Gaelic Good Times At Final Paddle Race Of The Season

The luck of the Irish was graced upon the racers today at the 101 Surf Sports Winter Race Series #6. After all the recent torrential rain storms that seemed to go on endlessly, our racers were greeted with glassy flat water and no wind for the short and long courses today. The ratio of stand up paddleboards to surfskis and outriggers tilted heavily in the direction of long boats with paddlers of all ages and skill levels.

The race start (video below) is always exhilarating as the water turns from sheer glass to absolute mayhem with hoots and cheers from the onlookers that were ringing our traditional cowbells as the racers sprinted away from the starting line.

The short course was dominated by some screaming fast race times and potentially some course records from the Rivertown Racers…check out your times to be added to our legendary list of paddlers.

Several of the Rivertown racers (pictured above) added some excitement with some close finishes. First across the finish line on the short course were Aidan Fusco and Sebastian Kauffmann (pictured below)with an impressive finish time of 20:00 minutes flat. Shortly behind them was Beck Geiser at 20:37 and a couple of the Rivertown Racers girls were on their heels, Zoe Rice at 21:35 and Leah Ahmed 21:36 provided awesome times.

The long course offered another opportunity for fast finish times. The first athlete across the line was Zachary Alva at 53:39 followed by Doug Hall 55:02 and finally, Petri Alva overcame adversity with a broken rudder to provide an impressive time of 57:03.

Our support of the Bay Area paddling scene is important not just to us, but also to our community of paddlers as money was raised for River Town Racers cross country travels with their K-1 & K-2 for their upcoming Regionals and National Championships.

Our retail partner Olukai Sandals was very generous in the donation of some premium sandals to raffle off to help the kids out. If you are interested in helping them out, scan the QR code and send these Olympic hopefuls on their way to their dreams 

Sometimes it’s fun to mix things up and paddle with a friend and that was the case with our beloved longtime friends Jen Fuller and Les Scanlan duking it out on the water with our equally impressive hardcore paddlers and dear friends Amy Byers and John Dye on their double surfski. (pictures)

Since we have had such a wet winter, our rivers will be flowing with a lot of extra water as the snowpack melts. John Dye will be sharing his knowledge with a Source to Sea Clinic at 101 Surf Sports on April 15th. With all the rivers maxed out with runoff there are close to 60 different opportunities to start at the top of a river and paddle it to the sea. 

We had several first-time racers in our ranks today with Brent and Olivido experiencing Epic Kayaks V5 surfskis for the first time and they effortlessly paddled away with the pack of racers and returning with gigantic smiles and a newfound love of paddling surfskis!

We should take a minute and get to the meat and potatoes of our race today. No, seriously, we had meat and potatoes to celebrate our St. Patty’s day race today. The midnight oil was burnt last night by Cort cooking up traditional corned beef and cabbage complimented by Kurt Mau’s insane soda bread and topped off with Trey Strickland’s secret recipe of chocolate balls.

If you are interested in joining us for our next race series, sign up for our newsletter or check out PaddleGuru to see that our race series begins in September with our signature costume-themed events that wrap up in March. Our races are located here in sunny San Rafael and they are PERFECT for first-time racers and our central location in Marin County makes our events perfect for travelers from the San Francisco Bay area all the way up to our padding friends in Sacramento and Lake Tahoe.

The entire team at 101 Surf Sports wants to thank each and every one of our friends and racers who joined us this season. We are a tight-knit community of kind-hearted paddle people. Without each other, all of the amazing good times and smiles over the years wouldn’t have been so heartfelt and appreciated. Can't wait? Then signup for next year's races below and we’ll see you all for some Oktoberfest fun. Till then…Paddle on!!!!!

Race #1 September 30th - Oktoberfest Paddle Race

Race #2 October 28th - Halloween Paddle Race

Race #3 November 18th - Turkey Day Paddle Race

Race #4 December 16th - Elves and Grinches Paddle Race

Race # 5 January 20th 2024 - Year of The Dragon Paddle Race

Race #6 February 17th 2024 - Mardis Gras Paddle Race

Race #7 March 16th - 2024 St. Patrick's Day Paddle Race

PHOTO GALLERY (Thanks Mary Ann King and Dani Toresso)

Complete Results