https://davethekayaker.com/2016/06/21/my-experience-at-the-2016-james-river-rundown-100-mile-race/
Update on the Prijon Interceptor project
You may recall me bringing home an old-school, Hyperform Prijon Interceptor last summer. https://davethekayaker.com/2017/08/10/a-vintage-downriver-racer/
I finally finished her restoration in between the thunderstorms and decided to make her pretty rough and ugly.
Here’s the back story.
Since the James River Rundown (JRR) is no longer, a new outfit, The Crosswind Paddle Co., is hosting a new race in August, The Richmond Paddle Cup. Rumor has it they added a 17-mile race to try to attract the JRR long-distance crowd.
Well, I have news for them.
It is going to work.
In fact, it is going to work so well that the elite JRR paddlers have agreed to enter the race but we will all compete with kayaks and canoes we purchase from Craigslist for $200 or less. It is known as the Craigslist Challenge and will be a race within the race.
I finished the restoring the old Prijon Interceptor (purchased for $90 from Craigslist) and took her out for a paddle this evening.
She is the most uncomfortable boat I’ve ever paddled and the cockpit opening is so small it is hard for me to get in and out of.
Nonetheless, she will be my boat and I painted her up nice and ugly so nobody in their right mind would ever think of stealing her.
The boat is now a cross between a Swiss Army knife and a candy cane.
I hope her integrity and my lower back will be able to survive those 17 miles on August 11 on the James River.
Nelo 510 surfski first impressions
This was originally going to be my James River Rundown boat for 2018 until the James River Association discontinued the event.
Now it is a boat in search of a race.
I’m waiting for the back-ordered, over-stern rudder to arrive before I can do any downriver distance with it, but as it stands, it is a very fast boat for a plastic design. I do not yet know how it compares to the Epic V7, but hope to have that verdict to you soon.
Initial impressions?
I wish it was sharper in the bow to cut through the water rather than splash and push a bit of water (I felt like it always had a leaf stuck on the front) and wish it had a reasonable space for a water bottle within easy reach, but overall I like this ski.
I’ve got only 14 miles into it over the weekend so a full review will be coming once I’ve had a chance to put it through its paces.
I have to say, the difference between under-stern and over-stern rudder is huge. The shorter ‘wheelbase’ of an under-stern rudder makes turning much more efficient such that it takes very little movement of the peddles to turn the boat significantly.
I’ll explore this more fully in a future review, but once I got everything setup and adjusted I found that if I found myself thinking about using the rudder I was already overthinking it. Only the slightest press of the foot with a toe involved achieved the desired effect.
And Ben not too many years ago…
New boat
Picking up new, top secret boat tomorrow.
Hopefully a review video will be coming over the weekend.
I’m excited!
6 Reasons Eating More Eggs May Improve Your Health
“Researchers who reviewed these studies found no direct link between eating eggs and heart disease. As it turns out, eggs are actually an extremely nutritious and healthy food that is low in calories and high in essential vitamins and minerals.”
Link to the article: https://www.simplemost.com/reasons-you-need-to-eat-more-eggs/?utm_campaign=snd_gray_wcav&utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=partner&utm_partner=gray_wcav
New river race in Central Virginia?
I’ve been pondering a new race on my local river for a few years now and have made the first steps toward making it a reality.
First, I asked East Coast paddlers if they’d have an interest in a 44-mile race and they overwhelmingly replied, “yes!”
Second, I went ahead and reserved a domain name this evening.
What are your thoughts?
Are you interested in a 44-mile race–the full length of the Rivanna River–in Central Virginia?
If so head on over to www.RunOfTheRivanna.org and fill out the form so we can determine if there is enough interest.
My apology to Planet Fitness
Dear Planet Fitness,
I owe you an apology.
I made assumptions about you based on what some haters have said online.
I’ve been on the road for a couple weeks and a colleague of mine has a Planet Fitness Black Card membership and took me as his guest to your Marlborough, MA location 3 or 4 times over the past couple weeks.
My pre-conceived ideas about you were wrong.
You are a real gym.
I saw people in there trying their hardest to get in shape. You are a full gym with everything needed for anyone to get in shape. And you provide it at a very affordable price.
Sure, you don’t have the free weights that a hard-core power lifting gym would have, but that’s the point. You are trying to get the average person in the door and take their fitness seriously. A completely different mindset and different monster altogether.
I get it. I’ve seen both sides.
I was able to fly 75lb. dumbbells last week and your Smith machines, although not squat racks with barbells, are definitely good enough to get the job done. Your dumbbells went even higher in weight but I did not look to see how high because those were beyond me.
