Greg Lesher

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Every Tuesday evening during paddling season, a group of North Shore surfskiers get together at Lynch Park in Beverly to race in the Salem Sound SurfSki League. Under the direction of Ed Duggan, founder of the Kayak Learning Center, the league completed its 5th season in 2010. As a newcomer to the surfski scene (surfskene?), I hadn’t yet had a chance to participate in the weekly races, but I was looking forward to competing in Ed’s Salem Sound Double Header in late September. The Double Header consists of two legs (specified by Ed on race day) separated by a 30 minute rest. Rankings are based on cumulative time for the two legs. In another interesting twist, the second leg is a “Le Mans” style start – you set your boat on the beach, line up about 20 yards from the boats and start from there. Both legs finish on land – paddle right into the beach, hop off your boat and run (limp, stagger, crawl, …) to the finish line. Unfortunately, three stalwarts of the Tuesday night Salem League (Graeme Rockett, Kirk Olsen, and Mike McDonough) were unable to attend, as were several other familiar faces in the New England paddling scene. This left a field of 11 paddlers – Mike Tracy, Joe Shaw, Alex McLain, Jim Gilligan, Bob Capellini, Bill Kuklinski, Francisco Urena, Mike Chamness, Chris Chappel, Rod McLain (paddling an OC-1), and myself. On hand on shore to help Ed with timing was Cory Lancaster, recovering from an injury and soon to relocate to the West coast.

Conditions were a bit blustery, with a 10 to 15 knot breeze coming SW out of the sound (and thus not kicking up all that much in the way of waves). Ed announced that the first leg of the race was to head out from Beverly towards Manchester, around Great and Little Misery Islands and back – about 8 miles. That meant we’d be going mostly downwind for the first half, then mostly upwind the second half. Our crew lined up for the start (on the water for the first leg) and took off at the gun. I had a good start, although it was tough to tell at first because even though there were only a handful of boats, we were quite spread out laterally. I must have gone out a little too fast, because I found myself in a slight but definite lead after the first few moments. Given that I knew at least a few of the other racers were capable of cleaning my clock, I savored the moment, realizing that it would soon evaporate. Sure enough, Mike overtook me on the right (although on a much wider line) and Joe starting pulling up on my left.

As Joe pulled alongside he yelled out asking where we were supposed to be heading. Most of the paddlers in the race were very familiar with the waters, but Joe hails from western MA and had never paddled in Salem Sound before. I pretended not to speak English, but he persisted and I pointed him in the right direction. At which point he took off to try to catch Mike. I didn’t look back to see where the rest of the crew was, fearing that I would see a long line of boats trailing off my stern. I find one of the more attractive features of open water surfski racing is that if you don’t make a conscious decision to look back, it’s blissfully easy to imagine an empty ocean behind you. I felt good as I reached Misery Island and rounded around the back to start the return trip. I knew that the trip back was going to be a bit of a slog into the wind. I was enjoying my final respite from the wind in a little calm bay in the lee of the island when I heard tell-tale paddle splashes behind me. I looked around, and right on my tail was Rod in his OC-1. I yelled back at him to ask if he had pulled any skis along with him, and to my relief he said no. With such a small race we’re all kind of in the same class, but in my head I had Rod in a different class. Still didn’t want him to beat me, but that didn’t seem as bad as dropping to another surfski.

As we came back into the wind, I concentrated on keeping a strong and consistent stroke. Before the race I was a bit worried about the conditions, but my S1-R was rock steady. I could see the two surfski leaders, Mike and Joe, off in the distance battling for the top spot, but there was no way I was going to catch them in the remaining 3 miles or so (or, for that matter, at any distance). A couple of times I threw quick glances back and didn’t see Rod anywhere behind me, and a couple of other times the balance-stealing glances revealed him right on my tail. He told me afterwards that he caught and lost me 3 or 4 times during the return stretch. As I approached the finish – a turn around a headland followed by a 150 yard final stretch to the beach, I saw my girlfriend Mary Beth yelling encouragement from the point and something that I interpreted as “For Pity’s sake, look out! He’s gaining on you!”. In reality, she said nothing of the sort, but my paranoid mind warped her words of encouragement into what I didn’t want to hear, so I poured on everything I had left and finished strong. The next person in (Alex) was a couple of minutes behind me, followed by Rod in his OC-1 some seconds later. Alex, of course, is Rod’s daughter and a phenomenal paddler. After the race, Rod admitted that he had been untruthful with me when I asked him (behind Misery Island) if he had any skis with him. I couldn’t see her with the quick glances I threw backwards, but Alex had been right on his wash at the time. I felt proud to merit such gamesmanship… even as good-natured and harmless as it was.

