Easy Rider SUP Race and Surf Contest

As appears on Distressed Mullet (www.distressedmullet.com) -click here

Until this past weekend I had never been to Edmonton, Alberta. If you asked me last week what my impressions of Edmonton were I’d have mentioned hockey, cold winters and then would have struggled to come up with anything else.

In the 1980’s Edmonton was the epicenter of professional hockey as Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier were leading the Oilers to 4 Stanley Cups in 5 years. They won another post Gretzky in 1990. More recently they’ve struggled, despite consistently drafting the best young talent in the game. It doesn’t matter. Having grown up in the 1980s I still think of the Oilers as a powerhouse. I still think of hockey if you mention Edmonton.

As far as cold winters are concerned, just look at the statistics. Edmonton is way up north. Where I am from just outside of Toronto is positively tropical compared to Edmonton. The average temperature in January is a depressing minus 12 Celcius. The record is in the minus mid 40s. In this part of the country there are actually electrical outlets in parking lots for car block heaters. The idea is that you go into the mall and plug your car in so it will start when you come back out. It certainly isn’t the type of climate I associate with stand up paddling, and SUP doesn’t jump to mind when you mention the place. After my weekend at the 2013 Easy Rider SUP Race and Surf Contest all that has changed.

There is a strong and vibrant SUP community in Edmonton that’s been galvanized by the enthusiasm and stoke of Warren Currie (aka The Easy Rider). Warren owns The Easy Rider, an awesome store that started with snowboards and skateboards and now is big into SUP. He’s got a great river, the North Saskatchewan, to paddle on as well as a few small lakes nearby. He’s got a bunch of enthusiastic riders. He’s also got something that most places don’t have – surf on demand.

I guess I should have also said I knew about the West Edmonton Mall before actually going to Edmonton. Everyone in Canada has heard of it. As malls go it’s hard for me to tell whether it has more retail space than monster malls anywhere else. Suffice to say it is huge. It’s the stuff it has beyond shops and stores that makes it unique – try an indoor rollercoaster and amusement park, a hockey rink, a pirate ship and small aquarium with daily performances from seals and penguins, a hotel and, what makes it important to us – a massive indoor wave pool.

For the last number of years Warren and his crew have been going into the pool a couple of times a month and SUP surfing. They go in early in the morning before the mall opens and have the run of the place. They clearly go on a regular basis because some of these guys can really surf well. Having a facility like this means that when Warren hosts an Easy Rider SUP event he can offer more than just a race on the river. He can also host a surf contest.

I hadn’t planned on going to Edmonton and it was all kind of last minute. Jimmy Terrell called me up a week before and told me he and Dave Kalama were going to be doing a clinic there, do the race and the surf contest. He asked if I wanted to join them and offered to fly me out. I thought about it for a second. Hanging with Jimmy and Dave Kalama for the weekend? Surfing indoors in a giant wave pool? Sounded like bucket list material so I jumped at the offer.

I didn’t have time to ship out a board and West Jet, which I was flying, has a 3m limit on surf boards as baggage so I couldn’t even fly with a 12’6” board. Fortunately Warren was able to set me up with something for the race and, even though it wasn’t a Bark/Surftech board and was a 30” touring board and not a race board, everything was cool. I was stoked to go.

I got there in time to see the end of Jimmy and Dave’s clinic. I’ve run clinics with Jimmy before and we’ve trained with and raced against each other for years so I knew what to expect there, but I was really excited to hear what Dave had to say. I want to do a Kalama Kamp at some point. I’d learn a ton. The guy is a legend and I like his laid back, unassuming manner and ability to communicate his vast expanse of knowledge. I’m sure the people taking the clinic got a ton of useful information out of it, and it was cool to see people successfully applying things they’d learned in the Friday clinic in the race on Saturday.

The weather for the weekend was awesome – hot, humid and for the most part brilliantly sunny. The race was a downriver event just over 15 km in total and Warren had shuttles organized for both paddlers and boards. Proving that the SUP community there is vibrant were close to 100 participants, divided pretty much evenly between the elite race and a shorter, less competitive “tour”.

The river is cool. It’s big, wide and pretty fast moving. We finished the race in just over 1hr, 10min, which is the pace you’d expect from a fast downwinder. The river has scoured a pretty sizeable valley into the prairie so if you were taking time to look around it was actually pretty scenic. Unfortunately, given the board I was on and the quality of the field, I wasn’t doing much sightseeing while racing. Mike Darbyshire from Vancouver got out into an early lead and we had to chase him down. I did most of the work to do that with Jimmy perched on my draft. Once we caught up we drafted Mike for a good while before Jimmy took the lead. After Jimmy’s lead the three of us traded leads and then it all came down to a crucial point on the river where each of the three of us made a choice as to which line we were going to take to get the most benefit from the current. Jimmy applied his experience racing marathon canoes on rivers and sniffed out the best line and strongest current. I shouldn’t have doubted him and gone with him. Mike went to the far left and I thought the middle would be a great compromise as usually the middle of the river is the fastest. Jimmy came out of that section with at least a 50m lead with less than 2km to go.

