Surfski Knowledge Base

San Francisco US National Champs Race Reports

San Francisco Surfski Natioanals……Day one
Larry Goolsby
09/19/05 #590

Paddlers…
Don Kiesling, Joost, Mike G., Dean, Larry B. Heather Nelson, Morris & Debbie, Simon, and I headed south for the surfski nationals. We were met down there by Erik Borgnes when he flew in late Thursday night. First of all, if you are looking for some dirt on the guys that went down, there isn't any. Mike behaved himself admirably this year and other than Simon's run-in with the law, almost nothing happened. Larry B. said it best after we discovered that there was only one bed in his and Mike's room, “What happens in San Francisco, stays in San Francisco!”

Anyway, back to the races. This years course was changed from last year by taking Alcatraz Island out of the course but there was an additional two miles added to the roughest part. Last year we were supposed to go out to the Point Bonita buoy and turn around before heading back. The buoy sits at the edge of a shallow shoal called the Potato patch, which gets pretty nasty. This year we were to turn at the Point Bonita buoy and paddle across the Potato patch to another buoy that was one mile up the coast. This route put the wind and waves at our beam for two miles so it added a new twist to an already difficult course. Once around that northern buoy we had to paddle back to the Point Bonita buoy before heading for the finish. Total distance was supposed to be 17 miles and all but 6 of it was outside the Golden Gate Bridge.

While we drove down on Thursday, we got a call from Mike G. on the cell and he said that he had just paddled out to the Point Bonita Buoy and other than some rolling swells, it was calm. There was some hope. The next day we all put in under the bridge and paddled out towards Point Bonita. This time it wasn't calm and getting past Point Diablo was turning out to be a chore in and of itself. Just this practice session was more challenging than any of our northwest races. However, we were able to paddle safely in the little bit of crap that was there and were back in before the winds really kicked up bad. After we beached, I watched Greg Barton's V-10 roll across the parking lot as a 30 knot gust grabbed it. The forecast for race day was for bigger winds and more swell action.

The race was supposed to start at 11:30 AM and the high tide was supposed to be slack at about 12:40. This would mean that we would paddle out against the tide and probably come back in after the tide started to rush back out from the bay. Did you know that there is one hell of a lot of water inside San Francisco Bay at high tide? A difficult race was just about to get worse. The race, like everything else, was delayed and didn't start until 12 noon. We think that this was to allow the winds to kick up really big and add another dimension to this race. There were a lot of big names at this race with Greg Barton, Joost, Erik B., Carter Johnson, Dawid Mocke (South Africa), Robert Clegg, Patrick Hemmens, Ian McKenzie, Mark Sandvold, a Hungarian K-1 paddler named Cszolt, and a bunch of top Wavechaser paddlers that knew the area really well. I think that before the race started, the race of us decided that we would be happy with just being able to finish without becoming a DNF (did not finish) or being rescued.

Once the winds were up, the race started and the pack headed towards the bridge. This first 3 miles is the easy part so the top paddlers were battling for the lead. At the bridge, the water turned ugly and you went from race mode to survival mode. The further you went out, the bigger and uglier it got. The walls inside the channel are cliffs and this allows and the waves to echo really well. I have been having stroke issues all summer and my issues returned when I hit the nasty stuff. Instead of planting my left blade, I was slapping it on the water like a brace. This slowed me down but I found a rhythm in the paddle-brace, paddle-brace that kept me upright and moving. At Point Bonita, I passed Mike G as he was trying to get back into his boat and this was a reminder of last year's race. This turned out to be one of the worst sections that we had to cross. Going out to the first buoy was really difficult and I started meeting the top contenders as they were returning. Greg Barton and Dawid Mocke were in the lead at this point. Traversing over to the next buoy was also very difficult because the swells rose up to 8, 10, 12+ feet as they hit the Potato patch and they were hitting our beam with this 20+ knot wind.

Once around the second buoy, it was so tempting to catch a swell or wave that was headed towards Point Bonita and ride it but we still had to traverse back to the Point Bonita buoy first. I know that both Joost and I did do a little riding in this area only to have to backtrack back to the buoy. I hulied twice in this section but was able to remount and keep going. Once around the Point Bonita buoy, you could catch a ride but you had to be really careful doing this. You had the wind and swells coming from your back but there were waves coming from all directions. This is probably where most of the paddlers fell in. We had to buck the out going current with the wind going against the current and waves coming from all directions, this was a slow and dangerous area. Simon had hugged the shore by the Point and said that it was probably the quickest way in. Larry B. and I had stayed out in the shipping lanes and had to dodge a 12 meter racing sailboat (Larry Ellison's Oracle?) among several large powerboats.

