedwell Bay, then back to the Cove for the finish.

Long course was to the beach across Jug, beach the kayak, swim to Jug and back, go counter clockwise around Racoon Island, then over to Lone Rock around the light marker and back to the Cove for the finish.

Of course there were many folks grumbling about the swim portion.

Just before the race Bob made an announcement that Ty Gee was getting married and his wife-to-be wanted to give him a gift….so out floats a brand spanking new THINK Legend…Ty paddled over to it, dumped and hopped on his new water chariot….a bride and a new ski……both VERY nice presents.

The race line looked a bit thin tonight, no Ben Fast, John George, Jeff Raymond (I think has some dental surgery that day), Mickey is on holidays, I dont think I saw Mike Fitz. either, but I wasn’t complaining as there still was lots of other pros out there.

With a quick start we were off. Being in the EVO, I tried to stay away from others so as to avoid as much wash as possible so I lined up on the left/center side of the starting line which seemed fairly open (note to reader.. my built in gyroscope is very bad and waves/wash/slop rocks my ski and slow paddling & tipping is usually the outcome). Most of the other skis were piling on the right side. I got off to a decent start with Paul Hansen off to my left side; after a few minutes I could still see the backs of Chris D and Rene Chong ‘close’ by, which meant I wasn’t doing so bad…..enter in tide wake & boat wake and i slowed down big-time to maintain balance, Katja who was 1/2 boat length in front to my right didnt even flinch and she powered ahead with no problem. I must throw in that Daryl R., his wife and 2 youngins were keeping up with me with no problem, having a good ‘ole time bouncing in the waves. After much balancing trying to cross the channel, I headed into the beach where allot of boats began to converge. Lina A. was about 6 boat lengths ahead of me. Man, she is improving so much each week it’s scary. Just before hitting the beach i saw Bob swimming back to the beach along with a few others and many other folks just jumping in the water, it seems like the party had started wayyyy before me. I beached my boat and to avoid being pulled out by the Coast Guard I kept my PFD on, those a bit more comfortable with their swimming skills threw off their PFDs and dove in with no hesitation. The water didnt seem that cold to me but i did hear a bunch of folks with differing opinions. The last time I did this swim I made it half way over then opted for the current to push me to Jug, then on the way back my wife pretty much towed me in BUT this time I swam out with no problem and was proud that I was nearing Jug; however, just before reaching, my buddy Chris D. almost went under from laughing at how bad my swimming form was. On the way back Curtis Brock was right next to me but despite my thinking I was being efficient he quickly beat me back to the beach which made me think that Chris might have been correct!

I was very happy that I made it back to the beach not feeling too tired and no rescue boats required, so after a bit of celebrating I got gathered my stuff and pressed onward. As i was getting back into my boat I noticed Daryl and his family were relaxing on the beach, taking in the free entertainment….I THINK they had the right idea.

Back in my boat, Bernd was about 10 boat lengths ahead of me in the Epic 18x, always a nice challenge to try to catch Bernd. There was lots of what I call tidal slop just coming at you from every direction, so I was still doing the ole paddling forward, balancing, paddling forward routine. Closing in on Raccoon, I was about 2 boat lengths away from Bernd and tipped over, even though I got back in fairly quickly Bernd pulled way ahead never to be seen again. Rounding Racoon I saw Curtis pulled over to the side I think adjusting his pedals. I took this opportunity to act like I was being nice and took a bit of a break until he was ready again. I paddle with Curtis to Lone rock which was uneventful as it seemed like the slop was calming down. As we rounded the light, another kayaker near us ( I can’t name names) thought the water to be a bit deeper than it was and ran aground. After we checked things out, all looked fine with no damage to the boat and headed back in across the finish line with no further incident.

In all, a good time, too much wake out there for me (gotta practice more) but I still was happy with my swimming accomplishment. Afterwards, prizes we dolled out the ICE Breaker clothing line rep said a few words, and Bob mentioned that we all should be prepared with swim shorts and running shoes over the next few weeks. Every so often we should say thanks to Bob for putting on these races, putting up with the moaning about swimming or running, etc. Coming out to TNR is a good excuse to get a paddle in, chat with friends, and hit the Raven for brews…so THANKs Bob.

PS. Here’s the link to this weekend’s races at Gibsons.

