T’was another fine and fun day at the Fish Lakes this past Saturday, with beautiful weather, a great festival, and some excellent racing. Emily always outdoes herself in putting on the Lions Paws for Support Paddlefest, and this year was no different. There was food, music, axe-throwing contests, raffles, and plenty of other stuff to grab your interest. Most of us, of course, were there primarily for the racing. With 12 USCA paddlers and 11 boats, the competition was stiff. It may only be a 4 mile race, but it’s a tough one as there’s no place to slack off. This was also a fast year, judging by the times, as the top several were faster than ever before. Part of that may have been a shorter course, as the Lower Fish Lake buoy didn’t seem to be as far out as before, but I think we also had some top notch competition.
As Julie Birge sounded the starting horn, we charged off through the channel between the lakes into Upper Fish Lake. With the stability of my OC1, I was able to look impressive at the start, but that didn’t last long as racers began to position themselves. Peter Visser took an early lead, with Ted Beatty, Bill Kanost, and Paul Kane in hot pursuit. Peter was unstoppable Saturday, and he held his lead all the way. Bill Kanost, who typically starts behind and gradually moves up through the race, didn’t have quite enough time to reel in Ted. He also found Paul Kane wasn’t going to give up easily, and Paul nearly put the hurt on Bill, holding the lead over Bill at the halfway point and coming in just 10 seconds behind Bill at the finish.
In the Sea Kayak classes, Larry swift held a little over a minute lead, but the real race was between Deb Kanost and Matt Conrad. Matt tucked onto Deb’s wake and rode it most of the way, but coming around the last buoy Deb managed to drop Matt and drive her Nelo home for a 40 second lead. That was exciting, but none of the races were as intense as my race against Guy and Sonja. I had the lead over them most of the race, but they were gradually reeling me in until the last section from the final buoy to the finish, where they put in a sprint and ran alongside me, neck and neck. Not wanting to lose, I worked my heart out as well. Coming into the channel we found a paddle boat dead ahead of us, so we separated and went zooming around either side. I’m guessing that must have freaked out the paddle boaters! Coming back side by side, we actually locked together crossing the finish line (which killed off Guy’s ability to paddle), and with the nose of my boat sticking out about a foot and a half beyond their C2 I took the win in our “race within the race”. Sometimes it pays to paddle a 23’ boat… Roger Crisp and Brent Ernsberger followed a little while later. Brent was paddling an RPM instead of his Nelo, and it just wasn’t very friendly towards Brent. He didn’t swim, but he had to paddle tepidly enough that it killed off his time.
After the race awards, it was time for the recreational and SUP paddle races, which were 2 miles and only on Upper Fish Lake. Larry picked up a new board that looked to be pretty competitive, so I anticipated some hot competition. I was not disappointed. As the horn went off, Larry pulled to an early lead and held it past the channel, pushing me hard, as his board is more stable once it gets going. That lead melted away, though, as the faster cruise speed of the Needle gave me the advantage for the rest of the race. A couple of people watching us commented “That just doesn’t look like fun!” I guess it looked like we were working hard. And we were! But it was still fun.
Many thanks to Emily for putting on the Fish Lake Races, and to Julie Birge and my Julie for working hard with the timing, recording, and sorting of results. My Julie was originally planning to race with me in OC2, but hard gardening work put the kibosh on that unfortunately. Hopefully next time!
Steve
Photo by Julie Horney
Race Results – 4 mile race
K1 Open
Peter Visser 1st 28:57
Ted Beatty 2nd 30:18
Bill Kanost 3rd 31:23
Paul Kane 4th 31:33
K1 Downriver
Brent Ernsberger 1st 50:39
K1 Sea Kayak Man
Larry Swift 1st 33:50
Matt Conrad 2nd 35:46
Roger Crisp 3rd 50:24
K1 Sea Kayak Woman
Deb Kanost 1st 35:08
C2 Mixed
Guy Gilman / Sonja Gilman 1st 36:47:52
OC1
Steven Horney 1st 36:37:00
Race Results – 2 mile race
SUP
Steven Horney 1st 22:56
Larry Swift 2nd 24:30
