Surfski Knowledge Base

Larry Goolsby
05/19/10 #8442

Shaun and I were going to bag the Wednesday night race (heavy winds and heavier rain) until we found out that a reporter and photographer from USA Today were there to record and report our stupidity to the world. How can you refuse that? Even Daryl Remmler was there to show us how 'hot' he is on a short course. So about 1/3rd to 1/2 of the usual crowd battled the wind and rain with the photographer in a power boat catching a truly great moment onto a memory chip - another Lemming run. The race started out OK but just as someone said go, the winds increased about another 10 knots. The result wasn't noticeable until we were almost halfway around and had to cross the narrow part of the lake. Still, it was do-able and Brandon was the first boat headed north with Shaun and I behind, and Daryl actually trying to pull away from us (have you seen the balls on this guy?). It actually was kinda calm on the NE corner, but as we crossed over to the North Shore, even Stevie Wonder could see that it was no longer a race.

As Shaun and I passed the location of the former gazebo, we could see Brandon stopped up ahead with his nose aimed towards the Silver Beach store. We didn't catch onto what was happening right away until we saw a head barely sticking out of the water and Brandon was working his way towards him. We found ourselves between the boat with the photographer (who now had a real story) and the body in the water so we took advantage of Brandon's pit stop and headed for the last corner. The power boat was probably a better choice for a rescue boat than a tandem surfski. Besides Brandon, Daryl and Kirk also stopped and helped the guy to shore. Then on Brandon's return to the finish line, another kayaker had lost his boat to the north shore echo and Brandon had to rescue him too. Luckily, the press boat missed the second rescue or they would have had a great story about some certifiably insane paddlers attempting mass suicide by water-boarding each other. The NW corner of the course was the absolute worst part of the race and we turned to the finish about 30 yds before the final turn because the waves were driving our tandem into the docks. Finally, everyone was OK and we all had a great time. That is except Bussinger who lost his rudder two minutes into the race and had to paddle back to the boat launch sans rudder. That must have been a mini-Lemming run with its own story.

LG

Re: Wednesday night Lemming run…….
Larry <lbussing@…>
05/20/10 #8443

There must have been a submerged log, Brandon saw it, Heather hit it with her rudder, someone else hit it with their paddle, and I bumped it. It took another couple of minutes to assertain that the boat really wasn't responding well. So I turned around and paddled back to the park. There was nothing but the shaft left. Then I borrowed Dan Stimac's Evo (who wisely deceided not to paddle) and went back out to play. Not a good idea to try out a new boat in those conditions, even if it does have a rudder. Larry B