July 1 Deep Cove TNR

Mike’s report of the Canada Day Tuesday Night Race…

A beautiful evening in Deep Cove… too bad all access to the North Shore was shut down prior to the race. This left a much smaller crowd then usual.
Bob delayed the start to allow those having difficulty in traffic a chance to race. This cost Bob the prestige of winning a TNR (which is sort of like the Olympics) as the two finishers ahead of him were both late arrivals.
The start was blistering fast… with Ben and Eric in their narrow double leading out of the Cove. Cam and I put in a hard effort to ride a swell up to this duo. Approaching Grey Rocks was a tight group with Ty, Bob, Matt, and Rene.
Around Grey Rocks Ty made a move to the front. Unfortunately, the centrifugal force around the Island was too much for Ty and he went shooting off at the wrong angle. We all yelled at him and he came back to us to get in our wash.
The group broke up crossing to Hamber. There was an Ebbing current, and everyone was trying to ferry across on the most efficient line. We were East of the group and took a more direct line I think. Ty stuck with us.
The water was fairly rough, with some decent boat wash kicking around. The XT double is bombproof and we are always looking for rides. Close to Hamber we encountered a nice wake to hop on and ride at an angle. This is how we lost Ty in his tippy Millennium.
Cam reported Ty’s capsize, and remembering safety first, and never leave someone in distress, I said “OK let’s nail it”.
We fought the current to Jug, keeping close to shore. As always those behind are praying for better current on a different line and went further off shore. Our lead expanded in this section.
After jug the current was going our way with swell that was a little too slow.
There was a dismount at the White can. This was only our second time remounting this boat. We decided to enter simultaneously. This actually seemed easier than independently and was almost as fast as a single.
Just as we were taking off Ty was back jumping in. I think he waited for the group for the sprint. We didn’t stick around.
The sprint started a long way out with Ty holding off Bob, and Matt. Ben and Eric were close behind, along with Rene.
Cam was thrilled with his result. It’s great to see so much support from all the paddlers for these kids. Magically, the boys won a draw prize again!

June 29 Lotus Iron Small Boats Race

What a fantastic weekend to be on Vancouver’s waters…the near 30 degree temperatures announced summer’s arrival…finally! Sunday’s race was an about 10 km course that started in front of Barnet Marine Park taking the racers on a northerly route to round Boulder Island after which we crossed the channel heading south west taking us past the lighthouse off Cates Park. From here we continued southwest crossing the main channel to the old McBarge, which believe it or not is till around since its use at Expo 86. After rounding McBarge it was a straight run back to the start/finish line, with a light tailwind and incoming tide helping the racers along this leg.

At the start I launched off the line fairly aggressively and could see an orange tipped surfski off to my right, I think it was Peter in his new Legend. Post race Shane would comment that we had started rather fast with his GPS reading 14.8 km/h and he wasn’t closing the gap…yikes! Soon we met up with the first set of powerboat wash, with the fantastic sunny weather there was no shortage of motorboats out on the water too. Chris was borrowing my kevlar Evo today so I was using Marshall’s V10…and as I have proven time and again…I am faster in the Evo than pretty much any other ski I’ve used. :) So when I encountered the first waves I slowed considerably as I wobbled around in the waves. It didn’t take long for Shane (V10) to pass so I took the opportunity to move onto his stern wash…I was too wobbly to sit on his side slip. I believe Ken (V10) was sitting on my stern wash…I expect Jonathan (V10L), John (millenium) and Chris (Evo) were nearby too but couldn’t see exactly where they were. We had settled in for the crossing to Boulder when a large set of waves crossed our path…unfortunately I had to ease up to make it through the set so lost Shane’s wash…I think it may have caused similar disruptions behind me…could hear some solid bow slapping as the skis pushed over the steep waves. As we rounded Boulder Shane had an about 4 boat lengths lead on myself with about 2 boat lengths back John leading Jonathan and Ken. This threesome quickly caught me so I settle in on John’s right slip as we headed over to Cates. The waves were just a bit too troublesome to comfortably stay on the side wash so I found myself sliding back alongside Jonathan. Soon an opportunity arose for me to slide in behind John but soon again I found myself off the wash…the sets of motorboat wash kinda kept things in a constant state of change. At one point Jonathan and I were both off the wash…after a very brief discussion Jonathan was going to take John’s stern wash so as he accelerated I moved behind Jonathan. Unfortunately my ineptitude in the waves prevented my staying with Jonathan who was having an equally difficult time staying with John. So as we made our way past Cates Shane was way out front of John, then a smaller gap back to Jonathan. Ken passed me at Cates and soon Chris too moved off to try to chase Ken. Then the father/son team of Mike and Cam brought their Mako XT into the mix, just a few boat lengths behind the duo of Ken and Chris. I had moved off to the right taking a more upcurrent/upwind line to McBarge…was looking for any advantage I could find at this point. By the time we converged at McBarge Shane was way out front, John had what looked be about 10 seconds on Jonathan then there was about 30 seconds back to Chris then another 10 seconds back to Ken who was a couple boat lengths ahead of me with Mike/Cam close behind. After the turn I locked my sights on Chris and stepped on the gas, quickly passing Ken in the process. Took about 1-2 minutes before I attempted to settle in on Chris’ stern wash…noticing his new found company Chris took the opportunity to do an acceleration of his own…looks like this was payback for our last Thursday Big Chop race…well done Chris. After reclosing the gap I quickly moved onto Chris’ right slip…the waves were less of an issue along this stretch. After settling in we analyzed our situation, Ken looked to be losing ground so it didn’t appear he was a threat to catch us…Mike/Cam were hanging in close behind so we had to be sure not to slow our pace too much as we prepared for our finish. I’d briefly considered striking out to try to catch Jonathan but the gap looked to be too great…and figured that even if I’d caught him Jonathan would just outsprint me since I’d be wiped out from the effort to have caught him…so I figured if I was racing for 4th place that I’d be better off trying to outsprint Chris. As we approached the line we passed through an area with lots of floating weeds and debris…while sitting alongside Chris I could feel the huge V10 rudder passing through the weeds…then I passed over a long ‘thing’ floating in my path…whatever it was it significantly slowed the boat until it cleared the rudder…don’t worry Marshall, whatever it was it seemed soft and didn’t damage your baby. I now found myself about a half boat length behind Chris’ stern with the line fast approaching. Chris was now in sprint mode so I gave it one last effort to try to catch him…I moved over to his left side…in case there were more weeds, then hit the gas…Chris won the sprint by about 1 meter…well done!

