2009 Deception Pass Dash

Dashing through the cold

With 170 entrants, the Deception Pass Dash has grown into one of the largest kayak races in the pacific northwest.

It didn't look like a good day for paddling as I awoke to 24 degree (-5 C) weather in Seattle. As I was driving up to Perception Pass that morning, I spotted a skater with a hockey stick skating on one of the ponds along the highway - not what you want to see on the way to a kayak race! By race time, it had warmed to near freezing.

Amazingly, nearly all the entrants showed up and raced - dressed in neoprene, dry suits, hats and wetsuit boots. I wore the similar clothing to the Mayor's Cup, but added Patagonia Capiline long underwear under the Hydroskin pants, a Helly Hansen polypropylene shirt under my Immersion Research thick skin top and 3mm thin soled wetsuit boots in place of the neoprene socks.

Since I haven't paddled in such cold weather in years, I could not locate my pogies. I fashioned a pair of Glickman/Manson plastic bag pogies. They didn't fit perfectly and during warm-up I noticed that if anything, I might be slightly over dressed. So just before the start, I pulled off the makeshift pogies and raced barehanded. From experience growing up in Michigan, I knew that if I started with warm hands and was dressed warn enough that the rest of my body stayed warm, I'd be OK.

Stories were that last years event had strong wind & waves, resulting in several rescues being made. This year was calm with only a light breeze. At the start, single sculler Tyler Peterson pulled into the lead with me just behind. As we approached the first island turn, Tyler stayed wide to avoid kelp and potential rocks while I was able to weave my way through the kelp on a shorter line. This gave me a couple boat lengths lead and then I extended it by catching a few very small waves on the way towards the pass bridge.

I've experienced that good rowers are generally slightly faster than surf skis, but a good paddler can often gain advantages on the course. After hard work by the rower to gain a few boat lengths over 5 - 10 minutes, a ski paddler can quickly gain that back and more by taking a better course and cutting closer on turns due to the forward facing position. Then as the waves increase, it hurts the return strokes of the rowers, while ski paddlers can surf ahead. Such was the case this time as I eventually pulled to a one minute lead over the 10k course for the overall win.

Finishing 3rd overall and 2nd in the ski division was Eric Borgnes paddling a V12. Preliminary race results are up on the race blog-spot here.

It was great to see an enthusiastic bunch of paddlers in spite of the cold weather!