The Essex River Race was an early casualty of pandemic restrictions in 2020, and was originally rescheduled this year from its traditional spring date to early October. When the Cape Ann Rowing Club subsequently decided to cancel the race, I had no choice but to step up and volunteer Bill [...]
When they named the Great Stone Dam Classic 10+ years ago, co-chairs Francisco Urena and Shawn Burke were taking a risk on the initial and final words. Great and Classic. OK, it's named after the Great Stone Dam on the Merrimack River. And, yeah, "classic" is sometimes used as a synonym for [...]
While the Olympic athletes of the world held their collective breath to see if they'd be allowed to compete in Tokyo this year, Northeast paddlers similarly awaited news of the Blackburn Challenge. Of course, there was one critical difference: In our case, half the field was praying for deliverance from the three-hour [...]
The newly rechristened Sakonnet Surfski Race is the prescribed venue for New England paddlers to ease into the open water season. It's much like the fable in which a frog won't notice he's being boiled alive if you slowly raise the temperature. The Sakonnet is a skinny bay that might be called [...]
You might think that a race held in a gated community situated on a semi-private island within the genteel city of Newport would attract only the finest breed of paddlers - athletes with refined tastes, ivy league degrees, and the highest standards of personal hygiene. But maybe by chance you'd [...]