I went nuts to try to catch up and am stoked that I really closed the gap but in the end Jimmy finished 7 seconds ahead with Mike a couple of seconds behind me. Doesn’t really matter. I had a blast. It was fun to paddle on a winding river in that current. It was fun to race against some new guys. It was fun to turn a corner on the river and see the almost 50 paddlers doing the tour on the water just ahead of us and then pass through them. It was even fun paddling and racing on a different board. Silvia Mecucci, all the way from Italy, won the women’s race and came off the water with a big smile on her face as well.

At the finish line there was really cool camaraderie as the early finishers all helped the later finishers get their boards up the steep river bank and loaded back into the shuttle vans. I loved the whole vibe. We hopped in the shuttle bus and went back to the park at the midway point where we met in the morning for registration for a great barbeque; the awards and a ridiculously large amount of real quality draw prizes.

Day one ended at a local bar beside the Easy Rider shop with some good food and the screening of a couple of really cool SUP movies. As SUPing days go this had been a really good one. The cool thing was there was another cool day in store.

We had to get an early start on Sunday for the surf contest. The mall opens at 10:00 a.m. By 10:15 the wave pool would be full of kids bobbing around in the surf like Cheerios in a cereal bowl. We got in a 6:00 a.m. and quickly set up the boards and got the contest started. We needed to be done by 9:30.

The competition was divided into a Pro heat featuring Dave and Dave (Kalama and Boehne), Mike Darbyshire and Warren (because it was his event!), a bunch of men’s heats, a couple of women’s heats and a kids’ heat. Basically 4 to a heat and 8 minutes for each heat to do their thing. Waves in the pool are generated in sets of 4 every 45 seconds or so, with each wave in the set getting bigger. I’d say the big waves were about waist high.

I’m happy to say I made the second round and caught every wave I went for. Beyond that let’s just say I have some work to do to catch up to the Daves. It was really cool seeing Dave Boehne nose riding and Dave Kalama doing fin-first take offs, making his board do full 360s and taking off with his paddle upside down. I guess the maintenance staff there didn’t have a stepladder available for him to play with. Obviously everyone had a blast and once again Warren had cool awards for the winners and more great draw prizes which went till everyone had won something.

I can’t say enough about the enthusiasm Warren brings to the sport. I guess I should also credit his wife Angela who was there every step of the way helping out and spent the morning of her wedding anniversary handing out and collecting wet numbered rash guards to the surfers in each heat. What they are creating in Edmonton really is outstanding, and certainly for me it’s given me a whole new appreciation for the place. It’s a Canadian SUP mecca and I can’t wait to go back!

If you love unique SUP experiences and sharing stoke with others than this is an event you’ll want to get to sometime. The race was fun and challenging. The surfing indoors was surreal. I can only imagine what it must be like to surf there in the winter and then step outside into arctic conditions. It must be crazy. Warren and his crew of volunteers take care of all the little things that make a competition fun and memorable. And Edmonton in the summer is actually beautiful. The Easy Rider SUP Race and Surf Contest is definitely something I’m going to be heading back to, hopefully with a bunch of friends in tow.

Canada Cup of SUP, August 17, 2013

This was a great event hosted by Surf Ontario and 404 which drew about 60 competitors in only it’s second year.  Significantly, it drew Danny Ching, who made the trip to support the event, run a clinic and promote his 404 brand.   The event was run entirely off the sandy beach at Frenchman’s Bay in Pickering. 

Last year’s inaugural event was a big success and consisted of a buoy race that everyone, from novice to elite participated in together.  This year, race organizers Mike Sandusky and Doug Tutty, put together a two-stage event with a short 5km open water distance race and then a BOP style buoy race.  There was about an hour in between the finish of the distance race and the start of the BOP style race and in that time they ran rec and kids races on the buoyed course.
 
The weather turned out to be awesome - perfect sunny and warm conditions with a light onshore wind out of the southeast.  The wind wasn’t enough to kick up any sizeable waves for either race, but there were small bumps to use to gain speed in the downwind sections.

The distance race started at 9:00 a.m. with a beach start.  Paddlers had to go about 300m to a buoy off shore before doing a 90-degree right shoulder turn and heading west.  Then it was just a simple matter of following the shore just over 2 km to the turn around an anchored motorboat and then heading back.  You weren’t required to go around the buoy on the way in and could just head towards the beach and the finish line a short run up the sand.
 
