The 2010 USCA (US Canoe Association) Nationals, held in Peshtigo, WI, during the week of August 9th – 15th, saw some of the fastest paddlers in the country battling for national championship crowns in flat water marathon racing. It’s an awesome event to witness, and even more so to participate in. It’s exciting to see hundreds of long boats gathered from all over the USA (and sometimes beyond) for the express purpose of hardcore competition! Newcomers to the sport of canoe and kayak racing often stare in disbelief at the almost other-worldly looking vessels that are so different from the recreational boats they’re used to seeing. Stealth-fighter looking C-1 and C-2 canoes, long, sleek racing kayaks and surf skis, diminutive ICF boats and downriver race boats, and even SUP’s (Stand-Up Paddleboards) coupled with carbon bent shaft canoe paddles and carbon wing kayak paddles create an experience found nowhere else. And when all these vessels are battling it out on the water at the same time it’s absolutely captivating!

The marathon races taking place Friday through Sunday are the core of the Nationals competition. This year’s course was a 14.4 mile layout that started upstream of Potato Rapids Dam about 4 miles north of the town of Peshtigo on the Peshtigo River. Competitors lined up according to boat classes (race days and start times varied for boat classifications), and at the start headed upstream for 5 miles to a buoy, about which they made a clockwise turn and headed back downstream to the dam. At the dam competitors had pull off to the side and portage around the dam, then jump back into the river for the remaining 4.4 mile journey into Peshtigo. Upon arriving at Badger Park, competitors rounded two widely spaced buoys in a clockwise direction and headed upstream for a short sprint to the finish. The water level and moderate current for this year’s race were excellent; the challenge came in knowing the shortcuts through a myriad of islands, and keeping your rudder weed-free (definitely the year of the over-stern kick-up rudder)! Most competitors took a hard look at Google satellite views of the course, and many pre-ran the course as well. As I’ll discuss later, sometimes it still wasn’t enough to outwit a local paddler!

The rest of the week at the Nationals is filled with sprint competitions, a biathlon (run/paddle), an orienteering competition on the water, demo events, and a class for canoe/kayak instructor certification (both my wife and I took this class and received our certifications this year). This year was unique in that the USACK National K-1 and K-2 Marathon Championships were held concurrently with the USCA Nationals, the first time this has been done. It’s great to see this level of cooperation between the two organizations.

As an added bonus, some boat vendors made their products available for testing between races at Badger Park. John Abrahams of Superior Surf Systems brought a trailer full of boats, including some Epic and Think surf skis, plus a brand new Kevlar Think Fit. This newest Fit is truly a beautiful boat, with a number of upgrades over the recent Fit. My wife paddles a fiberglass Think Fit, but has been interested in the Kevlar version to save some weight. After paddling John’s boat my wife was immediately smitten with the desire to have one. Had a spot been available on my roof rack for another boat I think it would have followed us home! I had the opportunity to try out a Van Dusen Mohican, possibly the best river racing “ski” made, plus a Surfrigger OC-1 (outrigger canoe) from John Diller at Savage River, and even try my hand at a racing SUP. The particular Mohican I tried didn’t have the seat installed, just the contoured cockpit seat, so I was a bit loose in the cockpit but it definitely feels fast! I found that SUP paddling was a lot of fun, but not something I would be likely to participate in on a regular basis. That outrigger, on the other hand, was really slick. Absolutely rock stable for the most part and quite fast, I did find it will “bite” if you lean over just a bit too far on the non-outrigger side… I keep thinking I should get one just for the shock effect that would be generated showing up at a recreational event with a craft that’s quite exotic to this part of the Midwest USA.

