TC Surfski Immersion Weekend 2015

This weekend was the third annual TC Surfski Immersion Weekend. I went last year and learned a whole bunch and a had a bunch of fun, so I of course signed up to do it again. The weekend takes place at the awesomely beautiful Hilltop Log Lodge which just coincidentally is next door to the home of the proprietor of TC Surfski, Nick Murray.

Unfortunately Suttons Bay Michigan is a heck of a long drive away, so I missed the introductory paddle Thursday night. We actually saw them out in their skis not too far from the launch site as we were just about to turn in to hilltop trail. If I hadn’t been so tired from nine hours of driving, I would have left Vicki to the settling in and unpacking and tried to rush down to the launch site to catch them. But I didn’t. 

After they came back, I got reintroduced to the returning instructors, a few returning participants, and a whole bunch of new people. And being me, I promptly forgot just about everybody’s names. Sorry everybody. But there was a wide range of experiences including a lot of beginners who have never paddled a Surfski before. The only non-paddling spouse other than Vicki was Eric Haas’s wife Melissa. Eric came last year, but without his wife. I’m happy she came because she and Vicki seemed to have a good time together when we were off paddling.

I won’t attempt any physical descriptions because I heard through a mutual friend that Eric Borgnes took some good natured objection to the way I’d described him last year. At least I hope it was good natured.

Friday morning dawned foggy and not particularly warm. We headed to nearby Cedar Lake for a concentration on technique. We did mostly modified versions  of Oscar’s drills including one I didn’t like much because you had to release the lower hand to do a top hand spear, then re-grab with the lower hand to pull. That threw me completely off each time. 

I got told a few things I already knew and have to consciously think about every time I paddle, like making sure I get the paddle fully in the water before starting to pull, and sitting up straighter. They also found a few things I didn’t know about – I’ve been paddling with my paddle length set to 217cm, but Rob has a wider “wing span” than I and he paddles with 212cm and suggested I do the same, and shorten to 210 in rough water. He also suggested I lower my knees (by adjusting the foot plate forward) in rough water at least until I get more confident. Because I’m one of the more experienced paddlers there other than the instructors, I also spent some time trying to give tips to some of the other participants, but I’m not a teacher so basically I’d just give them a suggestion or two and paddle off looking for my next victim. 

In the afternoon we returned to Cedar Lake for the safety session. Adding a safety session is a good idea in general, and last year’s Sunday downwinder showed the need for it when one of the beginners fell in and couldn’t remount. We’d been warned to dress for full immersion in cold water, and while Cedar Lake is shallower and warmer than Lake Michigan, it still wasn’t warm. We did a bunch of remounts. Not exactly a new thing for me, but a good thing to practice every now and then and especially to practice on your non-preferred side. We did some other exercises that I found enlightening. In one we attempted to paddle with the ski leaned over as far as you could. As I paddled along with water coming into the cockpit, I gained a new respect for just how much final stability the V10 Sport really has.

That evening, Vicki and I and Eric H and Melissa went out for a nice dinner at the 9 Bean Rows restaurant in Suttons Bay. It was really nice except we’d sat outside and everything was sticky from tree sap. Also Vicki was a little mean to Eric about his hypermiling obsession – but since Melissa was just as vocal about it, it think it was taken in the good natured way it was intended.

Saturday morning there was a race in Traverse City. It seems it was just a coincidence that it was put on the same weekend as our camp, but it worked out nicely. Besides our lot in the surfskis there was at least one other guy in a Fenn surfski, a few kayaks and a whole bunch of SUPs. Because last year the Surfski race had been over so quickly, this year he made it longer, with a squarish course to test our abilities. On the first leg, it very quickly settled into a lead pack of Eric Borgnes and Rob Hartman, then the guy in the Fenn with Greg on his tail and Nick and his son in a tandem ski paddling off to one side (well, Nick was paddling, his son’s paddle rarely left the horizontal). I buried myself trying to get on Greg’s stern wake, but never got closer than about 2 boat lengths and eventually gave up and settled down into my pace. There was a very small swell coming down the bay from my front left but it wasn’t a factor. At the first bouy turn, however, the transition from front left to directly astern caused me a missed stroke. I snuck a very quick peek behind and Eric Haas was not far behind. By that point Nick and his son had joined the second pack. The first half of that leg was assisted by the swell, now directly behind, but as we got closer to the break wall reflections off it became more dominant. Both packs ahead seemed to be angling off towards the wall rather than heading directly to the turn bouy – not sure if they were intending to use the wall for shelter or to use the reflected waves somehow or what. The turn took us parallel to the shore. Both packs ahead went to the right of the direct line to find deeper water and stay away from a bunch of bouys marking a swimming area, and I followed suit. I didn’t think Eric was gaining on me, but I used that as a reason to keep the pace up and not slack off. The next turn was directly back into the swell from the top of the bay and numerous boat anchorages with anchor lines to avoid. Just as I passed the “tall ship” and was about to turn towards shore, a largish boat wake came along so I paddled beyond the direct line and turned after it had abated. The posted times were about two minutes slower than my GPS, but I evidently came in a minute and a half behind Nick and his son, and about 1:40 ahead of Eric Haas. Not counting the guy in the Fenn because he wasn’t part of our group, that means I was slower than all the instructors and faster than all the other Immersion participants. Although one of our number ended up with a prize because his V6 had been classed as a kayak rather than a ski.