Let me make it very clear that anytime I have a change to race against Danny Ching I get excited.  Actually it’s more than that, I feel privileged.  There aren’t many sports where you can line up on the start beside the very best athletes in the world unless you are one of them yourself.  This is one of the things that make SUP racing so awesome.   Furthermore, in this part of the world though we occasionally get the odd high-level SUP paddler here to race, none have been at the level of Danny. When you consider that there are only a handful of paddlers in the world at his level it really is a privilege when he shows up at your local event to race.

The start for the distance race was good for me.  I don’t think Danny made an effort to kill it on his start, and I understand that he probably entered this race cautious about the shoulder injury that caused him to drop out of the M2O race at the end of July.  We got around the turn buoy together and headed west steadily pulling away from the group behind us.  There was a light tailwind with tiny bumps to use for a little extra speed, but basically it was just steady paddling.  We had a nice conversation on the way to the turn, around the turn and for most of the way back.  Danny even dropped back and rode my wash for a good portion of the return leg. 

I knew he’d inevitably make a move and when he made it, it was emphatic.  He has a high-end gear that I have rarely seen from people I’ve paddled with in SUP, and I had to work to get his draft without letting him get away from me.  Once I was on, it wasn’t too hard to stay there, but I made a tactical mistake as we approached the finish.  Since we weren’t required to round the buoy and head straight into shore we could slowly angle into shore.  Danny slowly headed into shallower and shallower water.  I actually started to hit bottom with my paddle, which didn’t surprise me, as I know I sink the blade a little deeper than most paddlers.  So I decided to come off his draft to the right and angle out a bit to get deeper water.  I hammered and caught up a little but any move I was making to pass him quickly stalled and we basically maintained our separation.  The problem was I was now further from the finish on the beach because I had angled out.  I had to cut back in behind him and angle more sharply to the finish area on the beach.  By the time I’d hopped off my board and ran across the finish line he had beaten me by 7 seconds.
 
Danny and I laughed about the mistake I’d made and he said as he angled closer and closer to shore he kept waiting for me to go right into shore, jump off my board and try to pass him running on the beach.  I’ll remember that and consider trying it next time, but for me I was quite satisfied with the result as it was.  I know Danny didn’t exactly empty the tank in that race.  I’m certain he was paddling cautious and being careful not to over stress his shoulder.  However I’m also convinced that at some point in the race he realized his shoulder wasn’t so bad and he could take it up to high gear.  I’m just stoked that I was able to travel with him in that gear better than a year ago.

The guys coming in behind Danny and me were really competitive and it shows that there are a lot of good paddlers in this area.  Rich Phelan had a great race to come 3rd, Brent Schmidt from Ottawa was 4th and Chris Stringer 5th.  Chrissy Wessman was the top girl.

Immediately after the race I started working on a bottle of Recoverite and sat back to enjoy the kids race.  It was really cool to see the kids of so many of the racers competing.  Both Chris Stringer’s and Andy Skeoch’s kids paddled really well.  Looks like there will be lots of good company out on the water to paddle with well into my 60s!

The BOP style race was up next.  About 300m out to the first buoy, a left shoulder turn to a buoy another 400m or so away and a right shoulder turn around that.  Then straight out into the lake about 300m or so, a right shoulder turn and then a long downwind paddle into the beach for a run around a small chicane and then back out to a buoy on the right.  A left shoulder turn around that and then back to buoy one to repeat the loop.  Two full laps in total then a run up the beach to cross the finish line.

We started knee deep in the water, and for this start I was beside Danny.  I’m pretty certain he didn’t hold back at all on this start.  It honestly caught me off guard how quick he was.  Not just getting on his board and getting his first stroke in but also his sprint speed.  He had a couple of board lengths on me immediately and by the time I really hit my stride he had three full lengths of open water.  I pulled a couple of those back before we hit the first turn, but he took a little distance back on the turn.  After that it was pretty much a case of me more or less matching his speed between buoys and then losing a board length or so every turn.  My left shoulder turns aren’t bad and I don’t give up a ton of distance, but my right shoulder turns are very weak compared to his.  It was actually a real treat to paddle behind him and get to watch his foot and paddle work on each turn.  So incredibly precise and effective.  No tension or extra effort to maintain balance.  Just completely fluid and relaxed movements that get his board around a buoy in not much more than a second.  For me it probably takes double that on a left shoulder turn and at least triple that on a right shoulder turn.  I’m better at these turns than I have ever been but it is clear after a race like this that there is a lot of work left to do.

