Essex River Race, Getting Paddlers on the Water!

The Essex River Race draws an excellent crowd of New England paddlers from rowers, sea kayakers, surf skiers, Sup and and more, due to its short distance, protected flat waters and expert organization. It also is a great place to catch up with some paddling friends. I met fellow paddler, Brian Sharp, professional sailor, who is home few months before setting sail again. My two buddies from Rhode Island Tim H. and Tim Dywer carpooled together. Today was Tim Hudyncia first race in his surfski. Dana Gaines, who took third in the SSplus20 Class, showed good form today. It was good to see Dana after emails this winter. A number of years ago I met Eric Constanzo at this race. Eric drove from NJ with a layover in Sturbridge, Massachusetts, to have an excellent race putting pressure on me for the entire race with Beata. Perhaps I should not have loaned Eric the 4 inch rudder had I known he was going to do so well today. Eric heads to the National Life Saving Race in a few weeks so we wish him well there. Eric will be paddling a spec ski in this competition. It was also good to see Gary Williams and the Achilles Team bright and early. Gary and I joked about getting the primo parking spots as we were the early birds today. I was also the last to leave the parking lot talking to Chris about today’s race.

The Essex is always very competitive and today was no different. Borys Markin won easily by four minutes over the second place finisher Eric McNett. Greg Lesher and Jan Lupinski battled for the 3rd and 4th spots both turning in excellent times. Jan likes to tell the story he is not training much,but when pressed he really is. Andrius Zinkevichus, one of the top local K1 paddlers, raced in his first Essex today placing 5th and had fun in a borrowed Mohican. Francisco Urena, is on his way from the flats of the Essex to the swells of the Molokai channel next Sunday. I stayed one to two boat lengths behind Francisco for the last 4 miles of the race. While I was trying to catch Francisco, Beata and Eric C, were trading place riding wash as they stayed within two lengths of me for the whole race except when Beata upped her game and caught me at the finish line.

In the newly formed class, SS20 plus, Ken Cooper won easily with Bob Capellini and Dana taking the 2nd and 3rd spots. Thanks to all the folks of the Cape Ann Rowing Committee who put this race on as well as the Blackburn. The next race is my race, the Sakonnet River Race where we transition into twelve miles of ocean/bay paddling. It could be a gale like last year or one foot seas. See everyone there. Check this site for all the details.