Surfski Knowledge Base

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Canadian Champs
David Scherrer
08/24/14 #16143

Mayor Congrats to Revers, Golden Master of the waves, for his stellar performance last Saturday.
Without a doubt, he had the course and training dialed in…..a brilliant example of how it should be done!
Way to go.
David

Reivers Dustin
08/25/14 #16144

Amazing event, but I'm only actually 50% awesome. And as we have seen many times you are only as good as your last big race. I think LB got me in S2S by 13 seconds and he was only king long enough for Brian & Sandr's party.

duncanhowat
08/25/14 #16145

RD Oh I don't know, the shine on that metal should last at least to wed nite, David got a whole 6 days out of his, ah, the glory of sports.

kathleen petereit
08/26/14 #16149

This was one of the most organised, well run event we have been to. Bob P, the Squamish paddle club,CMW and the volunteers did a fantastic job. The shuttle buses were great. The barbeque and free beer after. Beautiful setting even if we didn't get the big waves. I like how Bob made the 18 foot class for the really phat ski's to encourage paddlers new to the sport tp participate.

Jonas and I had a blast in the Huki double. Never in our dreams did we think we would be duking it out side by side with Oscar and Bernard, his partner who won the bid to race in his back seat. Bernard is no slouch, his timing with Oscars stroke was good and he's a strong guy. We were even with them the first 10 kms then to my disbelief krept ahead. At the 18 km mark when we hit sloppy waves they passed us. Wish I would have had a gopro on because the look on Oscars face was priceless. He looked like a bull in a china shop ready to mow down anything in his way and was breathing like one too. I would like to hear Bernards account of his experience :) When we got back into calm water we were gaining on them again but they got us by 7 seconds.

The only complaint I heard was about the start. Half the field took off about 30 sec before the horn blast.

Well done by all the organisers. The Vancouver island team will be back next year.

Kathleen

Cheating Starts
Reivers Dustin
08/28/14 #16158

(Rant alert)

At Canadian Champs there was a poor start. I spoke with some of the guys after. Some younger guys thought is was all part of the sport. Not all of the big racers did. For the record Clint was caught on the bad end of this creeping start. But hanging out at the hotel hot-tub with beers there were comments like, 'all part of the sport'.

I got news: this is not going to work for me. I'll be done putting money down real quick if the sport goes that way. There's a great clip on youtube of an Olympic sprint race where the heavily favored racer jumped the start: he's immediately out of the event, no appeal, no discussion - a bad end of four years of hard work.

For certain Bob P and crew did a phenominal job and I don't know what I would have done in their place. But there is a few guys who need to know that this feels disrespectful to the sport and to me as a fellow competitor.

rd

dnjacobson79
08/28/14 #16159

RD - you had a great race last weekend, way to make the one-piece lycra proud….dang! We're going to start a fund to get you out of retirement & back behind the desk! Awesome performance!

I was just chatting with Big D about the starting line after chasing some morning bump. Though I totally see your very valid point regarding the startline, from my perspective, the start was the best part of the flat race. I lined up with Hank, Sean & Jasper on my right, a group of Aussie guns on the left. I remember looking over at Hank when the line started moving and seeing the biggest cheek-cheek grin, Sean looked incredibly serious/determined. I was about one boat length behind the top pack when they hit their after-burners. Other than picking off two of the Aussie paddlers during the race (thanks to them bonking), I spent the race in a different zip-code than the front pack. I like the lack of regulations in surfski, no ICF judges checking to see the rudder is coming out on waves, feel that racers should be permitted to draft anything going in the same general direction, including wave boats hired by fellow paddlers to spice things up, doubles, and than new OC-5 thing that Alan in building.

Big thanks to Bob, Ian & all the volunteers for putting on a well run inaugural race. I hear than most floating starts on the surfski international circuit get 'bumped', so that might explain the feeling that most of the international racers weren't surprised that it went off early (not saying that is right/wrong, just seems like it is what happens). Maybe I just like races that bump the starting line…even if it's only our very own Wednesday night local speed fest.
-DJ

Reivers Dustin

08/28/14 #16160

Very simple: No way DJ. Even little kids know it's wrong to cheat. I'm all in favor of anything but equipment or body damage during the race. But cheating a start will get me out of racing you or anyone else that does it. I've played where anything goes and I won't go back there for anything. Lack of regulation is great, but you know the old expression, you can't be “a little bit pregnant”. If you put 10 feet or 50 in your favor at the start what else is ok? I thought we were done with this because of 2012 U.S. Champs.

If everyone else is cool with the rolling start, tell me now and I'll chill somewhere else. I don't need to change the world, I just need to live my own life.

rd

Erik Borgnes
08/29/14 #16161

Reivers, I couldn’t agree with you more. There’s a huge difference between a paddler maneuvering 2 ft forwards to get out of the way of impending collisions at the race start - but sprinting off the “line” at the horn, and with what I’ve seen happen.

Jumping the start line is a strange thing to me because I’m not really concerned about the 10-50 yds advantage that a competitor might gain off the start line, but it seems like it puts me in a moral or ethical dilemma when it happens because while you know that it’s wrong, there’s a point when you know that the race director isn’t going to do anything and then it puts me into the position of reluctantly following the lead of the start-jumpers - which is something that I hate to do because it rewards bad behavior. It only takes one guy to start the process of rolling the start line forwards to screw up the start for everyone.

I view it as rude and disrespectful to the other racers and to the race director who’s trying to maintain some semblance of sportsmanship at the start. While the problem is caused by a paddler or a couple of paddlers, some responsibility falls on the race directors who perpetuate the behavior when they keep allowing it to happen. A couple of the last races I did in the NW soured me to racing up there when the race directors didn’t want to “be the bad guy” and penalize racers for blatantly cheating starts. I would hazard a guess to say that there are a silent majority in the sport who find that type of behavior offensive and end up not racing as much as they otherwise would.

Fortunately, in the midwest, our races on the Great Lakes have less hooliganism and are more fun - much like the Sound Rower races were 15 yrs ago.

EB

ALAN CLARK

08/29/14 #16162

Reivers and Eric,

In sailing, if people start early, the race committee just calls a re-start. If you don't come back, you don't get a finish. After a couple of attempts to start a race, the race committee can put up one of two flags. The “Z” flag which gives a 20% scoring penalty for anybody over early, or the “Black” flag which says that a boat over early will receive a DSQ. It's pretty effective. The system is used in Olympic sailing events, most big international sailing events, and in national and world class championships when necessary. Re-starts can be a pain for everybody, but they do keep everybody honest. A penalty or DSQ seems harsh, but is effective in changing competitor's behavior. Nothing like flushing hefty event entry fees, years of effort and preparation down the tubes because you started early!

I am not advocating this system be used for all races, but for major races it might be a good alternative to doing nothing. If info about the potential for a 20% penalty or DSQ for starting early were included in the race entry or paddlers meeting, it might help people decide to hang back just a bit. Now for the more complex question of what do surf ski and outrigger paddlers really want, a fair start or the current “rolling starts”?

Alan

Reivers Dustin
08/29/14 #16163

I've gotten feedback privately, I think you're right Erik. Some folks are just voting with their feet and walking away. I know that all the organizers have to do is tell the place finisher(s) once: “sorry mate, you crossed the start, that's a DNF - next guy gets the win”. No warnings, no pulling back the start - just ejected from the podium. Oh yeah, and forget these start warnings. Get a watch people.

These guys view themselves as champions and role models. News flash: it won't pass with me. If you can't finish first without a false advantage I'm going to call B.S. on your stature. Cheating and lying are all the same to me.

rd