Danny came into the beach 23 seconds ahead of me and Rich, who hung right on the back of my board for all but the last straight away to the beach came 3rd, ten seconds behind me.  Rich’s result was great and I think he was pretty stoked with his two races.  He’s consistently put together great races at all the local events this year and I’ve paddled with him a lot and seen his skill in big water as well as flats.  Hopefully he’ll start doing some bigger travelling races next year.  He’ll do quite well.

The results for this race were posted really quickly.  Mike and his volunteer team did a really good job of keeping track of all the times over each of the races.  They’re posted - click here.
 The entire event was awesome.  Some tasteful awards rather than tacky trophies or medals and lots of product given away that everyone was stoked to get.   Some post race refreshments right on the beach and everything tidied up by 2:00 p.m. so people had time to do other stuff with the rest of their day.

I’m pretty pleased with my effort here.  I didn’t feel any lingering effects from the two 12 miles races I did last weekend at the Lobster Cup in Maine, and I seem to have good travelling speed.  It was a treat to race Danny.  I’ve said all along at the age of 50  I don’t expect to win against the top guys like Danny, Connor Baxter and Kai Lenny.  They’re awesome.  But I’d love to close the gap to a point where it sort of redefines what anyone ever imagined a 50 year old is capable of.  I’ve still got lots of work to do but appear to be making some significant steps in that direction.

Thanks to the Surf Ontario and the volunteers for their effort, and in particular thanks to Danny for making the trip.  Danny is a fantastic ambassador for this sport.  At virtually every race we’ve both been at I’ve seen him out on the water playing on his board, showing kids tricks and having fun after the race.  He takes time to talk to everyone and share his stoke for the sport with them.  It makes a difference.  People leave these events not only excited that they’ve seen perhaps the best guy in the world do his thing, but thrilled because he took the time to talk to them and maybe give them a few tips.  This small gesture on his part makes these people way more excited about the sport.   As a result, I don’t think there is anyone who has met Danny who isn’t happy to see him have success in the biggest races.

If you’re from Ontario you need to put this event on your calendar for next year.  If you are from somewhere further away, consider making the trip to Toronto for this event.  There is a vibrant SUP community here that will promise you a fun and competitive event.

Lobster SUP Cup 2013

Check out my report on the Lobster SUP Cup weekend on Distressed Mullet(click here)

I’ll restrict my recap here to details about each of the two races rather than about the event in general as you can check that out on the Mullet. I’ll simply say this was one of the most fun weekends I’ve had in SUP in one of the most beautiful locations to paddle on the continent.

The Lobster SUP Cup was supposed to be a downwind weekend, unfortunately Mother Nature had other ideas and both days presented conditions with different challenges, not least those mental ones associated with grinding out a result in a long race without much help in the way of wind or bumps.

Day 1 was almost 19 km on my GPS, taking us from Rockport Harbor into Penobscot Bay, into Camden’s Inner Harbor and then back out into the bay and on to Lincolnville Beach. Winds were blowing 15 mph out of the west with gusts stronger than that. That meant we had a strong tailwind and small bumps coming out of Rockport and then had a left side wind all the way to Camden. Entering Camden Harbor was a strong headwind. Leaving Camden we had a tailwind again and then the rest of the way to Lincolnville was a sort of side tailwind from the left.

The race start was unique – a water start with the countdown coming from someone playing bagpipes. When the piper stopped, there was a 30 second pause, then an air horn signaling go. There were about 40 boards lined up on the start including men and women on boards of all classes. I expected the fastest competitors to be race organizer Thor Emory on a 404 Arrow, former Olympic canoeist Rod McLean on a Bark Dominator, and eastern Canada’s top SUP female, Jessica Rando on a 14’ Starboard All-Star.

I got off the start very cleanly and hammered. I figured if I went as hard as I could go to the turn into the bay it would at the very least represent an excellent simulation of the effort I’ll need to the first buoy at the BOP, less of course the beach start and paddling through the break. It was really cool that about half way out of the harbor I found myself racing a massive motor yacht which was on my left. Knowing it was eventually going to pass me when it neared the harbor entrance, and that I needed to turn left at that point I decided to drop back, drop in behind it and try to hitch a ride for a bit. I was blown away to see it flying a massive Canadian flag off the stern. I hopped on for a brief ride, but would really like to have been able to ride longer. I mean, wouldn’t it be sort of appropriate to hitch an extended ride off my countrymen? Canadians always stick together when abroad. There were small wind generated bumps to use, particularly as we neared the opening into the bay.