As a recovering Gold’s Gym member, I was quite surprised to find such a well-equipped gym.
It is not your fault that the current U.S. dietary guidelines are based on faulty science.
We feed grains to livestock to fatten them up and the removal of healthy fats from our foods has caused producers to replace that fat with sugar to make foods taste good. All that added sugar has led to an alarming rise in diabetes and insulin resistance. We might disagree on the snacks you serve at your gym, but every one of your members has the responsibility to do their own research and decide what to put in their mouths.
That’s on them, not you.
I encourage your members to look into a Low Carb, High Fat (LCHF) or No Sugars, No Grains (NSNG) lifestyle. I believe they would get greatly improved results from their investment.
But in the meantime I don’t blame you for widespread confusion about what healthy eating looks like.
Most of what the “health authorities” have been telling us is wrong and most people have no idea what to believe.
Your members are trying hard and putting in the work and you provide them a bona fide gym at a fair price.
I applaud you and I apologize for unfairly judging you.
If my local Planet Fitness was not on the most inconvenience, opposite side of my own town I would join tomorrow.
So I’ll wait for a deal on your Black Card membership so I have a gym to call home when I travel.
Kindest regards,
Dave The Kayaker
PS – I went ahead and joined.
Rivanna River Race 2018
The Rivanna River Race has been held every year since 2006 and until this year I’ve raced in every once, except the first year when I did not know about it.
In all previous years the race was organized by one man, Merrill Bishop, who did all the heavy lifting of planning, organizing and arranging volunteers.
For the past several years I have quietly contributed behind the scenes assisting with marketing, public relations, communications and building communities to support the race via the Rivanna River Paddlers Facebook group, http://www.CvillPaddlers.com, and @CvillePaddlers on Twitter. I was happy to help promote kayak racing in the local community and always took great joy in helping ensure the success of our local race and helping others develop an appreciation for paddling.
This year was different.
Merrill decided to step back after last year’s race and I agreed to be a co-organizer this year along with Paddling Buddy Dave.
The amount of planning for an event like this is not insignificant.
There was the development of a race webpage, creating a race flyer, numerous news releases, constant communication via the Facebook group, a radio interview, posting the event on calendars such as PaddleGuru.com, Nextdoor.com, and Blue Ridge Outdoors online, getting and organizing volunteers, etc.
Filing a County Park special event permit application at the last moment because I had no idea we needed to file one. Applying for ACA affiliate membership and event insurance, subsequent revision of the insurance to include co-insured, creation of an online pre-registration form.
A lot goes into an event like this.
Getting up early on race day to set up tables and chairs at the finish line, helping at the starting line to ensure things went as smoothly as possible for our paddlers and volunteers. Paddling the route the night before with Paddling Buddy Dave and removing obstacles to ensure a safe race.
The list goes on.
I had decided a while ago I was not going to race this year. It was a difficult decision but one I felt was the right one.
And to be honest, if we would have gotten a lot of rain with a high river on race day, I might have changed my mind.
But since I have been helping out with communications for years the local paddling community naturally associated the race with me, not the person truly to thank, Merrill Bishop.
I never intended to become the face of the race but I had.
So I decided I needed to take a year off from racing, get some perspective on the race, and avoid any appearance of conflict of interest or seem like the race is self-serving in any way.
As you know, I participate in many races and always write about my experiences and usually do a video of the events because I want to promote all kayak races and promote paddling in general. I do what I do because I love the sport and believe more people could benefit from a more healthy lifestyle and improve their mental state by participating in paddle sports. Race organizers usually love it when I show up at their events because I help give them a bigger footprint on social media.
But my local race?
Maybe I had lost perspective.
So I helped set up at the finish line early Saturday morning and then drove to the starting line to help there as best I could.
Racers started arriving and registration seemed to go rather smoothly. Somebody even brought copies of the regional Magazine, Unbound, which featured our local paddling community and race on the front cover.
I swear I did not bring any of these copies of the magazine.
Paddling friend and volunteer, Shelli, checking out Unbound Magazine at the starting line
So the racers got checked in and the safety briefing began at ~9:35am.
During the safety briefing Shelli and I headed out in our boats to sit at the first significant set of rapids and serve as safety patrol.
Everyone who knows me fully realizes I’m human and suffer from all the maladies, flaws and shortcomings associated with being human.
