Surfski Knowledge Base

allipp01
07/23/12 #13013

We had a great weekend at the Gorge, with BBOP men and women both taking 6th place in the OC-6 division.

The women were a little bummed since there was very little wind for their race and it ended up being a long hot slog!

For us men, by the time we started at 1:30 it was blowing steady low 20s, and there was some very rideable bumps. Our race was marred by a major logjam at the first turn. One of the first boats around the turn, got spun out and held by the current against the turn tripod, and each subsequent boat kept ramming and spinning others out until nearly the whole field was logjammed! A few lucky boats got through, and we ended up coming out in 8th place, then clawing our way up to a 6th place finish.

In Sunday's small boat race a good field of surfskis, Jensen, Johnson, DJ, Austin, Kirk, Shane Martin et al were there along with dozens of OC-1 canoes. With the fast skis gone, I can only comment on the OC race, but Gerstl and a couple other guys went way over to Oregon on the Home Valley course, and got a bit ahead of me. When they had to cross the river in the strong current, I managed to pull ahead for a 30 second or so victory. A small redemption for my previous 2 downwind races (De Fuca and Howe Sound) where I took the wrong course!

dnjacobson79
07/23/12 #13014

Great race yesterday Alan, definitely a stacked OC1 field, awesome to see you bring it home for Bham! Nothing like threading the needle through the North American Laser Championships of the start of the race yesterday, talk about moving targets (us or them?)! Looks like another windy day at the Gorge and it's already whitecapping!

allipp01 07/23/12 #13015

Ohh yeh, I forgot to add that we went through 200 laser sailboats, and during the OC-6 race I remember politely asking a sailor not to cut us off….my crewmates quoted me as saying “don't cut us off or I'll EFFING run you over”. Funny how the mind remembers things!