Two days after the Mayor’s Cup it is a beautiful day here in Rhode Island, brilliant sunshine, 6 knots of wind. Today it was easy for me to decide which ski to take off the rack: the UNO. The forecast of small craft/gale for Sunday’s race caused me to bring my most stable ski in the fleet, the Huki S1R. While having a “red vest” for the race, I elected not to paddle due to the overwhelming conditions and limited take out areas if I did get into trouble. Wise choice on my part! For the elite paddlers most of them were in Epic V12’s provided by the event’s main sponsor, Epic, as part of the face off with the Dutch Team along with some V10’s, and Uno’s and Mako’s. The winner Sean Rice was paddling a Uno as was Erik Borgnes.

While I did not paddle, I had a great time taking pictures, seeing my Connecticut and New York friends; Mark, Steve, Jim, Tom, Robin, Bob, Sean and I got to formally meet Greg Barton and finally met Bruce Gipson after talking to him a few times over the phone the past few years. I was also able to meet some of the elite paddlers and realized how young most of them really are. Some of them are my son’s age; young, strong, skilled and incredibly fit as you might imagine! Quite a different story from the 40-60 year olds I hang with. Not to say we are not fit. I digress some, but all the more reason to consider classes in the Blackburn Challenge as the surfski field continues to grow.

One of those near 50 year olds is my seven year paddling partner Tim Dywer, who paddled a kayak double with his Memory Challenge (around Long Island) partner Maury Eldridge. Tim won the Blackburn Challenge Kayak Class in 2001 with a time of 2:46:26 and came in 3rd overall when you combine the Kayak Class and the Surfski Class behind Joe Glickman’s time of 2:44:50, and Ed Joy’s time of 2:39.44. Tim has had many memorable races over the years but one of them that immediately comes to mind, is his 2007 course record for the Essex River Race. Maury is no stranger to the winner’s circle either, winning the touring class in the Blackburn many times. As my training partner, I have benefited over the years trying to keep pace with Tim, so the adage of training with someone faster makes you faster holds true regardless of the sport. Tim and Maury did an awesome job and can now say they have DONE NY having paddled around Long Island and Manhattan. See Tim’s write up.

So after watching the start of the race, I spent about 2 hours in Big Jim Hoffman’s hotel room with Bob and Linda Capellini and my wife Betsy, staying warm until the estimated time of arrival of the first paddlers. I got a phone call from Steve DelGaudio who along with Jim, Mark, and Tom Kerr were following the racers along the shores of Manhattan, informed me that the first paddlers should be in in 15 minutes. I quickly gathered my stuff from the room and raced a few blocks to the start. I got there as Sean Rice was crossing the finish line and was able to help him out of his ski and walked with him to the registration area. That sprint of two blocks was all the cardio I got in for the day, my strength training for the day was hauling Tim and Maury’s water logged 100 pound kayak double to the staging area after they finished.

Shortly afterwards the rest of the paddlers were starting to approach the finish line looking weather beaten and tired. Reid Hyle the top U.S. K1 paddler, having most recently competed in the World Championships in Portugal with Jason Quagliata, commented he had hoped to put in a better time but lost valuable minutes to a capsize. He also said “racing was supposed to be fun; this was not a fun race.” Greg Barton had a great race despite his giving up many years to the other paddlers and after a change of clothes, looked remarkably fresh as I helped him change out his footplate on his V12. Erik Borgnes commented it was the hardest race he had ever done.

While this officially ends the New England Surfski racing season, I am looking forward to the next season which I hope will end with the rest of us mortal paddlers finally getting a chance to race next year’s Mayors Cup! While the off season training begins, I will have more time to complete the reviews of paddles, pfd’s, the Uno, Synergy, Mohican, and more, in the months to come, so stay tuned to SURFSKIRACING.COM!!! ~ Wesley