Surfski Knowledge Base

Brandon Nelson <brandon@…>
08/10/08 #4775

Heather, Hayden and I had a BLAST making the Round Shaw race into Hayden’s first camping adventure, and all-around awesome San Juan experience. We lined up for the Friday afternoon ferry in Anacortes the recommended 2 hours early, and spent the time taking turns on the stand-up paddleboard in the bay next to the ferry terminal. Another car in the line unloaded onto the lawn an entire bluegrass band and played an incredible free concert for us tourists. It was the best wait ever!

Hayden LOVED the camp-out, and is still going on about it this morning. On race day, he and I teamed up (with the help of a front-carrier) to time the racers ripping through 14 miles of flat water, while Nick Zeegers expertly stood in for his dad as official race manager.

As the last boat pulled in, we unloaded a box of ribbons to the 20 hardcore entries in this rootsiest of races. Then we spent the next few hours telling stories and sharing laughs with Jimmy and Nadja, before they loaded up and paddled off to camp on yet another San Juan island beach. Those two are charging life so, so sweetly!!!

We made one more stop before heading home: at the home of our extended family, the Ayers, on San Juan Island for a night of feasting and fine wine. We caught the late ferry and a nice nap before driving the 1 hour back home, fell promptly asleep dreaming of the incredible adventure, and woke up to the most pleasant of nature’s alarm clocks: A mid-August Pacific Northwest storm!!! Ahh, life is good!

Overall:
1) MX-2X Evan Jacobs and Susan Kinney, 1:42:50
2) MX-2X Rob O’Brian and Theresa Batty 1:44:24
3) M-2X Adrian and Rainer Storb, 1:45:36
4) M-1X Robert Meenk, 1:46:55
5) M-HPK Joost Zeegers, 1:48:30
6) HPK2-M Larry Goolsby / Rick Lingbloom, 1:54:40
7) M-HPK John Day, 1:55:40
8) OC-6 from Friday Harbor, 1:57:09
9) W-HPK Heather Nelson, 1:59:43
10) MX-2X Howard and Amanda Lee, 2:00:54
11) M-HPK Mike Gregory, 2:01:48
12) M-HPK Reivers Dustin, 2:03:57
13) M-RIII Bill Jaquette, 2:11:56
14) M-RIII Ben Stevens, 2:15:30
15) PB-1 Michael Lampi, 2:22:18
16) M-RIII Bill (Armstrong?), 2:22:55
17) SK2 Jimmy Zimmerman and Nadja Baker, 2:24:19
18) M-HPK Roger Lamb, 2:25:28
19) PB-1 Todd Loony, 2:48:17
20) W-RIII Martha Conn, 3:13:37

Oh Pa-Shaw……
Larry Goolsby
08/09/08 #4773

I was waiting for Reivers to step forward and post the whole story
about the Shaw Island race today, but since he is licking his wounds
(and undoubtably watching the Olympics), I'll piece a bit of a story
together. Kind of a mediocre/lame showing from the B'ham group. There
was Joost the director, Brandon the time keeper/baby keeper, Reivers,
Mike G., Roger Lamb, Heather, Rick Lingbloom and yours truly. Rick
and I racced the Mako XT tandem while the rest of this group was on
surfskis. Zimmerman and Nadija were also there but were racing a sea
kayak that was slightly smaller than the Queen Mary. I think that
there was a total of about 23 boats with 6 skis, 1 6-man outrigger, 2
pedal boats, 3 tandem kayaks and the rest were single and tandem
rowers. Entry fee was waived and it was dry for most of the race. At
the start, Joost ran out first and tried drafting a fast tandem rower
while Rick and I chased after him. We were getting passed by a tandem
rower that was slightly faster than us, so we jumped on their tail
and gained some speed for about 4 miles. We stayed out in the channel
with a current and a draft and were actually almost caught up to
Joost. However, we were about 100 yards off his left when he made a
sharp turn up the side of Shaw and we were suddenly over 100 yards
behind him. We left our rowers to fend for themselves and took off
fighting current and wind most of the rest of the way around the
island. Meanwhile, Heather, Mike and Reivers were duking it out until
Reivers hit a rock with his rudder and bent it bad enough to have to
beach his boat and bend it straight enough to limp home. Joost was
the first kayak in followed by Rick and I, and then John Day behind
us. The OC-6 was next with Mike, Heather and Reivers in that order.
Congrats to Heather for getting a sub 2-hour time. Roger was the
final ski in and finished his paddle with a cooling-down swim. The
water never did get big except for one rogue wave that caused Rick to
wet his pants, but the XT and it's crew survived. Lots of current and
it was difficult to predict where to find eddys and good current. Got
home and found a Washburn Current Atlas on Amazon for $11.95. Gotta
start looking at charts a lot more for these races. Rick and I got
lost no less than 6 times and we were simply paddling around an
island.
Try to make it next year….
LG

The rest of the story…
Reivers Dustin
08/09/08 #4774

Shaw was fun. I've been rained on at Shaw race several times now that
I think of it. But I don't think I've ever seen such a huge flood
current before. I missed the arguements about which direction to go:
for today's race we were all asked to go clock-wise. As a result,
for the first 1/3 of the race we rode the current up that long west
side at good speed. I generally think of Shaw as a triangle and the
west side has been the most damaging to my ego when fighting a wind
and current. The other sides have more options.

Anyway, today was a hoot. LG & Rick teamed up in a double and I
kinda thought they would take a while to dial in to each other. I
figured I could hitch a ride early in the race for an advantage. Not
happening. They blasted off hard and didn't fade during the time I
could see them. I was also looking at the OC-6 for help, but they
too were just a little more than I could afford.

So Heather, Mike and I worked our magic between the back eddies and
the secret slots of current. There were a few who tucked in too
close to the shore on the west side and missed out on the heavy
current running in the main channel. But then on the top of the
triangle, there were gains along the shore. Also, if you were lucky,
there were some boat wakes to milk. I was hoping to chase down John
Day, but needed him to make a mistake with the currents. That didn't
happen either.

The east side was not so good for me. I was working the back eddies
close to shore and found a rock that ate my rudder. It was like
being the kid in church that tries to hold back that fart, but well,
everyone within a mile heard it loud and clear. The boat wouldn't
steer until I got to shore and bent the rudder back to shape.
Whatever steel that is, it sure can bend a lot. I was thinking it
might break, but it held ok. The boat didn't leak and I had enough
helm to stay out of trouble.

Of course Heather and Mike asked if I was ok. I flagged them off:
yeah, I'm ok. The only consolation is that the Storb family, (Rainer
& Adrian) have still left more fiberglass and resin on the rocks
around Shaw than anyone else. You can ask them, or Joost about that
story. And you can ask me about my boo-boo. Because I'm told that
this is the path to healing.

RD