Surfski Knowledge Base

Team 205's Most Excellent Road Trip
Reivers Dustin
09/27/09 #7140

LG & I in one double-ski plus Marc & Rick in another drove up to Vernon with dreams of glory this weekend. It became a nightmare of gory instead. The wind blew the wrong way - hard. Yeah, there were big waves. Against us. We got water crammed into places that water should not go. Leg #3 that was supposed to be 2hrs was 3hrs.

It was a kind of reverse IQ test: anyone that finished was obviously marching to the beat of a different tuba, if you know what I mean. We didn't know that at the time and grooved on our tuba music into first finisher spot. I sent LG to 'kiss the peach' because I was more interested in setting fire to the damn thing.

One of the highlights was at Brad & Jan's the night before with pizza, pasta, good drink and good company. We were so young and foolish then. What did we know about the next day?

The ceremony after was crazy. Good food, good cookies (yes, Marc - I had 5 cookies). What do they call it - calorie therapy? But, things dragged on enough for the return of certain body functions. The primative brain stem was telegraphing that I had done something terrible to myself. We all staggered back to the hotel seeking unconciousness.

The only relief was the roasting the four of us gave each other on the ride back. And just to get some blackmail material off myself: yes, it's true - I was late getting my butt back in the seat and blew 30 seconds of our lead. (It was NOT and whole minute!)

It was a fun crowd, well attended (before the body count) and a memory I will prize as meeting a severe test. Now, for the rest of the weekend I will become one with the hot tub. Uh, that's strange. -not sure i can stand being wet anymore this weekend. jeeze.

Length of the Lake trip report……(my version)
Larry Goolsby
09/27/09 #7142

You guys know that I like a good long paddle just as much as anybody and after DJ and I won the relay division of the last year (without any mention at the awards banquet), I couldn't resist the idea of going back and doing a tandem surfski relay. I had dreams of setting a new record time that would take decades to squash. I enlisted Reivers as my navigator for the Mako Elite tandem and Team 205 (Rick and Marc) came along to be the other half of our team. We even registered our team as Team 205 from Whatcom Paddlers. This race is 100 kilometers or roughly 62.5 miles and can be done solo or split up and done as a relay. There are 5 legs which are 10, 15, 15, 12, and 10 miles respectively. Reivers and I did legs 1, 3, and 5 while Marc and Rick did 2 and 4. DJ was going to go and solo the entire course this year but had to bail at the last moment. Last year we had some awesome downwind runs and the same was expected for this year so he was pretty bummed about not going. Turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Tony Velasco had an outrigger team there as did Veronica and Jason Stoane. They used 1 boat for each team while we had two separate boats. There was a record turnout this year of 24 boats doing the race yet there was only 1 guy soloing the entire course and two tandem outriggers doing the entire length with the same paddlers. I really hated blowing off the Lake Samish race and I want Duncan and Peter to know that while I was doing the , I was clicking my heels together and saying “I wish I was on Lake Samish” (read on and you'll understand). We had a great pizza dinner at Brad and Janice's house (Thank you Brad and Janice) the night before and were in bed by 9:30

We were up at 4:30 am on race day and the forecast was for clear skies, a 5-6 knot northerly wind and NW 30-50 km wind was expected that afternoon in Penticton. Gawd, this was going to be fun. Reivers and I started behind everyone at 0700 and slowly worked our way through the crowd to take an early lead with a single paddler on a Think Uno slightly behind us and off to the side. This paddlers name was Paul Hardy and he was Brad Clements relay partner and he was also moving faster than all the other boats. I was going to have keep an eye on this guy because he could be trouble once we hit the guaranteed downwind run. About the time we hit mile 4, a definite southerly wind and wave was coming our way and by mile 5, we were climbing 2-3 footers upwind. I was sure that this was only temporary and at the end of this leg, the water at the hand off was deadly calm. Rick and Marc took the off and it was over a minute before the second and third place boats came in behind us. As Reivers and I drove down to the next checkpoint, we could see a definite south wind blowing up the lake and it was building and once again, I was sure that it was only temporary.

