Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Race Review: Moonlight Beach Paddle and Swim, Encinitas Sports Festival

First of all, I'd like to thank Dan Van Dyck and his whole crew for a well organized, smoothly run race. I really liked the use of the chip timing (you wear a velcro strap around your ankle that triggers a timing device on a mat at the finish line). As you know, I'm always the guy who has some type of problem with results- sometimes I'm there, sometimes I'm not.  The chip timers are pretty much fool proof which means I sleep better at night knowing I'll be able to check my time. Here's a couple shots and commentary- check it:

Here's a shot of one fired up competitor... and a whole bunch of stand up and prone paddlers getting ready to challenge the windy, slightly stormy conditions. This was a tough race, the chop and swell was a little more gnarly than it looked like from the beach. In addition, there was a solid south westerly wind that was in your face for the long southern leg. There were lots of guys falling, cursing and grumbling- I like races like that!
The tents were up, the coffee hot and brrrr... we were cold.
The boards and competitors kept coming- all told, I think there were close to a hundred competitors. Not a bad turnout at all.
Here I am at the finish. After chasing Brendan Light for six miles, I almost had him in the surf zone. Brendan was stuck in a big hole between waves and I could see the look on his face as I bellied a wave right up to him. I yelled at him, "Go! Paddle in!" as I frantically tried to beat him to the beach- he ended up beating me by 17 seconds for fifth place in Men's Open Stock.
Boga Race Board: light, stable and pretty darn fast (didn't some Nor-Cal kayak guy smoke a bunch of people at the Dana Paddle Race on a board just like this?). This one looked good- I'm going to have to paddle it sometime.
Best part of the race? Finishing! Check out the mats... you run across them and the chip on your ankle triggers the timer- no yelling out numbers, no missed numbers... sweet! Here I am, like a cow heading to the barn, wondering where the cold beer is.

4 comments:

waterhound.com said...

The norcal guy was Ben Sarrazin and the Boga is fast fo sho.

Flowers said...

Nice shot- Love that Boga! That was a tough race with a lot of splashing going on with paddlers falling in. Now let's do this Coronado Loop!!

John Ashley said...

You go girl!

John Ashley said...

Thanks 'hound... I wasn't there but I heard he went FAST! Damn athletes ruining it for us regular folks!