On Friday, Surf Ontario ran a clinic hosted by Danny who came up from Redondo Beach for the event. Chanda, Eve and I loaded our boards on the Pathfinder (I insured it for 3 days) and hiked it out to Kew Beach for the late afternoon session. None of us had ever met the owner of Surf Ontario, Mike, and we were completely charmed by him. He is the consummate surfer boy; gorgeous, blond, fit, tanned and really, really nice. Danny, a former sprint kayaker, is the flipside - a dark-haired, Hawaiian-California boy who is also super-fit and charming.
As it turns out, it was a very basic beginner clinic but still fun to be on different water with a new group of people. Afterwards we headed home, had dinner at Fionn's in Clarkson and discussed our plan for the morning.
We left the boards loaded on my truck overnight. Early on Saturday, I picked Eve up (Chanda was heading to the cottage after the race so she drove herself) and headed to Frenchman's Bay. It was a fantastic day - sunny, clear and warm. The wind was non-existent which was too bad for us since it completely levelled the playing field but overall best for every level of paddler attending.
It was like a sprint paddler reunion out there. Besides Doug and Boog, Chanda, Eve, Jess and I, there was Attila, Stringer, Rich Phelan, JR, Mike Scarola, Richard Dalton (sans KC, sadly), Diggs and Bill Trayling. So awesome to see them all and catch up in real life. Chrissy and Jeff were away on a weeklong camping trip, otherwise they would have been there too.
The course was an "M" shape. Set up as a 6km course, I would guess it was about 5km by the time we raced. Really a lot of fun. I lost a lot of time on the turns (and wasn't as aggressive as I would be, now that I know what to expect) but I did pretty much as I thought - respectable with room for improvement. Jess 1st, Chanda 2nd, Eve 3rd and me 4th.
After that, bib numbers were drawn to create relay teams. I was on a team with Eve, Rich and an old guy we didn't know. It was mayhem and as far as I could tell, no one knew, or cared, how they finished.
I thought that after this race I might be fired up to do more races on our great lakes, but no. I still feel the same about racing stand up boards on flat water - it's like racing bikes with square wheels. The overriding question has to be "why would you?" At least a B.O.P. style course makes it an interesting, technical paddle. It was all laughs out there. The standard, point A to point B race makes absolutely no sense to me as anything but a downwind run you plan with friends on a windy day.
After the event, Eve and I booted back to PC and did a quick freshen before jumping on the GO train and heading to BMO. The TFC were playing Kansas City. During the team intro, before they played the national anthems, they announced they had some special guests to introduce and out walk Mark Oldershaw, VanK, Brady Reardon, Morty, Diana Matheson and Karina LeBlanc. It was awesome! Everyone was cheering and chanting "Canada, Canada" and Morty was grinning like a fool and waving. Not sure how he ended up out there with the Olympians but good for him. Brady was there because he was Adam's training partner in France where they had a final training camp on their way to London. Mehak was also there but did not go out on the field. He posted this pic on Twit though - they all received personalized TFC jerseys. Not a big deal but it made the match a little more interesting.
The course was an "M" shape. Set up as a 6km course, I would guess it was about 5km by the time we raced. Really a lot of fun. I lost a lot of time on the turns (and wasn't as aggressive as I would be, now that I know what to expect) but I did pretty much as I thought - respectable with room for improvement. Jess 1st, Chanda 2nd, Eve 3rd and me 4th.
After that, bib numbers were drawn to create relay teams. I was on a team with Eve, Rich and an old guy we didn't know. It was mayhem and as far as I could tell, no one knew, or cared, how they finished.
I thought that after this race I might be fired up to do more races on our great lakes, but no. I still feel the same about racing stand up boards on flat water - it's like racing bikes with square wheels. The overriding question has to be "why would you?" At least a B.O.P. style course makes it an interesting, technical paddle. It was all laughs out there. The standard, point A to point B race makes absolutely no sense to me as anything but a downwind run you plan with friends on a windy day.
After the event, Eve and I booted back to PC and did a quick freshen before jumping on the GO train and heading to BMO. The TFC were playing Kansas City. During the team intro, before they played the national anthems, they announced they had some special guests to introduce and out walk Mark Oldershaw, VanK, Brady Reardon, Morty, Diana Matheson and Karina LeBlanc. It was awesome! Everyone was cheering and chanting "Canada, Canada" and Morty was grinning like a fool and waving. Not sure how he ended up out there with the Olympians but good for him. Brady was there because he was Adam's training partner in France where they had a final training camp on their way to London. Mehak was also there but did not go out on the field. He posted this pic on Twit though - they all received personalized TFC jerseys. Not a big deal but it made the match a little more interesting.
