Surfski Knowledge Base

race results

Re: FW: Winter Series #2 - Jericho Jan 23
Nicholas Cryder
01/23/16 #18576

Great turnout from North and South, with excellent conditions for a memorable race. Wind and swell was just enough from the west to light up fast Salish rollers for the return trip, but a lot of work at the same time. Shane Martin scored a solid win today after a back and forth battle on the runners home with yours truly. Good, honest racing today with a lot very fast times.

On a sad note, an OC1 racer (I don't know his name - anyone?) suffered what appears to be a heart attack right after the race, and it was a battle to keep him going. I heard word that he had a pulse as they took him to the hospital, so hopeful he'll make it. If anyone from the Canadian community can keep us posted, I think many would like to know. Rooting for him.

Hug your loved ones. Count your blessings. Life is sweet and bitter.

PNWORCA #2 Jericho Report
lori & beau whitehead
01/23/16 #18577

Quick report:
10K race, 5 out/5 back.
Decent bumps out of the NW started to build as we headed out to the turn can, which meant we would have some rides to catch coming back home to Jericho. Approaching the turn-around at around 5K Shane and Cryder were duking it out for first place, with Peter M and Paul C (who won't let a little knee surgery keep him from racing) and Alan L and I in the OC2 about 2 minutes back. Once the turn was made, Alan put his Jedi wave catching skills to work and we dropped Paul and reeled in Peter, slowly edging past him. We put some serious time into the Shane/Cryder group, and could see that Shane was dropping Cryder. Perhaps Cryder over-powered and snapped another mere mortal Epic mid-wing paddle, I'm not sure.

Unfortunately, the closer we got to home, the smaller the swell got, allowing Peter to scratch past us and back into 3rd place. And thats how it finished. Shane first (Epic), Cryder second (Epic), Peter (Huki) and Lipp/Whitehead less than a minute back (I think), in 3rd and 4th overall. Paul C. wasn't too far behind us. Mike Hammer was 4th OC1 and had a great race. Also having great races were Jason Park & Brian Smart.

The day ended on a sad note, when an outrigger paddler collapsed at the finish line and fell out of his boat. With the help of many paddlers, he was put into the safety boat where CPR was immediately started. Chest compressions were being performed when they hit the beach and he was transferred to the ambulance where they worked him for another 20-30 minutes before transport. Last word was that they got pulses back and the firefighters we talked to were optimistic. If anyone has heard anymore, I'd like to hear.

Beau Whitehead

Ashley Paul James
01/23/16 #18579

Hello All

Jan (Race Director) sent me the following text message from the hospital.
—-
Peter is still with us but not out of danger. He's had surgery already to put a stent in his left aorta. His heart is good now but his brain was without oxygen for about 20 minutes. The next day or two will tell the level of brain activity. He's in the critical care unit now, all hooked up, including a breathing tube.

I'm with his wife and their daughter is on her way from Ontario. Fingers tightly crossed.

Ashley Paul James

allipp01

01/24/16 #18581

Glad to hear that his heart is beating well. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I've always been under the impression that CPR/rescue breathing does circulate blood and oxygen, thereby oxygenating the brain to some extent. I think they got CPR started within a couple minutes, so I'm hoping he'll be OK.

Race at Jerricho……What would you do?
Pmarcus
01/23/16 #18578

Hey All,

First part of race day went well…with flat calm start and Nw bumps slowly building to some okay lumps actually clearing underneath your bow as you neared the turn buoy and the little rips in the water surrounding the last 1/4 to the turn…on the way back, those of that delicately got around the buoy due to a little twitchy-ness (Me….) got some outstanding pushes on the way home although it hurt a little to stay in front of them….In the HPK group, Shane M was able to surf away with Nic C in hot pursuit and yours truly battled with Chris D and Alan L/Beau W, (they put the hurt on the Mens' OC-2 division) in an OC-2 over “wave ownership” and I was lucky enough to own about Two more for the push to the finish with Paul C, fresh from Knee surgery, and Jim S and Jeff H not far behind….pretty fun conditions….Mike H and Brian S and Jason P and Ernie W and Dan M and Shane B (I am sure I missed someone)brought home the NWest in the Men's Oc-1…didn't really see the ladies finish (sorry….)