RACING
Racing across the K-1 Unlimited Classes was extremely competitive this year, with elite racer Matt Streib (a 1980 US Olympic team kayaker who grew up racing with Greg Barton) and potential future Olympian Austin Schwinn (a Worlds competitor under Matt’s mentorship) running against last year’s champion Jason Quagliata, along with several other elite paddlers such as Jack Toth, John Abrahams, and Kiril Florov. Matt Streib, owner of Fluid Fun in Bristol, Indiana, may well be the fastest flat-water marathon racer in the USA. Coming to the USCA Nationals just a few weeks after defeating 2004 Olympian Jeff Smoke by 2 minutes at the 16 Mile PaddleFest event in South Bend, Indiana, Matt went on to annihilate the competition at the Nationals. Paddling the 14.4 mile race in 1 hr, 52 minutes and 42.4 seconds, Matt defeated prior champion Jason Quagliata by 5 minutes. Austin Schwinn, who recently won the 70 mile General Clinton race in an astounding 8 hours, was just 15 seconds behind Matt, having worked with Matt through most of the race. During the rest of the weekend, when Austin was racing without Matt’s assistance, Jason was able to pull ahead of Austin for wins the following two days in Down River and ICF competitions. Jack Toth, 4th overall and first in K-1 Unlimited Masters Class (age 40 – 50) was just 40 seconds behind Jason. Commenting that he had never seen anyone as fast as Matt, Jack said that while he has been beaten by faster paddlers before, he was always able to keep them in sight. In this race, however, when he got to long straight stretches of the river Matt (and Austin) were so far ahead he couldn’t see them! Matt and Austin were paddling Epic Legacy ICF boats, Jason was paddling a Mohican, and Jack was paddling a Nelo ICF boat. A total of 31 racers competed in K-1 Open across the various age categories.

Some well-known names (Calvin Hassel, Serge Corbin, and Andrew Triebold) also turned out for the various canoe classes, and the competition was fierce in the “half a paddle” events as well. The top three C-1 Open paddlers arrived with only 8 seconds separating first from third! As a K-1 Unlimited paddler, I’m not as familiar with all that went on in the canoe classes, but with 49 C-1 racers on the water I’m sure the racing was intense.

Women paddlers made their presence known at the Nationals as well. Mandy Streib, Matt Streib’s wife, and Connie Cannon, Greg Barton’s sister, teamed up to paddle a C-2 canoe to victory in the C-2 Women Open Class, paddling fast enough to beat 2/3rds of the K-1 Open paddlers! Our local favorite, Sonja Gilman, paddled her ICF boat to 1st in the K-1 Unlimited Women Senior Class and 1st overall in K-1 Unlimited Women. Anke Toth, Jack Toth’s wife, overcame a self-disassembling footboard/rudder pedal assembly (which cost her about 15 minutes of repair time) early in the race and still came back to win K-1 Unlimited Women Master Class.

It’s likely that most readers of this website are interested in the surf ski showing, and they were indeed present in abundance. Several Epic V12’s were raced this year, along with a number of V10 and V10L’s. Van Dusen Mohicans were also quite prominent (At age 64 or so, Ted Van Dusen still turned in an amazing performance, coming in 9th overall in K-1 Unlimited with his personal Mohican). A beautiful, new, green Nelo surf ski was present, but I believe it was just being offered for sale. A Think Legend was available for sale, but I didn’t see anyone racing a Think boat other than a Kevlar Think Fit (I thought John Abrahams would be paddling his Think Uno, but he raced an Epic V12 instead because he could outfit the V12 with an over-stern rudder). I personally brought along my Epic V10L Ultra and my WSBS Thunderbolt. Surf skis are raced in the Unlimited Class in USCA competitions, competing against pretty much anything and everything. Most racers in this category run an ICF boat, a surf ski, or one of the WSBS racing kayaks, but there was at least one down river boat this year (raced by Ted Beatty), plus something totally unique – an OC-1 converted to a surf ski/kayak! The owner of the converted OC-1, Gary Sadowski, was my primary competition and a local racer. I pulled ahead of him shortly after the start, and he drafted me until about 2.5 or so miles into the race as we were headed upstream. Following a pack of faster racers around the inside of a bend in the river, I suddenly noticed someone off the side and realized Gary had picked up a barely noticeable channel that cut across the bend. That shortcut placed him about 30 seconds ahead of me, and we stayed almost exactly that distance apart the rest of the race. I couldn’t seem to close on him, and he couldn’t pull away. That’s what you call matched racing! At any rate, noticing a “horn” on the bow of his surf ski (he used that horn to good effect, grabbing it and pulling his ski through the portage) I thought he must have some exotic ski that isn’t seen often in the Midwest. When I talked with him afterwards, he showed me how he had taken an old OC-1 hull a friend had, cut out the cockpit, placed a seat on the floor, and installed a tiller steering system. A little crude, but very unique and it worked quite well!

