Surfski Knowledge Base

Lk Sammish Race
Reivers Dustin09/24/23 #34442

Perfect race. Starting with race director. Such a growly, grumpy old man. It's like having a big old slobbery rottweiler that you know won't bite. He scares the troublemakers and keeps the cats in a herd.

I don't remember conditions that wild. Of course I don't remember breakfast, but still. That was epic. Such a bugger of a crawl to the first turn. That last mile lasted forever. I know it was hard for everyone, but I felt like the god of wind had an extra puff just for me. Then, lordy the turn was like letting all the horses out of the barn at the same time. I had been tracking Dean, John George, Brian Page, LB and some other of the top dawgs. But that turn made these guys all go nuts. Bill A. got by me and so then I dug hard to hang in. GPS was clocking 7mph mostly. That's above my normal zip code. But I knew. The waves kept building. The OC-6 I had passed before was getting better speed with those longer waves. That meant those bad boy waves were going to quit being friendly after the second turn. It's funny because I had just posted about “pointing up” on wrong headed waves a couple days ago. But it was sooooo haaaaaaaaaaaarrd. I got deck washed sideways a couple times. I could see Deano really got it. He worked way upwind of the line. So I kept at it, even seeing others run with the rollers and fly. But the lee shore was trouble. But I guess some like it rough. Anyhoo, I saw Dean start to get proper good runners as we got closer to the bridge. And that was about the last of him that I saw. Meanwhile Bill A. and I were dicing back and forth. He would snag a set of waves, then I would. That kept us both pushed. I had to slap water a few times to keep the sunny side upright. I was gassed as we went under the bridge, but here he is crawling in from that mess along shore: Dan Mayhem. That perked me up. Bill was just ahead and Dan jumped up alongside. In my dreams I powered up and got ahead of those two. But not reality. Those two beastie boys started to let their legs stretch out in the flat water. It was all I could do to hang. I kept looking in shock and horror at my GPS, seeing 7, 7.5, 7.8 mph … in flat water. How long could this go on? Oh best beloved, where was the camera? Someone should be seeing this! At the final turn all three of us “hulked out” and sprinted like bunnies. uh, waitasec. bunnies don't hulk. We hulked out like weight lifters. meh. We tried to get ahead of each other. No change in the pecking order, but the crowd was roaring. Or well, there was roaring in my ears. Whatever. It was good. I was awesome. Everyone there was awesome.

It was the right way around. Decend temperature good wind, so fun to see folks come down from Canada again. Thank goodness that troublemaker Remmler was not there. But there were so many of his boats around, it made you stop and …. think?

ewe. sorry. uh, not sorry. it was fun. See you guys next season. rd

Race photos are up! Seeing is believing!
Denise Weeks
09/24/23 #34446

SUCH great photos, Michael. Thanks! I was there, but I'm still amazed at seeing those conditions. We're a tough bunch :)

https://www.soundrowers.org/racePhotos/2023/LakeSamish/index.html

Adrienne D
09/25/23 #34449

These are truly awesome. Michael, thank you for the photos! I am a proud mama today.

Steve and the volunteers, thank you, thank you, thank you.

kathleen Faust
09/25/23 #34456

I too am thoroughly enjoying all of your photos! Thanks for all your hard work.
Kathleen Faust