Recap: Race #4, Redwood City and Treasure Island, February 17-18, 2007

Wisconsin surfski paddler Erik Borgnes has been a regular at the WaveChaser Presidents' Day weekend double-header of races.  When Erik missed the 2006 edition, it seemed like he sent his cold Wisconsin weather instead.  Erik was back for the 2007 edition, but he left the cold weather back in the dairy state.  Instead the large contingent of Southern California paddlers in attendance brought their warm weather with them.  We had temperatures that topped 70 degrees on both days of races.  As expected, we had the largest and most competitive races of our 2006-2007 winter WaveChaser season.  There were a total 262 entries amongst the two days of races.

There were forecasts for high winds on Sunday.  There were high winds on Sunday, but not over our race course.  The winds were blowing around 30 mph all day at the offshore buoys.  Central San Francisco Bay had winds around 15-20 mph all day.  But in the Treasure Island and Alcatraz area the winds were light.  With the flooding tide nearing its end during the long course race, the conditions were about as mild as it gets for this area.

There was a time when the protected waters race on Saturday in Redwood City had double the entries of the potentially more challenging Treasure Island race (or its predecessor Fort Baker-Angel Island course).  Over the years, the number of entries at the TI race is going up, where the number of entries at the Redwood City race is staying stable.  This year the number of entries between the two races was near equal.  I suspect that paddling in the waters near the Golden Gate used to scare some people away.  But now, with OC1 and surfski racing well past its infancy here in Northern California, more and more paddlers want to race in increasingly challenging conditions.

As is becoming customary at WaveChaser races, during the awards ceremony on both Saturday and Sunday we raffled off to the racers and volunteers a bunch of swag.  There were WaveChaser T-shirts, hooded sweatshirts, and fleece jackets; Ocean Paddle Sports paddling jerseys; an I-Tunes gift card; and a Starbucks gift card.  The final drawing was for an I-pod Nano.  Congratulations to all of the raffle winners, especially Dan Coupland, the winner of the I-pod.

With back-to-back Saturday/Sunday races, we offer overall awards for the fastest combined times for the two days.   These awards are given out in the OC1, surfski, and waterman divisions...with the waterman division being a paddler who races OC1 one day and surfski the other day.  Over the years these awards have been won by some very accomplished paddlers including Mike Eisert and New Zealand's Lance O'Connor (OC1 male); Kathy Jensen and Cheance Adair (OC1 female); Rich Long, Mike Shea and Danny Ching (waterman), Patrick Hemmens and Dorian Wolter (surfski male); and Sally Mason and DeAnne Hemmens (surfski female).  This year's overall awards went to:
 
Charlie Banfield (waterman)
Patrick Hemmens (male surfski)
Linda Banfield (female surfski)
Danny Ching (male OC1)
Eva Mauck (female OC1)
 
Danny Ching has now won both the waterman overall award (in 2006) and the OC1 overall award (in 2007).

Thanks to all of our paddlers, sponsors, and volunteers.  Our events depend on all of you.  Hope to see everyone again at our always challenging Fort Baker race on March 17.

-Dave Jensen

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