Saturday afternoon we headed to another local lake. This time it was to find a friend of Nick’s who owned a ski boat so people could practice catching the waves behind it. This is nothing new to me, but it’s always fun. What they attempted to do was to line up four people at a time in the stern wakes and slowly increase the boat speed. What I noticed after the second one is that most people can’t stay on the wake after it gets up to any speed, so rather than wait for my turn I would line up outside the group, and get on the bow wake. The bow wake is harder to ride, and I would have water constantly pouring into the cockpit – good thing the epic bailer is quite effective. But once several of the group had fallen off the stern wake, I’d cut over and ride that. I ended up getting several good rides, and they indulged me with some nice fast ones. I believe I sustained over 15 km/hr a few times. 

Then on the way back to the cars I found myself up front with Eric H. I encouraged him to ride my stern wake because that’s a good skill to have for racing and one you don’t get to practice often unless you have an awesome paddle group like we do here in Rochester. After paddling about two kilometers, we suddenly realized that nobody was exactly sure where the put-in was. Fortunately I have the track map enabled on my GPS so I switched to the map view and could see that the it was about a kilometer further on and to the right. So I surged on ahead – I’m not sure I adequately conveyed that I now knew with complete confidence where the put-in was because Eric and a few others who had been with us suddenly seemed well behind me. But sure enough, the GPS track indicated a turn to the right just as a power boat came out of the bay, and there was the boat ramp right ahead of me.

That evening, the same group of four headed back to Suttons Bay. This time we ended up at a restaurant called “Martha’s”. It was utterly amazing. Possibly the best meal I’ve had all year, if a tiny bit expensive. And both the chef and the owner came out to chat after the meal. Vicki promised to put in a glowing review in TripAdvisor, which Martha seemed happy about.

Sunday morning a few people talked about going for a short early paddle – last year we’d had a ripping down winder which had been a highlight of the weekend for me, but this year there was no wind and I just couldn’t muster up the energy for a flat water paddle after the long day Saturday. So we packed up and hit the road. Uncharacteristicly, I’d added a tie down strap to the normal bungees I used to hold down my ski, and a few hours later near the Canadian border I was extremely glad I had. The wind was so strong that in spite of the one tie down, my boat was shifting around in the rack and I ended up pulling into a lay by to add another strap. Other than the wind, it was a pretty uneventful drive home, just exceedingly tiring.

So what is the verdict? Last year it was easy to be extremely positive about the whole thing because I learned so much and we had that great down winder on the last day. This time I feel like I didn’t learn as much, and we didn’t have a down winder, but I still think it’s a positive experience. There is something magical about hanging out with a bunch of other enthusiastic Surfski paddlers, both experienced and inexperienced. And it really is a beautiful setting.

Round the Mountain 2015

Today was the Round the Mountain race. There are two reasons it’s a big milestone each year – it’s usually my first race of the year, and it’s usually the last time I paddle my Thunderbolt for the year. After this, it’s all surfski all the time.

We arrived at the start at Ampersand Bay, and found the first disaster of the day: the bungee that holds my rudder down had broken on the drive up here. I managed to beg a small bungee from Todd and borrow a knife to cut the ends off, but it was thicker than the one I’d had so I had to arrange a different route for the cord. It worked, so disaster averted.

I had two video cameras on the boat, one just in front of the GPS pointing forward, and one just behind my PFD pointing backwards.

The weather was warmer than last year, and the wind was lighter. I almost wish I’d dressed lighter. I might even have been able to manage the V12 in these conditions. But it was just about perfect. There were a bunch of guys in sprint boats here, including a large guy in a beautiful top of the top Nelo and a young guy in a red Plastex boat. I think we got a lot of Canadians because it’s Victoria Day weekend.

I’d been worried before the race that in my training all spring I hadn’t had my heart rate up over 152, and even then for less than 8 minutes at a time but I knew that I normally raced with my heart rate over 160. So I wasn’t sure I could even get my heart rate that high. But as I was warming up, I was so nervous my heart rate was up over 150 even when I wasn’t doing anything.

At the start, as expected, Jim and Todd took off with some guy in a V14. The Plastex guy and the Nelo guy weren’t too far behind them, then I was behind Roger Gocking. But that didn’t last for long – I passed Roger almost immediately, but he glommed onto my side wake. It looked to me like I was catching the Nelo guy and the Nelo guy was catching the Plastex guy. I put in some speed to come up behind the Nelo guy and just latched onto his stern wake and was able to rest a bit. Roger didn’t follow me when I moved right to catch this wake, so he was still hanging out alone beside us. As we were catching the Plastex guy, Roger came steaming up alone. I blasted past the Nelo guy (although for some reason I went the wrong way around him instead of swing off in the direction of Roger) and latched onto Roger’s stern wake just as he was coming up to the Plastex guy. Plastex guy got onto Roger’s side wake and we made a nice little group. I risked a glance back and Nelo guy hadn’t managed to hold onto any wake and was well behind.

