Recapping the James River Regatta Canoe & Kayak Race 2025

This past Saturday was the first installment of a new, annual race in Central Virginia, The James River Regatta.

Initially scheduled to be two races, a 6-mile and an 12-mile, the organizers wisely dropped the longer race the week leading up to the race due to two different lows: 1) A low number of people registered for the long race and 2) Very low water levels. In a way, I’m glad they dropped the longer race because it would have made logistics much more complex for the race organizers for a first-time race, and likely people who registered for it at the last minute probably would not have realized what a challenge it would have been to race that far in very low water conditions.

I showed up early on race morning and found a familiar, like-minded soul who also showed up early, and, always being one to challenge convention and do things just a little bit differently, I proposed an idea and we decided to self-shuttle up to Howardsville, VA to still paddle what would have been the long race. The only twist was we needed to get on the water early enough to paddle the 5.7 miles down to the official short race starting line at Warren Ferry and be there in time for the actual start of the race so we could still participate in it also.

I’m a sucker for extra paddling.

Our plan worked out perfectly and we actually had plenty of time to rest a bit and recover at Warren before we turned around and hopped back in our boats to paddle in the actual race to the finish line in Scottsville.

I’ll let the video do the talking, but it was a great day and a great race. The weather was perfect, the organizers were wonderful, and the racers all looked like they had a lot of fun.

I hope participation grows and grows in years to come because it supports a great cause and it is awesome to have an annual canoe/kayak race on the James River in Central, VA again.

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