Aug 16 - Small Boat Race in Sidney

Jeff and I went to Sidney on Vancouver Island yesterday for the CORA Small Boat Championship. The weather is back to sunny and warm after a couple weeks of coldish and rainy days. The race was 12.8km long around Forrest Island part of the southern Gulf Islands. Really nice area for paddling and for sure Orca territory but we did not see any - sigh (I did bring my waterproof camera with me on the boat just in case - but don't tell Jeff I would have stopped racing for whales). Our main competition were a couple single skis - Ian Mackenzie, member of the Canadian marathon national team and Gareth Tudor-Jones, South-African expert tree climber who grew up in surf skis and must have salt water in his veins instead of blood - as well as a men's double from Australia - Rob & Jason. The race was quite hard - currents to battle against, big wave to catch and hot - but we managed to finish second a minute behind Ian just nudging out Gareth by some 30secs. The Australians came in 4th having to paddle a boat that although it looks like ours weighs about twice as much. And they claimed that they are actually surf rowers and not kayakers - although their technique looked quite competent and this was definitely not the first time in a ski. We helped them washing down the defeat with a "couple" beers last night at the pub. Looks like we'll be trying surf rowing when in Sydney Australia in less than 2 month!!!!

For race results and report check out sufski BC's website at http://surfskibc.wordpress.com/2009/08/17/race-results-august-16-at-sidney/

The double teams before the start

Ian and Gareth after the race

Jeff and I (sorry for the bad picture quality the lens obviously had some water on it)

Jason & Rob