As much as I enjoy my surf ski, I must confess that I ended up racing my WSBS Thunderbolt instead of the V10L. And for very good reason: the under-stern rudder on my V10L was a built-in weed magnet in a river overpopulated with weeds. I found out about the weed problem early on in the biathlon, where I teamed up with 13 year old local Kris Vansickle, who runs for his school, to compete in the Adult/Youth division. Kris really ran his heart out, coming in 5th overall and just a few seconds behind the leaders in the 3K run, placing me in excellent position for the 3K paddle. Grabbing my V10L and running to the water, I looked forward to paddling hard and placing us in 1st place in our class, and possibly 2nd or 3rd overall (Austin Schwinn left no doubt early on that he would be first overall, as he zoomed by everyone else in the paddle after a strong run). Alas, it was not to be. The circuitous course (3 ½ laps around a set of 4 buoys) was filled with weeds, and despite my best efforts I saw my speed dwindle by 2 mph from where it would have been normally. At one point I actually bailed out of the boat, cleared the rudder, and remounted the ski in the hopes of rectifying the situation, but the improvement was short lived; the weeds quickly quenched my progress. I think we came in 4th in our class, but I was sure disappointed that my paddling efforts didn’t match Kris’ running efforts. On the plus side, I knew immediately that I needed to run the Thunderbolt (which I have equipped with an Onno kick-up rudder) for the marathon competition. It also motivated me to buy a Van Dusen kick-up rudder at the Nationals for my V10L so I won’t be in that situation again! As for the marathon race itself, I have no complaints. I paddled well, didn’t make too many mistakes, and found that I have some work to do to catch up with some of the better paddlers! But that’s part of the fun of the Nationals – an opportunity to race against some truly first rate competition, letting you know how good you really are (or aren’t!).

Next year’s USCA Nationals will be held in Newaygo, Michigan. Come and watch. Or better yet, come compete and get a taste of flat water river racing at its best!

For results and more information on the USCA Nationals::
Visit USCA Nationals 2010 Web Site

Steven Horney finishing the Biathlon in his V10L. Weeds around the rudder made it feel like paddling a barge (note the weed around the paddle shaft in the left side of the photo)!

Steven Horney and Kris Vansickle after the biathlon.
Quite a crowd of competitors and onlookers showed up for this event, along with boats of every description.

Sarah Davis and Alice Flanders, paddling C-2 Women Junior, working their canoe at the portage.

Matt Streib working to get out of his boat at the portage while Austin Schwinn is hustling to move into the lead. Matt always wears a kayak skirt in his ICF boat, even with the warm weather, to keep water from coming into the boat (I can testify that he throws a lot of water with his paddle!).

Jason Quagliata hauling his Mohican across the portage.
Here’s where the small, light ICF boats were really an advantage!

Kiril Florov, a USACK as well as USCA competitor (5th overall and the fastest man in K-1 Unlimited Senior), gets the jump on Jack Toth at the portage. Note Jack’s home-made weed deflector on the bow of his Nelo Vanquish. It must have worked well as Jack, a superb paddler from Florida, took 4th overall and won the K-1 Unlimited Masters Class. Maybe Nelo should incorporate his modification – it gives the boat quite a rakish appearance!

John Abrahams straining to get his V12 hoisted quickly at the portage.

John Abrahams making time hauling his V12 to the put-in below the dam. John is a powerful paddler and ran a superb race (6th overall and 2nd in K-1 Unlimited Men Master Class), but was unfortunately DQ’d for not wearing his inflatable PFD (a Class 5 PFD, it must be worn to be legal, unlike the standard Class 2 and Class 3 styles).

64 year old Ted Van Dusen lifting his Mohican for the portage. I hope that in 14 years I’ll be able to paddle as well as Ted, who took 9th overall in K-1 Unlimited!

Gary Sadowski with his home-built surf ski – a converted OC-1. Note how he makes use of the “horn” at the bow the pull the boat across the portage.

Indiana competitors and friends Ted Beatty (in the RPM downriver boat) and Steven Horney (in the Thunderbolt) relaxing after finishing the Marathon course.

Awards for K-1 Unlimited Senior Women: Sonja Gilman, Elaine Baden, and Pam Browning

The K-1 Unlimited Open awards! Matt Streib (holding the trophy), Austin Schwinn, and Jason Quagliata.

72 year old Terry Streib, receiving the award for 1st Man Grand Veteran 1 in K-1 Touring. Even at 72 Terry is a formidable competitor in his Epic 18X Sea Kayak, taking 4th overall in K-1 touring. Not to mention impressing the women when he paddles without his shirt.