Just as I got inside Point Bonita, I got knocked off my ski and had to try to remount in this cauldron. By the time (4 attempts) I got back on, I had been pushed back out into the ocean and could see the coast of California again. I battled back in again and just when I got inside Point Bonita, I got knocked off again and washed back out to the same area. All this time I could see one of the rescue boats just waiting for me to give the signal. It was tempting but I needed to finish this race as a personal achievement and I wasn't going to give up. After 3 or 4 tries at remounting, I finally was back in control and was going to pass Point Bonita on this attempt or seriously consider a powerboat ride back in. All this time I kept losing my lucky cap and each time I was able to retrieve it. Simon said later that maybe it wasn't my lucky cap and I should have let it go. I finally made it past Point Bonita and found myself telling myself that I just had to paddle past the next set of bad water and I was home free.

The next challenge (besides that I was going 4 mph in the current) was Point Diablo and I just kept myself focused and didn't try to catch any rides. If you went fast, the echoing waves would knock you back off your ski. I finally made it under the bridge and took a short break in the calm water outside Fort baker. I had just paddled really hard for 3+ hours and not once could I grab a packet of Gu or take a drink from my water supply. All I could do was paddle rapidly from one side to another when I was outside the bridge.

I started up again and had only 3 miles left and this was supposed to be the calmest section. However, the winds were now going to hit me from my side and they were up to 20-30 knots. The tide was also going out very quickly and there were some rip currents just off Fort Baker that I had to get through to get back to the finish. These rips were so big that there were 3 kayakers with helmets that were surfing the standing waves while I passed them ever so slowly on my ski. The next mile was 1 foot beam waves with high winds so I tried to duck in closer to shore for some protection. I finally made it to the finish line and I think I was the last person to cross the line.

Dawid Mocke was the first finisher followed by Greg Barton and Robert Clegg. Cszolt (Hungarian K-1 paddler in an S1-X) was fourth and will become a major contender in next year's race after he spends more time on his ski. I think Joost was 9th and Erik B. bonked on the last leg and lost about 12 places to finish in 20th overall. Dean was 21st and 1st in the Masters division. Larry B was around 41st and got a third. Simon was 29th (awesome job) and Morris was 26th (really awesome work). Don Kiesling got 14th and rumor was that he did it in his S1-A with his little rudder. Heather got 3rd in women's after Kathleen Peterit's strong showing (2nd) in an S1-R that Jude loaned her. DeAnne Hemmens got first in women's. Ian Mckenzie snuck in just ahead of Joost to finish 8th.

Several of the contenders said that this was the most challenging waters that they had ever paddled. Dawid Mocke said the course would make an excellent world cup course. The northwest paddlers will never see conditions even close to this around the Bellingham bay area. Even if we have 50 mile an hour SW winds bouncing 8 foot waves off Clark's wall, we could not simulate the harsh conditions that we encountered in San Francisco. Those of you paddle the Wednesday night races with Dean, Joost, Morris, Heather, Mike, Larry B., and Simon are fortunate just to have these people paddle alongside you, even if it's just for a few seconds.
Larry G.

San Francisco day two, the doubles race…..
Larry Goolsby
09/19/05 #591

Paddlers…..After getting out clocks cleaned by the previous days race, several of us were up for more abuse on day two for the doubles race. Mike G and I had borrowed an old (1976) Twogood Condor and actually bumped into the original owner while we were on the beach at Sea Trek. Larry B. and Dean were in a double Fenn while Morris and Joost had their duckbill whatever. This was not going to be serious race since we were already worn thin and most of us had not paddled together much before. Just before the start of the race, Mike and I switched to the short course along with Larry and Dean. It was hard enough to stay upright in a single boat in those conditions let alone a double. The long course only went out to point Bonita and didn't go into the open ocean like the day before. The short course just went to bridge and back (6 miles).

