The race was to go to the marker at Second beach, turn left and head to the sand barge. From there you back towards False Creek turning at the Red Marker, then going to the Green marker and then off to the sand barge one more time, before heading in to the finish.
The start was ok, but there was a big booze ship coming into the creek. Check out the picture from www.katkam.ca.
You can see everyone at the start line with the ship coming into False Creek.
We were going to wait until it pasted, or so I thought. Then all of a sudden Brian started the race. Both Jeff and myself went to the right of the ship and everyone else shot to the right. As we were going by, the yahoos on the ship starting throwing things. Who knows what they were throwing, I could just here them hitting the water, and the guys cheering.
As the boat passed I could see that Shane was charging at the front as usual. Jeff then shot over to the right, and I followed suit. I slid in behind Bob in his beautiful V10 Elite, and rode his wash for a while. As we got out of the creek, the waves starting coming from everywhere, and I started to drop off.
This is where I was not thinking and made a huge tactical error. I decided not to wash ride. I think I left my brains back on the beach on this one, and I paid dearly. Slowly but surely everyone at the front was moving away. I did mange to keep people from passing but I was not staying with the people in front. Gray and Lina were right in front of me, and just kept pulling away. That was the extent of my race. The next 5.5 kilometers were just a grind. Mind you it still was a fun race, with all the waves. As we made the turn at the Second Beach marker, and started heading to the sand barge, I tried to catch up by changing my angle to the waves coming from the right. This worked and I could tell that I was gaining on the double, but it would only last for 50 to 60 meters and I would lose the line.
It would take me another 50 or 60 meters to find it again, and then lose it after another 60 meters or so. In this time the sail boats, who were in a race of their own at the time, were crossing our paths. Which made for some interesting maneuvers to avoid a collision. After the turn around the sand barge it was a down wind run all the way to the Red marker. Around the Red marker, and off to the Green one. Once past that marker, it was a up wind paddle back to the sand barge. Again I was not making up any ground at this point, just holding my position.
Once around the sand barge for the last time, it was another down wind sprint. I could get the ski going pretty good in the waves, but it would only last for about 3 to 4 waves, and then I would basically slow right down into the back of the next wave, and have to start over. At this point I knew there was no way I was going to catch anyone, and since I was getting tired, I just decided to practice catching waves and riding them. This was going good until I saw a sailboat bearing down on the double in front of me. It was going to be close, and Gary and Lina must have saw it and hammered to get in front of it. It turned right behind them.
Then I noticed that I was not alone and there was another sail boat about to do the same to me. I looked at the helmsman, and he looked at me, and sort of gestured, its your move small fry. I figured I could make I, so I hammered it. I just made it in front of the sail boat before it turned. What a rush.
From there it was a straight shot to the finish line. After crossing the finish line, I kept going into False Creek for a cool down paddle. I started to draft a war canoe full of what seemed to be a lot of shall we say over indulged females. I had numerous offers as I paddled by. Every race should be like that. lol.
Next up, was the famous smokies and drinks at the race center. A big hand goes to all the volunteers who with out them there would not be a race. Thank you.
Again this week I was one number away from a huge prize. A brand new carbon wing blade.Hopefully at the next race in two weeks, I will be one number over.
For the race results go to: http://www.bigchop.ca/results/2008_bigchopresults_race2.pdf
2 comments:
Darrell, I'm glad I didn't pay much attention to the drunks on the ship...I didn't even notice they were throwing stuff at us...I just figured they were cheering us on.
Also, you sure it was a war canoe and not a dragon boat laden with cheerfull gals?
Actually it was a rather large voyeur canoe, and not a war canoe. They were definitely not in a high kneel position. Maybe a high heel position,and they were certainly in a cheery mood.
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