At the opening I turned to the left and now had a strong wind blowing directly from the left. The shoreline here wasn’t exactly smooth so it was difficult to follow the shore really closely. As such I spent a lot of time paddling on the right in this leg. Being a right-sided C1 paddler this is not a problem and I tried to really paddle hard in this stretch, hoping to create a large lead to use as a cushion for the second half of the race. Nearing Curtis Island and the entrance into Camden Harbor there were some fast moving swells but it was hard to take advantage of them because as we turned to the left the enter the harbor the strong side wind was becoming a headwind. Furthermore even though the tide was coming in, local conditions created a situation where we were going into a fairly strong tidal current through this stretch. Despite the wind and the current this was a fun section of the race because of all the moored boats we had to weave through. Each paddler had a lot of flexibility as to which path to take through to the turn in the inner harbor.

At the turn buoy in the inner harbor I made a mistake. I turned 180 degrees around the buoy and headed back out the channel I’d entered from. The official boat signaled me with an air horn to come back and go around the buoy again and head out the channel on the other side. There is a lesson here. Listen CAREFULLY to all of the details in the pre race briefing. I know that I occasionally miss details because I am thinking more about the start than about absorbing details. Being in this headspace worked extremely well for me in sprint canoe where every race was basically the same and all you needed to do prerace was sort of focus in on your race plan and your commitment to paddle through a whole lot of pain. In long SUP races, particularly in unfamiliar waters, I’m finding you can’t get away with that approach. You’ve got to pay attention, have a clear head and absorb all the little details so you can be comfortable with where you are on the course at all times and not make mistakes.

After going around the turn buoy again and coming out the right channel towards the outer harbor I found it nice to feel the push of a tailwind at my back again. Exiting the harbor things got even better when I was able to catch some motorboat wake and get a sizeable ride. I continued to follow the same line out into the bay and ended up a considerable distance from shore before I turned the nose of my board to follow the shore up to Lincolnville. It made sense to me get that far off shore. The tide was supposed to be coming into the bay and I’d get more of a push from it further from shore. Unfortunately I wasn’t very happy out there. Within just a couple of minutes I realized the side wind was too strong to make normal paddling possible. Even moving forward on my board didn’t really help. On top of that, the pace my GPS was giving me sucked. I ended up angling sharply towards shore till I found a line where the wind was significantly less. Suddenly I was much happier. There were some more residual bumps from the previous day’s south wind and the wind even felt more tail than side this close to shore. Glancing at my GPS I could see that my pace was back within an acceptable range and was even dropping below 5:50/km regularly.

I’ve commented before on the value of racing with a GPS for pace information. It’s helped me enormously at the last two Carolina Cups and it was turning out to be no different at the Lobster Cup. I think it is actually a necessity in races in tidal water for anyone who is serious about their results. The feedback you get from it regarding your choice of line is essential.

The rest of the paddle to Lincolnville was pretty uneventful and I hit the sand beach with a comfortable margin to spare over Thor who came second. Unlike most races where there isn’t anything to worry about the next day, the first thing I did was get some ice on my elbow. I’ve got some tendonitis (lateral side, left elbow) that is very manageable if I’m smart about it. Within only a couple of minutes of finishing I had a plastic bag full of ice from the water cooler on my elbow. The next thing was some food. A couple of orange slices, a banana and an energy bar, all supplied by the race organizers, and then I mixed a big jug of Recoverite. I think it is good practice to address these things as soon as possible after ANY race, but when you’re doing another 13-mile race the next day it is imperative.

We stashed our boards in Thor’s shop which is across the street from the finish line, then headed to McLaughlin’s Lobster Shack for the post race grinds and the awards. McLaughlin’s was awesome. Very laid back and their portions were extremely generous. I ended up eating 3 ½ lobsters plus all the sides that came with the dinner. Definitely more than I would normally scarf down right after a race, but I couldn’t resist, having not eaten lobster in years.

We had a pretty low-key evening and I got to bed early. Thor was planning on starting the race a little late to see if we could take advantage of a predicted shift in the wind that would provide light downwind conditions so we didn’t have to get started too early, but all the sun and the long drive to Maine had taken as much out of me as the race and I found myself really sleepy and ready for bed before 10 p.m.

Day two broke with similar conditions to day one. Despite our best hopes the wind was the same. We got to Thor’s shop in Lincolnville and then drove up to Belfast to drop our cars and then get shuttled back. By 11:45 Thor was giving the pre-race briefing and by noon we were off.

