Generous Paddle Racers Helping The Community With Their Paddles

Bright Blue skies and balmy 65 degrees air temps made today’s race feel more like a Southern California affair. While it’s pretty clear at this point that climate change is real all we can do in the short term is make the best of it. 60 days of no rain in the dead of winter is definitely more than a wakeup call but we definitely made some lemonade out of the situation. (pictued Doug Hall, John Dye, and Kenny Howell in the choo-cho train draft. This is the order of finish for the masters division)

This year we dedicated our entire race series to giving back. With each race focused on helping a different charity this Saturdays race benefited a multicultural community center right here in San Rafael’s canal district. The San Rafael Canal Allianc is a nonprofit champion of immigrants who are challenged by a lack of resources and an unfamiliar environment. San Rafael would not be the same with out them. 

Racing took place in 5 disciplines. Outrigger Canoe, Surfski, Stand Up Paddleboard, Prone Padldeboard and kayaks. Once again the River Town crew was showing that training really does matter. Each successive race the improvement is visceral and inspirational. Grom power is in full force and bodes well for a fun future.(Below Jeff Broffman leads Jie Jiang, and Chris Matson)

The racing featured two courses both of which had mirror flat water and nearly windless conditions making for fast times. The 2 mile short course is perfect for racers looking for an easy fun day while the more experienced paddlers tackled the 6 mile around the Marin Islands and back.
Over on the short course paddle of the day goes to Christophe Chevallier. The spirit of our race is good times and personal best competition so Chrisophe’s podium performance symbolizes what racing at 101 Surf Sports is all about. Why? He killed it on a 9’6 SUP and turned in a blistering 41 minute time doing it. NICE!

Thrilling finish of the day goes to SUP racer Pete Gauvin who used tactics to get the better of Bojan Benard nipping him at the finish line by half a board length. (Below Zach and Petri Alva racing for line honors with Brian Peterson on the prone in the back ground)

Zach and Petri are gearing up for racing the USA Team Trials at Lake Natoma in Rancho Cordova. This race is the deciding event for who will represent the USA in flatwater sprint racing overseas this
year. We think it just may be a prelude to bigger things to come for the Alva brothers. We hope to see more of the River Town Racers following their lead. It's a rare treat to have this event in our own backyard 

Can you help volunteer at the Team Trials? The event is looking for volunteers. More information here.

The inspirational paddle of the day was a tie between two moms. Jacqueline Bess and Ashley Taylor both took some time away from paddling to raise some youngin’s. Then after a few years of not paddling at all, like not even once, he showed up for their first paddle to race! Both got second place in their respective divisions and demonstrated you just need to be out there and that practice is totally overrated! (Below the long course start video - turn the volume down to avoid the loud countdown)

Thanks to everyone who raced we raised almost $2800 for the San Rafael Canal Alliance. We hope to see you at the next one!

Upcoming Events
March 19th – Charity Race #6 More Information
March 26th & 27th – Free Inflatable Demo Weekend More Information
April 2nd – Free Crissy Field Swap Meet More Information
April 9th – Free San Rafael Swap Meet More Information
April 16th – Open Water Rowing Open Ocean Race More Information
April 23rd – Earth Day Trash Clean Up. More Information

Memorial Day - California River Quest More Information

October 8th Sausalito Battle of the Bay More Information

PHOTO & VIDEO GALLERY CLICK HERE

Results

Offsets - Long Course SUP 1 minute, Short Course boats 7 min, Short Course SUP 8 minutes