Surfski Knowledge Base

Reivers Dustin
03/05/16 #18736

Wind storm at my house last night had me worried they might cancel. But this morning the sun broke free and it was fantastic. Those pudgy little water-cabs were running around, lots of folks walking, running and biking the trails. Eagles nest right overhead. Seals poking around in the harbor. Oh yeah, racing too. Impressive Outrigger showing. OC-6's ignored the race and were out tearing up English Bay on their own. Rules: must wear PFD, no drafting out of class. Two stage start to keep OC-2s and Surfski's out of the OC-1 mix. I only saw five or six 'skis anyway. No way to avoid wakes at some of the turns and maybe at the finish. But mostly everyone kept their nose clean. Silly rule. No way to enforce this except for racers arguing with each other.

Shane Martin managed to squeak out another big win. Peter M kept him honest as second 'ski. Bob Putnam showed up and took third 'ski. I got fourth (good for one Canadian Beer!). Alan and Beau smoked OC-2 division. But not without effort. There were some strong dogs let loose. Not sure how Mike H., Lance and any other B'hampsters did. OC-1's had a wolf-pack thing going on with all their drafting. There's a long-ish leg from the Channel turn back to Siwash Rock where outgoing and incoming paddlers are right next to each other. Lots of yelling and screaming type camaraderie. Pretty cool.

Skimming past all the sky-scrapers in West Van and the touring runners was great. Very scenic venue.

I'm goina crack open that beer now.

rd

False Creek PNWORCA #5 report
Bob Putnam
03/07/16 #18742

Friday I was on the fence as to whether I was going to participate in Saturdays PNWO… race. When I was putting my head down to sleep and listening to the torrential rains outside my decision not to go was cemented in my mind. BUT, upon waking up Saturday Morning and seeing the glorious sunshine I decided to head out for my first race of 2016.

B'Ham representation was Quality and not quantity. I managed to hang onto to Peter Marcus for the first third of the race. My attempts to engage him in conversation by asking leading questions were unsuccessful. He cottoned onto my tactics pretty quickly and started asking questions back. Questions that required more than a one word grunt. For a guy who recovered from a nasty shoulder injury and missed the 2015 season, Reivers was running impressively well. He was nipping at my heals after I fell off of PM's pace. Alan and Beau passed me at the halfway point, and the new CORA “draft only like craft” rules were ringing in my head as I entertained they idea of being a wash riding scum. Kind of a dumb rule in my opinion.

Despite making some questionable route selections towards the end, maybe not enough oxygen was getting to his brain? Shane Martin ruled the day and won his own race. PM second and Alan and Beau 3rd, or 1st OC

Surfski participation from Canadians and Bellinghamsters was a bit thin. For you guys who never venture north of the border, its whole new world up here!! A world where the US $$ goes a long ways. Also border traffic these days is almost non-existent.

(….)