As I headed down to the river with my boat prior to launch I felt a bit of resentment that I was not going to participate as a racer this year. All the hard work. All the bumps, bruises, stress and skirmishes during the pre-race planning…and I wasn’t even going to enjoy racing myself?
I was not happy.
I did not have the joy in my heart that I had in all previous years.
But a funny thing soon happened.
As soon as I got into my kayak everything changed.
We paddled down and got to our post and took up residence on some rocks and waited for the racers to start coming through the “railroad” rapid.
I brought my video camera and tripod and set up shop.
What then happened was amazing.
I got to see the smiles on every racer’s face as they came through that rapid.
I got to capture video and pictures of every participant in the race.
I felt their joy and I was able to share their adventure with them, if even just few a few moments as they paddled by. I was able to cheer on every person as they passed by. I saw young paddlers, old paddlers, serious paddlers and paddlers who were simply thrilled to be on the water.
After our safety boater, Scott Shaw, came through we knew the last participant had passed through our checkpoint so we jumped back in our kayaks and escorted the “back of the packers” to the finish line.
I gained even more perspective.
I paddled ahead and then waited below rapids to make sure everyone got through alright. I got out of my boat a couple times to help people get unstuck from rocks and made sure everyone completed the race.
I thoroughly enjoyed the race and, quite possibly, it was my most enjoyable race because I got to see it through the eyes and perspective of others.
The volunteers. The racers. Merrill Bishop.
Two astounding events encapsulated the entire event.
One: An anonymous donor gave a $100 bill to be awarded to the racer with the fastest overall time.
Two: Said paddler taking the envelope with the cash, asked who the race benefits, and when he was told the proceeds were being given to The Rivanna Conservation Alliance, immediately handed the envelope back and said, “Give it to them.”
That is what it is all about.
I am hopeful that new volunteers step forward to take on organizing responsibilities in future years. I know I’m not cut out for it.
Now that I’ve been through a full cycle myself I’m happy to help transition the race organization to new volunteers and/or management and I remain 100% committed to ensuring the future success of this race.
But I do want to get back to racing in this race.
Merrill has left a race legacy that deserves the support of our community.
One way or another I will help that legacy endure.
It is a worthy endeavor.
Youghness Monster 25, 2018
Friday afternoon I drove up to Pennsylvania to paddle in the inaugural running of the Youghness Monster 25, a 25-mile paddle race on the Youghiogheny River between Connellsville and West Newton, PA.
I got to the check-in to pick up my race packet and immediately recognized some old friends and started making new ones.
First I bumped into Brian Ammon, whom you may recall I first met at the Lehigh Classic race in 2016 and then again at the Little D On The Monocacy race in 2017. Brian hasn’t changed a bit and is never shy to share stories of paddling adventures which is part of what makes him so charming. He is a wealth of paddling information and history.
Me and Brian Ammon
I soon then met Hansel Lucas, owner of Performance kayaks who, along with Stellar Kayaks and others, sponsored the race.
Hansel Lucas, Owner of Performance Kayaks
I then also soon met Steve Bruner, who graciously agreed to an interview with me.
Shortly thereafter I headed to Uniontown where I was staying at the Holiday Inn Express. The rain starting coming down and questions started coming to mind.
How cold would it be in the morning?
Would it rain all day for the race?
How high will the river be?
How shall I dress?
What happens if continuous Class II rapids are above my skills level in this boat?
I took one last look at my boat and then headed into the hotel for some sleep.
I had some trepidation about this race because it was the first time I was taking my Thunderbolt-X kayak onto any moving water and I was not sure how skilled I would be with her in rapids. I’ve only used her as a flat water training boat and the thought of rapids bigger than advertised or possibly smashing her into rocks worried me greatly.
Flipping and filling her full of water would equate to “game over” for the race as it would take long time for me to empty her out and recover.
Hansel Lucas assured me the water was at a good level and that the Army Corps of Engineers agreed to release some more water from the upstream dam so the water would come up at least 8″ overnight. He said he and friends run carbon/Kevlar boats on that section of river regularly and that anything above 4 ft. at the Sutersville, PA gauge was fine for any construction of boat.
I looked at the gauge on my RiverFlows app one last time and saw the river was well above 4K and was already starting to rise, so I felt better about the situation.
The water came up to a great level overnight
The alarm when off 6:30am on race morning and I quickly got ready and ate a breakfast of some scrambled eggs with 2 sausage patties and black coffee before heading back up to the starting line at Connellsville.
I grabbed another black coffee for the road for the 20 minute drive.
It should be noted I had no other food until ~7pm when I stopped for dinner on the drive home. During the race I only had water in a CamelBak bladder and was not again hungry until well after the race.
