SurfskiRacing.com Series Winners and Season Recap

SURFSKIRACING.COM series is in its third year sponsored by Stellar Kayaks and Surfskis. This years winner by a large margin was Borys Markin, a former Olympic paddler. The series was the best of 4 races vice 5 since one race was dropped from the series(Jamestown Counter Revolution). Bory’s made the effort to make it to at least 5 races despite living in New Jersey. The margin of victory would have been greater except in most races Borys would figure out the race course as he paddled. Not the best strategy, but when your margin of victory is often 4-5 minutes over the 2nd place paddler,you can do this. Next year he will know all the courses so he should do even better. His closest race was the Blackburn Challenge were Reid Hyle and Dorian Walters came in just ahead. Bory’s learned in this race and for ocean paddling you need a weed guard and nicely shaped rudder. He also brought with him an excellent group of paddlers including his girlfriend Beata Cseke who finished in the middle of the overall standings and walked away with being the best female paddler. Beata despite never paddling on the ocean before this season was fearless as she paddled the Sakonnet River Race in practically a gale!

Bory Series Winner

Beata at Essex

Stellar paddler Francisco Urena(SE Ultra) came on strong toward the middle of the season and finished even stronger as evidenced by his 3rd place at the L2L. Francisco and Greg Lesher tied for the next two spots in the standings. Greg had the opposite strategy of showing well in the early races but fading in the later half of the season but finishing up strong (3rd) in the Maine downrwind race. Despite this fade Greg had his best overall season. Both Greg and Francisco are relatively new to the surf skis with only 2 years experience for each. Both have been welcomed editions to the race scene as has been Greg’s significant other, Mary Beth Gangloff who also has transitioned over to surfskis from kayaks. Greg also contributes to the site with his excellent writing skills! Congratulations to the winners, Borys, Francisco, and Greg.

Francisco Urena, L2L

Greg Lesher, 2nd at Sakonnet River Race

Although I dropped a few places to these guys, my season was a good one overall. I paddled more rough water than I had in previous years, almost living at the Beavertail Can so that was a changed from previous years. I could have picked up a few more points if I had not hit rocks at both the Snow Row and the Nahant Race(ejected from my ski). I rarely ever hit rocks in all my years paddling but this year I did. I had good races at the Blackburn, Doublebeaver, the L2L, the most competitive of all the races. What was different beside hitting rocks, was I chose to paddle the SEL Ultra in the Blackburn(2.51.47) and the Double Beaver race(2:04.20), the two potentially roughest races of the season to see if the extra stability of the SEL in these races would increase my times. This year however, the Blackburn was as flat as I have seen it. As it turns out, I was 2 minutes slower at this year’s Blackburn from my 2011 PR(2.49.55) in my SES Ultra. In the previous 2 years my times(2009-2.52.32, Legend), (2010 Ses Excel, 2:53:34) in the Blackburn were almost identical to this years. For the Double Beaver race, I was 15 seconds faster this year(2:04.20) over last year(2011, SES, 2.04.36)despite much rougher conditions in 2011. My conclusions are that I felt much more relaxed, fresher at the end of races, and could paddle hard with less boat concentration in the SEL Ultra while giving up some speed particular in the flatter sections of both these races. I knew the SES was a faster ski but I wanted to test the two skis this year with faster/less stable SES versus slightly slower/more stable SEL Ultra.

Wesley and Joe Shaw

Another paddler that had a very good year, was Joe Shaw, who out sprinted me at both the Blackburn and the L2L races. Joe has found his ocean balancing skills after paddling and racing a ski more often over the last two years. Joe has been a top canoe,K1 and endurance paddler for years in the Northeast. He can now add surfskis to this list. Joe by the way paddled a K1 in the Blackburn many, many years ago! You can’t have better balancing skills than that.Long time training partner Tim Dwyer edged me out by one point this year in the series. Nothing like going head to head with Tim in our training paddles out to the Beavertail Can or sprinting from Comorant Rock downwind to the third beach can, heart monitors screaming, blades spinning, boats a” jumpin” onto the next wave, and heads turning to see who dropped who! Some days I win, Some day Tim wins. Just so we are on the water pushing each other, we both win! My other training partner Chris, identified “areas of improvement” for me as we trained on flat water and even did a flatwater race in a double. Chris finished up the season with an excellent races at Nahant, L2L, Maine Downwind Race in his Stellar SR Ultra, and coming in 2nd at the Holyoke Flatwater Race in his Mohican.

Chris with the Big Engine

Surfskis are growing despite the fact of our aging demographics. With the new Stellar 18S surf ski and the Epic V8, many paddlers are enjoying the comfort, stability, and speed of this class of skis. Dana Gaines(18S) and Bill Kuklinski(V8), Ken Cooper(V8) paddled their respective boats to a 1, 2,3 finish at this years Blackburn(FSK class) and were smiling before, during, and after the race. No pre race anxiety over boat choice for these guys. Just hop in and paddle hard, conditions are almost irrelevant for these veteran paddlers in this class of boats. Doubles also are growing more popular. Next year I maybe in my new Stellar double with Chris for at least one race. We did have some younger paddlers, in particular Dave Furniss who had excellent races at the Sakonnet and Double Beaver races where Dave came in 3rd and 2nd respectively. Dave had rudder problems at the Blackurn so had to drop out unfortunately.

All the double surfski guys at L2L!

Dana Gaines, Bill K at Blackburn

Dave Furniss, Double Beaver

Fall is here too early, as is the norm in New England. There will be a few flat water races and then I will don my drysuit, pogies,a more stable ski, and paddle throughout the winter either on the ocean or the Narrow River. Next season I am adding the “Ride the Bull” race on June 22nd to the race series. This will be an 8 mile race including Bull Point, Mackeral Cove, and Short Point that includes the” roughest” sections of Jamestown while not being too exposed or too long. So see if you can ride the bull for 8 miles and 8 seconds, it screams excitement or terror depending on you skill level and boat choice. We are also working on a race in the NY/NJ area in the late season to offer those paddlers a chance of participating in the Series without traveling too much. Also the East Coast Surfski Championship will be held again with prize money so stay tuned for that next season. Yeah!!!

There are a few people I want to thank this season. Thanks to all the race directors, committee members and volunteers for making all the races available to us. Thanks to Mark Ceconi and Greg Lesher for their articles. These articles take a lot more time to write than you would imagine especially if you write as well as these guys do. Also thanks to owners/designers Dave Thomas and Ed Hoffmeister of Stellar Surfskis and Kayaks who have sponsored many events including this series for the past two years, 2012 Molokai(Major Sponsor), the 2011 East Coast Surfski Championships, and will sponsor the 2013 East Coast Surfski Championship. More to come from Stellar in 2013 with a new K1, SE2, and many new kayak models.

Dave Thomas, Co Owner/Designer Stellar

Ed Hoffmeister, Co-owner/designer Stellar

I want to shout out to Gary Williams, Robin Francis and their Achilles team for all their hard work getting folks on the water from Massachusetts to Florida.I don’t know where they get the energy, but they get it done and make it happen for their motivated paddlers. Lastly thanks to Chris Chappell, web master, training partner,connoisseur of boats/paddles, for all his work on our site. It could not happen without Chris. We are never at a loss of words talking about boats, paddles, races, training, web site and much more. Looking forward to next season already!