The race started at 11:30 and the conditions were less severe than the day before. The area between point Bonita and the bridge was still a bit choppy but nothing like the day before. However, Morris and Joost did manage to take more than one bath while they were out in this area. Erik B. and Don K. were in my and Shaun's double and were battling against Greg Barton/Dave Jensen and Patrick Hemmens/DeAnne Hemmens. Maybe one of those guys will post more about the long race. The short race was fun and great escape from the day before. The winds did start to kick up again but nothing like the previous day. Dean and Larry won the short course while Mike and I got second in Senior Masters. Our Twogood was slow but solid and we beat this team that had a new South African double ski called the “Dorado”. The long course was won by Barton/Jensen followed by Hemmens/Hemmens and then Borgnes/Kiesling. This race was followed the awards ceremony and then the booty drawings that included a Huki S1-R, an Epic V-10, and an Oceanpaddlesports Millennium, XT, or Icon. For the first time ever in the history of this race, a Bellingham Paddler did not win one of the boats.

My goal next year is to do the long race with Shaun. I am counting on Don Kiesling to have his double in production by then and I can only hope that his double will be half as stable as the Twogood Condor that Mike and I used.
Larry G.

US Surfski Report
lbussinger50 <lbussinger@…>
09/25/05 #620

I'm going to post this to the Surfski Web site:

Here's my personal account of the 2005 US Surfski Championships. I invite you to read this with the perspective that I am a reasonably strong paddler in NW Washington waters. In the Puget Sound area we routinely see strong currents and 2-3 ft. wind waves of short wavelength. But we see nothing on the scale of the conditions of this race. The size of the waves will probably differ with each storyteller, but they seem reasonable from my logical engineering eye. Anyway, enjoy.

I have never seen anyone really describe the course or the conditions. (You might want to download a picture of the area from Goggle Earth or Atlas). The San Francisco Bay is a huge tidal basin. It ebbs and floods vast quantities of water through the narrow Golden Gate, so the conditions are constantly changing.

Going from Sausalito to the Golden Gate Bridge is not so bad, just the 15 – 25 mph winds that come up in the afternoon. The same wind intensifies as it funnels between the promontories on either side of the bridge. The constriction of the bridge produces standing waves. Between the bridge and Pt. Diablo is an area of reflected waves. Pt. Diablo is a washing machine from the currents. Between Pt. Diablo and Pt. Bonito are reflected waves. Both Pt. Diablo and Pt. Bonito coves are concave shaped with steep cliffs, which focus the waves back like a lens. And of course this entire area sees the big ocean swells. Pt. Bonita is a washing machine. Between Pt. Bonita and the Potato Patch (red/green) Buoy is a really nasty area. The Potato Patch Shoal (NW of the shoal) trips up and steepens the big ocean swells. It also divides the water flow into two distinct currents, one from the west and the other from the north. The confluences of the two rivers (kind of like the Mississippi and the Missouri) collide into each other at 90 degrees during a flood tide to produce an enormous rip. And don't forget the winds. Between the red/green buoy and the red buoy to the north are the steepened swells and wind waves. Toss into this cauldron the fact that San Francisco is one of the busiest ports in the world and so you have all the boat wakes. I almost forgot about the water temperature, probably around 55-60 degrees F. Are we having fun yet?

Last year I tried to do the race and chose to quit because I thought the conditions were too dangerous. 27% of last year's competitors didn't finish. I worked hard all year at improving my big water paddling. Went out in Bellingham Bay during storms to practice in big waves. And, most importantly, worked even harder to get myself mentally prepared for this race.

A group of nine of us came down from Bellingham on Friday so we could practice on the course. We paddled out to the Potato Patch Buoy. The conditions were 3-4 ft. wind waves on 8 ft. swells; rips and washing machine around the points; rebound off the cliffs; and 25 mph wind. It was challenging stuff, but I made it and I felt OK. I asked a friend how the conditions compared with last year and he said on a scale of 1-10, last year was a 9.5 and this was a 3. Still, I was confident I could do Saturday safely and if I was lucky, maybe even be competitive in the Senior Masters division.

On Saturday at the race meeting, they said to be careful of the 15 ft. swells breaking at Pt. Bonita. I paddled from Sausalito to the Golden Gate at about 85% effort because I wanted to have plenty left in the rough stuff. I made it through the 3-4 ft. turbulence under the bridge. (Last year I got caught in a standing hole for 30 seconds and turned 90 deg to the course.) I made it past the washing machine off Pt. Diablo. I fought into the 20-25 mph head winds, waves, and flood current to just before Pt. Bonita. I looked up ahead (that's up and ahead) to see the other paddlers disappearing into waves on top of the 20 ft. swells. Good God, but I don't even know how to describe that. I had paddled in 6 ft. swells in San Diego before, but I wasn't prepared to see the next 100 yds of the racecourse laid out in the liquid hillside in front and above me. This is truly where I went into a Zen state. I turned off my emotions: no fear, no elation, no pain, no excitement…..all emotions turned off. I was only intensely focused on now: the next 2-3 seconds and only on the water within 10 ft. of the boat; stay upright and moving forward; get the paddle back in the water. Every couple of minutes I would look up for a split second to reorient myself and then my awareness would again collapse to the water under my boat…I did this for the next couple of hours.

