What a trip, L2L… by Joseph DiChiacchio and Mark McKenzie

Part I: what a trip… by Joseph DiChiacchio

At the start of this year I made the decision to feed my competitive inner child and give Surfski racing a try. So in my signature style I would entrench myself in the experience not unlike a cultural anthropologist in order to get a feel for the nuance of the sport.With my newly adopted mission statement, I jumped at the opportunity to hitch a ride with Mark McKenzie and Mark Smith of Elite Ocean Sports for the Lighthouse to Lighthouse race in Norwalk, Connecticut this September.

Mark and Mark

The Marks (hereinafter known as) are truly top-notch ambassadors for the sport, displaying an altruistic love of the game.The plan would be to drive to the Mecca of southeastern Surfski: Charleston, South Carolina, to spend some time on the briny waters of the harbor in preparation for my first ocean race. Once down I enjoyed an important paddling rite of passage by taking an unintended swim on the way back from one of my sessions. Unfortunately, my Gopro captured this mishap, but missed the dolphins the previous day practicing their gymnastics routine: cavorting, twisting, leaping and flipping directly in front of me. Stupid GOPRO!

We promptly left Charleston Thursday en route to Philadelphia for a brief paddle meet up on the Schuykill River with Cliff Roach of Goodboy kayak racks, photographer Vadim Lishchuk and a cadre of fast paddlers with Russian accents. The first thing I noticed was how much colder the water was this far north. Oy Vey! The second was how hard it was to keep up with these guys.Afterwards we became a gang of four by picking up another suspiciously fast looking paddler with a Russian accent, Mike Alexeev, and made our way towards Norwalk, Connecticut by way of New York City.The idea of going through NYC affected me not unlike a shirtless Justin Bieber on throngs of prepubescent girls. As we drove across the Hudson River I found my face plastered against the window, leaving a perfect Shroud-of-Turin-like grease stain much to the Marks chagrin. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to stop and do the perfunctory tourist visit, so the NYC aspect of my bucket list remains. We arrived in Norwalk on Friday with time to get in a brief boat shakedown at the race venue. Both myself and Mike Alexeev were paddling skis we’d never paddled before, so getting a bit of time on the water to feel them out was key.

Afterwards we collected Charleston resident Andy McMarlin at the train station then met up with Bruce Del Torchio, from Gloucester, MA, for dinner and beer at an excellent brewhouse in downtown Norwalk. Bruce was disappointed that there were no Gorton’s Fishsticks on the menu, but somehow he made due. During the evening I found that McMarlin had a unique race hydration formula: Gatorade and Coffee. Initially I found humor in this notion however, I must admit that at the time of this writing, I am planning on using the same mixture during my race tomorrow. So I guess I’m drinking that Kool-Aid now.

After the race we were treated to an after party beyond any I’ve experienced in my previous years of racing mountain bikes. We were offered an array of food that included clam chowder, chili, burgers, dogs, fixins, raw bar, baked clams Rockefeller and beer. As if that wasn’t enough, there were free massages and, of course, as I’ve come to find at all the paddling events thus far this year on my anthropological journey, a collection of some of the nicest people I’ve had the pleasure of meeting. All in all, 2014 has proven to be an interesting and thoroughly enjoyable year embedded with this “Water Tribe”.

Cliff Roach(Goodboy Kayak Racks) Joseph at 7 mile Race of L2L

Part 2: what a trip… by Mark McKenzie

While Joseph stared out the window and tried to figure out why half the guys I’d introduced him to had East European accents I was distracted by 14 hours of driving, juggling skis on and off the SUV, how to navigate NYC successfully, collecting 2 paddlers along the way, and uniting with my ski for the race, which I wouldn’t touch until race morning. In the end, all of this went off like clockwork, with special thanks going out to Wes Echols for bring down a Think Ion for me to paddle, to Cliff Roach and Vadim Lishchuk for getting an extra ski from Philly to the race start for us, to Bruce DelTorchio for giving my training partner Andy McMarlin a lift to Boston post-race on short notice, and to my friend and partner in surfski mayhem Mark Smith for foraging dbl espressos and Perrier for me all up and down I-95.

