Surfski Knowledge Base

gorge results
Reivers Dustin
07/23/15 #17738

Congrats Dean, David, LB, Duncan.

Old guy results:

http://www.webscorer.com/racedetails?raceid=47398&did=53287&cid=282884&gender=M

Kimberly Reeves

07/24/15 #17739

Way to go!!!
Kimberly Reeves

Steve Scoggins

07/24/15 #17741

I'm going to say good job to ALL the “old” guys, so ditto to what Reivers said plus Dennis, MG, and Whitlock.

The rest of us who had a good fun race day can wait until we are over 60, and then maybe Reivers will begin to selectively acknowledge us too. :)

During the interim time period of 19 years, I will bear the burden of saying good job to rest of the gang. DJ battled hard with Barton, making an elite 13th ski finish amidst the elite paddlers. Zach Handler the Midwest Legend (whatcom paddler member and regular contributor) steamrolled in for a 25th place ski. After not seeing them all race, I got a lucky line on Kevin and Jamie and moved up just in time to watch Kirk and Hilburn go toe to toe at the end. Kirk did his standard “assertion of dominance” and proved his point. Lipp was a stealthy force all race, tucking in and out gill nets and then magically appearing. He's a true waterman. Kevin rocked it as usual. You can always count on that guy. He, Jamie and myself were pretty much spread across the river, surfing wave for wave right until my moment of luck.

Dean, Paul and Duncan came rolling in looking unfazed. Everyone that saw it was mesmerized by Howat in the waves. The dude can surf.
I left the sandbar after that to go lick my wounds at that point, so I can only say good job to the following; Michael Dee, David Scherrer, Dennis Mowry, “Marquee” Marc Fuhrmeister. A quick shout out for Marc. It was his first big water race and he threw down. He really hasn't been paddling that long, but he really embraces the purpose of the surfski, going as big as he can find. Keep watching him, he's dialing in the surf aspect. Rybczyk apparently took the scenic route to the finish, making the same directional choice I made on the practice run. Meddler ended an 8 month stretch of getting two new hips/recovery with a championship gorge race. That's gnarly and awesome. Nothing beats that guy down. Bussinger Whitlock and MG have already received their “good jobs”, but I will just say it again. Good job. I'd say in general, when talking with an average, even supremely above average 62/66 year old, competing in a gnarly rough water championship surfski race isn't a standard topic. We should all be proud to know these guys. Inspirational indeed. If I left anyone out, I apologize.

As a whole, this race week was “off the hook awesome”. Shuttles all week long in the Baker Bus kept everyone paddling the river almost continually. The safety crew was top notch. The venue was incredible. The field of competition was amazing. After talking to a few of the top finishers, it sounds like they want to come back and are planning to bring friends. Thanks to everyone who made this race happen. It's world class and we are lucky to have it in our greater backyard.

Steve

Larry <lbussinger@…> 07/25/15 #17742

Good job on the write up Steve.
Great job on the event Carter and rest of the the organizing group for stepping up.

I've been paddling surfskis for ~26 yrs and have never had a week where I've learned so much. I've heard all the talk but haven't had consistent enough waves of different types where I could I could accidentally do something right and go “oh!” that's what they meant, and have muscle-memory take hold, like riding a bicycle. Anxiety level…. I've come down for one day and done the Wildside race a couple of times before and always wondered what I'd just survived. Doing a week of intense exposure and having the advice of the world's experts is definitely the way to go. At yesterday's race, I got the tail end of Swell City at the hatchery, and was chomping at the bit to get in it and smiling when I did. I can't believe I'm still learning this sport after all this time, although Scherrer and Reviers will point out that I'm a slow learner.

And it's warm water.
Larry B

week in the Gorge and a race perspective
duncanhowat
07/26/15 #17744

From fri July 17th on I think we did 2 runs every day except wed, and that day we did the salmon dinner so not ever a lot of rest, but every day every run was pure fun. It's so good to have new experiences at this age and not just sit around and talk about the past. As Paul said ,“your only as good as your next race” The 10 and 10 thing really worked.You can't believe how much work it took to put this on and if you ever see Carter, Judy, Gwyn, Kenny, JD or Paul the shuttle guy let em know what kind of experience you had. The start was just like my old motorcross days, just without the gate. Just enough room to put your paddle in but it had to be almost straight up. Had to go beam sea to a turn buoy,and they were capping , finally turned and then started going. Went back and forth with Dean and Paul for 13 miles, they got me with youth and cunning in the flat water at the end. Paul, with a new boat, his new experience and ability and his training ethic will be a force to be dealt with. With that many boats on the water, even on that large a format, there was always someone to race. Picking the days to hold the race in the “window” was hard and the committee wrestled for some time on that one. The wildside went the next day with even bigger wind. This was a smoker, although most were burnt from the solo race. Fun time was had by all. Then the dinner and awards fri evening, held in the coolest venue for something like this I've see. Carter really pulled out the stops on that one. It was kinda like being in the Roman Forum, only out of concrete. Having all the young guns and Kia talk about raceing and how they do it was so interesting. An example, they jump 3 rest one. I can sometimes jump 1 and hang on for 1, never really resting. What we call 3-4 ft they call flat. Ah, youth. There will be improvements for next year, so stay tuned. If you love the sport, OC-1 ,surfski , then you owe it to your self to try to figure out a way to spend a week there and take it all in. The memories will last forever. Back home for a while .D