The water had been nasty up to this point, but between Pt. Bonita and the red/green buoy marking the Potato Patch Shoal, the world turned really nasty. It was really wild. The swells were 15 ft. high from an ocean storm; the wind waves and turbulence waves caused by the shoal and confluences area were consistently 6-8 ft. high, with the occasional 10 footer. [Other guys are discounting the swells and describing the waves as 8-10+ ft.; I'm not sure which way is right, but we all agree that they were big.] When I went around the red/green buoy, a rescue boat was perched on a wave 10 ft. over my head. I was worried that he was going to get tossed over on me.

After the race someone asked me if I capsized there. I guess they heard me cursing over the 25 mph wind. I had got slammed and stopped by a wave and was wallowing on the face of it. My paddle was planted in the water and I was trying to pull myself over the wave; but was suspended there, the ski trying to go backward, me trying to pull it forward. Like a weight-lifter with the weights quivering halfway over his head. I was resorting to my old karate cry….apparently with a couple of expletives tossed in. The course now went north one mile to a red channel-buoy. They were on-coming waves but now 45 deg on the beam. (paddle, brace, paddle, brace, arm paddle, arm paddle, brace, brace, brace) I started to dodge the boats that had gone around the red buoy and were surfing back. They were surfing at over 10 mph and wouldn't be able to miss me. My Zen state was being disturbed [irrational brain: “these guys are beating me, I need to paddle harder.” Rational brain: “What? You think you're racing? You're surviving out here buddy boy! Care only about the water under your boat and about moving forward”.] A friend, Simon, from South Africa saw me here and yelled, “Once you go around the buoy, the wind and waves are at your back, it'll be great fun.” He had a little 2 inch high “wire figure” elephant taped to his surfski deck. (The elephant is the national symbol of SA.) He and “Chunky” were doing a lot of self-talk conversation during the race. You know; “oh sorry Chunky, when the waves wash over your head like that just raise your trunk and breath through your nose!” Inspirational stuff to steady the nerves.

I was apprehensive when I went around the ½ way mark buoy and headed down wind. I think Simon thought I knew how to surf waves this big….I don't. I was startled by the first big wave I caught; it lifted my stern, up and up and up, until I felt like I was standing on my foot peddles. Then I started to fall down the face of the waves. I was on a steep swell bouncing over 4' waves. I was bracing on my paddle and it was doing a loud staccato sound from the speed and vibration. YeeHaw, what a hoot! My GPS registered 14.3 mph max speed, which is my fastest speed. It really was a hoot, however, I had only one more good ride like that, and then the rest of the time it was survival. Besides being too intimidated to get aggressive enough to catch the waves, they never seemed to be consistent enough to predict what was going to happen next.

On the way back, off Pt. Bonita, a big wave rose up 45 deg. off my left stern. I was bracing on my left side but the wave kept rising until my paddle blade was somewhere around my shoulder and the water was far below me on the right. I started to roll. I was looking forward and down a really steep and smooth wave/swell face. I was lying back on my ski with my head on the deck, my left arm curled around behind me and around the boat. (Didn't even know I could get my arm in that position!) I finished rolling in. I was leashed to the boat so it wouldn't blow away, but was about to find out if I could get back on in 6-8 ft. chop and big swells. I need about 2-3 seconds of reasonable flat water while I get back on the boat and get the boat stabilized. I made it on the third try. I'm still in a Zen state, so no fear, no panic, no pain, no cold….just mental numbness.

If my race ever really started, then this is where it went to hell. Falling off the boat got me pushed way off course and into the shipping channel and into the full force of the ebb tide coming out of San Francisco Bay. I fought the current all the way back. I spent a fair amount of time missing an oil tanker coming out. I was entertained in my split second awareness's of three or four of the America's Cup fleet sailing within 50 ft. of me. There were 8-10 people sitting on the windward rail gawking at the fool kayaker. I breathed a sigh of relief after I got back under the bridge and through the turbulence. It was short lived however because the wind was blowing 30 mph from the side in the Bay. I finished in 3 hours and 11 minutes. I was embarrassing slow, but I finished.