The start this time was a beach start and much like the day before the first kilometer was downwind to get out of the little bay at Lincolnville. Then we turned left and followed the shore up the coast towards Belfast. For a while the conditions were very light wind with small trailing bumps, but around 8 km and where the coast started to bend to the left towards Belfast the wind shifted to a headwind. The final 10 km or so into Belfast harbor was a grind. There were a few places were you were faced with the choice of going straight and doing a shorter distance but with more wind, or hugging the shore and going further but with less headwind. Each time I opted for shortest distance and more wind. I’m not sure it was the best decision but I had a comfortable lead so I figured I could gamble on it. To be honest the day two paddle was pretty uneventful. It was just one of those efforts where you have to grind it our and keep going – a bit of a mental game. I cruised across the finish line in Belfast in just over 2:07. Not bad for nearly 20 km in those conditions. I sat down on my board, finished whatever water was left in my hydration pack and waited for second place to cross. I was stoked to see it was Rod McLain. We both raced in LA in 1984, me in C1 and Rod in C2. It was fun to be two old farts from ’84 ending up one-two in 2013. Jess Rando won the women’s race for the second day in a row, and taking a page out of Annabel Anderson’s book her combined time for both days placed her third overall beating most of the guys.

The Lobster Cup was an incredibly fun weekend. Maine is beautiful and the waters there are great for paddling. The race was challenging even though the conditions were fairly benign. I could see it being an amazing event with strong downwind conditions, and it could also be an extremely challenging and much less fun race if the conditions got ugly. Definitely a challenge for any racer. Thor has a lot of ideas for making this event even better next year and I honestly believe it can grow to be to the late summer what the Carolina Cup is to late April. Whatever Thor has planned for next year, I am already looking forward to going back! Hopefully many of you will join us there next year as well.

2013 Junior and Under-23 World Sprint Canoe Championships

This past weekend the International Canoe Federation (ICF) held their first combined Junior and Under-23 World Championships for Sprint Canoe-Kayak in Welland, Ontario. With this event just down the road on our local course I had an opportunity to take in a lot of it. It was quite liberating to have no official capacity and enjoy the event solely as a spectator. Here are some of the impressions I’m left with.

Well done, Welland!

Welland is a small town situated midway between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, not far from the Niagara River. It’s the largest town on the Welland Canal that joins the two lakes for shipping. Sometime in the early 1970’s the government spent a ton of money making the canal straighter and bypassing Welland’s town center. This left the community with about 12 km of unused waterway. One section was filled in, and that represents the south end of what is now the new Welland International Flatwater Center.

We’ve used the course for years and it’s been slowly upgraded and hosted a National Championships, however despite its calm, deep and clean water it couldn’t be said that it met international standards until this year. A $10 million upgrade has seen all the latest ICF requirements for a championship venue added, including start gates, wave breakers between the return and racing lanes, finish tower, viewing stands, athletes center with training facilities including a paddling flume, and start towers at 200m, 500m and 1000m. It is world class in every regard.

Having the facility is one thing, but having the expertise to run a major championship is another entirely. Welland pulled it off. They called the event Canoe Niagara and assembled the best staff of experts and volunteers imaginable, including former National Team member Richard Dalton who oversaw the operation from a technical perspective. The result was a wonderfully successful championship, lauded by both the ICF officials and the athletes and coaches from around the world. By all accounts, Welland nailed it. Of particular note was the quality of the volunteer team assembled. Everyone I encountered was knowledgeable and had a smile on their face. I’ve heard that some of the visiting coaches said that the volunteers in Welland were even friendlier than those in Dartmouth, NS during the 2009 ICF World Championships. That’s really saying something. I mean how do you find friendlier Canadians than Nova Scotians, particularly when it concerns paddling?

Well done, Welland! You did an amazing job and the result is that the world is already looking forward to coming back. In the meantime, you’ve created what is the best imaginable training center for our sport. Thank you!

The performance of the athletes I helped coach

Jeremy Stott is a talented 17-year-old canoe paddler who raced in the Junior Men’s C2 1000m with Evan Bezemer from Mississauga. He’s also the son of Kevin Stott, who I raced C2 with as a junior and travelled the world with as a member of the National Team in the 1980s and for dragon boat in the 1990s and early 2000s.

Jeremy is a big talent. He’s been fortunate to work with a number of very good coaches including Scott and Adam Oldershaw and Kyle Jeffrey and he’s taken something from all of us. His technique has developed over the last year to the point where it is excellent. He’s developed his fitness a lot as well, although as you’d expect for a junior paddler it’s all still a work in progress. I’m hoping he’s dreaming of the Olympics one day, and despite the fact that there is a ton of work left to do he is well on his way.

Jeremy and Evan finished 7th in the final. They had a solid race and I like the fact that they went for it early, travelling through most of the first half in contention for 3rd before fading slightly in the third 250m. They certainly left everything on the course and won’t be wondering if there were things they could have done better or differently in their race.

