Surfski Knowledge Base

Reivers Dustin May 7 #31570

Conditions were perfect: sunshine at the start, dumping rain during the race (poor volunteers), sunshine at the end. Light souther in our face heading south, then a few short miles of rides heading North, but then backwinds in our face about 9 miles from finish.

I found myself in the wolfpack with Deano, Dan M., Tim N., Tom P. and of course Lance & Partner in their OC-2. Good pace going down, but then Deano decided to stop and hit a Gu-Pack. He had no idea he was dragging us all along. Big mess. Yelling and screaming with a bit of fiberglass bumping. I was in the caboose, and it was hilarious. Our little love-train exploded in the rebound off the island. I know how Deano loves the chop so I put the hammer down and stuck with him for a little bit.

But there is a problem with that. The wise paddler knows that they must paddle all of the miles. One does not get to only paddle the fun bits. I managed to stick to the OC-2 while Deano did another 'crazy ivan' and I lost track of him. My ride took middle-lake which is best in south wind. You get best rides out there. But when the rain-squall gave us a lot of back-wind, Dean wisely moved along shore in the lee of the wind. And Dan M. had the mustard to keep him in sight. So those two guys gapped me.

Once we got into the upper basin it was fast and flat. Every paddler reaching for their best grind. Somehow Dan M. got Dean to take a break from pulling people behind him. (It was a clever ruse!). I had some miles in there of great paddling. But, not enough. Dan, Deano an OC-1 and even my dear good buddy Lance in OC-2 edged me out. I snuck in before Tom, but he was closing the gap on me as I faded. If the race would have been 100yards longer Tom would have got me I'm sure.

My rock-star performance goes to Bill. He pretended to be like the rest of us in our wolf-pack. But ramped it up big time for the second half. It was a hoot seeing all the crowd. Kick in the pants swapping stories with the Mooney brothers. Them Oregonians are crazy like me. Haven't seen Brandon N in a race in a long time. Well. I rarely see him during the race, but just before and after. We should steal a line from Lk Wobegon. Should be Lk Whatcom. Where all the paddlers are good lookin' and all the children are above average. Dang kids are fast. The barnacles are slowing down slower than average. And Greg B. continues to rock.

Great job Marc and volunteers.

Lake Whatcom Classic Wrap-up

Marc Blake May 9 #31580

Congratulations and thank you to everyone who raced the Sound Rowers and Paddlers' Lake Whatcom Classic!

Special shout out to all those first timers in the race. We hope you had a great time and look forward to seeing you at future events.

Always great to see the big boats battling out there too. Thank you to Rikkole Cree Canoe Club (RCCC), Bellingham Bay Outrigger Paddlers (BBOP) and Autumn Washington Canoe Club for representing.

We had a little bit of everything on the weather side: sunshine, wind, rain - but all 71 boats (100+ racers) that started the race finished the race.

Special thanks to Whatcom Search and Rescue for their support, Brandon Nelson Partners for the buoys, Paul Clement(Elastic Laser) for the awards, Jeff Davis for picking up the food, Steve Scoggins for managing the food table, and Kevin Olney, Amber Zipperer, Peter Marcus for their pre/post race support.

Extra special thanks to Sandy Gillard and Ana Swetish for volunteering at the timing tent.

Results highlights

Dave Deschenes crushed the short course to take first place in his 1x flatwater rowing shell (what he calls his “cheater boat”) despite having to backtrack a little at the finish.

It was a tight race up front in the long course with the open water quad powered by Cody Jenkins, Kelton Jenkins, Adrianne Storb and Rainer Storb managing to keep speed through the final turn and out sprint the two HPK-2s. Top 3 boats finishing within 7 seconds of each other.

Top 3 overall:

Long Course:

1 - Cody Jenkins/Kelton Jenkins/Adrianne Storb/Rainer Storb (4x-OW - Open Water Quad)

2 - Peter Turcan/Egor Klevak (HPK-2 - Surfski Double)

3 - Wilson Reavley/Ian Sawyer (HPK-2 - Surfski Double)

Short Course:

1 - David Deschenes (1x-Flatwater - Flat water racing single)

2 - Abby/Ethan (K2 - Sprint Kayak double)

3 - Jeff Hilburn (HPK - Surfski Single)

Top Long Course solo (Bathymetric maps) winners:

First Solo Female - Long Course - Tenar Hall

First Solo Male - Long Course - Greg Barton

All the Moms are tops in our book. Hope you all had a happy Mother's Day!

But the Lake Whatcom Classic top Mom award winner is Denise Weeks who finished 11th overall in the long course with her surfski doubles partner, Erica Quam. Congratulations Denise!

Always good to get Reivers' race report (aka “lies”) right away. Any other good stories out there? We would love for you to share your race reports with us.

Full Results at: https://pacificmultisports.com/results/lakewhatcomclassic2022/

More Sound Rowers' events at: https://www.soundrowers.org/race-schedule/

See you all soon!

Marc Blake and Brooke Larrabee

Marc Blake

​pacificmultisports.com

Marc Blake May 9 #31584

Apologies and super special thanks to Michael Lampi for once again delivering on race photos!!!

Full gallery here: https://soundrowers.org/racePhotos/2022/LakeWhatcom/index.html

Michael, Thank you for always being there to photograph our events AND racing! No one else can get those shots.

Marc

Paul Reavley May 9 #31585

Hanging around with folks at these races is a great way to catch up and appreciate our community.

Probably worth mentioning that we have a fast improving young surfskier to watch. Talented local canoer, Dionisio “Nish” Romero, borrowing a surfski from Peter Marcus (fourth time Nish has been in a surfski), made it through the short course in 48:39 despite huli'ing (with a boat wake assist) and losing his paddle. Thanks to Steve Small and Mark Chamberlain (anybody else?) for checking on him and getting his paddle back to him!

Lots of stories there. Steve Small has been coming back from a serious shoulder problem which is finally showing signs of improvement. And Mark Chamberlain has started Paramedic training and has been on a greatly reduced paddling schedule.

Brandon Nelson back on the water again! When Denise and Erica swang wider around the island than Brandon did, he hollered at them to come back over and get on his draft again and waited for them!

Kimberly Reeves May 9 #31586

It’s Autumn Rose

Not Autumn Washington :)

Brandon Nelson May 9 #31587

I can't even BEGIN to say how fun it was to be back out there paddling and racing again!

Thank you to the organizers and safety, to Michael for the awesome photos, and to Erica and Denise for being such good company!

I felt like a million bucks until about mile 9… and then in the span of about 6 strokes the wheels just fell off. :)

That's what I get for taking such a long break… but it will make it that much more fun clawing back into shape.

Super, super appreciate how gracious everyone was. I love the paddling tribe and it was an honor to be out there with you all!

See you again soon.

Brandon