We arrived at the next checkpoint to find 1-3 foot waves rolling to the north with a 20+ mph wind driving them. I felt sorry for Rick and Marc to have to endure such conditions for 15 miles but lost all sympathy when a 6 man outrigger came into view first. Those bastards let an OC-6 get past them? As I was trying to herd Reivers along (I think he was reluctant to face the same conditions), when Tony told me that the OC-6 was from a 6 am early start and was actually 1 hour behind us in time. Marc and Rick reached the checkpoint just as we were climbing in the boat and had to wait 30 seconds for us to get going. We quickly accelerated upwind just so we wouldn't have to endure those guys bitching us out for not being ready when we had almost 3 hours since the last hand off. The further south we went, the more the wind seemed to pick up and we busted through some of the best surfing waves anyone could hope for. Why weren't we racing the other way? This 15 mile leg turned out to be the worst of the 5 legs with 4 foot waves, lots of echos off the shore and no way to get out of the onslaught. Shortly after we started, we saw the safety boat for the last time that day only to discover later that they were busy doing lots of rescues behind us. I think that at least 7 teams had to drop out on this leg and one of the OC-6's lost its Ama and somehow made it to shore. The Elite handled these conditions better than we did and the high winds (temporary of course) slowed our pace to a crawl.

The 15 miles took us 3 hours exactly and was causing my partner to question why he would ever think that doing this race could be fun. Our cockpits were full of water to the gunwales and never got time to drain because of the waves constantly crashing into us.Getting to the next checkpoint took forever and I wanted so badly to warn Team 205 of the conditions but I held my tongue. Reivers was pretty beat up and I needed him to get his Mojo back if we were going to finish this race. The only good things at this point in time was that the second place boat came in 35 minutes behind us so we had lots of room for error and we ran into Tony just before leaving this checkpoint and he gave us the news that just around the corner, the water was really mixed up (crazy conditions) but that right after that it was blowing to the south as predicted and that the last leg would be kinda downwind. This got Reivers in the mood and as we drove to the next checkpoint, we could see that the wind direction was changing and could possibly be favorable. While waiting for Rick and Marc (we could see them 5 miles away), we put on our long downwind rudder and impressed some of the outrigger women with our stories of survival on the 3rd leg.

We almost didn't get into the water in time (Marc and Rick were flying this time) and took off with a strong wind right behind us. First thing that I noticed was that the muscles that help me sit upright were no longer working and I was forced to lean against the back of the seat and arm paddle (after 20+ miles of heavy upwind). Reivers was also out of sorts and our weaknesses became more apparent as we got out into the middle of the lake and were hit on the beam by a strong wind from the west. When you are tired, your inclination is to use the energy of the waves but this would drive you to the left shore which was not a good place to go. As we passed a point of land that sheltered us temporarily, Reivers and I cut into the wind towards the right shoreline and stayed with the waves on our beam until the wind was lined up with the finish line. During this time we fought hard to stay upright with lots of braces and near misses. We could see the Peach on the beach (the finish line) and we didn't relish the idea of swimming after enduring all those miles of angry water. Mother nature can really be a bitch sometimes.

After hitting the beach in one piece and kissing the Peach, I looked back across the whitecaps and couldn't see another boat. It took us under 1 hour to do this last leg and except for when we braced, we were above 8 mph most of the time. We both worried that some paddlers might let that west wind drive them to the far shore and this would make it more difficult to get back over to the finish. 30 minutes later, we could see boats starting to come into view and almost all of them were letting the wind drive them to the east. The second place boat was a single surfski (from a relay team of 5 surfskis) and they were 50 minutes behind us. Paul Hardy wasn't even close to us after he bonked on the 3rd leg and almost dropped out of the race. Tony's and Jason's outrigger tandems were still in the race while Veronica's team had to beach the boat in leg 3 and get a ride in a safety boat. I heard that 4 OC-6 boats dropped out of the race after leg #3 and later at the awards, they asked everyone who didn't finish the race to raise their hand and about 1/4th of the room raised their hand up.

Now about the awards. Last year, the administration left a bad taste in my mouth after not rewarding DJ and I for finishing first in relay while every outrigger got some token of appreciation. This year we arrived at the hotel for the dinner and I wanted a beer. Beer was $4.50 a can at this event (they could learn a thing or two from Deep Cove) and the dinner was a spaghetti with some meatballs if you weren't standing in line behind Marc. I don't blame him for taking all the meatballs because after paddling upwind all day, I wanted burnt dead cow more than you could imagine.

