FESTIRAME

If you look at a map of Québec, you will notice a large lake in the middle. This is Lac St-Jean, a huge fresh water inland sea, remnant of the Champlain Sea and the last ice age.

The town of Alma has, for the last 37 years, organized the Festirame (literally the “rowing-fest”) on Lac St-Jean. This started out with the very local tradition of racing “chaloupes à rames” or fresh water rowing boats quite similar to the dories of the Blackburn Challenge. Wanting to race these slow and heavy boats is certainly a deviant form of masochism!

Over the years, the 42 km crossing of Lac St-Jean evolved to include rowing shells, then sea kayaks, and starting in 2009, surfskis.

Keep in mind that surfski are still a very new and exotic thing in Québec, especially in that part of the province. So surfskis are still treated as a distracting novelty, definitely not a priority. One example of this is the date of the 2010 race, July 17th; the same day as the Blackburn challenge and the same day as the “Ligue Estivale de Sauvetage Sportif”, a Lifesaving competition where 12 local surfskiers were racing. So with the small basin of ski paddlers split in three. There were not many registered for the Festirame. I was torn between the Blackburn and the Festirame but being one of the lobbyists who had worked to include surfskis a few years ago, I had to choose the Festirame.

The morning of July 17th was a perfect day for racing; sunny skies and a howling wind that would allow the paddlers to break the course record and establish several PBs. Only one problem; the forecast called for thunderstorms later during the day. After first delaying the start to consider the waves and the latest weather report, the organizers decided to postpone the race to next day. I felt like weeping. “But this wind is going to go to waste!!” All the paddlers with any kind of experience agreed that they should have called for an earlier start on the same day to avoid the storm, but it was too late now… sniff!

To keep ourselves busy until the next day, racers attended a very interesting conference presented by the rower and fellow racer Mylène Paquette who crossed the Atlantic Ocean last winter. Mylène was the first Canadian woman to do so. It was interesting to hear from her that she’s more intimidated by a 42km race than by a 5000 km crossing!

On the morning of the 18th, all the racers that were not held up by other engagements showed up again at the race start on the Métabetchouan River in Desbiens, one of the tributaries of Lac St-Jean. This time it was a cold grey day with showers, an 8 o’clock wind direction that would make surfing iffy for the first 19km, impossible for the next 9 km and then after, we would have to wait and see. But no thunderstorms were in sight. So all racer got a green light for the start.

There was a sequenced start, chaloupes, solo rowing men, kayaks and surfski being in the last wave. Guillaume Morin imposed a very fast rhythm right from the start and impressed both spectators and racers with his speed and flawless technique.

As the group reached open water, we all knew this was going to be an interesting race. The waves were slowly growing after 1km, so much so that drafting was already out of the question. The lead group consisted of two rowers and two surfskiers, Guillaume and me. The rowers were aiming for a straight line towards Île Verte (Green Island) whereas the surfskis were milking every possible wave ending up doing a zigzag line which would end up being faster as the waves grew.

Conditions were getting big, by Québec standards anyway. It was clear that some paddlers in the back which were newer to the sport would have some difficulty negotiating these conditions.

After about 10 km, I was separated from the lead group because I had taken a more easterly line after catching some nice rides. I came up to 2 capsized double shells that had an earlier start time with the paddlers swimming about. I was glad to see an escort boat arrive to take care of them. There was no way I could have helped 4 people at the same time. Although their shells had some buoyancy and were self-bailing, the waves swamped them up more quickly than the bailer could do its job. Once unstable because they were filled up, it only took a good side wave to flip them over.

Most rowers were overwhelmed by the conditions and some began to act irrationally. About 1 km later, I crossed another double shell going 180º away from Île Verte. I pointed the right direction to them as they were clearly lost. They looked me like deer stuck on a highway. I learned that later they joined the swimmers’ club.

I rejoined Guillaume a few minutes before reaching Île Verte and he very wisely suggested that we hang together for the remainder of the race. Guillaume is clearly a faster paddler than me, but this is a HUGE lake, there was not an escort boat in sight as they were all too busy fishing out rowers. Guillaume later admitted to me that he had forgotten his leash and a huli in these conditions might imply saying farewell to his brand new Nelo. So we’d be each other’s safety net.

At Île Verte, we had to go between the island and a big buoy. These were definitely surfing conditions by now and the buoy looked so close, scary close to the island; the wind had probably moved it. I took my aim and did not hit anything. We turned left to go to Île Ronde (Round Island). “Hey! Where’s everybody?” It was only Guillaume and me in the lead. It seemed like the two top rowers had problems too and were now out of our sight. For the next 2 hours, we would not see another racer. Although I was having a great time, I was worried about some of my friends in the back…

For the next 45 minutes we had to paddle with the waves coming from the 9-10 o’clock direction. Most of the waves were now in the 2 meter range, but once every five minutes, a set of 3+ meter breakers came. I was caught by surprise by the first one and went for a swim. I remounted quickly as my friend Guillaume waited for me. The water was warm, so this was almost fun. From then on, we both kept an eye for the sets and called them to the other guy when they came by.

Rounding off Île Ronde, we had some of the best rides of the day. Even though this was I race, I came very close to turning around to go play in the surf for a while. Even a board surfer could have had a good time at that spot!

A few good rides and then we entered La Grande Décharge, the main outlet of the lake into the Saguenay River. For the next 10 km, it’s a rather dull paddle compared to the lake, where we tried catching boat wake to stay awake. About 5 km from the finish, we see escort boats passing by, either carrying or towing rowing shells. Just by their number, we clearly see that these guys did not have much fun out there!

As we got close to the finish, I told Guillaume not to wait for me anymore and that he should go get his first place check with a nice first class finish sprint that he does so well. He did and there was no way I could have kept up with him.

After we crossed the finish and got a warm welcome and congratulations from the super-nice volunteers, we learned that all the single and double rowing shells had abandoned or we forced to quit by the Québec Police Force. Many rowers and paddles were marooned on Île Verte; some with damaged crafts, some totally terrified by the conditions, some with just a minor scratch on their ego. There was one rower, Charles Hauss, who refused to quit despite the organizers insistence and who was the only finisher in his class.

However, all the sea kayakers and surfskiers who had some experience were totally ecstatic and thrilled about the race they had just completed. Serge Savard, the local sea kayak guru got the first place in his class had had the biggest grin for the hours that followed. Everyone was talking about those fun waves and crazy sets that came once in a while. The expression “inland sea” took a new significance. One the biggest smiles that day was on David Joblin’s face who had a very good race this year after getting a DNF last year.

ABOUT THE FUTURE?

The Festirame course is an exceptional one; world class when the wind shows up. The people are some of the nicest in the world. But this event needs more surfskis! In 2010, the prizes were proportional to the number of entries in a class. The result? Some racers did not want to commit to the long drive and registration fee before seeing a minimum of registered paddlers. So very few showed up. In 2010, the prizes for the surfski class were lesser than 2009 and there were no medals. Keep in mind that the Festirame is a very generous event. Everyone who finishes the race gets more money than what they invested in the registration fee. It’s just too weird to see a rower who finished about an hour after the fastest racer, who happens to be on a surfski, get way more prize money than the surfski guy.

All of this is worth it when you consider Lac St-Jean hospitality!

In 2011, the Festirame will be on July 2nd, so no conflict with the Blackburn this year.

Guillaume Morin and I got the feeling that the organizers were somewhat impressed by the performance of surfskis and that they would take them more seriously in the future.

So, practice your nicest “ Bonjour!” and see you at the Festirame.

Richard Germain

Official site:
http://www.courseramealma.com/en/index.php