I was sitting in 3rd after the first leg of the doubleheader – 2:22 behind the leader (Joe, who apparently hung just behind Mike for the whole second half of the first leg, then sprinted by at the end to beat him by 3 seconds) and 2:28 ahead of Alex in 4th. Rod, Jim, Bill, Bob, Mike, and Francisco rounded out the field. Chris, unfortunately, didn’t feel up to continuing and decided to withdraw from the race. We all chatted amiably during the 30 minute break before the second leg. Several of us expressed doubts about how well we’d do, having gotten plum tuckered out during the first leg and not particularly savoring the idea of another hard paddle.

The second leg of the race was shorter – a shade over 4 miles – and promised to be more out of the wind. We’d paddle up into Beverly harbor, navigate around a buoy, head back out of the harbor past the starting point, circle the Black Rocks shelf and return to the starting beach. We lined up on shore for the Le Mans start and took off running for our boats. Rod had a great start and took the early lead, opening up a 5 or 6 boat-length lead before most of us had started paddling. Mike caught Rod after a few minutes and we set up a drafting formation that would last for the next 15 minutes or so – Mike in the lead, me right behind him, Joe right behind me, Rod 3 feet to the right of Mike in his wake wash, and Alex behind Rod. As a newcomer to surfski racing, this was the first time I’d ever drafted for any significant length of time. Even with the benefit of the draft, I had to push very hard to keep on Mike’s stern. After getting used to practically having the ocean to myself while paddling, it was a little odd to be that close to other people – all paddling at race intensity.

As we came out of the harbor, it got a little rougher and a little tougher to stay on Mike’s wash. I’d get bounced off by a wave and then did a panicky sprint to make up the small gap. It required increasing amount of attention and small corrections to keep in the right spot. With the upturned bow of my Huki obscuring the extremely low stern of Mike’s boat, maintaining a 6-10 inch gap between boats while paddling at 95% effort was proving increasingly difficult. Eventually, I fell off his wash and was unable to stay with the lead pack. Joe took my place and, shortly thereafter, he and Mike pulled away from Rod and Alex. At the Black Rocks turn-around, I made up a little on Rod and Alex and began to think that I could catch them. The distance between us ever-so-slowly decreased as I pondered whether a heart can literally burst. Alex pulled ahead of her father and I made an effort to jump onto her wash. I was too slow, and Rod pulled behind her instead. I made an effort to pass on her right, but we were approaching the headland that marked the final turn and I saw that if I stayed on my current path, I’d have a rocky portage in my immediate future.

By this point, Rod had fallen back a little so I pulled behind Alex figuring that once we made the turn around the headland, I could outsprint her in the final straightaway to the beach. She was an undeniably better paddler and 20-some years younger (had to enter that fact into the official record), but I figured I could outmuscle her for a short stretch. Nope. Not even close. I pulled out of her wash and started to make my move on her right side, but despite practically blowing out both lungs and my spleen, I couldn’t gain more than a few feet and quickly lost that. With seemingly effortless, controlled strokes (that contrasted so with my psychotic flailing), Alex beat me easily to the beach and finished 4 seconds ahead. Fortunately, my lead from the first leg of the Doubleheader was enough to secure a 3rd place overall finish. As in the first leg, Joe had edged out Mike at the finish for a cumulative win by a mere 8 seconds. Alex finished 4th and Rod 5th. Although the field wasn’t perhaps as deep as at some other races, I was thrilled with my performance. I hadn’t had any significant issues with balance and I had kept a solid pace throughout the two legs of the race.

After the race, a few of us watched in dumfounded awe as a curious spectator with a 12′ recreational kayak proceeded to stow said kayak in the passenger seat of her Mercedes convertible and drive off. With our skis more conventionally loaded on our vehicles, we caravanned to Cory’s house in Beverly for burgers and a casual awards ceremony. Many thanks to Ed and Cory for putting on such an entertaining race and post-race party.

Results

Place                                  Overall    Course 1   Course 2

 

1 Joe Shaw Epic V10L 1:52:07 1 1:09:15 1 42:52

2 Mike Tracy Fenn Elite 1:52:15 2 1:09:18 2 42:57

3 Greg Lesher Huki S1-R 1:55:23 3 1:11:37 4 43:46

4 Alex McLain Huki S1-X 1:57:47 4 1:14:05 3 43:42

5 Rod McLain OC-1 1:58:36 5 1:14:44 5 43:52

6 Jim Gilligan Think Evo 2:01:11 6 1:14:56 7 46:15

7 Bob Capellini Huki S1-X 2:02:20 8 1:16:02 8 46:18

8 Bill Kuklinski Huki S1-X 2:03:39 7 1:15:31 9 48:08

9 Francisco Urena Stellar SES 2:04:33 10 1:18:56 6 45:37

10 Mike Chamness Huki S1-X 2:05:27 9 1:16:03 10 49:24

11 Chris Chappell Stellar SES DNF 11 1:19:16 11 DNS

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