Ultimate Peter Marcus Rough Water Race of the Century
Kevin Olney Mar 11 #33335

Time to Spring forward into race season! Rough Water is next weekend. This is the biggest and baddest open water paddling race around.

This year featuring loads of raffle prizes from Giant Fish, Kai Wa’a, Pacific North Sports, Kite Paddle Surf, Prime, and more!!

Post race we will be serving corned beef and veggies, as well as fresh baked pizza and hearty soup. There will be COOKIES.

Awards in all categories plus top Female, Male and Mixed. Additionally, the most prestigious of all awards: the Grand Barnacle of the Bay.

And, for the first time ever: GUARANTEED WAVES or your money back. No joke Register now:

https://register.pacificmultisports.com/Events/1094/Register

Kevin Olney Mar 17 #33384
UPDATE

MORE PRIZES!!

We are sweetening the prize pool with a couple sessions of Wilson’s strength and mobility class at PRIME. Get in shape for the paddle season and avoid injury.

Duncan Howat Mar 17 #33385

Kevin, on your GUARANTEED WAVES, part of the race of the century, I note you don't say the size, which is smart, because I'm seeing light and variable, to 5. Same as today. But sunny, slack tide, and wow about 100 participants, not even counting the extras in the doubles. Have you enlisted one of those wake -surf boats with tanks to make the waves? That could mess things up.

Kevin Olney Mar 17 #33388

Duncan, the original plan was to have a whole pod of Orcas swim around the course to stir up the bay. Unfortunately, this would violate the Marine Mammal Protection Act, as we must maintain 200 yards distance from the whales. Plan B is to have Jonas tow Dean’s sport boat behind him at about 7-8 knots in the front of the pack. That should make a good wake

David Scherrer Mar 17 #33389

Somebody gotta know a Foss tug captain? That could be good. Or we just can have a dance party…..

joanandthom Mar 17 #33390

Kevin I have a coupe of 4 ft. diameter fans that we could set up un the dock They move a lot of air.
TP

Reivers Dustin Mar 17 #33393

you guys are a hoot. I betcha The Kev has booked that Grey Whale that showed up last time. We all got so excited we forgot everything else.

Nick Kelly Mar 17 #33395

Only problem is the pod of orcas Kevin got came through the bay today, a day early. Maybe he can get them to return tomorrow to cheer us on.

David Hooper Mar 17 #33399

I know, right? What's up with that? Didn't they talk to the humpback from last year?

I was just coming in from a paddle as they were going by MP. I tried to flag them down to let them know their mistake, but they seemed to have something else on their minds.

Race Report PMRWR
Reivers Dustin Mar 18 #33405

Mayhem start. I saw a newer surfski paddler crowd into a rower a couple of times. Lucky no one got hurt. I hope paddlers tell each other how rowers need lots of room. It's not what it looks like. Those oars scribe a circular radius centered on the oar=lock. This means at the beginning and end of the stroke the oar is not that far away from the centerline of the scull. But the oar sweeps that radius away from the centerline. So for example if your boat or you contact the oar at the beginning of the stroke then the oar will drive into you with tremendous force. Not the force of the rower, but the force vector of the combined velocity of the two boats.

If that sounds too scie-ency, Its like this: something will break. Boat, Ribs, … something. Nothing the rower can do about it. If you are lucky, like today's science experiment, the rower will clash paddle or somehow anticipate a collision and release his oar. The rower I watched today did a masterful job of giving way, not getting dumped in the water and waiting until his path was clear. It was a buckaroo-bonzai moment for the rower as he struggled to stay aboard with one oar hanging and the boat sloppy. I saw another rower out of his boat in the crowd and probably same trouble started it. Talking to Duncan, coming out of a racing scull is non-trivial. If it was an open water rower, getting back in is do-able, maybe. Racing scull - no way. I'm really hoping we can honor the creed and make it possible for all human powered boats to accommodate each other.

Awesome crowd. So fun. Talking with Susan DB after re-awakened the feeling. She's been away and couldn't do La Connor or BBOP, so like happens to me at LaConnor: I want to hug all my peeps and stare into their eyes. Like, Winter is losing ground and it's a fresh look at you guys who are outdoorsey, bright-eyed, super-friendly and have forgotten how you got weary of my B.S. by the end of last season. Plus Hilde was there. And my youngest daughter with her two rascally boys. Wish I could introduce but the crowd was rockin.

I raced well. Not as well as the Grand Barnacle: LB. He must be putting something special in his cookies. I had Deano ahead and he really gapped me mid-race, but I kept the faith and kept him in sight. That makes it a good day. I don't know about you guys, but I really liked the boat wakes. I got a bit of help, but mostly they were no use. What I liked was having something to blame. Some texture. Something bothersome to help me keep it real. Late in the first lap I got a huge lift right when I was dicing with some arch-rivals. In my fantasy world they became totally demoralized by how well I worked those waves. The other times on boat wakes, I had to adjust to avoid trouble and had to keep re-focusing to avoid paddling like a seal on land.

Bling was impressive. I have an image of Clement stooped over in his poorly lit basement scratching away with his exacto-knife for months in the winter. The poor guy is sitting there in his wool socks and tighty-whiteys with a little electric heater under the bench. Ewe, bad imagery. sorry guys. I know he uses computers and child labor. So it's ok. Awesome sponsors. Great to see Peter's girls (and the newest Marcus). Fantastic support from CBC, Gary Southstone and staff. So nice to see some of our cousins from north of the border. As least one made the run down from Victoria. I hope some of us make the trip up.

rd

Susan DeBari Mar 19 #33410

Thank you Reivers for the writeup and the post-race conversation.

Reivers did something very generous yesterday. I see cookies in his future.

Sue

Rough Water Video
beau whitehead Mar 18 #33406

Shot with an iPhone, so quality is so so…. You guys all looked great out there.

David Hooper Mar 18 #33407

Nice job, Beau! You really caught the breadth of action we saw today!

Denise Weeks Mar 19 #33408

So fun! Thanks, Beau! I love seeing everyone in the thick of it, esp. trying to ride the guaranteed waves. And the front pack, so tight. And perfect music.

Thanks Kevin and all the incredible volunteers who made the race happen. It is such a unique blend of low key and well oiled and fun and funny. The whales missed out on a great time.

Az Mar 19 #33409

That was great, Beau! Makes me think of Peter 👊🏽 Thoughts of him filtered through the whole day. So glad Clinton got his OC back on the water and the girls & Miller were there. Thank you all for making it a terrific day

Brandon Nelson Mar 19 #33414

Great video, Beau, awesome music, and all of it reminds me what a beautiful setting we have in our backyard. So grateful for the whole experience yesterday! Peter was smiling.

PMRW Race Photos

Denise Weeks Mar 21 #33420

For non-FB users, in case you haven't already seen this, here's the link to the race photos:

http://soundrowers.org/racePhotos/2023/PeterMarcusRoughWaterRace/index.html

Thanks, Michael! These are great.