The USA Surfski leaderboard grew to 203 paddlers this week, with seven new names added in five days. Kieffer now sits just ahead of Wilson Reavley (A26), whose 1,959 points represent a full season of racing in the Pacific Northwest. Leon de la Barra moved up to fourth with 1,611, Errez added 242 points to reach sixth, and Lee climbed to eighth. Further down, Small jumped twelve places to 21st, Wolgamot fourteen places to 23rd, and Ava Crellin (E26) eight places to 27th. The ACA’s National Series ranking points are earned by finishing races, and the California paddlers have been finishing a lot of them.

Highlights

After more than an hour of racing off Newport Beach on October 17, Austin Kieffer (A26) crossed the line at Off Da Couch 1.2 seconds ahead of Olympian Aaron Small (C26). Nate Humberston (C26) came in 3.6 seconds after that, and Nate Errez (A26), both USA National Sprint Team members, finished less than ten seconds later. That’s four boats inside a quarter of a minute, in a field the ACA Ocean Racing Committee rated B1, the strongest field tracked this month. Kieffer’s points from that morning carried him into the top spot on the ACA’s USA Canoe Ocean Racing National Series leaderboard with 1,990.

The depth behind the lead pack made it a remarkable day for the whole fleet. Surfskis took the first eleven places overall in a mixed field of 81 boats that included outrigger canoes. Mauricio Leon de la Barra (D26) was sixth, Ryan Lee (A26) eighth, and Elena Wolgamot (C26) ninth overall and first woman. Krisztina Zur (E26) and Kali Wilding (D25) rounded out the top eleven. With the Newport Aquatic Center hosting and the San Diego Canoe and Kayak Team well represented, the young end of the start list was busy all the way down the results, and Daniel Parrett (E26) earned his first classification.

Four hundred miles north, the Sea Trek Regatta sent its long course out under the Golden Gate, and two names went straight to the front. Petri Alva (D26) and Zachary Alva (D26), both sprint kayakers crossing over into ocean racing, finished first and second, twenty seconds apart. Tahoe Waterman’s Jay Wild (C26), as well as Doug Hall (D26) and James Keeble (C26) followed. On the medium course, Noah Best (D26) was third across the line. Combined with SoCal’s sprinters and lifesavers this past weekend of ocean racing featured a striking amount of concentrated top-tier power and speed.

Coming up

The Atlantic North competitive season is mostly wrapped after the Salem Sound Spectacular and the Great Stone Dam Classic, and it was a big year. The region shares the lead with Pacific South for the most National Series races on this year’s calendar, 41 apiece.  There is still racing left in Atlantic North, however: The Bridges of Essex County in Massachusetts on November 1 and Connecticut’s Tarzan Paddle Race on November 7.

The Atlantic South has a handful of surfski races remaining as well, including the Lanier Canoe and Kayak Club’s Paddlefest and the NISH Miami Outrigger Challenge.  A new 21-mile circumnavigation race has arisen, the Crossing Adventure Series “Conquer the Rock” race around Southwest Florida’s Marco Island which is also a fundraiser for the Piper’s Angels Foundation.

For Central South, TCKRA’s Open Water State Championships is in the books with Tommy Yonley (A26) taking top honors there, and Chattajack 31 runs this Saturday October 24, on the Tennessee River. The surfski field projects at a C tier, very close to the strength of the last two editions. Jesse Lishchuk (B26), a two-time national sprint champion and podium finisher at this summer’s USA COR National Championships, is on the start list, as is Doug Bitcon, who finished 21st in a men’s surfski field of 124 at July’s Gorge Downwind Championships, in some of the roughest water that race has ever seen.

November pretty much belongs to the West Coast, however. Kieffer and a group of the state’s top paddlers are signed up for the Green Buoy Battle on November 14, currently projected by the ACA to be a C-tier race but likely to stack-up to B-tier, and many of the same names are expected at the Becky Stuart Race on December 5. The Redwood Water Sports monthly series adds Bay Area arrows to the West Coast’s quiver, and Washington’s Port Angeles Coastal Endurance Regatta rounds things out on the mainland.  Hawaii’s KIRA Cold Pack Classic in December keep the calendar going right into the holidays.

What everyone is asking

Around the beaches the conversation is starting to turn toward 2027: where next year’s USA COR National Championships will land, will COPAC announce a Pan American Ocean Racing Championships, when will Paddle Worldwide (formerly the ICF) announce its 2027 Canoe Ocean Racing World Cup series venues and dates, and who will make the trip to Tahiti and represent the USA at the 2027 Ocean Paddle World Championships — how about you!

The answers will come soon enough, and we’ll share all the details!  In the meantime, remember that every USA COR National Series race you complete adds ranking points, and stronger fields create stronger classifications earned by the paddlers who finish. So find a start line before the year is out.  Heck, travel to a warmer state, if you must. We’ll see you on the water.