Surfski Knowledge Base

San Francisco US National Champs Race Reports

Larry Goolsby
08/01/13 #14677

A bit of a late start, left Ferndle at 11:20 am. It took almost 2 hours to get to Burlington because of bridge maintenance. Lots of slow construction zones all up and down I-5. Took us twelve hours to reach the hotel we reserved in Ashland. I-5 was literally fogged in with wildfire smoke from Roseburg to Ashland. So thick it slowed traffic to a crawl. Like those great trips I did with DJ and Reivers, I went cheap and got a $75 a night room at Super 8. If you don't mind, I'd like to do a short review; not enough straw in the mattress and a bathroom fan so powerful that it kept lifting me off the toilet.

Thursday morning, as we drove through a cloud of smoke into California, I realized tht I had a bag of carrots and some watermelon in the car. California has a strict rule about bringing fruits and veggies into the land of fruits and nuts. I pulled over and retreived my illegal cargo so that I could swiftly hand it to the fruit Nazi at the border. As we approached the booth, the attendant waved us through, refusing to take my infested booty. Go figure. This is the first time that I refrained from lying about what I possessed and they didn't want to hear it.
The rest of the trip to Redwood City was uneventful. Our hotel room is about 3 minutes from the finish line; this was a last minute change after our 'free' room in San Francisco slipped out of our hands. So far, I like this part of the bay area. I did learn that if you leave a 10 foot gap between your car and the car ahead, this is an invitation for up to three cars to cut in front of you. Hitting the water at 2 pm on Friday, race on Saturday, then Cathy has an 'Alcatraz' swim clinic on Sunday.
That's all for now.
LG

Re: The road to San Francisco………..
Reivers Dustin
08/02/13 #14680

Bunxes of us homies up here are rootin for you guys/gals representing down there. Did I hear that Heather is competing while Brandon is on kid-watch? How about our Canadian Compadres? Bob 'put-put' Putnam? Of course Daryl, how about the island gang, Gareth? These guys know all about running the borders. I hear they go so far as to put lint in the pockets of the new pants they buy down south.

The way I remember those waves, they are like perfect corn-rows with no cross-chop. When you hook up, you fly. Miss a wave and you're 20 yards back of the guy who was right next to you. It's like behind the stern-wheeler kind of stuff. My only complaint was so much salt-water spray in my eyes from all that 12 mph bow-splash.

Tomorrow is going to be a good day. Good luck all.

rd

No Other City
Michael Medler <michael.medler@…>
08/02/13 #14684

All right Bellinghamsters, have a great time and keep the wind to your backs. As a Geographer I couldn't help noticing that no other city has as many participants down there, and that doesn't even count LG. And how about the representaion in that extra double ancient golden master's category? Not bad for the northernost city in the conternomous US (as defined by the US Census) Good luck everyone!

Participants by location:
http://ussurfski.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/BY-LOCATION-7-31.pdf (Ed. This link is defunct)

Re: No Other City
Larry Goolsby
08/02/13 #14685

That's right! There are something like 14 paddlers in the Golden Senior masters and Bellingham is dominating in that division. And to think we left Roger, Reivers, and Larry B. at home.
LG