Gorge Results
Paul Reavley Jul 15 #32012
Posting here: https://my.raceresult.com/211454/results#0_3EF1B7

Reivers Dustin Jul 15 #32016
No stories? Looks like several mid-race pull-outs. A full page of did not start people. Looks like some folks found bad current. Just going by finish times there must have been some totally wrong lines.

David Hooper Jul 15 #32017
Sorry, Reivers! Dan's single malt is preventing cogent reretelling of tales.

David Hooper Jul 15 #32018
Suffice to say: lots of current, wrong direction.

Denise Weeks Jul 16 #32020
Okay, I’ll take a stab at it. I missed out on the single malt.

Fresh off a Covid rest week, I felt confident that the wind would push me along and I wouldn’t have to kill myself. Or if I did kill myself, it would be for a good reason. While waiting for the yellow flag to drop and the red “go” flag to rise, the women and doubles squished into a fairly small chute between the boat and the rock. It was hard to hold your place w/out catching a mini wave and hitting the person in front of you, so there was the excitement of thinking, this is going to be good! with hold on!

The start was called and off we went. I seemed to be in the “hold on” mode a bit too long and didn’t fly off the line in those encouraging waves. I had vowed to myself to try to stay behind Ana and Danielle for as far as I could see them, but I must have stopped looking or they had engines because they were out of my sight in about a minute. I found myself going right a bit, toward the middle of the river, and I seemed to get stuck there to almost Viento. It was hard not to take the current personally. Before Viento I tucked right to the Oregon side and did feel like that helped me avoid some of the current, but then I had to deal with the shallows, I think, and then I hit a weed patch and made the crucial race decision: stop and back up or keep going. I backed up. It was worth it. Then I found myself back out in the middle passing Mitchell’s Point and saw people dashing along on my right, so I tried to work that way again. Somehow, in very little wind, I felt my steering going to hell and I broached twice. At that point I am sure I yelled a few expletives. People passed me. I stopped to blow my nose. I was gassed. Approaching Well’s Island, I saw the first male surfski pass me on my right, so I thought, Okay, he’s taking that inside, out-of-the-current line. I’ll do that, too. But then I saw the second surfski male pass me way farther over to river center. Then I hit another weed patch, backed up again, and thought, when will this be over? At that point I made the decision to go on the inside of Wells Island just to cut some distance. I had to go closer to the Oregon side to get the advantage of it, and I could feel some deadness in that shallower water, maybe, or maybe that was just me. By then I’d had cramps in my right foot, left hand, and right hamstring. Around the island and toward the wall, I saw the seemingly real racers taking their diagonal cut from Wells and fell into line toward the finish. I was never so happy to see those orange buoys. I don’t know if I managed a smile at the finish line even though Sandy asked us to. I beat my nearest age category paddler by only 17 seconds. I have no idea if I saw her on the water or where she was. I thought the Wells Island choice was simply for survival, but maybe it gave me a little boost after all. Denise and Kim took that line, too.

Many weeds were found on many rudders where I took out on the far beach. People commiserated. Jeff H. kindly helped me carry my boat, and then later Amber kindly helped me. People are as friendly as ever, and yes, Mimi and Gwen and the Castleberries and all the other volunteers and locals were very helpful and welcoming. Carter was his usual amusing announcer self and Austin did a great job awarding surfski medallions. Mucho enthusiasm and volume. He mentioned our Corgi.

That’s about all I remember.
Denise

bflannelly50 Jul 16 #32021
Reivers-I’d like to hear a report about a guy who was woken up past his bedtime by a group phone call by a bunch of drunken Barnacles in the Gorge. I hope you enjoyed our rendition of “Happy Birthday To You”. By coincidence, a guy walked past and it actually was his birthday.
Father Flannelly

Mary Harmon Jul 16 #32022
Great write-up Denise!!

Larry Bussinger Jul 16 #32023
Another short version. The start was messy with hundreds of boat ahead of me. I saw the out-riggers heading for the Oregon side, so I followed like a lemming. It was messy through the Narrows and the runners were moving so fast that this old body couldn’t catch them. About a mile before Viento I started catching waves and having a good time. (Except for dodging fish nets. Not sure why I‘m attracted to them). Big 4 footer stuff in front of Mitchell Rock and I’m booking it. But then the guy I’m catching goes over right in front of the rock. So… feet over and holding station in the mess until he remounts. Took 3-4 tries until I suggested he put a leg over both sides of the boat. He finally got going after about 5 minutes. Then great fun to the finish.

Larry Bussinger

Larry Bussinger Jul 16 #32024
I also made off with someone’s blue folding chair. Let me know.

