Great Dam Stone Race, Fabulous Race for All!

This was my first time at this event, directed by Shawn Burke and Francisco Urena. This race welcomes all categories of boats with canoes, kayaks, surfskis, sups, and even a kid’s race. Today’s paddle with 90 participants was held on the Merrimack River in Lawrence, Massachusetts at the Abe Bashara Boathouse.The venue was perfect with a with a deep and wide river, plenty of parking, restrooms, docks, and tent space over looking the river. The race organization was expertly done with big posters of the course, on water captains meetings, efficient timing results, medals donated by Ted Van Dusen, and excellent fitting wicking shirts. Even the awards ceremony went quickly and smoothly with Shawn and Francisco giving awards while mentioning all the racers. Needless to say, I was impressed with the organization. Putting on a race takes a lot of effort, so thanks to Shawn, Francisco and the volunteers for making this happen.

Francisco and Shawn, Race Directors

I was excited to do the race because it was only the second time I raced a double kayak or surfski. Eight years ago I raced my first K2. So Team SurskiRacing.com, Chris Chappell and myself, warmed up for 30 minutes in the Stellar double surfski before inching to the start line with 4 other doubles. The double was not totally foreign to Chris and I since we paddled together a few weeks ago in the ocean. It was an exciting race trying to coordinate our strokes, negotiate the buoy turns, managed our heart rates, and getting use to the boat.

Rich and Sue

While I spent three hours in a double last week with Tim paddling around the island of Jamestown, I noticed I tend to paddle harder in a double. While I had more energy than Tim last week, Chris had more energy today than I did. This was evident by Chris urging me to pick up my stroke rate on the last two miles and I was able to comply.

Team SurfskiRacing.com

It was also great to see some paddling buddies I had not seen in a long time, including Ben Lawry and Fiona Cousins who paddled a K2. I was able to catch up with Rich B. who I met 3 years ago while selling him a surfski. Rich and his partner Sue paddled in the singles race and enjoyed themselves. Sue came in first in her division and Rich was excited to be back in the mix after some injuries. Francisco, Mike McDonough, Kirk Olsen, Ted Van Dusen, and Timmy Shields to name a few, all paddled hard in the singles race. Francisco pulled double duty as the co-race director and the winner of this class.

Ben Lawry and Fiona Cousins

Bill Baker and Andy Hall

Francisco and the kids who paddled in the race

Francisco, Michael, Mike, Kirk

Andrius and Dave

Ted Van Dusen at awards

Vicki and Dell Cummings

Emory and his own designed kayak erg!!

So the race schedule worked out great for this race, five days before the L2L, a 13 mile ocean race this Saturday, in Norwalk, CT. So a high intensity workout with enough recovery time, hopefully will help for the L2L.

So in short, today was a blast: New flatwater experience in a double, excellent workout with Chris, expert race organization, seeing some friends and no traffic on the ride home. A great way to spend a Sunday!!