Surfski Knowledge Base

Re: Dan Harris Challenge/Think International Challenge Rules
Reivers Dustin
04/22/18 #22818

race report: all around fantastic. There were some agony of defeat stories in there. Several really top paddlers were taken down a notch by weeds. Sargassum sorrows. Dean, LB, Scoggins's double, Bob P. and Carl T. that I know of. Also the start was a melee. The big boats doing short course took a cross-wise path that messed up quite a few folks. We had a little light pre-race entertainment when one of our highly decorated OC paddlers did a monster flop right in front of start line. This was not your Grandpa's row-boat race. Food was quick and plenty. Awards for lots of high performers and included Beers for adults and chocolate milk for underage overachievers. Awards happened quickly and weather cooperated.

I was glad for my usual pokey start after watching the fun and games with the big war canoes going back across for short course. Best of all I had a chance to hook up with a really strong love train. D-Mow, Mark W, David S. and three stout lads from the great white north set a blistering pace and I hung on for dear life. Some of the boat wakes and cross chop made it interesting. Two of the stout lads got caught sideways on a boat wake and I jumped ahead onto Dave's stern. Mark and D-Mow diced back and forth and pulled the train for most of the race. As we came around the island the Scoggin's double was stopped trying to shed weeds. For bonus points they had pulled Bob P into the briar patch and he was messed up as well. But the love train was running so we didn't stop to assist. As the train came up to the red can things were blowing up. People would surge and re-group. I managed to get up front with D-mow and the last standing stout lad. The three of us thundered up to the finish where the crowd started roaring. I heard Chariots of Fire music and gave it all I had. D-Mow must have heard about the free beer and inched past me. A great day for me.

rd

Dan Harris Results and other musings.
John Rybczyk
04/22/18 #22820

Thanks to everyone for a great turnout. We had 70 boats and 100 paddlers, which is the second most ever for a Dan Harris race. I think we would have set a record if it wasn’t also closing day up at Mt. Baker. Next year I must coordinate with Gwen and Duncan before they set their closing date! I’ll leave it to others to tell their war stories but, one thing for sure, we dodged a bullet. As I was packing up the last of the stuff after the race, I glanced out at the bay and it was raging straight out of the west with many boat flipping, beam sea, white-caps.

There were lots of fast times and, for the first time, TWO USA women factored into the top 24 scoring for the Think International Challenge (12 racers from each team), Heather Nelson and a junior, Ana Swetish. That’s outright, straight up, men against women, no handicap, no time bonus, no nothing but guts and gnar.

As for the Think International Challenge, after round one, the score stands USA = 64, Canada = 139. The lower the score the better. Now, two things about that. First, the home team always wins their leg by a lot. Second, that’s actually a pretty good score for the away team (Canada, for those of you from Loma Linda). They had several fast surf skiers and they brought down A LOT of women (women and juniors earn bonus points for their teams). This is particularly distressing in that I don’t think that the first women even settled in the Okanagan until 1987. So, dang, they really stepped up in a hurry. The USA will have to bring their A game and plenty of it for the Board the Fjord race. And it must start by all of us learning how to spell fjord so that we can type into google maps to find our way over there for the race.

So, here are the results. Sorry if the formatting goes awry. We’ll be posting it to the Dan Harris web page shortly as well. Let me know if you see any errors before I permanently and for all time engrave it into the Dan Harris trophy.