Larry Bussinger

Kimberly Reeves Jul 17 #32031

Denise D and I took our time getting to the start. All the boats were jammed up close to the start boat so they could jump to the Oregon side.
Winks and I decided to go Wa side to get out of the fray and current and play in some decent surf without the traffic jam. Just out of the narrows we had to change our course b/c a gill net was out pretty far in the river. So we went Oregon side earlier than planned but thought we’d do good with the WNW winds and low current. We got some good rides with Denise steering like a boss and then the wind died as in D.E.A.D. dead.

As we paddled OR side we watched folks mid-right of the river surfing, but they weren’t going faster than us further right so we stayed put.
The weed gods decided to visit our rudder and we had to do the classic back-up twice, but then we were on our way again. I gotta say that the last 2 miles were a test of our ability to grind it out. We were exhausted, mildly cramping and our wee bums were sore. I can’t remember being so happy seeing a finish line or recall Dominoes pizza ever tasting that good.

Big shout out to all of the wondermous volunteers.

Eric Grossman Jul 17 #32032
Good Boys and Bad Boys in Da Gorge

I was a good boy and made it to the Gorge finally, bad boy for taking so long. Joined all the good Bellingham boys and girls to surf and what a show, awesome representation with so many making the podium - like Kim said “good to be a hamster”. I had a blast in the big surf and a scare on the road home….For all you folks with Good Boy racks…I was making what seemed like better time home yesterday on I-5 than in the race and all of a sudden heard some crazy knocking sound from my boat and fearing the worst made a b-line for the next offramp - only to find straps and boat perfect, but apparently a subtle change in wind direction had the quick connect pins for the base bar extension vibrating and sounding like a broken strap - so a quick tape job fixed that and might save your heart rate spiking above your threshold someday.

Race went ok, though had to go a bit gingerly on a sore back muscle after over-rotating almost into the soup checking out the White Salmon blue can the day before. Had to follow Duncan's guidance to become a good barnacle someday and Kim’s whiskey that night didn’t help. Also tried to follow Father Flannely’s advice to initially hug WA in waves near the eddy line, then cross to center right after the end of the narrows concrete marker, but waves coerced me immediately into the middle where I worked hard and seemingly harder than Dennis who obviously listens to the Father. He wasn’t really gaining, but always in striking distance. Instead I followed Tom and kept passing competitors while we were in the waves then losing a few places the last 3-4 miles without waves to guys with arms as big as my hamstrings. Surf got better past Viento and best about 50 yards off of Mitchell’s even in glassy conditions! Yeah glassy - right past Mitchell’s any sign of wind disappeared - probably because I stayed too far right. Had fun neck and neck with a few racers then managed to catch the slightest ripples possible telling myself the sooner I can get my aching back straight, butt out of the bucket and some of Kim’s whiskey the better.

Thanks for showing me how to do the Gorge - Simon, Tom, Jonas, Jeff (Tues Home Valley so smooth), Beau, Dan, Paul, Romo, EG and Zach (Wed double Viento unreal fun), Jamie (Th Swell City frickin rockin), Duncan and the barnacles, Kirk and Wermus for the preview two weeks ago (silly crazy fun), Denise, Kim, Reina, Sue, David (da kine camp Ohana!). So cool to see the international paddling frenzy - what a hoot. Someone was having fun on the sternwheeler yesterday (how many waves back?) after Kirk, David and I tasted Home Valley one more time in blissful perfect waves.

Wishing Reivers and Peter could be with us, thought of you often - you guys always rock my boat.
El Grosso

David Hooper Jul 17 #32033
A fun week, indeed. A few highlights:
letting go of the “must have waves to paddle” feeling on Monday, and having a beautiful, mellow, downwind+downriver paddle from Drano to Stevenson in the easterlies. No surfing to speak of, but I decided that a low effort, 7+ mph, 13 mile paddle in a beautiful place is ok too. Plus, it's so much nicer on the river than on land when it's 97 degrees.
Camping with the BBOP crew and hanging with Denice and Reina's Hawaiian friends, all a short walk from Barnacle Central.
Not having the biggest tent in the campground, but close.
Air mattresses.
So many fun paddles with so many fun folks.
Race day was a grind at the end, but waves were fun through the narrows and especially at Mitchell's. I was (stealthily) duking it out with Dennis from before Viento to just past Well's Island. As I'm sure he's happy to report, this year's lesson for him was “Never give up, even if it seems futile. Your competitor could always run into weeds right before the finish.” The finish buoys were in sight, when I tried to shave a few seconds by cutting close to the east end of the island, only to run into a thicket of benthic macrophytes - stuff growing off the bottom all the way to the surface. Just like paddling through an eelgrass bed at low tide. Dennis walked past me, and when I finally got out, I must have had a thicket on my rudder still. Had to stop and back up, by which time my quarry was long gone - all within less than a half mile to the finish. Motto for this year: if you can't prevail, at least learn something, and have fun along the way.
Spent yesterday morning packing up camp (I couldn't find the push button to make our tent automatically fold up), then hopped in with Eric G. and Kirk C. for one last Home Valley run. We found some of the sweetest sets of the week (for me, anyway) lining up right along the Oregon shore. I was pretty lazy and didn't do any GoPro footage this week, but sure wish I had some of that.
Congrats to everyone up there on the podium, those who raced and prevailed over the current (or suffered through it to the finish), or who just came down for the fun of it.
A few pics attached of Barnacles in Paradise.
Dave H.

