Borys Markin 1st

 The Lighthouse to Lighthouse Race is one of my favorite races.  It is 14 miles of ocean paddling around islands and lighthouses and has a beautiful long beach, plenty of parking, and great attendance, and the Race Director Wayne Lysobey and Gary Williams do a wonderful job putting on this race.

Gary Williams, Co Race Director/Achilles Team

I was even more excited this year because my SurfskiRacing.com series sponsored by Stellar Surfski and Kayaks was coming down to the wire for the top few places between myself, Eric McNett, and Joe Glickman.   My other excitment was that I was racing a new Stellar designed ski, the SEL, which while I had time trialed extensively, but I had not raced it yet.

Most of the races this year have been brutally flat and it looked like this gorgeous sunshine filled day was going to be the same.   Wayne decided that the surfskis would go off in the second wave so we would not have to pick through all of the other classes of boats like so many other races.  So the skis lined up with a few of the faster rowing shells and we were off.  Borys Markin and Joe Glickman were off the line in a flash.   Within a half mile the field had separated,  Borys and Joe were in front of Eric McNett.   The second pack was made up of myself, Tim Dwyer, Greg Lesher, and ahead of us on a different line was Kurt Kuenel.  Flavio was slowing starting to pull ahead of us deciding not to chase the lead guys but pacing himself over the course of the race. 

Greg Lesher took a different strategy today and was out front pulling Tim and I. Greg has been known over the season for riding wash extensively so this was a big change.  With Greg out front he was setting a horrific pace for Tim and I.  I was red lining trying to not get dropped by these two, and was heating up like my oatmeal I had for breakfast 4 hours ago.  So at mile 3.6 they dropped me but I was not dropped for long.  I saw how smoothly Kurt was making a go of it closer to shore, so I angled over there and found faster water.   By changing lines I was now even with Greg and Tim about 50 yards to their right.  My heart rate was able to slow down a few beats to make the pace almost reasonable.  As we approached the Lighthouse turn at the halfway point(7 miles),  I was on Gregs tail, and Tim was three boat lengths ahead.  

Here is where the race got interesting.  Why? The conditions changed. The first leg was flat and now there was some small chop to contend with.  I dropped Greg immediately rounding the Lighthouse and I caught Tim within a few minutes.  Kurt was to our right and had a 30 second led on us.  At this point Tim and I worked together trading pulls. 

As we paddled on, the water was getting a little sloppy, small stuff but on the quarter, and just enough to make things interesting.  Tim and I paddle together again as we were now catching Kurt who was struggling at this point.   The top 3 guys, Borys, Joe, Flavio were so far ahead we had not seen them since the start.  As we rounded the island headed to the finish one mile off,  the K1 paddler was emptying his boat out, and we spotted Eric McNett off to our left.  We had cut the 3-4 minute gap Eric had on us in the flatwater.  With renewed vigor and Series Points on the line, we stepped on the acclerator and passed Eric with a half mile to go.

Wesley Echols 5th

Finish Line

Link to my Garmin 310XT

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/113638694

Tim at this point had a 2 boat length lead on me and this was how we finished: Tim 4th, me 5th, Eric 6th.   Tim(v12) and I (SEL excel) averaged 7.1 mph for the course.  This was my fastest time for this race with my previous best time of 2:05:00(Legend) in 2008, and last year’s time of 2:07:48(SES ultra).  I was able to maintain my lead over Eric for the SurfskiRacing.com points series and Joe would take the overall series edging me out by 2 points and winning the $300.00 sponsored by Stellar.  Stellar also provided $100.00 to each local winner of the 9 races in the series.  Borys won the $100.00 for this race. 

Below are the top 12 places:

1. Borys Markin, Nelo, 1:47:02

2.Joe Glickman, V10, 1:53:26

3.Flavio Costa, Nelo, 1:59:14

4.Tim Dwyer, V12, 2:02:52

5.Wesley Echols, Stellar SEL, 2:03:06

6. Eric McNett, V12, 2:04:02

7. David Furniss, Evo, 2:07:23

8. Kurt Kuehnel, Mako Mil, 2:07:33

9. Greg Lesher, V12, 2:08:34

10.Mark Wendolkowski, V10L, 2:13:46

11. Bob Capillini, S1x,2:15:54

12. Brian Sharpe, Stellar SE, 2:21:43

 Click to Download Full Race Results

Tom Kerr/Steve Delgaudio 1:54:33 1st Double

Wayne, Gary and his crew did another excellent job of organizing the race.  As Wayne and I talked after the race, it is a lot of work to put on a race,especially one as large at the L2L.  So a big round of applause go to these guys for making the L2L another great race.  Wayne also makes us laugh with his great sense of humor in his writings about the races.  A brilliant example of this is below: “Wayne Gets a Whuppin”.  Thanks to Chris Chappell for taking all the photos.

Link to Chris’s pics

https://picasaweb.google.com/100893240478342044075/LighthouseToLighthouse2011

Wayne Gets a Whuppin’

(At the L2L 2011)

Wayne got a whuppin’

Why, Oh why he cried

Were wind waves and current

Just not on his side?

Was it Billy and Willy

What damped his pride?

Or John G in that Flyweight

Whose stroke rate was high?

Wayne got a whuppin’

Why, Oh why, he cried

Did lack of hydration

Leave him a bit fried?

Was it West Nile Virus

That slowed down his glide?

Wayne got a whuppin’

He just don’t know why

With wicked old surfskiis

Just flying on by

Wayne got a whuppin’

Why, why he did cry

Were Outrigger canoes

Hut hut-ing on by

Wayne got a whuppin’

Why, why he decried

Was age wreaking havoc?

He can’t quite decide

But Wayne got a whuppin’

What weakened his pride

Yes Wayne got a whuppin’

Never got in his stride

Yup, Wayne got a whuppin’

And they all just flew by!

Wayne