So we ate our spaghetti dinner and drank our $4.50 beers and waited for the awards. They had the drawing first and we soon realized that they were giving out junk. Tire gauges, seat pads for your car, flashlights, insulated shopping bags and an assortment of other gifts that looked like they came from the Dollar store. When they got to the awards, I was shocked to hear them mention that Team 205 was victorious in being the first boat across the finish with an unofficial time of 9 hours and 35 minutes (my stop watch said 9:33). They then had us come up and receive our first place prize which was 4 bottles of pancake syrup. This wasn't just any old syrup but a special blend with imitation maple flavor. Now the top outrigger team (over 1 hour behind us) got bottles of wine as did several of the other outrigger teams. Large bottles of beer were handed out to some of the second and 3rd place teams so I talked this lady into trading her beer for my special pancake syrup. She bought into it and now I have a tall bottle of maple flavored beer that I'm donating to the prizes at the food relay.

The wind was awful, the race was a bit disorganized and the awards banquet sucked but I have to say that I had the best team to endure all of this with. Reivers, Marc and Rick were exceptional in those conditions and also a blast to spend the weekend with. They never let up or quit and winning this race would not have been possible without their exceptional stamina. Most likely, you will see all of us at Lake Samish next year doing.

Larry G.

Re: Length of the Lake trip report……(my version)
ynotocsalev <tonyvelasco@…>
09/27/09 #7143

Awesome report Larry! the trick at the awards banquet was to smuggle in your own drinks, as Jason's team and our team did. We had a very good time without having to pay those high prices! I thought it was crazy you guys got syrup as your prizes, glad to find out you were able to trade that out!

As for our OC-2 team, Tihn Vu, Jason Tedrow, Dave Mooney, Dion Maxwell, Jim Nosella, and myself “enjoyed” the torture fest too, and felt the pain as the night wore on and this morning. We got more achy and tighter on the drive back, so the rest of today will be serious chill out time.

We started out strong, and came into the 1st checkpoint tied with the Anderson brothers (winners of the Missouri 340 a few weeks back), but felt we would pull away from the later, since they were doing the course iron. They waited for us and the 2 OC-6 boats we were with to change out, and these four boats took off together on leg 2. Bummer was, once the south wind built up again, the OC6 boats started having steering issues, and the 2 OC-2's ended up going it alone. Our guys blew up a bit near the end of that leg, and we slid back a few spots, but were still in good position, only a minute or two behing the Anderson's and the 2 OC6 crews.

Leg 3 was brutally nasty, with 4 footers and a few larger than that head on, and nowhere to hide. Dion Maxwell and Dave Mooney were our paddlers on that leg, and we have to give huge props to them, because they were incredible, passing 6 boats, and taking the straightest line coming into the 3rd checkpoint, blasting straight through the waves while other boats trying to make it in slide closer to shore to hide from the waves a bit. They gained an even larger advantage then, and we left on the 4th leg firmly in 1st amongst all the OC2's by about 30 minutes, and had caught and passed 3 OC6 crews.

On leg 4, the first 3.5 miles took about an hour into the headwind, but then the guys got to ride for four or five miles, surfing a bit before it flattened out coming into the 4th checkpoint. When Dion and I hopped on, we had a surfski right behind us, and the 2 top OC6's about 15 minutes in front of us. At first we couldn't see the OC6's, but about a 1/4 mile from shore, we started getting waves from both the North (behind us) and the West (bummer beam waves). Dion was steering, and set an awesome line, and despite the West waves, we got some great rides and averaged around 8mph. Pretty soon we had gapped the surfski, who was getting pushed too far East by the beam waves, and could now see we were gaining on the 2 OC6's. We knew they were too far away to catch, but it was motivating seeing them get larger and larger as we closed in. We did the same as Team 205, and tacked to the right once around the the point, and then rode the washy mess into the finish. The surfski came in a few minute later, and we have made up about 6 minutes on the OC'6s over those 10 miles. Dion ran up and kissed the peach, and we were stoked to be first OC2 in, and to have survived.

Congrats to Team 205, who despite the incredibly difficult conditions, put a hurting on the whole field and were an hour plus up the last couple of legs! Amazing job, guys! Congrats to Jason, Gabe, Dan, Lance, and Edoh for an amazing effort as well! 2nd OC2 in, and really turned on the jets in legs 4 and 5! Our two teams won booze, but our team traded our fine wine for some good beer with the Bend Oregon ladies OC6 team. Lance shared his bottle of hard stuff generously, and the night was fun despite the only ok dinner and awards ceremony!

Would I do the race again? Yep! After all, I don't think it could be any harder than this year, so this one sets the difficulty bar high enough that anything else it throws at us in the future should pale by comparison. Congrats to everyone who even attempted the race, and thanks to everyone who kept the paddlers safe, as boats really had a hard time, including a lot of huli's and even boats coming apart towards the end of leg 2 and during all of leg 3. Absolutely amazing heart by everyone out there!