So it was on to the race, my only one of the year for various reasons, and my first race since L2L 2013. Having done the race for the first time the previous year, I had a pretty good idea of what to expect. The conditions were quite similar, with small chop and a bit of headwind on the trip out, and a few small runs and mixed conditions on the way back. I did notice that it seemed a bit warm on the start line, even for a South Carolina boy. Would that be a factor? Hmmm….

Being uncertain of my form, I was a bit lax on lining up for the start, but sitting out there among over 50 high performance skis started to shake off the travel miles and my need to be in mix suddenly came around. So, at the last minute I spyed Francisco Urena in his Stellar SE reasonably close by and began scrambling towards him as the gun sounded. After getting up to Francisco after the first turn I found myself feeling a bit better than I expected. I had a brief chat with Francisco and surprisingly he didn’t seem like the guy I struggled mightily (and failed) to hold onto the previous year. At first I was perplexed, then I remembered something I’d seen on his FB page and a light went off. I quickly congratulated him on his wedding and honeymoon and worked my way gradually up through the pack…

Eventually, I found myself at a similar pace to Ben Pigott, a shirtless fellow from Western MA in a V10 moving along nicely but staying decidedly wide. I used him as a carrot for several early kms as I found my rhythm and tried to figure out a decent pace to catch those ahead without going too hard. A few weeks after the race I found out that this was Ben’s first surfski race and his first time in the V10. Ben would hang in to the end, finishing in good company between Greg Lesher and Wes Echols. Quite a debut!

In the distance I could see a couple of my key markers for the race coming back to me, Wes in his red Huki and Tim Dwyer in his V10, so I decided to try and reel them in before the turn around. First I caught Wes and briefly dropped him, and then he moved back up to me and we both caught Tim just as we rounded the lighthouse while Ben dropped off the pace.

East Coast Surfski Championship-L2L from Wesley Echols on Vimeo.

I suspected that maybe Wes was feeling a bit better, and slipped behind him momentarily to prepare for the race home. I was mistaken, Tim gapped us, Wes ran out of gas, and I simply didn’t have enough left to bring Tim back, as he seemed to have more left under the saddle than any of the rest of us. I caught a few small runs and got within striking distance of Tim after surprisingly passing a fading Greg Lesher (who’s much faster than me but looked like he’d been baking in a sauna when I passed him), but then he began to pull away for good.

With the wind at my back, the heat started to become a factor for me as well and I was wondering if anyone would pick up my PFD for me if I threw it off? Suddenly I seemed in no man’s land; I couldn’t hear anyone behind me and Tim was gradually pulling further and further away ahead of me. I began to slack off and start to think about just finishing and how hot is had become.

With around 5km to go I was stirred from my haze by the site of a bow just to my right. At first disheartened at having been caught from behind for the only time in the race, save Wes and I trading places back and forth, I was quickly please to see I’d been caught by my trip roommate, Mike Alexeev in the Uno Max. My pace quickened to match his and we drove for the finish together, Mike just in front and wide right of me.

In the final 4km we started seeing skis coming into view in front of us. As we closed I could make out the green Huki of Chris Chappell. We were nearing the turn around the island and knowing Chris’s flat water speed I yelled at Mike that we had to push to catch him while still in the chop. We closed to within 50m, but sure enough, as soon as we cleared the chop the pendulum swung in his favor and he quickly pulled away. Coming around the final turn, having run out of water 3km earlier, I watched as Chris Chappell caught a dying Chris Laughlin in his Evo II just before the line. Mike Alexeev was close behind the Chris’s as he powered ahead of me in the final meters. I was just happy to have pulled it together to match his surge to the finish and happy to see him finish strong in what has to have been his best race of the year.

After the race, I caught up with Andy to hear he’d finished an excellent 8th in his Vajda Hawx, despite taking a swim, and that Joseph had won the SS20 class in the 7 mile race in the Think Big Eze. 2 1/2 hours and 100oz of Perrier later, I would be sitting in Philly eating Chicken Kiev and drinking beer while watching Joseph decipher Eastern European accents once again, and I found I’d already begun to plan for L2L 2015! What a trip, see you next year!