A Split Second

This past weekend I took my third trip to the Moke Races, a fun event put on by the local whitewater club, Loma Prieta Paddlers. The weekend consists of a downriver race on Saturday followed by a slalom race on Sunday, and there are usually 50 or so racers, everyone from near-beginners to national team members.

On Saturday, I decided to repeat my stunt of 2 years ago when I entered my sea kayak into the downriver race. Once again, they didn't allow my 16-foot plastic boat into the river-running 8-foot-and-up category and instead entered me in the wildwater category, which consists of the super-fast, super-fragile, Olympic-style race boats. Once again, there were no actual wildwater boats, but this time there was another sea kayak piloted by a fellow WSK member. Ahh, competition.

The first sea kayak started off the race. My start was a minute later. I started off sprinting, totally forgetting to pace myself. The result was that I got winded pretty quickly and had to back off a bit. As fatigue set in, I was actually able to calm down a bit and just focus on the river which was quite a good feeling. I could see the other paddler ahead of me most of the way. I kept figuring I could catch him, but I never seemed to get closer.

In the last half of the run were the two most notable rapids. This was a good thing considering they're very straightforward class II rapids. Just line up the boat at the top and let the rapid propel you forward while you get a second or two of rest. Ahh, acceleration!

I made it to the finish line and sat there in my boat a while, panting and dizzy, feeling very much myself-- a slightly out-of-shape kayaker who usually doesn't paddle with this much purpose. My time was 19:39 for the 3 mile run, just over a 9 mph average, and 10 seconds better than my fellow sea kayaker. I was hoping to break the 19-minute mark since I had 19:02 two years ago, but was consoled by the fact that the flow this year was only 700 cfs compared to 1000 before.

Sunday was the slalom race (see the Moke Races site for detail about slalom). Once again I was in the Novice class. You can keep signing up for the same category until you actually win it, so Novice tends to be the largest and most varied class. In the past, I've finished in the middle of the pack.

This time, I had a "new" boat for the slalom race-- a Perception Corsica-- a 10-foot long old-school river-runner. A boat I had never paddled on the river before. I figured the extra speed over my usual 8-foot boat would help, though during some practice runs Saturday, I was questioning that wisdom, wishing for a bit more maneuverability.

I started my first run and made it through the first 3 gates easily. Then a stumbled through the next two, touching them and incurring 2-second penalties. I then made it cleanly through the next several gates and set myself up nicely in the eddy below gate 12. I pulled out through the gate and into the current but didn't have enough speed. I started getting pushed back and toward the gate, so I leaned forward and away from it to avoid a touch. Still heading toward it, I leaned further and further out. Next thing I know, I'm underwater. After a quick roll up, I notice that I'm now downstream of gate 13 and headed for 14. I didn't think to paddle back up the eddy to catch 13 to avoid the 50-second missed-gate penalty. Instead, I just drifted through 14 and set myself up for the next gate. After that, I relaxed a bit and finished off the course nicely. Suprisingly, my time was pretty decent, but the penalties put me in familiar territory in the middle of the pack.

Luckily, only the best of the two runs count, so I started my second run with a clean slate more or less. Once again, the first 3 gates were no problem. I slowed down a little at 4 and 5 but avoided touching them this time. I cruised down toward 12, but I hit the eddy too low. Although I'd lose time working my way up, I'd at least have a running start crossing the eddyline. Still, I got pushed a bit and ended up touching the gate, but I ignored it and pulled myself forward so I could surf over to 13. I carelessly touched gate 14 (easy to do when the gate is 5 feet wide and your paddle is 6-1/2), but finished the rest of course cleanly. My time was 3 seconds slower, but still respectable. I thought I even had a good chance of placing.

At the end of the day, I checked the results. Second place! The first time I had actually placed. Overall time, including penalties (including 50 seconds for a gate the novices didn't have to run), was 209.61 seconds. I then looked at the first place time, 209.37 seconds. I was less than a 1/4 second from getting kicked out of novice class (err, or promoted to intermediate).

It was a really fun weekend, as always. I'm already looking forward to next year.

[For pics, see here, here, and here.]