Mike/Cam finished in 6th place followed by Ken, Peter, Ben (Mako 6), Katja (Legend) and Lina (Mako XT).

What a great weekend of racing! Jonathan, Shane, myself and Peter raced the 17 km OC-6 race on Saturday which used a similar course except we continued on past Boulder Island to round Racoon Island. It was a fun race despite the huli my team (Mike, Jaden, Jeff, Gordon, Jeff and Paul) did shortly after the start. After bailing out our boat we found ourselves in last place so there was nothing left to do but set out to catch some boats. We ended up finishing in 5th place…which is where we likely would have placed without the swim…the top 4 crews were over 6 minutes ahead of us…the huli likely only cost us 2-3 minutes. I think there were 17 boats in the race.

If any of you would like to give OC-6 a try check out the CORA website for the many outrigger clubs in BC…most will be happy to provide an opportunity for you to try out the sport.

After the racing on both days Lotus provided a tasty feast of BBQ chicken and curry with rice along with some cool draw prizes. Thanks so much to the Lotus Sports Club gang for putting on such a great event and for welcoming surfskis at your primarily outrigger focussed event.

Lotus Iron Small Boats Race was event #6 in the SurfskiBC Race Series…the series standings have now been updated. The top ten standings have seen Shane, Mike, Jeff, John and Ben move up in the overall points championship while Shane’s victory has given him a commanding lead of the short course points championship with Jeff, Mike, Chris, John and Jonathan also moving up in the top 10 short course standings.

Overall Championship leaders	Long Course Championship leaders	Short Course Championship leaders
1. Ian 75	1. Ian 50	1. Shane 61
2. Shane 71	2. Don 45	2. Jonas 42
3. Mike 70	3. Ben 37	3. Jeff 39
4. Jeff 69	3. John 37	4. Mike 36
5. John 58	4. Mike 34	5. Gareth 30
6. Paul 50	5. Jeff 30	6. Ian 25
7. Ben 46	6. Shaun 28	6. Paul 25
8. Don 45	6. Larry 28	7. Chris 22
9. Jonas 42	7. Morris 27	8. John 21
10. Gareth 41	8. Paul 25	9. Jonathan 18

 

Round Bowen Challenge photos

And they're off!

Racers depart sheltered Snug Cove to start their Round Bowen Challenge

The great variety of racing boats are dwarfed by the BC Ferry heading for Nanaimo

Racers view of the south east shores of Bowen Island

Racers face the bouncy water conditions along Bowen's east shore

Jeff/Katja lead Erik, Patrick and Don in the waves near Cowen Point

Morris/Jeff in the stylish pink Millenium with Mike/Paul offshore in their new Mako XT

Jeff/Katja followed by Don with Gareth in the background just rounding Cape Roger Curtis