Long Course

Place Time Name Class Place in Class

1 1:04:22 Deschenes 1X 1

2. 1:06:40 Barton HPK 1

3. 1:07:20 Olney/Dyck HPK2 1

4. 1:07:20 Nelson/Swetish HPK2 2

5. 1:10:46 Cryder HPK 2

6. 1:13:52 Wells/Wermus HPK2 3

7. 1:14:17 Daykin HPK 3

8. 1:14:20 Kiesling HPK 4

9. 1:15:13 Gerstl/Hammer OC2 1

10. 1:15:57 Tessmann HPK 5

11. 1:16:36 W. Hammer HPK 6

12. 1:16:38 Martin HPK 7

13. 1:16:49 H. Nelson HPKW 1

14. 1:17:04 Jordaan HPK 8

15. 1:17:10 Letailleur HPK 9

16. 1:17:55 Lee/Boatman OC2 2

17. 1:18:48 Schmidt HPK 10

18. 1:19:36 Bruce HPK 11

19. 1:19:55 Redman/Redman HPK2-jr 1

20. 1:20:08 A. Swetish HPKW-jr 1

21. 1:20:19 Scoggins/Scoggins HPK2MX 1

22. 1:20:20 Putnam HPK 12

23. 1:20:30 Brown HPK 13

24. 1:21:00 Whitlock HPK 14

25. 1:21:08 Mowry HPK 15

26. 1:21:13 Dustin HPK 16

27. 1:21:15 Hope HPK 17

28. 1:21:43 Moeley/Lipp OC2 3

29. 1:22:36 Scherrer HPK 18

30. 1:23:21 Wallick HPKW 2

31. 1:23:40 Whitehead OC1 1

32. 1:25:16 Bumstead HPK 18

33. 1:25:51 Wanless HPK 19

34. 1:26:05 Hansen HPK 20

35. 1:26:29 Molsberry HPK 21

36. 1:28:11 Hegedus HPK 22

37. 1:29:27 McBeath OC2M 1

38. 1:30:22 Lapsansky/BBOP OC6 1

39. 1:30:42 Bussinger HPK 23

40. 1:30:51 Durban HPKW 3

41. 1:30:52 Wallick HPK 24

42. 1:31:06 Gregory HPK 25

43. 1:31:15 Reeves/VanDooren OC2W 1

44. 1:31:56 Smart OC1 2

45. 1:32:10 Ching HPK 26

46. 1:32:41 Howat HPK 27

47. 1:32:42 Millington/BBOP OC6 2

48. 1:34:42 Armstrong HPK 28

49. 1:34:45 Romo OC1 3

50. 1:35:28 Freeto/BBOP OC6 3

51. 1:54:22 Kruger SUP 1

Short Course

1. 36:03 Kai Cree WC 1

2. 36:11 Lone Star WC 2

3. 37:08 Marcus HPK 1

4. 37:08 Wright/Halstead HPK2 1

5. 39:18 Wy-Ka-Cee-Am WC 3

6. 38:18 Clarke HPK 2

7. 40:30 A. Scoggins HPKW-jr 1

8. 40:39 M. Nelson HPK 3

9. 41:00 Lingbloom HPK 4

10. 41:13 Lamb HPK 5

11. 41:29 Wonham HPKW 1

12. 41:47 Niemier HPK 6

13. 42:55 Boates HPKW 2

14. 43:03 Stimac HPK 7

15. 44:03 Rikkole Cree OC6 1

16. 44:28 Hinson HPKW-jr 2

17. 47:02 T. Clarke HPKW 2

18. 51:03 Carlson HPK 8

19. 53:13 Gillard FSKW 1

See you on the water,

Johnr

lori & beau whitehead
04/23/18 #22824

Anyone who has paddled with me much knows I tend to huli more on dead-flat water than big gnarly water, so why should yesterday have been any different? I will say that normally I get in a group within the first 1/2 mile of the start of a race, and that's pretty much how it stays for the entire race… but yesterday, starting dead last gave me the opportunity to pass more boats than I ever have in a race. So that was kinda fun, but I don't recommend the process in general. Great race John, superbly organized as always.

The Dan Harris Start
John Rybczyk
04/23/18 #22825

This comment is generally unrelated to Beau's previous comment. I just want to make a comment or two about the start of the race. Originally, we started the race way out at the Star Rock buoy, but several years ago we moved the start inside by about half the distance, prompting many racers to comment that there would not be enough room for the start. There actually is plenty of room for the start, but what we found is that it does not matter where we set the buoy, or even if we used the Star Rock Buoy itself for the start, everyone crowds around the buoy to get the straightest line to the island. In others words, plenty of room inside, but no one wants to be there.

Yes, it is true that the further out we set the start, the less critical the angle becomes. However, from the shore, the start, up close, is really, really spectacular. You cannot imagine it unless you see it. It is breathtaking. When that horn goes off, it literally stops people in their tracks and folks at the park and along the boardwalk stand awestruck at the spectacle of it all. Then, many of those folks will make their way to the starting tent to ask all sorts of questions about the race, the boats, etc.. A big positive for our sport that is generally not so spectator friendly. I wouldn't want it any other way!

