If you're looking for the Ride the Bull race report, you can find it here.
Due to the surfeit of races in late June, I'll keep this report short and bitter. The League would be running course #3 this evening, which usually takes you out around Coney Island, over to Black Rocks, then back to the Lynch Park Beach. Due to prevailing conditions, however, Ed decided to run the 5 mile course in reverse. This eliminates the navigational challenge of attempting to steer towards a low-lying shoal from the middle of Salem Sound. With low tide scheduled to hit a half hour after the race start (and roughly 15 minutes before the race end), there'd be way too much running involved.
As Francisco discovered the hard way this evening, the 6:45 Salem League start time is inviolable. If you're just arriving then with your boat on your head, you're going to be running with that boat. On a normal day, that would be a slight handicap. With a low tide start, however, it's a big deal. Given that a long run would typically provide Francisco with a significant lead before we started paddling, this was a huge stroke of good fortune for me.
With our boats mere blips on the horizon, and the boats separated from navigable waters by almost as far again, the gun went off. Kirk showed surprising speed off the line, but it was Matt who took the lead once we grabbed our boats. I blame those cursed V8 side handles. However, he hopped in his boat too soon, getting stuck on a sandbar further out (but powered through it to maintain the overall lead). Despite his extra burden, Francisco was also paddling before I was.
With Matt on an inside line and Francisco to the outside, we made our way to Black Rocks. With a half mile to go, I made a move to the inside of Francisco and managed to get to the turn a couple of boat lengths ahead. The journey towards Coney Island would be more-or-less upwind. For about half that trip, I could see Francisco and Matt taking a path to the right of mine. After that, I lost sight of everyone else. Coney Island, which looked so close after the Black Rocks turn, stubbornly refused to get any bigger until I forced the issue by arriving at it. I paddle-whacked a submerged rock rounding the island, which almost dampened my spirit and body, but managed to recover.
On the journey back to Lynch Park, the wind and waves were relentlessly where I didn't want them. Although conditions were mild, I couldn't maintain a solid rhythm and felt confident that Francisco was picking up ground on me during this leg. With a half-mile to go, I spotted the very same fellow back several boat lengths and off to the right. Given his spryness on land, I feared this wouldn't be enough cushion to win the race. I gave everything I had for the final push and hit the shallows running. I threw a nervous glance back to my right to check on Francisco. That sign of weakness was like chumming the waters. He smelled the fear. My GoPro video shows a loping black-clad form moving at an incredible velocity in pursuit. It's like watching a ninja cheetah take down an orange-vested dufus.
So Francisco won. Matt continues his impressive rise, finishing just over a minute off the pace, despite being in a much slower boat. If you're putting money on the SS20Plus Blackburn contest this year, better put your bets on Matt now before Vegas stops accepting them. Here are the final results:
With another win, Francisco regains sole lead of the League. Let's see how he does next week, when instead of carrying his boat on the land portion of the race, he has to swim with it on the water portion.
Due to the surfeit of races in late June, I'll keep this report short and bitter. The League would be running course #3 this evening, which usually takes you out around Coney Island, over to Black Rocks, then back to the Lynch Park Beach. Due to prevailing conditions, however, Ed decided to run the 5 mile course in reverse. This eliminates the navigational challenge of attempting to steer towards a low-lying shoal from the middle of Salem Sound. With low tide scheduled to hit a half hour after the race start (and roughly 15 minutes before the race end), there'd be way too much running involved.
As Francisco discovered the hard way this evening, the 6:45 Salem League start time is inviolable. If you're just arriving then with your boat on your head, you're going to be running with that boat. On a normal day, that would be a slight handicap. With a low tide start, however, it's a big deal. Given that a long run would typically provide Francisco with a significant lead before we started paddling, this was a huge stroke of good fortune for me.
With our boats mere blips on the horizon, and the boats separated from navigable waters by almost as far again, the gun went off. Kirk showed surprising speed off the line, but it was Matt who took the lead once we grabbed our boats. I blame those cursed V8 side handles. However, he hopped in his boat too soon, getting stuck on a sandbar further out (but powered through it to maintain the overall lead). Despite his extra burden, Francisco was also paddling before I was.
With Matt on an inside line and Francisco to the outside, we made our way to Black Rocks. With a half mile to go, I made a move to the inside of Francisco and managed to get to the turn a couple of boat lengths ahead. The journey towards Coney Island would be more-or-less upwind. For about half that trip, I could see Francisco and Matt taking a path to the right of mine. After that, I lost sight of everyone else. Coney Island, which looked so close after the Black Rocks turn, stubbornly refused to get any bigger until I forced the issue by arriving at it. I paddle-whacked a submerged rock rounding the island, which almost dampened my spirit and body, but managed to recover.
On the journey back to Lynch Park, the wind and waves were relentlessly where I didn't want them. Although conditions were mild, I couldn't maintain a solid rhythm and felt confident that Francisco was picking up ground on me during this leg. With a half-mile to go, I spotted the very same fellow back several boat lengths and off to the right. Given his spryness on land, I feared this wouldn't be enough cushion to win the race. I gave everything I had for the final push and hit the shallows running. I threw a nervous glance back to my right to check on Francisco. That sign of weakness was like chumming the waters. He smelled the fear. My GoPro video shows a loping black-clad form moving at an incredible velocity in pursuit. It's like watching a ninja cheetah take down an orange-vested dufus.
| Francisco Urena | Stellar SE | 0:42:41 | 12 |
| Greg Lesher | Epic V12 | 0:42:45 | 11 |
| Matt Drayer | Epic V8 | 0:43:54 | 10 |
| Ken Cooper | Epic V10 Sport | 0:46:21 | 9 |
| Kirk Olsen | Epic V12 | 0:46:59 | 8 |
| Ciro de la Vega | Epic V8 | 0:49:38 | 7 |
| Bill Kuklinski | Epic V8 | 0:54:04 | 6 |
| Chris Chappell | Nelo OceanSki | 0:57:00 | 5 |
| Timmy Shields | Think Evo II | 0:59:17 | 4 |
| Mary Beth Gangloff | Huki S1-R | 0:59:17 | 12 |
With another win, Francisco regains sole lead of the League. Let's see how he does next week, when instead of carrying his boat on the land portion of the race, he has to swim with it on the water portion.
There aren't many orange vested dufuses left in the wild. This was a rare video find.
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