Afterward, the first place guy, a South African, said that they probably wouldn't have gone out in that stuff down there. He said that if you could paddle in that, then you can paddle anywhere in the world. That makes me feel good. My friend said this was another 9.5 day.

On Sunday, a Dean and I did the short course in a double surfski. The best paddlers went out to Pt. Diablo, but we had only spent an hour in the boat together and weren't ready for the big stuff. The short course went to the Golden Gate and back. However, we were first overall. It was a small but nice comeback from the day before.

This is very challenging stuff, and while I felt accomplishment and pride in finishing the race, I am also frustrated that short of going to Hawaii, I have no way to train for these conditions. Those who had the skill level to think this was great fun are truly world-class paddlers. I want to thank the race organizers for putting this together, and the rescue folks for their support. Great job.

Larry Bussinger
Bellingham, Washington, USA

conditions
Erik Borgnes
09/25/05 #621

Larry,

What are you smoking? HA! Entertaining reading, it was.

I think I'm a pretty good judge of waves and conditions. I'm very in tune with the NOAA marine report every time I paddle here and I'm pretty spot on with at least the wind waves from 1-8 feet which is what we see here at the house. A 3 foot wind wave breaks the horizon as you're paddling into it. 2 foot waves are still big.

On Fridays paddle, at the Potato patch buoy, I would put the swells at 3-5 feet and the wind waves at 1-2 feet. As I remember, Dean, Don, and I were just sitting in our skis and chatting at that buoy, and it wasn't bad at all.

Race day, I would put the wind waves in the Golden Gate channel at 1-2 feet with a very occasional 3 footer. Out at the buoys, I would put the swells at 4-6 feet trough to peak and 1-3 foot wind waves. Definitely not extreme except if you don't see waves that big. It was tough paddling because, like you said, it was at our beam quarter. Last year's race had the wind waves between Bonita and the buoy at 3-5 feet but steep and multidirectional which made it tough.

Just my take on it.

Erik

Re: conditions
lbussinger50 <lbussinger@…>
09/26/05 #627

Like I said, it will depend on the story teller. But the swell has a wavelength of several hundred feet. If you take a close look at the photo at Oceanpaddlesports of Greg and Dawid Mocke surfing down the wave with the other skis going the other way, I'd guess the top of the wave is at least 10-15 ft above the eye of the camera and the eye of the cameraman is about 5 ft above the waterlevel. There's your 15 ft.swell.

What you are discribing as swells are what I think of as two sets of wind waves; my 6-8' and your 3-5'; and what I considered chop and your 1-3'.

Your description of the channel is about the same as mine, I saw the big swells, but didn't see really big wind waves. However while the majority of the waves outside Pt. Bonita may have been 3-5', a significant share were a damn site bigger. (of course I was out there longer than you.)

I was reluctent to say how big the waves were in my post because one is always prone to overstate the size, but I had gotten enough agreeing feedback that I took 2 ft. off the size and posted it.

Your discription of Fridays waves are about the same as I would have described them.

Wind Waves
lbussinger50 <lbussinger@…>
09/27/05 #629

It just occured to me that waves add and cancel. So Eriks 3-5' waves and 1-3' chop add to 8'. If you are on a 10' swell, the wave is 18'. I guess it would all depend on how often the waves match up. From my point of view, they were matching up often enough to be 6-8' waves. So there Erik, we can both be right. How's that for diplomacy?

Re: Wind Waves
Michael Gregory
09/28/05 #634

You are both full of it. Those swells had been building all the way from Vladivostok. They'd been too long at sea, they were mean and ornery, and wanted to crush something big time! We were easy targets in our skinny little boats, almost an insult to those big bad waves as they towered up over us. Ya could hear them roar with gnarly glee as they rose up to slap us along the side of our decks and heads for daring to challenge their might. Say what you will, science and logic paled in front of of those giants. It's impossible to measure ferocity of that scale! Add, cancel, multiply, even square - those waves were pissed and we were like itty bitty bugs on their windshield.

All you lubbers who missed the race, ya had to be there to understand. If ya wanna really know what the talk is all about, come with us next year and find out. These guys that paddle out in that stuff gotta be nuts and being that crazy they'll probably do it again! Go figure?

Mike G.