Being fat-adapted is great. #NSNG #LCHF
People were starting to gather at the starting line and dropping boats at the ramp. There seemed to be an inordinate amount of high-end surf skis to me, especially for this land-locked area of the country.
The weather was warming up fast so I realized minimal clothing would indeed be appropriate (even though I brought a wet suit just in case.) I had safety clothing stowed in my dry bag, but I was not going to start with too much clothing because a body generates a lot of heat when exerting sustained energy. It is better to get to the side of the river to add layers than it is to try to remove layers due to overheating while trying to paddle and balance a boat. Just my opinion.
I chatted with several people before the race began and it wasn’t until I was driving home after the race I realized why one particular guy seemed very familiar. He was Joe White, or JoeDirt22222 on YouTube.
He designed a kayak ergometer which served as the inspiration for my own do-it-yourself, DIY, kayak ergometer design. Please, purchase one of Joe’s ergometers! Dude is amazing and is an awesome paddler.
There were skis everywhere. Primarily Stellar but Epic skis were also well represented.
We had a pre-race briefing and then the race began.
We were given ankle bracelets with timing chips and walked across a mat to start our time and then went to the water to get into our kayaks and begin paddling.
I allowed the first big wave of paddlers to start first as I hung back a while since I knew I was racing against the clock and didn’t want to be in the first giant cluster of paddlers. Plus I thought I might get better video if many of the racers were in front of me.
I got in my boat and pushed out and quickly realized something was wrong.
I worked my rudder tiller and realized I had very little control over my kayak. Not a good thing in a 21′ craft.
I soon surmised my rudder cable fell off my rudder so I paddled back to shore, got out of the boat, slipped the rudder cable back into its track, and then got back in and started paddling.
Already a loss of two or three minutes which didn’t sit well with me.
Oh well, you can’t change it, you just deal with it and move forward.
So I took off downstream and quickly hit the first set of Class II rapids.
The real test.
I took short, choppy, bracing strokes and essentially “floated” through the rapids trying to remain upright to get a feel for how the boat behaved, That worked well so I decided that would be my strategy for the day.
Short bracing strokes and conservative through the rapids and give it all I have on the flats.
The strategy worked well and I found myself in 1st place amongst all kayaks at the finish, 5th overall amongst solo paddlers. With nothing but 4 fast surf skis with elite paddlers ahead of me I felt satisfied with my performance.
Crossing the finish line at Youghness Monster 2018
It felt good to pass so many surf skis!
This section of river is mostly flat water with numerous sections of Class I and Class II rapids. The flats aren’t so long as to get boring and the rapids are not threatening and they are plentiful enough to keep you on alert the whole time.
I ran a pretty good race and took some risks in term of lines chosen and guessed right most of the time as I was often able to gain on the paddlers in front of me by taking a different path around a few islands or taking a different line through the rapids. I paddled alongside and chatted with a few other paddlers throughout the race and it just reinforced my opinion that fellow paddlers are some of the nicest, most interesting people in the world.
What really kept me going, though, was the fact that my sister was bringing my parents to the finish line to greet me and I couldn’t wait to see them all.
Mom and dad meeting me at the end of the race, the first kayak race of mine they’ve ever experienced. Astute readers may recall them posing with the boat when it was brand new in 2011.
Thanks, sis!
I neared the finish and my eyes welled as I spotted my parents at the top of the ramp.
We got in a great visit for the next few hours and then I headed back home to Central Virginia through heavy thunderstorms.
It was a long day but a wonderful day. Physically I felt fine and felt as though I could have easily paddled another 25 miles.
The organizers of this race did an amazing job for a first time race. The awards ceremony was a bit of a letdown since there were technically no awards, but that did not diminish a wonderful experience on a very scenic river and a very well organized event.
I look forward to paddling this race in future years.
In the meantime, come paddle our local race in Charlottesville this Saturday, May 12 with me!
Yinz paddle?
Here is the entire race from the bow of my boat, reduced down to ~43 minutes. Happy viewing and happy scouting to those who race in future years!
Youghness Monster 25 mile race
I’m in Connelsville, PA tonight ready to race a brand new 25-mile race on the Youghiogheny River, The Youghness Monster 25.
This will be the first time I’ve ever taken my Thunderbolt-X into any moving water or river water so it ought to be fun!
Stay tuned in the coming days for a full report complete with race video.
All in all its a good life
I got what I want
I can’t complain
I’m living the good life
A toast to you now
It’s all sham pain
