Mardis Gras Paddle Race Starts Cold Finishes Hot

Clear blue skies and glassy water awaited the mixed group of old faces and new friends that decided to join us here at 101 Surf Sports in San Rafael for our Winter Race Series #5, Mardi Gras event.

This time of year in the San Francisco Bay Area, the sun typically doesn’t make an appearance of such a cherished magnitude given the recent cold snap. The frigid morning temperature of 38F was greeted by a balmy temperature of 62F that delighted everyone since we haven’t had too many days this gratefully warm this year so far. 

Something else that awaited the paddlers was the gigantic dredging barge that blocked the race course! That was actually to several of our paddlers' advantage that happened to arrive a bit later than they originally had planned. We won’t name any names of any certain paddler that always happens to arrive just in the nick of time, eh hem. We’ll just call him “Captain Sonny Cro'quet”.If you want to find out his real name, check Paddleguru and look for race number #47. His legendary smile and larger-than-life swashbuckling personality add so much fun to our events and lives.

Our dear friends from the River Town Racers of Petaluma arrived today in full force, as always. They are a fantastic juniors K-1 canoe and surfski club that are on their way to regional and national events coming up soon. Plus they are really, really good kids too ;)

Speaking of good kids, young Jaxsen Wild (pictured above) made the trip down from Tahoe with his parents Jay and Anik Wild, and today was his first race in an OC-1. He crushed it. Not the canoe. He crushed the race course! Bravo Jaxsen Wild!!! If you are ever in Tahoe, please visit Jay and Anik’s store Waterman's Landing.

While we are on the topic of kids, let's talk about the big kids on the course today. Our Grand Masters and Senior Master category was packed with paddling legends! We were blessed to have Mike McCoy, Jeff Broffman (pictured above), Vincent Huang, Thane Jennings as well as local Bay Area paddling OG, Gary Leong on the course today. They got a chance to show the little whippersnappers how it’s done on the water!

With special mention is Masters category racer surfski racer Kenny Howell (pictured below), our dear friend and amazing Epic Kayaks rep. Kenny rocked the course and glided across the finish line on his Epic Kayaks V 10 GT Sport surfski. If you don’t know what that model is all about or if you don’t happen to know what a Epic Kayaks surfski might be all about, you can sign up for one of Kenny’s two surfski clinics that he will doing at 101 Surf Sports on March 19th and May 20th. 

Since this was our Winter race series #5, Mardi Gras, everyone was decked out with colourful beads, feathered masks that set the tone for FUN. Several paddlers went above and beyond in their pomp as well as plumage.Three lucky paddlers won our costume contest. Way to go Heather, Lourdes and Trey Strickland (pictured below)!

What Mardi Gras event would not be complete without a hearty gumbo, beignets with red beans and rice! Our skilled Chef Cuisinier Cort Larned whipped up the scrumptious gumbo upstairs in his pied-a-terre. Kurt Mau crafted the delicious beignets and Trey nailed it with his red beans and rice. Merci beaucoup messieurs!

If you have ever fancied the thought about racing, feel free to join us at our Winter Race Series #6 St. Patty’s Day race, because our races are perfect for first time racers! Our 2 mile course is a perfect way to get involved and it also gives you the opportunity to see the beautiful skyline of San Pablo Bay when you turn around the mile marker on your way back to our shop.

If you want to train for the 6 mile course, a great way to get ready is to join our friend Jen Fuller on one of her many weekly stand up paddleboard training sessions. 

The team at 101 Surf Sports wants to say thank you to each and every person that made their journey to race at the shop today.

Finally, we’d like to say thank you to Mark Hadeen of the San Rafael Police Department for being our safety boat to ensure that our paddlers had a safe time on the water. Our March event will be here before you know it. So train hard and remember, rain or shine…we’ll see you at the starting line! Speaking of starting line here is the Short Course start below. 

Au revoir pagayeuse et pagayeurs!

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