Surfski Knowledge Base

Pmarcus
04/23/11 #10542

Greetings……..After a groggy start this morning due to…well, just being groggy, I picked up Eric W. and we headed to Everett. Good turnout overall for the race and strong showing from the B'ham Team(9)! Mike H. and Lance R. duked it out around the 5 mile course in the OC class….(a couple of six person canoes were down there waiting to take on the new super duper B'ham canoe!) We had Reivers D., Roger L., Kirk C., Eric W., Jeff H., Michael and me. Kirk lead the Bham group across the line in basically flat calm and SUNNY conditions with a pretty strong out going current coming down the river. The rest of us followed. This race seems to claim Bellingham casualties, three years ago Larry G. missed the “turn around” and headed to Stevens Pass by water, last year Kirk C., leading the race, went to see if Larry was still there, and this year Eric W. tried to turn his surfski into an artifical reef on the last turn rocks, whats next????? …….Homemade soups and Brownies at the end.

Next is the Dirty Dan Harris

Then the Lake Whatcom Classic (short and long course)!

Cheers, Peter

Reivers Dustin
04/23/11 #10544

Mid pack report:

Race director Peter T was a hoot. After picking on the bellinghamsters with rapier wit during the pre-race mtg he got us lined up with a 5 min and 2 min warning. Fairly high tide line combined with somewhat swift current made for more strategy effects than you would expect for a basically round island race. On the long outside pull you could get into shallows and hide from the current, but the bottom drag was killer. At the topside turn it was a mess. Easy to get swept into the string of rocks sticking out below the surface and easy to take a bad line and miss the best push. Eric W found the rocks and I hear Hilburn blew the line.

Nice wide start line, but a big mess 'o boats. Roger L and Micheal did their usual 'lets see if we can explode an aorta' type of start. I hung fairly even with these guys pretty much to the first turn. I remembered that this turn is tricky because it's very tight and the current push fools a lot of people. Big boats were swept very wide. I made good here and decided to go shallow to stay out of the current. It was a great line for ten or fifteen minutes, but then the bottom drag got to me. I noticed Roger got fed up with it and moved outside. I could then watch him and measure advantage. I didn't notice much. So from there it became a pain parade. The pack up front had stayed outside a little. When we got to the top of the island I had the shorter line, but now the current was against me. I think it was better for me in close. I noticed the lead pack had blown apart. Hilburn, Ludovit, Kurk, Peter M, Eric W. and the fast rowers were all over the place.

Once I made the last turn where those shallow rocks are it was impossible to read. Fast water was going everywhere. I stayed tight, but then saw I was getting swept into those rocks sideways. So I juked myself to safety and realized what a huge volume of flow there was and that it was going down the right to middle of the channel. So I gambled and headed way to the right of the line. It was sweet. I closed the gap on a fast rower ahead of me and lost sight of everyone behind.

Afterwards, I talked with Ludo about the course. He has spent many hours in that water since that's where he works out. If you miss your spot you can get burned. And during the race there were some big boats to deal with. Roger had the afterburners kicked in for his charge at the finish line, but a rowing double was coming back across the line at the same time. I think some gel-coat was exchanged, but nobody sank.

Good brownies, chocolate easter eggs and a vast array of soups and bread. I had not had chicken 'n dumpling stew for years. Great to see soundrower folk. Seems like it's been another winter since LaConner.

Oh yeah. The thundering herd from Seattle totally jammed I-5 for the tulip festival. The drive home sucked. Otherwise, a good day.

rd