So..I asked “What would you do?” Minutes after the finish as I paddled slowly to towards the beach…an Oc paddler dumped literally right off my bow…no biggy…he was wearing a dry suit, just cooling off..but something didn't feel right as I coasted up, no movement in between the ama and the upside down boat, from the paddler. I got super close and asked if he was okay, no answer (I couldn't see him yet) as he came into view he was floating face up, looked okay for a second, then I realized he was just submerging his face and what appeared like he was blowing his breath out and cooling his face, reasonable..but still no movement…then it registered, NO Movement…I instantly started yelling for help as the rescue boat was a mere fifty feet away or so! A delayed reaction from the surrounding OC finishers then they all realized this American Howlie Dude is yelling for help and the rescue boat is not responding! What seemed like the whole bay let off yelling at the boat to come…at this point another Oc paddler (Awesome dude) closer to his stern jumped in and elevated his head out of the water…I started to yell at anyone and everything (including the spectators) to call 911, (without being too rude and I am sure someone did, it seemed all I got back was the “deer in the headlights” look) to send help to Jerricho…That other OC paddler was still treading water holding the guys head up as finally the rescue boat approached….I hesitated, then paddled into the beach and asked for the twentieth time for someone to call 911, luckily a local (to me), Adrienne H was near and didn't hesitate to call….then the rescue boat made it to shore with a full blown CPR and Multi Defib shock happening in a very crowded boat ..lots of us tried to help, Paul C getting Defib and first aid stuff from the boat office, me doing what I could with specialist showing up and O2 and equipment being passed from beach to boat…then his significant other showed up and for some reason came right up to me, very distressed obviously, I did what I could briefly keeping her a little distance from the boat and luckily one of the race organizers knew her and came and comforted her from me…we lifted the paddler out, the paramedics put the patient on a stretcher and up the beach and onto the waiting ambulance…at the time of the event…the patient had a weak pulse and please, hopefully he recovers!! But, I ask myself, trained in advance first aid, should I have jumped in first, what could I have done better, when they hit the shore they needed someone to relieve the exhausted rescuer doing CPR, I looked around and started to say I could then some responder guy luckily didn't hesitate, why didn't I! So…I ask….Think about it now….when you are at a race, or paddling with someone along the “wall” in the Bay or surfing Jericcho and something happens, unexpected….What would you do or be willing to do? Good luck to the paddler and significant….Be prepared! Thanks to all the people trained and untrained that helped!! Regards, P

Michael Gregory
01/25/16 #18589

Sad news, hope for good outcome. The fact that this fellow fell into cold water may be very much in his favor. In such events, the very most important thing is keeping the airway clear and start effective chest compressions right away - it's all about ventilation at that point.

Take a Basic Life Support course and learn how to respond effectively. No more blowing in faces, yuck.

lori & beau whitehead

01/26/16 #18593

Unfortunately I get to do CPR on patients about once a month. But when I do it, I'm part of a 3-6 person team and we have a lot of cool equipment. It's a whole lot different (and harder) for most folks.

MG is correct. Forget about mouth to mouth. Focus on uninterrupted chest compressions until first responders arrive.
Couple interesting facts about the human body & CPR;

As you do chest compressions, you are building pressure inside the patients vascular system, and keeping blood going to their brain, which is critical for survival. It takes awhile for that pressure to build, and the pressure drops very quickly and easily when there is any pause or delay in compressions. If you are doing 30 compressions and 2 breaths, about 15 of those compressions are simply getting the pressure built back up again. That 5 to 10 second pause you take for the two (meager, low oxygen) breaths completely drops that vascular pressure back to ZERO. What little O2 you are actually blowing into the patients lungs is now completely wasted.

Another interesting discovery, is that chest compressions act like a bellows, and when you release pressure on the “up-stroke” of the compression, you create negative pressure inside the lungs, allowing air to naturally get inhaled.
Bottom line; compressions save lives, not mouth to mouth.

Bear River Properties / Denise Dibb Thompson <bear-river-properties@…>
01/26/16 #18594

Mahalo Beau! Great information!

Rick Lingbloom

01/26/16 #18595

I love your clear and simple explanation of CPR Beau. Thanks for what guys like you, Mike H., and so many others do to help our community.

Rick L.

Reivers Dustin
01/26/16 #18598

I moved here in '86 and have seen the fire districts go through some really tough evolution as the county and city have changed. The basic core structure and the people that make it work is special. Never seen anything like it in the other places I've lived. Some of the wonderful side effects are not obvious. An example would be Ski-to-Sea. Yes, we have a special geography, but so do a few other places that have tried to pull this type of thing together (anyone remember Ridge-to-River?).

Very few other giant relay events hang together as well as Whatcom County. A lot because of a background culture of volunteers. Some of the other venues won't allow their first responder system to have anything to do with it. The structure can't handle the legal exposure. And the individual trained personnel get burned out. It's not for the faint hearted. These guys are pulling drunks and druggies out of single car accidents at stupid hours. Not just the natural incident stuff. They are there quickly in some of the counties remote areas until paramedics with fully equipped transport can get there. There's high angle response, fast water response, fire response, mass casualty, yadda yadda on and on.

Thanks for your service Rick L. and thank goodness for the professionals like Mike H. and Beau. Might be others I don't know about. I've had some non-paddling buddies into this and it can be tough work.

rd