I participated in the Irma Sagazie Esopus Safari this morning, a fun paddling event in Saugerties, New York of a type which may possibly become more and more common as recreational kayaking becomes more and more popular. The event was run by Ralph Childers, who competes in the Senior class at US Canoe Association events. Irma Sagazie is a 90-year old Saugerties woman whom Ralph first met on the Esopus one day cruising along in her little red Swifty. Ralph says he found the plucky nonagenarian such an inspiration that he named his "distinctly non-competitive kayak and flatwater canoe rally" in her honor. Essentially, the event was a canoe and kayak race that was run like dozens of small-town footraces in which I've participated. You show up, find the registration table, fill out a form--choosing a course (3.7 mile or 6 mile) and a division (single canoe, double canoe, single kayak, double kayak)--, sign a waiver, hand over $10 and get a free T-shirt. The big difference, of course, was that we then went down the beach and got in our boats for the start! The put-in was at the town beach on the Esopus Creek in Saugerties, NY, just upstream from the falls that lead to the Hudson and the Saugerties lighthouse. From here, there's about a 2.5 mile stretch of open river going upstream to the next rapids. The 3.7 mile course was a simple out and back, turning at a tethered orange leaf bag. The 6 mille course went all the way up to the rapids, turned back downstream about a mile, then doubled back to the turn-around buoy for the short race, then back to the start. There were about 40 boats: 6-8 marathon racing canoes (mostly singles, but a couple of doubles), 6-8 touring/recreational canoes (composite, aluminum and a couple of beautiful wood strip-builts), and the rest kayaks. Of the 25+ kayaks, only a few were non-plastic: a 1988 fiberglass P&H Baidarka, a strip-built wood baidarka-style boat that the guy organizing the race had just finished building and a tandem Poke Boat, Of the plastic boats, there was one Sealution, one Sea Lion, and the rest were "recreational" boats (many Acadias, a Carolina, a Pungo, Irma's Swifty etc.) I glanced at the clipboard when I was signing in and saw that the longer race was mostly the racing canoes, so I signed up for the shorter race. After a pre-race talk reviewing the course, the boats launched. All the boats started at the time, in a roughly straight line between a buoy and a duck decoy. I was surprised at how well it worked; it really felt like a the starting line of a footrace, except that we were all in boats. Since I'm currently shopping for a composite boat, I was chatting with Bill in the P&H Badiarka (from the cockpit of the beat-up Acadia that I bought used at the beginning of the season). As we made our way up river, we found ourselves steadily passing other paddlers. In fact, I caught up to the only single kayak ahead of me at the turnaround, and was stunned to find myself leading our division for much of the way back to the start. Somewhere in the last 1/2 mile, Bill and his longer, lighter, stiffer, narrower boat pulled ahead, and we finished within 20 seconds or so of each other (I think my time was 42:34). After all the boats were in, all participants were treated to pizza and a hand-made commemorative plaque. I had a blast; I really enjoyed the atmosphere of informal competition and the chance to experience a different kind of paddling. That said, I wonder whether this is the sort of event that more communities are likely to host. Today's event went off without a hitch, but it seems like a lot more things can go wrong when you've got 40-50 people out on the cold water than when you have the same number of people jogging for 5K or 10K on paved roads. Jason Taylor Rosendale, New York ---------------------------------------------- Jason Taylor R. C. Schade & Associates Rosendale, New York jason_at_rcschade.com ----------------- End Forwarded Message ----------------- *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Mon Nov 01 1999 - 05:54:14 PST
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