2009 Mayor's Cup

2009 Mayor’s Cup

After last year’s debacle of high winds and the race being canceled while under way, organizer Ray Fusco made great efforts to rebuild the race and have a contingency plan in the unlikely event that adverse conditions were encountered again.

What are the odds of this happening two years in a row? Murphy’s law held true to form, and this year the winds were the same (or maybe even a knot or two higher) and the temperature was 10 degrees colder – hovering around 45 degrees F (7 C) during the race. The wind chill made an already challenging race even more difficult.

Falling back on Ray Fusco’s contingency plan to run the race while keeping it safe, it was canceled for all but the top elite surf ski paddlers. A few double skis, double sea kayaks and outrigger canoes were also allowed to race if they could make a good case for their skill levels and assure the organizers that they would not be a hazard to themselves, other competitors or the safety crews. The available safety boats were greatly diminished, as coast guard auxiliary (volunteer) crews are not allowed to operate when winds climb above 15 knots.

In spite of the extreme cold and wind chill, I felt comfortable during the race and was happy with my choice of clothing. This included very thin neoprene Hydroskin tights on the bottom and thin neoprene socks with thick sport socks inside. On the top I wore an Immersion Research long sleeve thick thermal shirt and my PFD. I’ve found the IR tops retain their warmth even when wet. That’s really nice when you’re punching into large oncoming waves and getting hit in the chest with cold water.

Most important is wearing a warm hat. On cold days you lose a tremendous amount of heat from your head and a good hat can help make your entire body feel warmer. I did not wear any gloves or pogies. Growing up in Michigan, I often paddled in cold weather and got used to going without gloves until the temperature dipped close to freezing. My hands felt fine, although I did have very sore wrists towards the end of the race. I’m not sure if this is due to the inside of my wrists getting cold – I discovered my grip strength decreases dramatically when this happened while scuba (from a gap between the diving gloves and wetsuit) diving in Puget Sound during the winter many years ago. Or more likely was just the strain of gripping the paddle in the extreme wind over a long period of time.

Adding to the drama, the Epic trailer was rear-ended on the way up to the race, crunching the rear of the trailer and damaging 3 boats, including 1 each of the special US and Dutch V12s. One of the sterns punched through the windshield of the other car – luckily no one was in the passenger seat and nobody was injured. We had a spare V10 which we loaned to the Dutch team and Joe Glickman graciously offered up his V10 to the US team. Patrick Dolan graciously agreed to paddle the V10, allowing the other US team members to use the remaining V12s.

After the start we headed up the Hudson River, with a nice incoming tide, but 25-30 knot winds and steep 4-5 foot waves against us. An initial front pack formed with Patrick Dolan , Jaka Jazbec, Bevan Manson, Sean Rice and myself bow to tail punching through the waves.

Sean and Bevan then cut left, into the center of the river to gain more advantage from the incoming current. I was in between for a while, then caught them before dropping back again. Jaka then came by and I rode his stern for a while before falling behind him. As we approached the George Washington bridge, Pat Dolan moved out into the center of the river, caught me and said – let’s work together. I said “Great!”, but then his pace was too fast for my conditioning and I could not stay with him. I knew it was going to be long race with these conditions and would burn out if I tried to stay with the leaders too long.

As we turned into the Harlem River we were greeted by a strong opposing current, forcing us to the sides of the river and still only eeking out 10 km/hr on the GPS. While attempting to conserve energy and recover from the strong headwind, I was caught by Glenn Eldridge from the UK and Joep van Bakel from Holland. We traded off in a pack for the next hour or more.

Once we hit the East River, the current finally turned to our benefit. We were cruising at a nice 18 km/hr. Eventually some small chop picked up from the tailwind and I managed to pull away from Glenn and then Joep.

The most difficult part of the race was the final stretch after we rounded the battery and started heading back up the Hudson to the finish. By then the tides had switched and we had a swift opposing current, wind and waves. I crowded over next to the seawall, taking care to look for fishing lines and not getting too close just in case, crawling along at 7 km/hr. Up ahead I saw Patrick Dolan. Pat had nearly caught the front pack near the end of the Harlem River, but now had run out of gas and was paying for his valiant effort. I passed him and continued on to the finish a short bit ahead.

In the team race, team USA with Patrick Dolan, Sean Brennan, Reid Hyle, Rami Zur and myself prevailed over team Holland. The Dutch team was made up of marathon paddler Joep Van Bakel, sprint paddlers Robin Koenders and Ruud van de Berg, wildwater paddler Thijs Paauw, and Jack Butter. For most of them, this was their first experience in true surf ski conditions. They did remarkably well considering the extreme conditions of the day. I expect to see them improve significantly as surf skis become more popular in Europe.

By the way, we’ve got a couple of the good looking Team Holland and USA boats available for sale as of this writing. Check them out!

Click here to see race results and commentary from the 2009 Mayor's Cup

Click here to visit the Mayor's Cup website