Blazing Fast Times For Our Elves and Grinches Race
The month of December in Northern California can be a mix-bag of weather conditions ranging from days upon days of cold temperatures with sideways rain or moments of beautiful blue skies and sunshine. The latter graced all of our paddlers during our Elves & Grinches race this past weekend with a warm high of 65 degrees along with light winds that followed each paddler back to the finish line.
Our fleet of paddlers lined up nicely on the San Rafael Canal as they awaited the mass start towards their respective courses of the two-mile and six-mile race. Nearly fifty paddlers crossed the finish line in blazing fast times due to the favorable weather conditions and tides.
Amongst the ranks of those fast course times were some of the usual suspects that regularly join us for every one of our races. Starting with the short course our friends from River Town Racers dominated, most notably Beck Geiser killing it at 19:30 for two miles with Zoe Rice shortly behind at 21:38, bravo to those paddlers and their coaches for their dogged determination and training discipline.
Our stand-out paddlers on the long course span multiple paddle crafts that range from K-1 and outrigger canoes, surfskis as well as stand-up paddle boards. The first craft across the finish line was young Zachary Alva in the open division, smoking the 6 mile course at 44:10 with Doug Hall hot on his heels at 46:26. In the world of the Grand Masters there was a duel of wisdom of age and experience between our Epic Kayaks representative Keny Howell and our dear friend Mitch Powers from Seatrek in Sausalito who put the hammer down for the entire six miles of the long course with a dramatic finish of Kenny Howell sliding across the line at 49:31 with Mitch Powers closely behind him at 49:47.
While we talk about dramatic finishes, we cannot forget to mention the exhilarating “just by a nose” win that was had by Mary Ann King’s 54:15 against John Dye’s time of 54:16 with literally one-second difference, thus making Mary Ann the winner in a fierce surfski versus outrigger canoe battle to the finish line.
The first stand-up paddleboard long course finishers usually are a group of maybe the same five or six of our local racer scene paddlers, each from the men’s and women’s categories. The top three men that crossed the line were led by Bojan Bernard at 59:07.54 with John Hadley closely behind at 1:00:29.23 along with Pete Gauvin nipping at John’s heels at 1:00:53.92.
Just so you know, our races are family-friendly, perfect for first-timers. One of our first timers at the race was Amanda Broffman who was in town from France to visit her father and our dear friend Jeff Broffman. Fun was had by all and it was so great to welcome Amanda to the world of paddle racing.
Each of our seven races in our Winter Race Series is as festive as one might imagine as you read the names of our races. Our Elves and Grinches theme didn’t disappoint as there were plenty of Santa’s little elves scampering about to help our racers have a smooth and well-run event. Our next event will usher in the New Year so please mark your calendars for our legendary Year of the Dragon. The costumes will be as outrageous as you can imagine and we will be filling our racer’s bellies with some scrumptious Chinese food. Our prizes for the costume contest will be worth the effort of dressing up, so join us for yet another race here at 101 Surf Sports in San Rafael to ring in the new year with your fellow paddlers and friends.
You can sign up now for the final three races in our Winter Race Series;
Year of the Dragon January 20th 2024 Learn more
Mardi Gras February 17th 2024 Learn more
St. Patty’s Day March 16th 2024 Learn more