Erik motoring along in his new Fenn Elite surfski

Patrick of Ocean Paddle Sports paddling Mako 6

Jeff/Katja followed by Don in his Super Elite V10

Jeff and Katja paddling Mako XT

Jodi/Colleen chasing Jim and the Think Legend surfski

Jodi and Colleen in the Mako XT

Jodi/Colleen and company

June 26 MEC Big Chop race

Forty paddlers took part in Race #5 of the Mountain Equipment Co-op Big Chop Summer Paddling Series under cloudy skies at Vancouver’s Vanier Park. Today’s course was the Westside Loop, click on the image (thanks Darrell) to enlarge the course map. Racers were supervised by the Vancouver Police boat at today’s start with Chris (Evo) jumping out fast trying to take advantage of the small waves created by our police escort. Jeff (Evo) quickly accelerated onto the back of the lead safery boat while Ryan was watching other racers, unfortunately it didn’t take Ryan long to notice me then veared off of the line to the first buoy. After the little bit of fun at the start I started moving over to the right side of the course where Chris was striking out on his own at the front. Settling in about 10 meters behind Chris we proceeded to work the small sets of motorboat wash…at this time Sean (V10 Sport) was locked on my stern but lost some ground while attempting to take advantage of a wave set that didn’t prove overly beneficial. I held my pace fairly steady to see if Sean would catch up but having lost the wash he seemed to be struggling with the pace. As we approached the orange buoy off Second Beach I picked up the pace to halve the gap to Chris, after rounding the buoy we headed out to the sand barge buoy, which tonight had a green barge tied up. Early on this leg I pull alongside Chris, staying about 5 meters to his left, then called over to Chris asking if the big boat to our right was heading our way…as he turned his head I stepped on the gas…Chris immediately responded figuring out quickly my attempt at distracting him. As Chris settled at my stern he verbally reminded himself not to bump my boat remembering that last race he did that I put on a hard acceleration as his punishment…just for fun of course…I’m totally fine with a little boat bumping…is part of pack racing. Despite Chris’ cordial behaviour I’d already decided that I wanted to take off on my own for tonight’s race…so I put in a couple short bursts to put some burn in his arms, each time he managed to close back up to my surfski…he then made some comment about needing to catch his breath so after about 5 seconds I hit the gas hard this time and held the speed longer…this opened a sizable gap. After slowing my pace for a minute I figured Chris would be making a last attempt to close the gap so I did another short acceleration…by now we were approaching the sand barge and as we rounded the turn there was an about 20 meter gap. This gap stayed fairly constant as we proceeded to round the red channel marker then the green channel marker. Chris’ attempts at having Ryan’s safety boat create a favourable wave heading in his direction fell on deaf ears…although it might have been fun if this had happened. Keeping a comfortable pace we then headed back out to the sand barge buoy, along the way catching up to a nice set of waves that afforded a nice rest for a few seconds. Chris tried to convince me that my pfd was falling off my boat, a quick glance indicated he was pulling my leg…touche. Rounding the sand barge buoy for the second time Chris was still about 20 meters back…figured I see if this gap could be increased by the finish so I picked up my pace for a couple minutes…on nearing the entrance to False Creek Jonathan came alongside in his V10L having had to miss the race due to a dragon boat practise commitment…after his teams successful victories at last weekend’s Alcan regatta they are now in final preparations for Canadian World Club Team Trials to be held at Toronto in 3 weeks. We had a nice chat about the upcoming Lotus races taking place this weekend…we are both racing OC-6 on Saturday…then at the finish Jon backed off to allow me to cross the line on my own. Chris finished 2nd about 30 seconds back, followed by Sean then Gary (Evo). The first place woman surfskier was Leo who is continuing to make great improvements in her surfski paddling…I think she really likes her Evo. Mel paddled her S1X surfski but for some reason opted for the Little Chop course tonight.

Once again the post race festivities were well attended, with plenty of smokies, chips, cookies and beverages on hand for the racers and volunteers. Big Chop organizers Ryan and Bryan have a fantastic crew of volunteers that are instrumental in making this series a huge success…we owe a huge thank you to these awesome folks who are easily recognized in their Big Chop Helly Hansen blue volunteer jackets. Along with our Carb Boom energy gel that we received at race registration another huge load of prizes were given out. Sean won a second Accent wing blade kayak paddle…what a lucky guy! Six year old Olivia once again enjoyed racing double sea kayak with her dad Matt…apparently Olivia is a huge fan of the post race smokies…she has quickly become a Big Chop ’star’.

See you at the next surfski races:

Sunday June 29, Lotus Iron Small Boats Race 11:30am at Barnett Marine Park. Arrive early as they have been known to start this race a half hour earlier than the posted start time.

Saturday July 12 Howe Sound Outrigger/Surfski Race (27 km), 1:35 pm at Gibsons.

Sunday July 13 Pulling Water Paddling Classic (14 km), 8:45 am at Gibsons. Register for the Gibsons races by July 9 to save on the entry fees, note that Saturday’s entry fee includes a tasty post race BBQ.