Surfski Knowledge Base

Bob Putnam
04/26/10 #8272

I'm pretty much a conspiracy theorist and I'll share my latest delusion with you. There were a few dirty tricks going on and I'm onto you guys.

First, where did the bit about Eel Grass come from. And what is Eel Grass anyway? We don't have it in Canada. Apparently B-Bay was crawling with it yet I didn't see a single blade of the offending weed anywhere. I think this was just a ruse to discourage Canadians from coming down. You were all in on it too. “Oh yeah, you should have seen it last week” ….. Sure!!

#2 Deflate the US dollar so the borders are choked with Canadian bargain shoppers. That was tricky!

#3 Create an underwater obstacle off of Chuckanut Island and disguise it as a rock. This was very effective as it took out about 3 Canadian contenders. Greg and Rod Hope were in a double drafting an OC2 when the OC2 pretended they were going to hit a rock. Calling out “Rock” Greg and Rod took evasive action and hit the rock. Now that is simply diabolical!!

But when I pull myself back to reality, I realize that it was a great race and tons of fun. Thanks John for organizing a great event. I can see as this thing grows and if Canada continues to destroy the US in Hockey you will need something to cling to. If Canada continues to lose the Think Challenge we will struggle to overcome the Bellingham powerhouse, and maybe just maybe the Nelsons will move to another state or choose to immigrate to Canada.

It was great fun being in a double with my partner Reid Carter and hanging with the Big Dogs at the front of the pack. It was impressive to watch Brandon N. and Gareth TJ maintain the fast pace. Clearly they are on a level above. They pretty much drafted our double till Chuckanut Island and then Brandon struck out on his own, moving to the middle of the channel. i saw our role as “domestique” for Gareth who in Tour de France lingo was the “protected rider”. Stay with Brandon and let Gareth ride our wash until the final sprint. So we did this while Brandon pushed his own water off to the side. Here we were doing 12.5 - 13 kmh ( 7.75 -8 mph) As we approached the can, Brandon caught a wave and started to accelerate ahead. We were one wave back and couldn't get the boat moving. Here we were pushing up to 14kmh / 8.7 mph and Brandon was pulling away!! I was impressed. About half way to the finish Brandon had put 75 metres on us and Reid and I tried to sacrifice our bodies to help Gareth catch up. We did a big push for about a minute and then when we started to fade Gareth took off. With a herculean effort he managed to split the gap between us and Brandon, but alas it was too little too late. As Mike Fitz always says, in his moments of wisdom “You should have just paddled harder”

Any rate it was a well earned and impressive victory by Brandon and a great performance by Gareth.

I can see how paddling a double surf ski is addictive. Right now I am loathing the thought of going back to mid-pack and paddling solo.

May 16 is the second half of the Tour De Indian Arm. Deep Cove is swimming with Rock Weed, it's not going to be any fun. Stay at home. Border traffic is awful! Watch out for submerged rocks, and Great White Sharks have moved into the area. Bring your kevlar vests.

Epic container should be arriving soon. I also have some great deals on Old model Epics and we are now selling THINK on par with the US Dollar. Down to $3195 (Kevlar) from $3700. We're losing our shirt on this one but we need to stay competitive. We still have Legends, 1 Evo Kevlar, and the boat that Sean Rice is ripping up the Surf Ski World Cup with The THINK UNO. Sean beat Dawid Mocke a couple of weeks back.
Bp

Re: The Dan - now for the Sour Grapes
Jeff Hegedus <jhegedus@…>
04/26/10 #8273

Geez, Bob…uh, regarding hockey… we had real good seats when the US took home the gold at the Paralympics. Of course, we really DO respect the silver achieved by the Canadians :)

Re: The Dan - now for the Sour Grapes
John Rybczyk
04/26/10 #8274

I'll have you know that I spent five entire days last week towing a seine net behind my EVO to clear eelgrass from the course. And this is the thanks I get.

Re: The Dan - now for the Sour Grapes
Larry Goolsby
04/26/10 #8276

Bob….We are already aware of this 'Rock weed' that grows in your area. Down here we refer to it as 'B.C. Bud'. I'm bringing papers and a package of Oreo cookies when I drive up for the next race.
Larry G.

Re: The Dan
John Rybczyk
04/26/10 #8278

What can I say, the race was on a Sunday morning after all! ; )

International Challenge Scoring Help.
John Rybczyk
04/26/10 #8280

Anybody know the citizenship of Gabe Newton or Dan Wakeland?