The reality of junior racing at the international level is that there are athletes at all stages of physical development on the water. Both Jeremy and Evan, though remarkably fit for their age, haven’t matured physically to the degree that some of the paddlers they were racing have. While Jeremy and Evan were racing with teenage bodies, some of the crews like the Hungarians and the Russians were racing with much closer to adult bodies. It makes a difference.

Jeremy seemed pretty pleased with their performance, which pleases me. They did all they could and through the heat and final had two of the best races they’ve ever had. What more can you ask for? I’m glad they have the maturity to recognize personal best performances for what they are and be satisfied with them. At the same time, I’m hoping that the experience has left him wanting more. I remember when I came 7th at my first Junior Worlds in 1979 feeling like I’d raced my best but having this gnawing sense that it wasn’t good enough. I wanted to be at the front of the race. It was an important moment in my career as from that moment forward I knew I had to step everything up. That played a big part in fueling my development over the next 5 years and led to two golds at the Junior Worlds in 1981 and ultimately the Olympics in 1984.

Taylor Potts and Maria Halavrezos have had a great year and just getting to the U-23 Worlds meant they had to displace a two-time world champion in C2. It has been loads fun working with them. Their work ethic and readiness to learn has been exceptional. They’ve improved dramatically in a technical sense and that has seen their race performances improve markedly.

In Welland they did a personal best time in the Women’s U-23 C2 500m final and had, in their own words, an amazing first 300m in which they challenged the Hungarians for the lead. They probably paid the price a little for that in the last 200m, and although they didn’t die, they couldn’t stay with the Hungarians who slowly pulled away to win handily. Taylor and Maria ended up bronze medalists behind the Russians who pulled ahead of them in the last 50m to win silver.

Like Jeremy and Evan, Taylor and Maria had a best ever performance and I am thrilled to see them come home with medals. Hopefully the taste they’ve had of the podium here is going to motivate them to do the work required to get there again in the future. It won’t be easy as the women’s canoe events are becoming increasingly competitive.

Hungarian dominance

It’s amazing that a small country of 10 million people can consistently outperform so many larger nations in this sport. I’m not sure if canoe-kayak is the national sport of Hungary, but it ought to be. Their performances at world championships and Olympic games year after year have been remarkable. This championship was no different and made it very clear that there is a new generation of Hungarian superstars in the making, ready to launch onto the Olympic stage in 2016. They finished with an incredible 8 gold, 4 silver and 5 bronze, and it wasn’t just the fact that they won eight races that was amazing, but their total dominance in many of those victories that was most impressive.

Off the top of my head, performances in Junior Men’s C2 1000m, Junior Men’s K2 1000m, Junior Men’s K4 1000m and U-23 Women’s C2 500m were commanding performances with open water margins of victory. I’d like to stress as well that they weren’t winning these races because they were significantly bigger and stronger than the field. On the contrary, these athletes were lean and fit and won with excellent paddling rather than strength and size. The distance these crews were travelling every stroke was unbelievable compared to even the other crews on the podium. Their technical ability was awesome. Whoever is coaching these crews in Hungary is developing athletes that will be awfully hard to beat as seniors because the superior technical foundation that they have will carry them a long way in the future.

The resurgence of Canadian women’s kayak

When I was doing the TV commentary in London last summer I got in a bit of trouble with some people back home for suggesting that the women’s kayak program wasn’t good enough. We hadn’t qualified any crews from the 2011 worlds and weren’t able to qualify any in second chance qualifications during the spring of 2012. We ended up with Emilie Fournel racing K1 200m and 500m in London after she qualified late in the game through what amounted to the back door. At the time I chose my words very carefully and I stand by them today. For a country with a rich tradition in women’s kayak, the results of 2011 and 2012 can hardly be considered satisfactory. I didn’t attempt to speculate where the problem with the women’s discipline lay, I just stated the obvious. Despite the best efforts of the athletes racing, the results weren’t good enough.

I’m happy and excited to say that in 2013 it appears that a new generation of women kayakers is ready to reassert Canada as one of the top nations in the world. The Canadian women kayakers led the way in Welland. Michelle Russell double medalled with a stunning wire-to-wire show of dominance in the U-23 Women’s K1 200m, followed a few hours later with a bronze in the K1 500m. Maddie Schmidt won a bronze in the Junior Women’s K1 200m and finished 6th in the K1 500m. In K2 events, the junior women finished 7th and the U-23 women finished 9th. When you consider that there is a group of comparably fast Canadian girls that didn’t qualify as they sit right between the juniors and the U-23s in terms of age, suddenly the Canadian women’s kayak program looks pretty good moving forward. To be sure, there is an incredible amount of work to do heading towards 2015 and qualification for 2016 in Rio. But at least it appears there is new life and energy in the program that can push the senior girls and give us the capacity to build crews that can contend at the senior level in the future. Well done to these athletes and their coaches!

