Surfski Knowledge Base

Reivers Dustin
07/08/12 #12899

it was a beauty of a day. Logistics worked out. I was feeling pretty dang frisky. This was going to be a day in which I demonstrated my awesome mind powers of surfski paddling.

The pre-race was typical Morris. Here's the basic rules, how many boats do we have?, highly recomend partners, here's the map and here are some of your decision points. Don't find a new route to the North Pole, but you might smoke the course if you pick the right slot.

Morris laid out the start line, but Brandon said wait a minute: the start line is wherever DJ says it is. (big laugh on DJ because he sometimes fires up the jet pack too soon.)

Roger was spending way too long near the beach smiling for Ann's camera, but we finally got a clean start. DJ & Austin motered away from the pack. Smart paddlers went wide left into the main flow in Rosario channel. I went right. I was good until I got to the North end of Cypress. Lots of back eddies. Watched the main herd motor off to Lummi. I would be interested in adding my GPS data if Morris puts together a dot-race on his computer. I show 3hr15min on 22miles, ave speed 6.77mph. (I.Q. = 37).

For some reason I decided to stay next to Cypress before cutting across to the south of Sinclair. That was a hard pull. But once past Sinclair the ride was fast - over 10 mph for 30 minutes. Problem was, that was no advantage over the other route. I had lost too much time and current. I saw dolphins, seals, the Alaska Ferry. Didn't see very many paddlers.

Awesome mind powers didn't work any too good. My wife had to drive me home and carry me up to the couch. Maybe next time.

rd

Morris Arthur
07/08/12 #12902

… and big thanks to our shuttle drivers Kathy, Hilde, and Ann. They helped us out even though we weren't the most organized.

Thank you. Thank you!

Eric Grossman
07/08/12 #12903

I second the big thanks to Kathy, Hilde, and Ann for supporting us and Debbie for her wonderful cookies and hospitality - the Arthurs did choose that house and design it to host parties for us afterall…awesome evening!

Tactics and new Elite-SL:
I also hung way wide in Rosario in line with Dave and LG and generally swept along faster than them especially when they hit the north end of Cypress and looked like they hit a brick wall, Brandon, Heather and EG1 and I cruised at least 0.5 mi ahead of them, but Dave bull dozed through it and ended up swinging down the north end of Sinclair in step with us. I thought I saw him catching Pete and Mike in OC-2 in an eddy so I veered south closer to Sinclair to tag on, only to then watch Brandon and Co, fly by me a 0.5 mi (1st tactical error). I rounded the south side of V-dee rocks 20-m behind Dave (2nd tactical error - since Brandon and co were already at Carter point by then) and followed him, thinking he was going to go south of Eliza to get into the flood current toward BHAM bay sooner, so I headed south of Eliza (3rd tactical error) only to then backtrack to follow everyone else, including LG who crossed my path half way between Carter Pt and the S end of Eliza..by then I lost about 1 mi to Brandon and Co. and had fun in the beam with Marc who caught up somewhere near the north end of Eliza..the rest was the sunset slog we all enjoyed…I registered 22 mi, I think close to 1 mi more than the wiser Nelsons and EG1.

The new SL is awesome, must have averaged 9 with long stretches of 11.5 the first hour and not too tippy until fatigue and beam wind/waves hit.

Muscles:
Muscles not too tired today, but my butt - ouch, 3 hours in a new seat, little padding, and maiden voyage…It was worth it, what a great evening!

Can you say cookies? more cookies.
Mahalos, Eric

Brandon Nelson <brandon@…>

07/08/12 #12905

AWESOME day for A to B!

AWESOME gang of passionate paddlers!

AWESOME shuttle crew!

And AWESOME post-race feast at the Arthurs.

Thanks EVERYONE for making it AWESOME!

