Newport Aquatic Center hosted the Annual Hal Rosoff race yesterday Saturday February 9th in clear sunny California weather.The setting in the bay was crystal clear. As we arrived you could tell it was going to be crowded, because we couldn’t find a parking spot very easily.
New up and coming teen paddler
When you have two OC1s on your truck plus equipment, you tend to edge in as close to the water as possible.Sometimes the distance from water to truck is critical, especially after a race when you’re carry your canoe and the cramps start setting in.Suddenly it becomes a race to the truck. If there’s a little wind, then you’re really screwed.Imagine balancing a canoe on your head, hoisting it up on the truck in the wind and your body cramping up.Heck, we’re all winners just to make it home.
Everyone made friends including the dogs.
NAC has a great venue and everyone seems to enjoy the atmosphere.In NAC you take your boat out of the water and there are stands waiting to hold your boat while you hose it down. The best part I like is that they have hot showers.At our site, we shower with cold water from a garden hose, on a brave day.But I guess the real game begins when we all hit the water.Then it’s game on.I’d say there were several hundred people at the race.Not all of them raced, but it didn’t matter.They were all there to be part of the event.
The scenery along the beach was clear and beautiful.
The raffle was awesome, with crazy prizes coming from many supporters around their community.I enjoyed watching the kids and dogs interact with everyone as they chased each other around like a merry go round.The K-1 paddlers were mostly Olympic hopefuls headed for Beijing China. They enjoy coming to this race because it’s mostly a change in scenery.Also they get to see a lot of different people, which is not always the case in their training center.There were K-1 paddlers from Europe, which I think included Poland and Italy.The other categories were OC1, OC2, standup, paddleboard, surf ski singles and doubles.
The start was exhilerating as the competitors were within a few feet of the spectators.
The K-1 group shot out as if they were shot from a cannon.
Each type of craft was separated and started several minutes apart.One thing about Newport Harbor it’s so large you can get lost if you’re not familiar with it.Actually you can go in circles and come back to where you started without a clue as how you got there.Lucky for everyone I wasn’t in the lead.
Dr. Barry Borm emerges as one of the leaders around the first turn.
On the other hand getting to the ocean takes miles of paddling.Therefore the newest NAC rookies never get much ocean experience, much less discover it.But all things even out in the end and their rookies get very good coaching in relative safety.Our harbor is the smallest of all.Therefore instead of going round and round and getting dizzy, we send them outside, where our rookies never last long, because they are always upside down in the rough ocean.
Cliff Meidl an ex-Olympian enjoys a slight lead over another competitor.
Meanwhile back at the long race, as we passed through the harbor it was long and flat as usual and we were just anxious to reach the ocean. The tide was going out so we had a little ride. Upon arriving at the ocean, it too was flat, but at least we could breathe fresh air. Greg Shaghoian,, Derek Harrison, Brian Dempsey and Dennis Campbell some of my old buddies were still slugging it out on the race course, just as we did years ago. You go guys.
Meanwhile beauty instead of brawn races with grace.
I think the best part of the course was entering the harbor on the return trip.I was fortunate to enter just as three big John Wayne type boats entered ahead of me.They kicked up a beautiful set of 2-foot wakes that was heaven sent.A couple of paddlers and I milked it for as long as we possibly could.I think I must have chased it until it literally dropped to a tiny ripple.
Mr and Mrs Joe and Debbie Bober go head to head with another OC2. Mr Bober said his wife calls all the shots. Yes backseat driving has hit a new low.
After that, it was back to the grind. It was all up river and hot.It felt like I was paddling in a desert.At one point a pretty girl lying on her back smiled and waved at me.I didn’t wave back, because I knew it was a Mirage. I tried to stay in the lee of the piers and boats to get away from the current, but there’s only so much hiding you can do and the rest is strictly, “Manual labor.”I actually caught up to a group of paddlers, but alas I couldn’t keep up the pace and we finished in the same order, just happy to do so.
Olympic K-1 women battling it out down the stretch.
Up ahead, Danny Ching and Chris Conejo shot out together followed by Dave Spitzer, Scott Granger and Tyson Poppler. By the time they reached the first bridge the group spread out and it got further apart as the race proceeded.In the interim, Dave and Scott had a nose to tail battle followed by Tyson and Chris drafting alongside an OC2.In the melee, Danny got away and the order of finish was 1st-Danny Ching in his pink boat, 2nd Dave Spitzer, 3rd Scott Granger, 4th Tyson Poppler.
Dennis Campbell and son flying through the pack.
In the men’s master Surf Ski division it was: 1st-Patrick Hemmins, 2nd Barry Bormes, 3rd Brian Kummer- 4th Geoff Miller.The Olympic K-1 men’s was 1st Max Hoff, -2nd Marco Herzel, -3rd Paul Mittelstedt, -4th Rami Zur. The Olympic K-1 women was 1st Katrin Wagner-Augustin, -2nd Friedericke Leue, -3rd Carrie Johnson, 4th- Guesine Ruge.
Willie Reichenstein directed the event all day and pumped every one up like a carnival barker.His British accent was fun to listen to.Or was it Irish?Anyway it sounded like that OLD SPICE commercial.“But you did good Willie.”Thanks to NAC and all the members for hosting the Annual Hal Roshoffevent. By the way I just got the inside scoop. Willie's accent is, "Scottish."
To complete one of the crews a few had to wear blindfolds to join the crew.
Congratulations to the Makapo men and women athletes who competed in their first outrigger race.They were organized and trained for five months at NAC. Doing most of the coaching was Kirsten Hermstad Garwood. Good job Kirsten you did good. Saturday’s race was their culmination of the all the hard work and play.Their motto is:Helping Blind Athletes see their potential.They formed two crews and because they were short of one or two blind paddlers, they blindfolded the extras and raced as a crew.It was impressive to see them paddle along.Their timing was better than some crews that had sight. Congratulations to all of them.For more information on their project please visithttp://ocmap.org/home2/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&id=6&Itemid=53
Next race will be in Redondo Beach King Harbor.Fortunately it is located in the middle of most of the clubs making the driving easier.The course will naturally be all ocean racing as the harbor is not big.
There will be paddle-boarders,standups, OC1, OC2, surf skis and even a mini-course for parent/kids teams on OC2s.Please bring a PFD (lifejacket) as the harbor patrol will check the starting lineup justbefore the flag drops.It should be exciting as the whales are migrating south and a school of porpoises have made it a habit to visit us daily.
Hope to see you all there.
MahaloAl
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