The third in the Wavechaser winter series was held December 4, 2010 in Redwood City, California, which is located about 20 miles south of San Francisco. Despite a poor weather forecast and threatening clouds, 82 paddlers in various crafts showed up to give it a go and except for a few showers early on, the conditions were pretty good for racing throughout the day.

There were three race courses, 3 mile Novice, 5 mile Short, and an 8 mile Long course. All three courses were held around Bair Island which is adjacent to the Port of Redwood City.

Both the Novice and Short course races were an out and back. Going first around part of Bair Island a few miles before turning and heading back to the start/finish.

The Novice course had one OC2 and four SUPs. The OC2 took first place, but always the waterman, Charlie Banfield was only several minutes behind the OC2 on his SUP, taking second place overall with Junior Wright and Chuck Watanabe finishing third and fourth. One SUP DNF’d due to equipment problems.

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(Junior Wright, Charlie Banfield at the start)

Since both courses started at the same time, it was hard to tell who was who in the Novice race or the Short course, but it didn’t take long for Jude ( Mr. Huki ) Turczynski and Andy Toro in an OC2 to work their way up through the 25 plus other boats which were made up of other OC2s, surfskis, SUPs and a conventional kayak to take the lead. They were followed closely all the way to the turnaround by Debbie Green and Roger Dunn in an OC2 as well, but after the turn, they took a commanding lead and never gave it up. Susie and David Wright got past Debbie and Roger and finished second overall, about a minute behind the winning OC2. A few of the surfskis were close behind, but Jude and Andy finished first overall in the short course.

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Roger Dunn with Debbie Green

The Long Course had 37 boats (46 paddlers). The only K4 in the race was powered by Elaine Baden, Jane Toro, John Dye and Kenny Howell, all donning reindeer headgear in the spirit of the season. They were setting a blistering pace on the course with Carter Johnson and Dave Jensen in close pursuit!

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Carter Johnson in pursuit of the K4 team of Toro, Baden, Howell, and Dye

Dave Jensen, right from the start, was able to jump on the stern of Charlie Banfield (his second race of the day) and Chuck Watanabe’s double surfski and rode them out the channel, which allowed him to go pretty fast without blowing up in the first mile. As he turned left and into the Corkscrew, he passed the double ski and then took his pre-planned route. Dave was counting on Carter and the K4 going right down the middle of the channel exposed to all of the current, whereas he would be going right along the bank and out of most of the current. As planned, he quickly reeled in Carter, but when Carter saw what was going on he headed over to the bank and came up slightly behind Dave. After the next bend in the slough Dave was side by side with the K4. It wasn’t too long though before the K4 and Carter got back ahead of Dave and left him to paddle by himself the rest of the race. Later, Dave would say he probably paddled too hard while duking it out with Carter and the K4, which hurt him the remaining part of the race. He also added that Carter and the K4 weren’t too far ahead of him as they exited the slough and turned left into the channel, but they at least doubled the gap on him from there to the finish and that he was lucky to have put enough distance on the chase pack so that he could stagger in and easily maintain his position.

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Dave Jensen

In Carter’s own words,

“It was more of a beat down than a shoot out! They really had that boat moving! It was great though and I gave it everything I had and I was hoping they would tire out at the end, but it simply never happened. Even though they had a faster top end speed, we were almost perfectly matched through the slough. I would gain a few boats by cutting corners and staying just a foot off shore out of the current, but as soon as it would open up again, they would drop the hammer and reclaim any progress I had made. They also did a great job keeping at least 50 meters ahead of me so I could not jump on their wake. I tried over and over to put on intervals to close the gap knowing that without their wash, I had no chance in the last three miles of open flat headwind. I was continually unsuccessful and as expected, once the channel opened up, they were just a hair faster than me to the finish expanding their 10 second lead to just under 20 seconds. It was a cat and mouse game and I’m pretty sure that we all had the times of our life out there playing it out.”

Craig Tanner, following Dave’s line into the Corkscrew was just ahead of Chris Stout and gaining on Robin Graham and Charlie Banfield/Chuck Watanabe in a double surfski. The double swung close into the shore and Craig jumped on their wake. They continued to follow Dave’s line for as long as they could see him and opened up the gap on surfskiers Chris Stout, Mike McNulty, Jeff Schwing, Steve Kaspar and Olaf Beckmann. But it was short lived….right where the slough rejoins the main channel, they got caught by the chase pack and it now became one big draft pack! There was some jockeying going on and positions changed a few times but they pretty much stayed together until Kaspar made a move just as they were about to reach the channel. Craig reacted and sprinted past the double to catch Steve. However, things were about to change. The little island that sits just before you leave the slough and enter the main channel had a surprise… MUD! Craig started hitting the mud with the tip of his paddle and Steve Kaspar, who was even closer to the island itself, came to a screeching halt! Unfortunately, the pack was so focused on the race and jockeying back and forth, they failed to see that Mike Martinez had parked his chase boat right where they should have gone, giving them the depth they needed to continue around the island at speed. Somehow, Craig managed to get out of the mud first and make the left turn into the channel while the others were slowed down and trying to get going again. Charlie and Chuck, knee deep in the mud, had to walk their double surfski back into deeper water.

After turning into the headwind, Craig was caught by Chris Stout and Jeff Schwing. They remained together making the dash towards the finish, about half a mile away. Mike McNulty also caught up as well and got on the draft. At this point, Chris made a tactical error… instead of continuing on to the Redwood City dock which was the official finish line, he made a right turn and headed for the Bair Island Athletic Club’s dock about a quarter mile away, which has been used as a finish line in prior races…but not today. By the time the escort boat alerted him to get back on track, Craig and Mike were in a mad dash for the finish. Chris hammered and was able to get on the double surfski’s wake, and managed to pull on Craig and Mike, but just ran out of real estate.

And finally, a race-within-a-race: long-time Wavechaser short course participant Eric Neuman, after suffering a heart attack a year ago, set a personal goal of training and completing his first Wavechaser long course, which he achieved at the Redwood City event…. Congratulations and well done Eric!!!

Post race festivities included a feast of spaghetti and home-made desserts, and the presentation of the now classic Wavechaser beer mugs…and talking story!