NEWS
News & Events
Oscar's Seamasters Race Report
Ask any old grizzled surf ski paddler, especially one who's done precious little training, and they'll tell you that downwind specialists don't grow old, they just look for bigger runs. The Seamasters race started at 12.00 on the Sunday and when I looked at Windguru in the morning I was very happy what I saw on the computer. This was confirmed at the race briefing in Arkosund the morning by Erik Wallgren who told me said that when he put out the Thule Buoy at the finish the waves were at least 2 - 2.5 meters.
At 12.15pm we took off to the sound of the horn and I settled in behind Jonas Fager, a Swedish Olympic paddler out to the turning buoy
At my current level of fitness (or, should I say, unfitness) the pace hurt but I decided to stay on the wave so that I didn't give the guys too much lead before we hit the open ocean. We started in a flat bay, so riding wake was easy. To my left, Tommy Karls, (Silver medalist, 1000m K4, 1984 LA Olympics), surged ahead followed by another fleet Swedish paddler. Much to my surprise, when it got bumpy 2km from the start -- technical, side-on runs -- the two paddlers who'd tagged along for the ride started pulling ahead. I wasn't going to push myself so early, so even as Tommy grew smaller and smaller I kept my calm as there was still plenty of race course in front of us.
As we turned the last island Tommy was now about 400-500 meter ahead and the two guys that had dropped me were about 50 meters ahead. It took me about four runs and I was next to them. They both had scarlet red faces and I knew they had been pulling very hard. I came past friendly and advised them that they should save their energy for later. Rest more and catch runs that catch you at the moment.