One good idea, derived from one of Reiver's comments, would be to ask the short course racers to voluntarily move to the inside of the start, since the angle to the island does not affect them.

See you an the water

Kevin Olney
04/23/18 #22827

Thanks for all the work you and the volunteer crew put into the race!

Josh Dyck and I were a last-minute pairing and ended up battling the whole race with the last-second team of Nelson/Swetish. Between the two boats we had barely 10 minutes of practice time with our partners!

The start was hectic to say the least. As John mentioned, most of the boats were crowded next to the buoy so there was a lot of jockeying for position on the line. Right as I was trying to figure out what Beau was doing in the water the horn sounded and the water around us erupted in paddle splashes and boat wakes. Luckily we were able to slip past the boats around us and find clear water ahead. After a couple minutes of hard paddling a quick glance around confirmed that we had cleared the pack and were on our own. About 75' to our right was Brandon and Tom pulling a line of boats behind them. As we angled to the drydock we grouped together and started to separate from the rest of the pack. Soon it was Brandon/Tom pulling, with us on one side and Greg Barton on the other.

This formation continued for a while until Dave Deschenes caught up. His rowing shell had been swamped at the start so it took him a minute to get up to speed. He was nice enough to let us all hop on his draft for a couple of (excruciatingly painful) minutes before merrily rowing away into the distance. At this point Josh and I were starting to fade slightly and would fall back a wave or two behind Brandon, have to put in a burst to catch up and only hope to recover somewhat while still clinging to the draft.

Somewhere just south of Clark's Point Greg made a move and broke away but Brandon lead a strong charge and pulled us back up to him as we rounded Chuckanut Island. As we headed back towards Bellingham it was clear our group had put serious distance between us and the next boats. The pace slowed just a little. We started to feel better and I knew we had to take a turn pulling so we gave it a shot. We lasted barely five minutes. Pretty much cooked, we dropped back again and prepared to suffer through the last four miles of the race.

As we neared the #2 Buoy the pace started to pick up and, shortly after the turn, Greg decided amateur hour was over. His breakaway was impressive. In under two minutes he gapped us by over 30 seconds. All we could do was watch while we lumbered towards the finish.

Right after we passed the drydock I made the decision to try and move ahead. I want it to be clear that we spent most of the race riding Brandon/Tom and Greg's wash and barely hanging on a number of times. As a vocal opponent of the wash ride/sprint finish strategy the sportsman in me was ready to concede the race but I thought about something Josh told me right as he got in the boat. When his daughter Hailey saw John R displaying the blue ribbon before the race, she said “Daddy, Can you win the blue ribbon?” If you have never met Josh's daughter she is the kind of adorable six-year-old who just makes your heart melt. There was no choice, we had to go for it. That's when the Chariots of Fire music kicked in and we had one of the most exciting back and forth finishes I can remember. Brandon and Tom are all class and outstanding paddlers. I'm grateful for every chance to paddle with and race against you guys.

I didn't mean to post such a lengthy recount of the race but it was quite memorable for me and I just wanted the share my little perspective on the day.

Kevin O

Reivers Dustin

04/23/18 #22828

Reading about this and re-living the layers of effort was fantastic. Similar experience for me. I hung on for dear life for most of the race. Mark and Dennis M expended massive energy up front. David S. was absolutely masterful at picking lines and holding the right spot. At awards after, I noticed Josh's little girl just explode. Blonde hair was flying everywhere as she bounced around with that ribbon. This story reminds me of some of my own “Dad Wins”. Just a couple of weeks ago my 34 year old son was going over stuff I had forgotten about that … well. This whole thing is just another little inside race story that keeps me grooving about the sport. cool beans. Another well run race.

rd

Bob Putnam
04/26/18 #22843

Hi Paddlers,
Big thanks from Canada to Race organizers John Rybzyck and team. It was a great event and as usual the Bellingham paddling community makes us Canadians feel welcome.

(….)