Surfski Knowledge Base

2nd race in Winter Series
Reivers Dustin
01/20/18 #22435

Dave Williams memorial race 2018 was rowdy. Everyone's eyes were pretty big pre-race. David H said he came over on Marine Drive along the north shore of Bellingham Bay and it was stacked. Race organizers instituted short course with loops north of Portage so the safety boats could try to keep track. Then as first finishers finished the first loop they were told to abort second lap.

Naturally a few of us complained to each other that we could have handled it. However, I'm pretty sure no one said a peep to the organizer. I had signed up for long course, but felt strongly that I got more than my money's worth with just one of those laps. I think just four surfski's. Tons of OC boats from all over the place.

A ceremony was held for Dave with his family present. It was traditional style and very impressive and heart felt. The Williams name has been strong in paddle-sport as long as I remember. It was moving to see the goodwill extended by Williams and Lummi tribe towards the new ways of paddling and celebrating the water. As they said, “this is a healing thing we do and it is for everyone.”

I have to jump off just now, but I want to tell about my own race, later.

rd

Reivers Dustin
01/20/18 #22436

OK, so race layout was from Stommish grounds downwind toward ferry crossing, then across to the other side ferry landing, then hard pounding up to north end Portage Island. Last leg was screaming downwind to finish back as Stommish beach.

I felt frisky even though I messed up the start (I was way back of the line). About half way across to Lummi I got slammed a few times by rollers. I was told later that some OC boats flipped in there. It was harsh on me in my S1-X where I could not power and the wave would swing my boat so that I had a full footwell and zero speed. This was wrong side amma for the OC guys and I passed a few. Also a few paddlers were navigating point to point at the crossing and got swept downwind quite a bit. I made some ground on those folks. Heather told me that her rudder was not enough for those big side rollers and she had trouble holding to the line. I also heard there were some serous traffic problems with so many boats trying to avoid each other. This first crossing was tough because there were gusts and wavesets that would cap off just you and others around you would cruse ahead. Once we got across Hale's passage we turned upwind toward Portage. I never saw a turn mark, maybe because it was really big on the Lummi Island side. We had a stiff south wind against a steady ebb. It was on this leg that I pretty much got wimpy. I could see Heather, Kevin, Peter, Beau and Hopper as they would surge when they got easy waves and wind. I was fragged from fighting the bigs and couldn't hammer in the smalls. The wind and waves would come in segments. Kim and Jill talked about it. The footwells never really got empty and when the bigs rolled in Kim got face slapped. Maybe she should have had a snorkel. Partly from going with the ebb against the rollers, you had to work hard to get the boat to break loose enough to have rudder control and have drainage. I didn't have the mustard for it. I knew I didn't have another lap in me. From the turn at Portage I could finally glance at my GPS and saw 8 and 9 mpg. That leg went fast. People were coming back from the finish line telling us to forget the second lap. Aw, dang I was so disappointed (NOT!). But it was fun to paddle back upwind in the lee and get a cheap downwinder or two.

It was a really heavy water race and I suspect very few SR race directors would have had the heart to put us out there. But I liked it. I think generally the skill level of the OC gang is high. I saw OC boats flip and recover. I had several OC boats outrun me. Even upwind against the grain.

I wanted to give a shout out to Shane B. He showed and helped logistics because he's had yet another surgery or maybe several that will keep him off the water. But at least his boat was in the race (he loaned it out). Hale's passage is not for weenies.

See you on the water.
rd

Reivers Dustin
01/21/18 #22437

Sorry Dave, meant Hooper.

Dale McKinnon
01/21/18 #22438

Great recap and visuals, RD. Mad skillsets for paddlers and pullers in those conditions!

David Hooper
01/21/18 #22439

No worries, Reivers. (They had it as “Hopper” on the results board too. Happens all the time.)

Thanks for the write-up – you captured the feel of that race really well! That was one of the more satisfying 3.6 mile paddles I’ve had in a while – less about the race, more about just completing the course in those conditions.

Anyone want to go back there this morning? Could be even more interesting…

Dave H.

lori & beau whitehead

01/21/18 #22441

Perfect re-cap RD. I woke up race morning with a cough, but nothing to really stress about and made my way out to Stomish. When they changed the race course, my initial thought was; they just made it more unsafe. But oh well. Race starts & I feel like I'm paddling in mud. I cannot make my canoe move. About half-way across to Lummi Island I kinda start to get a rythm (barely.) I grind my way up to Heather and a OC2. I decide at that point, if I can stick with Heather, then my day will good. I'm a little bummed the first & second OC1's are already a minute ahead of us, and I'm baffled as to why I can't go faster… but anyway, decided this was survival mode kind of racing, and I needed to conserve for lap #2. Turns out there was no lap #2 and Heather and I had a pretty liesurely downwind run to the finish line, but there were good waves there. Kinda funny anticipating a 12 mile race and then doing a 3.6 miler instead (-:
Anyway, woke up at midnight with teeth-chattering chills, fever, splitting headache and body aches. The flu had struck. It appears all those sick people we take to the hospital finally got their cooties on me. So a tiny little part of me thinks I coulda gone faster had I not had the flu bug taking hold of me… but then again, maybe not.

Tyler Irwin
01/21/18 #22442

Hey Gang,

I appreciate the feedback from Autumn’s race on Saturday. This was the first time she has hosted a winter series race and Mother Nature, true to form, showed up in force, funneled 15-30 knot winds through Hale Passage and made things dang sporty.

I also wanted to thank those of you that registered online before race day. Our race hosts are still getting used to managing PaddleGuru and unfortunately we had a slew of paddlers show up on race day unregistered which created some mild chaos with getting people registered and correcting boat numbers. Fortunately, I believe all the paddlers that crossed the finish line and received a time are now recorded in the PaddleGuru results below.

https://paddleguru.com/races/PNWORCAWinterSeriesRace2DavidWilliamsMemorialRace

All of that being said, thank you for your willingness to change the course and also those of you that assisted other paddlers that had issues with rigging/huli/etc. a big THANK YOU goes out to you for watching out for each other!

We will see you all in Portland on February 3rd for Winter Series Race #3 hosted by Mountain Home Canoe Club.

-Tyler

Jill Komoto

01/22/18 #22443

We have some concerns with the Paddle guru system. For one, it shows 60+ as golden masters when it should be kupuna (golden masters is 55+ in our association). It also doesn’t allow for age divisions in the tandem boats.

Reivers Dustin
01/22/18 #22444

I don't see myself in the finish order. I completed the course. I passed right in front of Shane who was spotting finishers at the line. Maybe he mistook me for Greg Barton. That must be it. We look exactly alike.

Note to race organizers: please don't bother fixing this. My finish is nothing to be that proud of. I had a blast and liked the challenge more than having another flat water ego match like so many races turn into.

rd

Kimberly Reeves
01/22/18 #22445

Pretty good description Reivers…it was a sporty race…julie and I stayed conservative, upright, friends and maintained a sense of humor. The upwind leg felt like an hour, the downwind…maybe 2 minutes…. or not nearly long enough. I’ve never gotten so wet with splash pants and top. Let’s hope La Conner is an easier ride…
Kim

Kimberly Reeves
01/22/18 #22446

Hey Tyler
Didn’t see any results for tandem short course
Kim