5.13.2023 Tippecanoe Race by Steven Horney
Well by golly, ol’ Terry did it again: chose a near perfect race day for the Tippecanoe! Rain in the morning across most of the area seemed to bypass our race course, as the roads weren’t even wet in the region. With an overcast sky and temps in the 70’s, things were pretty pleasant for our motley crew of paddlers racing down the river. Unless you were named Bill; Bills were assigned shore support duties. But even they benefitted from the pleasantry. Bill Kanost was sidelined by shoulder surgery, but he was there supporting Deb in her kayak race. Bill Arnold was sidelined by having given himself over fully to cycling rather than paddling, but he was there supporting Betsy in her kayak race (seems to be a theme here…). Speaking of shoulders, rotator cuff issues appeared to be the injury Du Jour: not only was Bill Kanost recovering from shoulder surgery, but Tom Thomas missed this race due to a shoulder injury, Bill Arnold had shoulder surgery last year, Betsy was just getting back into kayak racing following shoulder surgery, and a most of the rest of us over the age of 60 whined about our shoulders (there’s a reason I raced OC1 instead of kayak…). But whiney or not, we got out there and tackled the mighty Tippecanoe!
Water levels this year were pretty normal at 3.38 ft at the start of the race – plenty of water to avoid trouble on the course, as long as paddlers paid attention to the big rocks. Unlike most years where the afternoon levels drop, they actually rose this year, but we were off the course by that point.
In classic fashion, we started the race by drifting down downstream past the start point until someone yelled “Go!”, and off we went. With my light, stable OC1, I hammered it off the start to get ahead of the crowd, pulling to an impressive lead – for about 30 seconds. Then off to the side I see Kyle Willis just gliding along in his new-to-him Orion (which had been passed from Earl Metzler to Paul Kane to Betsy Arnold and now to Kyle, maintaining the 1st Law of Racing Boat Ownership Dynamics that states racing boats: once purchased, must stay within the local racing community). Also coming up fast were Matt Conrad and Skeet Craig. Kyle pulled ahead with a strong lead that no one was able to match, but Matt, Skeet, and I hung together for quite a while. At some point, Skeet decided to take a short cut in the hopes of getting ahead, but ended up losing time and falling behind. Meanwhile Matt made full use of my OC1 draft and followed me until roughly a mile or so from the finish, at which point he pulled around and took the lead. I tried to draft him for a short distance, but I fell off and couldn’t match his pace.
Meanwhile Deb Kanost was pulling along smoothly, and managed to overtake Skeet before the finish for a strong 4th place overall. Antonio Aguilar led the next group, paddling his Epic V5 to a solid 6th place finish – quite impressive for a relatively short plastic ski. Looks like he could be an up and coming powerhouse! Vicki Tillotson followed shortly after Antonio, just edging out Larry Swift at the finish. Vicki was paddling a new-to-her Epic 18X, and you could see her performance really take a jump. Terry Howard followed, with Betsy about a minute and a half behind. We have to be very impressed with Betsy’s performance; she was still in a lot of pain and had limited motion, but she still managed to get her (very pretty wood strip) sea kayak down the course in a respectable time. Our classic C2 Aluminum team of George Tinsley and Hilman Culp Jr followed, with Roger Crisp running sweep. Roger may have been at the tail end, but at 81 years old and still running a very good time you have to be impressed! Roger also seems to be cornering the market on classic Volvo’s. At Saturday’s race he came over in a ’59 Volvo – likely the only one in existence with kayak racks on the roof!
When all was said and done, we had the awards presentation at the river. Terry handed out his old medals in lieu of certificates. Looks like I’m now the winner of a 1994 race – and I didn’t even have a boat at that time! Then we all headed to the Oakdale Dam Inn for a d*** fine meal. Theoretically that also doubled as our Spring meeting; it was really all a time of great fellowship, but that makes the finest meeting format anyway. Many thanks to Terry for putting on a great race, and to Bill Arnold and Matt Conrad’s Mom, Pat, for assisting with race timing! Seems like I may have forgotten someone? If so, let me know. Now on to Sugar Creek!
Results
K-1 OPEN MAN
1st Kyle Wills 1:13:12
K-1 OPEN WOMAN
1st Betsy Arnold 1:25:48
K-1 SEA KAYAK WOMAN
1st Deb Kanost 1:19:16
2nd Vicki Tillotson 1:20:23
K-1 SEA KAYAK MAN
1st Matt Conrad 1:17:03
2nd Antonio Aguilar 1:20:08
3rd Roger Crisp
1:29:51
OC1
1st Steve Horney 1:17:55
C-1 MAN
1st Skeet Craig 1:19:33
2nd Larry Swift 1:20:26
3rd Terry Howard 1:24:08
C-2 ALUMINUM
1st George Tinsley /Hilman Culp 1:27:32