The Nelsons

babyrebozo

07/08/12 #12908

Having never done the A to B, or any other long paddle, I knew I was going to need the comfort and security of an OC-2, with a big hurking stud of a bowman such as Big Mike Lee. It was a good choice….I know a lot of my motivation for the paddle came out of trying to catch Morris and Debbie, and Dynamic Deano…..(how does he do it?) but mostly I was paddling really hard just trying to keep up with Big Mike.

Most brilliant move I saw and of the event was when Ozzie and Harriet took Mike and I on the inside around the South tip of Lummi…..paddling their awesome Epic V-10 and even more awesome Epic V-10L (these are no ordinary surfskis), they swooped down out of the North like a couple of Kestrals. Lucky for Mike and I that the Nelsons decided to picnic on Eliza for a while.

While the following festivities were brilliantly hosted by Morris and Debbie, I was not quite up snuff. It is most unusual when Ol' Bubbles cannot stomach a beer or food…..but I guess I really gave it up for the team.

Thanks to all for putting together a great happening on a beautiful evening…..and to my bowman Mike…….dude…….you da' man.
Pete

Larry Goolsby
07/08/12 #12909

All right, let's stop sugar coating it. If you guys keep posting these gleeful reports about the A to B, every newbie between here and Seattle will want to join us next year. The truth is that it was perfect weather and we did get some high speeds riding the currents, but the fun stopped there. Morris asked us to partner up - which we didn't do well at; each of us had our own idea of which was the fastest route. Most of the single paddlers would agree that at some point during the last 3 miles, they would rather be shopping for women's clothing with their mother-in-law. 90% of the 22 miles was fine but the last 10% sucked like a commercial vacuum cleaner. I made a huge tactical error by sneaking between Sinclair and Cypress islands. I've done that route twice in the past 6 years and each time it was a huge mistake. However, my small brain told me that this year would be different and I could win this race. When I came out from between the islands, almost everyone that was behind me before I altered my course was now ahead of me. So I busted my ass for the last 9 miles just to save me from some embarassment.

Compared to some previous years, this year we got lucky. There are huge rips between here and Anacortes, and if the tide is high volume, you can run into places with 2 - 3 foot standing waves. This is not for the weak of heart. The wind can also play a big role, and in most cases, it isn't favorable. When I came in, nobody was struttin' around like a rooster that just got lucky. We were hurting - and that's the truth.

Thank you Deb and Morris for putting this all together and then feeding this sorry lot afterwards. Also, a big thanks for the shuttle bunnies for dropping us off and leaving us there. You will be rewarded in your next lives.
LG

Michael Lee <mlee@…>
07/09/12 #12913

Thanks for the accolades. It’s always a pleasure paddling with Pete “The Burning Sensation” Wells.
See you all on the water,
Mike

Reivers Dustin 07/09/12 #12918

Oh, that's right - this is electronic. You all can't see the tears that poured over my keyboard when I wrote my death-march report.

There are large somewhat hostile crossings, so hopefully the casual paddler realizes it's not as much about low resting heart rate as it is low wattage in the cranial cavity. That's sure what it felt like when I climbed out at the end. Hilde was telling me all about everyone and I didn't recognize any names. Larry? Deb&Morris? who are these people? MG? isn't that a car?

For sure: there's poor options for assistance and that big of a time window lets in major condition changes. They don't even give out a T-shirt at the end.

rd

Re: Classic jean jacket for a classy guy
Michael Lee <mlee@…>
07/08/12 #12907

There’s only one man hip enough to combine the decades of the 80s, 90s and 00s in a jean jacket/neoprene/spandex ensemble.

Thanks to all who organized the A – B paddle. We’ll have to do another San Juan Island run soon. With the exception of DJ and Austin off the front, the group hung together fairly well. We had the advantage of following Dean for much of the course. Our biggest tactical error was not hugging the west side of Lummi as we approached Vendovi and Eliza islands. The rest of the run was fairly smooth. I don’t remember the trip across Bellingham bay being that long. The shrink-wrapped white boat tower in the distance seemed to stay the same size for miles and miles.

See you all on the water.
Mike