Some awesome canoe races

As a canoe paddler I have to comment on the canoe events in particular. I think the three most impressive performances to me were in the Junior Men’s C1 1000m, Junior Men’s C2 1000m, and U-23 C1 200m. The level of paddling and the winning times were both exceptional.

In the Junior C1 1000m, Sergei Yemelyanov of Kazakhstan was awesome, crushing the field and going 3:55 in a light side tailwind. The fact that he did it at 50 strokes/minute was truly impressive. He moved his boat an incredible distance every stroke.

In the Junior C2 1000m, the Hungarian crew of Jonaton Hajdu and Kristof Khaut won comfortably and paddled beautifully. This was just over an hour after Khaut won silver behind Yemelyanov in C1 1000m. Hajdu would go on the next day to win gold in the Junior C1 200m.

In the U-23 C1 200m, Andrey Kraytor of Russia turned in a commanding performance, winning by almost a second over Jason McCoombs of Canada. When you consider that the bronze medalist, Alfonso Benavides of Spain was 4th last year in London, the performances of both Kraytor and Jason look even better. I’m thrilled for Jason who raced in London last year and did very well for a 19-year-old Olympic rookie, however missed the final. This result should be a big boost for him moving forward, and he has a chance to race again very soon – at the World Championships in Duisburg, Germany in a few weeks.

Women’s canoe!

Even before the competition started you could tell this was going to be a big week for women’s canoe as the ICF participated in a “Summit” on women’s canoe hosted by Canoe-Kayak Canada.

For those that don’t follow canoeing closely, women do not race canoe at the Olympics. Both men and women race kayak, but only men race canoe. In fact, only since 2009 have women been racing at the world championships, and then only in two events compared to nine for the men.

Canada has seen women racing domestically the longest of any nation, with events for women at our national championships since the early 90s. More recently ICF member nations from around the world have started to embrace women’s canoe and some very good paddlers are being developed in other countries. The problem is that since women’s canoe events are not Olympic, most nations (including Canada), do not fund women canoe athletes nor devote much in the way of coaching resources to their women’s canoe programs. As such, development in women’s canoe events in not occurring at the rate it could be.

One might ask, “Why not just add women’s canoe events to the Olympics?” The answer is that it isn’t that simple. The International Olympic Committee has made it very clear that while they want gender equity in all Olympic sports, they will not permit Olympic sports to either add events or increase their quota of athletes. This means that to add women’s canoe something currently in the Olympic canoe-kayak program must be dropped, and it is difficult for a variety of reasons to find consensus among ICF member nations on how to approach that. In my opinion it is essential that the ICF come up with a plan soon for 2020 on how to address the issues of gender equity and women’s canoe, or the entire sport’s Olympic future may be at risk.

Despite that fact that women’s canoe is currently in Olympic limbo, the performances in Welland were outstanding and have taken these events to an entirely new level. Particularly impressive to me were the Junior Women’s C1 200m which was won by Daryna Kastsuchenka of Belarus. Her performance was outstanding and her technical proficiency the best I have seen from any woman in the world to this point. Right behind her was Angie Avegno of Ecuador. To me this is significant because Ecuador is what I’d call a developing nation in our sport. The fact that they have a medalist already in women’s canoe is fantastic as it shows that these developing nations can quickly make an impact in women’s events. Hopefully more developing nations will follow with fast women canoe paddlers.

In the U-23 Women’s C1 200m, Canada’s perennial world champion Laurence Vincent-Lapointe was given all she could handle by Irina Andreeva of Russia. From the perspective of the growth of the sport, this is great news as Laurence has been able to win pretty easily the last few years.

Of course I have already commented on the Hungarian crew which won the U-23 Women’s C2 500m. Their technical ability was as impressive as that of the Belarus girl’s in the Junior C1. As women from around the world take their performances to increasingly higher levels it becomes harder and harder to deny these athletes a place at the Olympic games. I think the women canoe athletes opened some eyes in Welland, and coupled with the growing interest from around the world in women’s canoe that was demonstrated at the Women’s Canoe Summit, I am hopeful that the ICF will do the right thing and come up with a plan now for including women in the Olympics for 2020.

It was a great four days of racing and, as always, a privilege to see athletes of this level perform live. It reaffirms to me what a beautiful sport, and what an extremely difficult sport, canoe-kayak is. It was awesome for Canadian canoeing to have these championships in our own backyard. All the kids from our club were there to watch and the impact on them cannot be overestimated. Here’s hoping we don’t have to wait long for the next international event at Welland.