Congratulations to Greg Lesher, Chris Quinn, and Chris Chappell for their season performances and taking the podium places in the series.

This is Greg’s third time to win as he did in 2016, 2017 and now 2018. I started the series in 2010 and Greg only did 2 races then scoring a 1 and a 3, so he has come a long way in 5 years getting faster in both flat water and ocean.  Greg capacity to train is eye popping and this is evident in his races. As I write this, Greg took 3rd place in the Chattajack endurance race held yesterday. Greg also tabulates the series for this site along with maintaining his Surfski America race directory off this site. So congrats to Greg and thank you for your contributions to this site with your race summaries and results.

Scientists are still baffled by the “rafting” behavior of paddlers, but pray to God that it doesn’t have anything to do with reproduction. Essex River Race. Greg’s humor!

Greg trying to hold off Chris at Double Beaver Race.

Second place finisher was Chris Quinn who was last year’s 2017 3rd place winner. As we all predicted, Chris would get better with experience. Chris has only 3 years experience paddling skis, but now has found his groove. His progression to the top ranks has been somewhat predictable and in some ways he is the outlier. From day one, Chris has seldom struggled with stability so he was able to go from paddling a V10 2G(high end intermediate ski) with virtually no surfski experience to paddling a v12 2G(advance ski) in virtually all ocean conditions, and raced his v14 for his flat water races. The predictable part is it takes about 3 years for very good paddlers to figure out how to train and race to be at the pointed end of the pack. So now Chris is putting great pressure on Greg and others to beat him. This was evident in him placing ahead of Greg in the East Coast Surfski Champs and the Plum Island Lighthouse Race. Chris will continue to improve and has what most of want back, youth, since Chris is only 30. I pointed this out to him on a couple of training paddles. Most of us are old enough to be his father. I say that smiling because we need more youth in the sport and this year we had quite a few new and youthful paddlers join our ranks. Chris is also a lifeguard at Narragansett Beach here in Rhode Island, so Chris is very confident on the water.  So congrats to Chris for another great season.

Wesley and Chris before Blackburn 2018. Chris placed 6th in his 1st BB.

Chris Chappell had one of his best season ever maximizing his flat water racing prowess and placing high in the Plum Island Lighthouse Race and the Battle of The Bay. Chris garnered 10 points for all his flat water races that included Narrow River, ROTC, Essex and Great Stone Dam Race that got him off to commanding lead in the series. While Greg and Chris had locked up their respective places with a few races to go, the third place spot came down to the last race of the season, the Plum Island race, between Chris, Kurt Hadem and Tim Dwyer. Chris need a good showing at Plum Island to win the 3rd spot. So he brought his Nelo 560 and of course his favorite Braca paddle as the Braca USA distributor. So congrats to Chris on his well deserved 3rd place finish. Chris and I had many good training paddles on the Sakonnet this year and in a few of the ocean races were can often been seen paddling stroke for stroke during some part of those races.

Chris waving to Leslie taking these great pics while I am trying to hang on his wash, Blackburn 2018

Chris(FastPaddler.com) and Wesley(SurfskiRacing.com after another “Good Blackburn”

Mary Beth continues her dominance in the Woman’s Division. She did 10 races in the series this year. Mary Beth started surfskis in 2011 and has shown improvement with each year. Her ability to stay the course, push on, finish is admirable. Mary Beth has won the top Series honors since 2015. Mary Beth is such a good paddler, I often wonder how much faster she would be on the flat water races with a flat water racing ski. Regardless on her boat choice, she can get it done!

Mary Beth at East Coast Champs, L2L

Melissa, Leslie, Mary Beth at 2018 East Coast Champs.

Dawid just couldn’t seem to get enough of my(Greg’s) remount stories. (Photo courtesy of Max Yasochka), Dawid, Galen, Tim, Greg, Mary Beth, Olga at Downwind Champs.

Other notable finishers for the series is Jan who placed at the top or near the top for the last several years. Jan needed one more race to qualify for the series but ended up with only 5 races. Jan has to travel a great distance to most of the races are in RI or Mass and he lives in NJ.Kurt Hadem made the most of his races starting late in the series but got his 6 races in and scoring no less than 7 points and got 10 points each at two of the races. Knowing where Kurt trains, sometimes with Tim and I, he is fast becoming perhaps the best rough water paddlers in the Northeast in his V12 that I sold him a few months ago. Tim Dwyer(5th) is always in the hunt and you can never count Tim out in any race. Tim was only 3 points behind Chris and one behind Kurt (4th). Tim and I been probably the most consistent Series paddlers since I implemented the series.We have done virtually every race in the series over the eight years and other non-series races during those years too. We have seen many paddlers come and go over the many years we have been paddling. So even with all our years and experience, we can still get it done most races. I did remark to Chris Chappell that the top racers in our group are very fast if you look at the gap times between the front pack and the second/third pack our group is often in these days. Most of these guys are in their 30-40’s and as Chris pointed out, their equipment is much better than ours in our heyday; faster and more stable skis, better paddles. One of the highlights was was having World Champion Sean Rice come visit us again providing workshops. Tim hosted Sean for the 3rd year now.

Chris Laughlin, Wesley, Sean Rice at Paddle the Bay 2018.

Kurt at East Coast champs, L2L by Olga.

My season was up and down. The first half was good; peaking at my 16th consecutive Blackburn Challenge with a sub 3 hour, 2:57:32, 12th place. The Monday following, I started a new job that limited my training time due to travel and long hours. So I missed a few of the races I normally would have participated in like Nahant and Great Stone Dam. I was pleased with my L2L(East Coast Surfski Champion) with a 2:03:00 with limited training but I was able to keep my heart rate extremely consistent for the entire race and not fading too much the last few miles. My last race, the Plum Race, my strategy was to go out hard and push as long as I could. I was able to do that being ahead of Tim and side by side with Chris until the 4 mile mark at the Lighthouse where they passed me and opened up a gap on the last half of the race. At mile 1.5 I told Chris he was killing me with the pace. He smiled and kept pushing!  I kept pushing but not smiling. Overall I was pleased, again at my upper limits of my heart rate range.

The 2019 SurfskiRacing.com series will look much same with the deletion of the Snow Row.  I hope the Narragansett Boat Club Race(NBC) will be have a race date early on in the season so folks can plan on it. It is an excellent flat water race with a great venue at the boat house and the course is protected in the Providence harbor which the the rowers like. It is not however, a true flat water race since the course travels from the Seekonk River out into the Providence Harbor around the “Snow Cone” and back.  If we have over 8 ski racers for next year, it will be counted in this series. It is also a great tune up for the Blackburn Challenge. I will put more of an emphasis on the Plum Island Lighthouse Race since the venue, course, and it being the last race of the season will make this more of a draw once the word gets out.

Ride the Bull Race in the Tidal Rip!