Dan Mayhew Jul 17 #32034

I had a much better start to the race than the remounting demonstration I gave last year in front of all the OC-1 paddlers that were queued up behind the surfskiers. After the red flag went up it took me awhile to warm up. Once I found my grove, I was alone on the Washington side watching the hordes fly down the Oregon side.

I paddled a few miles then I saw a lone surfski ahead of me even closer to the Washington shore. Of the 500 paddlers it was my archrival, Deano! This season I beat him in the Lake Whatcom Classic, and he destroyed me in the Ski to Sea. That made The Gorge the season championship. Game was on to catch him.

A perfect train of waves took me from about 15 waves back to two waves behind him. I hung there a bit waiting for another train to jump on. No train, but I did pull even, and we started yelling at each other with giant smiles on our faces. I couldn’t exactly hear what he was saying, but I am pretty it sure it was: “you look great, and you’re crushing it!” That Deano is a swell guy.

We traded the lead along the Washington side for a long time, and then sidled over to the Oregon side after Mitchell Rock. When we were mid-right center Dean said go further to Oregon to get out of the current. I moved over to the eddy line and immediately felt my boat get lighter. I am not sure why Dean didn’t follow me over. I think he was just taking great joy in seeing me do so well.

As we approach Wells Island I had a familiar feeling. With the wind gone, the race had turned into a Wednesday Nighter. Time to put the hammer down! Saw a surfski and two OC’s ahead of me and I caught the last of them at the line. Deano was still pretty close, but I snuck away with the win.

As fun as the race was, what made the experience magical was sharing time with B’hamsters trying to track down a lost Larry, slurping down root beer floats on a 95-degree day, watching Duncan go from a 2 minutes and 38 second remount to a 25 second remount, and hearing many of life’s stories that were probably mostly true.

Dan

allipp@…Jul 17 #32035
Dave, I'm glad to hear that you also had good waves at Mitchell Point. In our heat, which started maybe 20 to 30 minutes before yours, we had our best waves of the race through there. A few people in later heats suggested to me that the wind had shut down for them, and that we were lucky to race earlier and get the waves that we got. It's good to know that the waves were still there for you, and that the others just took the wrong line.

paul clement Jul 17 #32036
Great week of downwind runs without the Champs to fuss about. We had a fun run on race day watching everybody crush the course, then we jumped out at the hatch. Best decision of the day! It was cool to see so many yellow jerseys on the river.
Managed the usual road ride and a few Viento runs plus a bunch on the “Wild Side”. Overall a fantastic week!!

Erica Quam Jul 18 #32059
Last year was my first time at the Gorge: I only got in one Home Valley run before race day and the big waves (plus Carter's pre race warning about how big it would be in swell city) led me to bail at Drano Lake.

This year we got down to the Gorge on Sunday and I got in some good runs on Mon, Tues & Wed. I did the whole course, had some fun rides in the narrows and close to Mitchell Point, stayed close to Wells Island and avoided weeds (at least my rudder was clear by the time I carried it up the beach.) I drank every drop of my water and felt absolutely spent by the end! It was great to hear stories after the awards at the campground with some good single malt. (Thanks, Dan!)

A highlight for me was a Home Valley to Drano run on Wednesday with Julie & Sue, Dave Hooper, and Jeff and Stacey Castleberry. Once I realized I could remount in big conditions (2 swims in the narrows) I was more relaxed and aggressive chasing those bigger waves!

I'm ever so grateful for this paddling community. We've got a special thing here in Bellingham! Thanks to everyone who makes paddling (and hanging out and talking about whatever…) so much fun. Peter - you were on our minds down there. I'd like to give you a special shout out for sharing all your knowledge, helping build community and all your encouragement since I started paddling a ski.

Here's my short highlight reel https://www.instagram.com/reel/CgKoHjIAyGe/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link