Ride The Bull Race 2020

With COVID 19 Restrictions and the cancellations of many races, the Ride The Bull Race went off without a hitch. Rhode Island is in the second phase so gatherings can take place with a 15 person limit. Most paddlers were got to the race early looking forward to whatever the ocean presented. This course named after a Bull Point which is the point we round-headed to the House on the Rocks is our rough watercourse. We designed it that way.

The water depth along the 2.5 loop course spreads out from 164 feet to a mere 12 feet. That is a great variance for all that water to refract against the small cliffs and to be ebbing and flowing out of Narragansett Bay and over the ledges of the course. Couple that with a 15-20 mph Southwest breeze, massive boat traffic and that makes for a washing machine race for virtually the entire 9-mile course. There were only two places you could catch your breath and that was at Mackeral Cove for a brief 5 minutes and around the can of House on the Rocks. Other than that, you focused on the different legs of the race, each with waves coming at you at different angles, with due to ocean groundswell, motor and sailboats often on the same lines as you and massive amounts of water being funneled through different points of the race. Remember that Newport, Rhode Island is one of the sailing capitals of the world due in part to favorable winds and deep waterways. We have some of the most diverse venues for sailing and paddling on the East coast. Exciting, challenging, confidence building.

Ed Joy

First place winner Ed Joy, a long time surfski racer, was virtually unruffled by the conditions though he did say he had a few braces and commented ” if you can paddle in those conditions today, you can paddle in most water anywhere”. I responded, “certainly in New England or on the East Coast”. Ed knows big conditions having lived in Hawaii for a few years. Ed won the Blackburn Challenge in 1998 with a time of 2:35:31, twelve minutes ahead of the late Joe Glickman. The following year Joe closed the gap on Ed with a time of 2:49:38 only 34 seconds behind Ed. In 2001, Ed won the Blackburn Challenge again with a time of 2:39:44. These were the days when the surfski class consisted only of 7 to 10 paddlers. They were paddling skis like the Mako, Speedster, and Futura’s. Nothing compared to the stable crafts were are paddling now. So Ed was fast then and continues to win races.

Second place finisher Robert Jehn, a young soft-spoken paddler from NJ proved his metal again having several top finishes for his Blackburn outings. Rob paddled the course with a 4-inch flat water rudder. I gave him food for thought that if he had an ocean rudder, he would have achieved more power. He said, “yeah I had no power today”. I guess power is a relative term when talking to the youth of the sport since he looked great today. Looking fit and eager, John Hair put the pressure on these guys the whole race. John had one of his best races ever and thoroughly enjoyed himself. We talked about our Germans Short Hair Pointers on a brief warm-up paddle Friday before the race since John has owned 4 and I own my 1st GSP, Emma.

My Race

Ninety minutes before the start of the race, I unloaded my Think Six and did a brief warm-up to decide on what ski I would be paddling for today’s race. I was set on the new Think Six up until the wind picked considerably and the white caps increased closer to shore. I switched boats to my trusty Zen. Knowing exactly what to expect in terms of ocean conditions, the wild card for me was my lack of race fitness(like most of us) leading into this race and rough water paddling skills. I had only paddled the course twice this season on moderate days spending most training time on the Sakonnet.

My conditioning overall was good but I faded badly the last 1.5 miles of the race. I had an excellent first 4 miles of the race catching and holding on to Jim Hoffman and Eric Costanzo. These guys found their mojo on the second loop and got comfortable with the conditions. Both are superb big and rough water paddlers. They walked away from me on the 2nd loop, at the entrance to Mackeral Cove, and began to close the gap on Tim Dwyer who place a solid 6th place with an excellent race.

Just before the first turn on the Ledge can, I passed Sam. He said he thought he lost the weed guard that he put on before the race. I told him the Navy will teach you to be prepared. Meaning he should have already properly attached his weed guard well before the race. Sam got accepted into the Navy’s Officer Candidate School(OCS) and will report to duty in Newport, RI in the fall. A BiG congrats to Sam! I put some distance on Sam over the course but he closed to within 10 seconds of me. I felt good after the race with no boat fatigue and I only had hand cramps for about 10 seconds on this hot day. I drank all my 70 ounces of mix. So it was a hard but relatively enjoyable race in my stable Zen for the first race of the season.

So everyone who started this race deserves kudos. We had Danny Perez show up for his first race in his SR that I sold him years ago. Danny is in the Coast Guard stationed in East Sandwich. We vet the registrants to make sure they have the prerequisite skills to do the course. It is an intense course and deserves the respect we give it. It was great to see everyone even with social distancing in place. All of us enjoyed the day and slept well that night!