Due to Covid 19, we delayed the what is typically the first race of the New England Season in April until October with a Rhode Island limit of 15 persons for an outdoor event. We had a full roster of paddlers with some registants showing good sportsmanship and relinquishing their spots to others so we could all race safely and stay within the guidelines.

Race day conditions were New England perfect for a flatwater race, temps in the 40’s eventually, and clear skis. You can see how beautiful this course is. Mike Florio took the win by a huge margin, training extra hard, and putting it all together for this race leaving Greg(2nd), and Chris (3rd) well behind. Mike is a great example of an excellent athlete needing some time to adjust to surf ski racing. I don’t know of many athletes that train as consistently as Mike and as hard. Despite being in top condition, the other elements of surf ski racing are ski/paddle setup, technique, and then training. Mike put it all together for this race after a few years of placing in the top few places. As you can hear in my video, we all knew Mike was going to post a win in our races. So HUGE congrats to Mike. Mike also broke the course record set by Borys Markin a few years earlier. So that tells you how fast Mike has gotten. See the link below for Greg’s race summary.

https://surfskiracing.org/2020/11/narrow-river-race-new-order/

Second place and third place racers, Greg and Chris dueled it out over the 8 mile course applying years of racing strategies like drafting, short burst of intervals, course corrections, and a lot of consistent training at a high level. Chris, paddling his go to flatwater ski, his beloved Mohican, lost a few boat lengths on the final turn with 1.5 miles to go. Greg managed to hold his slight lead( 7 seconds over the charging Chappell).

My race, was very good, despite limited training due to a new job. I was not sure how I would do. I put in an excellent 3 mile start to the first turn buoy where, my training started to show. My pace dropped for the next two miles allowing a persistent Jerry to catch me after the Middle bridge. I was completely surprised by Jerry. I thought I could keep my Heart Rate at 150 and I should be good. Not the case. Jerry a seasoned canoe paddler with a big engine, slowly reeled me in a heavy V10L no doubt. We chatted for the next 1.5 miles about various topics until we got back to the Middle bridge with the finish is in sight with a half-mile to go. My heart rate was 152 at this time when I decided to see what I had left in the tank. I cranked it up to 167 heart rate to put seconds on Jerry as I crossed the finish line. While you are never looking forward to getting caught from behind in a race, it really helps you get focused. Luckily, I had some juice at the end. Next race I may not be so lucky. The next Narrow River Race is next weekend, April 10, 2021, with a full lineup. Jerry is registered too!!