The unlimited kayak class lined up for the start so I took a spot that gave me a good line for the hole shot. Although the Essex is a wide tidal creek, the deep water channel at the start/ finish is just a few boats wide and the tight curves really make for a narrow deep water line as we headed out to open water. Rod McLain, a former US Sprint Teamer and previous winner of this race, lined up to my left to also try for that sweet spot. At the horn we were off to a very hard start at nearly 9 mph. Rod and I were side by side leading the mob out through the twisting first mile. Usually a really hard start will thin the herd, but on this day it was a stampede down this narrow line of deep water. I could hear the splashes and the occasional voices of Tim and Rob very close behind. In the corner of my left eye was the bow of a shinny new V-12 riding inches off Rod’s stern. I wasn’t sure if it was Wesley or Eric who showed up with these impressive new craft that look more like parts from an F-16 than something evolved from canoes. Coming into this race, Wesley had shown significant improvement and Eric, a top marathon C-1, C-2 paddler with decades of experience in flat water, made the switch from OC-1 to surfski for ocean racing. The V-12 bow belonged to one of those guys but who was that I heard and felt tapping my stern. My guess was Rob Flannigan who had also made a big leap in speed this spring. The other usual suspects were all here too and I figured it might be anyone of them or the many new faster paddlers this year. I was paddling my guts out but could not get away from Rod without an unreasonable effort. Was I really so slow and out of shape from a long winter in this bad economy with my first new job in 15 years and no time to do anything but work? No, the gps was still nearly 8 mph going into a current, so it seemed it was true; there is a new intensity to the local surfski scene. If I wanted to even place third in this race I knew then that it was going to hurt.

Because there is so much shallow water short cutting and significant weeds, I was in my old S1-X with a small rudder. This boat can be paddled across a wet lawn and not pick up weeds an it seems good in shallows. As we neared the turn around Cross Island, Rod had dropped back. At this point you paddle against some tidal current and it’s always a question rather to go left to get out of it or just take the straight line. I went straight ahead. As I was pounding against the current I saw that V-12 pulling up well off to the left out of the current. It was Eric and he was really moving ahead and by the time I got over left and on his stern I’d really pushed it very hard so I wasn’t able to catch his wake. Eric was able to put 100 feet between us as I struggled to get back in gear and drop the heart rate from extreme to very high. At this point I wasn’t sure if he could put more distance between us or how much had he suffered to pull ahead? After riding Rod’s wake or mine to get here, how much gas did he have left? Maybe he still had a lot. I went really wide to stay in deeper water as we rounded the island and much of the way back into the river and it seemed maybe I’d closed some of the distance on Eric. With a mile to go it was time to spend it all. I treated each 100 yards as my last and kept doing this never letting the gps drop speed. The last two or three “S” turns are completely visible as is the finish line in the high tide that floats us above the marsh grass. We were dodging the traffic of slower boat classes in front of us and I think I got a few good breaks and inside lines but in the end Eric had me by 20 seconds. After just a minute or so to catch my breath I looked back to see Rod and Rob killing themselves for 3rd and on their stern were 3 more boats. These five boats, 3rd thru 7th had just come across within 10 seconds and just over a minute behind the winner. With this new intensity and some top contenders who were not here; this promises to be an interesting season for our local surfski racing community. Eric’s quick success in surfski is probably proof that there is a great untapped source of competitive surfski paddlers from marathon canoeing. ~ Ken