The Snow Row kicks off the racing season for some of us in the New England. This is a short 3.5 miles race run on a triangular course filled with all shapes and sizes of rowing boats from shells to dories. This year I was able to get the race director agree for the surfskis go last so we could stay out of the way of most of these boats. With the wind blowing about 15 on the right quarter, I lined up behind my training partner, Tim Dwyer in his V12. I barely made it to within one boat length to Tim before the gun went off. We both took a much different line than the other boats trying to keep out of their wash and hopefully be in the lee of the island for a short distance which should help. Turned out our line was excellent. I was able to pass Tim in the first half mile while heading toward the island we would be rounding. Fortunately, I was able to cut the island turn very close while avoiding any row boats and coming around the island unscathed. After the island we headed toward the day marker which was the last leg and a downwind. At this point I looked at my GPS and was doing an 8:30 pace with my HR at 161 and stilling feeling good. I did not feel any other skis close to me but I did not dare look back until the finish line. Tim said he was very close to me until his bailer closed and he flooded his cockpit and he said i increased my time over him at this point. To my surprise i came in 1st overall and in the ski division. It was a windy day so most of the single shells had trouble. I raced the SES Excel with the .5 inch wider seat. While either seat is comfortable for me, the wider seat allows me to feel like I am sitting on the bottom of the bucket so it feels more stable than even the narrow seat SES. The SES now only comes with the slightly wider seat and should fit more paddlers though you still have to have narrow hips to fit comfortably. I also added bullets to improve the draining. This increases the draining by 30% especially when decelerating.
See www.surfskiracing.com for pics and Mark's write up. This was the 1st of the SurfskiRacing.com series generously sponsored by Stellar where the winner of each race gets $100.00 and a more money for winning the series.