As we got near the gap between the island and the shore, the Plastex guy was starting to fall back off Roger’s wake and he tried to catch my right side wake. I didn’t want to let him catch it, so I pulled up on Roger’s left side and blasted past them both. I ended up leading both of them up the river. If you look at the rear camera, it appears Roger was about a boat length or two behind me rather than right on my stern wake, and Plastex guy was well behind. I lead them through every narrow and shallow little sneak I could find and I hit my paddle a few times, and felt my rudder hit at least once, but I could hear them hitting things as well. Having an overstern rudder and polarized sunglasses was a real plus.

At the portage, I had trouble getting out of the boat, and Roger was up and trotting before I got out. Then I picked up my boat and started trotting, but the PFD fell out of the bungees so I had to put the boat down and go back and pick it up. By then Plastex guy was up and running – in bare feet no less. By the time I hit the water and got mounted up, both of them had about two minutes on me.

It did not look like I was catching Roger at all, but I was definitely catching Plastex guy. Every time he passed a landmark, I’d check the time he passed against the time I passed and I could see I was making up time all the time. And then he followed Roger through a sneak but ran aground, and had to come to a full stop. I figure I made up nearly a minute of the two minute gap for that. As I came through that same sneak without trouble, I knew I was going to catch him.

After a few more minutes, I caught his stern wake. I contemplated staying on his stern wake all the way to the finish and trying to outsprint him, but he looked like a sprinter. So I pulled around him and swung out far enough that he couldn’t catch my wake. He sped up and stayed with me. We were neck and neck for the last three kilometers. I put in more speed and he sped up. I put in some more and he sped up some more. I had nothing left, but we were a kilometer from the finish and Jim was out warming down and he yelled at me to drop the hammer, and I barely gasped out “I don’t have a hammer”. I didn’t hear him say it, but he said afterwards that he was telling me to try to scrape the guy off on the buoy. I actually managed to increase my speed again with about 500 meters to go, but the guy had more in the gas tank than me, and he managed to beat me by a boat length or so.

As far as I can tell, the Unlimited Kayak class results were Jim, then the guy in the V14, then Todd, then me. So no wood plaque for me. Touring class was won by Roger and Unlimited under 50 was won by Plastex guy. I think somebody else ended up ahead of the Nelo guy.

Results:

Racer Class Time Diff from Last Year
Jim Mallory Unlimited +50 1:22:57  
Steve Rankinen (V14) Unlimited +50 1:23:42  
Todd Furstoss Unlimited +50 1:23:44 -3:25
Roger Gocking Touring +50 1:32:51 -2:48
Mike Archembault (Plastex guy) Unlimited -50 1:33:48  
Paul Tomblin Unlimited +50 1:33:50 -3:09
Pete Gugel Unlimited -50 1:36:01 -3:00
Rich and Angela Guide Boat 1:50:27  

I’m worried

The first race of the season is in two days, and I have to admit I’m worried. On the surface, I probably shouldn’t be – I’ve put in a ton of training this season. According to Garmin Connect, I’ve done 335.3km in my Thunderbolt, 75.3km in the V12, and 16.7km in my favourite boat, the V10 Sport Ultra.

But one of the things that worries me is that I’ve done most of that training cruising along with a heart rate around 120 or so. Even in interval training, I’ve almost never exceeded 150 bpm. In races in the past, I’ve *averaged* over 150 bpm. How will I be able to keep my heart rate over 160bpm for 90+ minutes if I’ve never had it that high for even 8 minutes? Does that mean I should shoot for a lower heart rate this time? What heart rate should I shoot for?

Another thing that worries me is that my shoulder started to hurt a week or two ago, and it hasn’t been getting any better. And yes, it’s the same shoulder that’s had two surgeries, each of which cost me a year off paddling and then another year of trying to recover my form (basically no races between Sept 2010 and Sept 2013). I’ve been trying to take it a bit easier this week and stretch more and take something for the pain, and it’s a little better, but what if I completely blow it at this race? What if I blow it so bad I have to stop racing? What if I don’t blow it, but it never recovers completely? Will I have incentive to keep fit and paddle with my friends if I can’t race?

Another thing that worries me is that I never sleep well before a race, and due to scheduling problems we’re probably not even going to get to the place we’re sleeping that night until after my usual bed time. Knowing me, the slight shortening of my sleep time will be minuscule compared to how much sleep I’ll lose obsessing over my lack of sleep. One of the first books I read about competitive cross country skiing said that lack of sleep before a race is normal, and the trick is to make sure your muscles aren’t tired by holding very still when you can’t sleep, so you’ll show up at the start with a fried brain but rested muscles with is better than fried muscles and fried brain. I’m not sure if that is really what the author intended, or if making you hold still instead of tossing and turning is just a good strategy to make you fall asleep. But I’ve tried to practice it whenever I race.

I’m going to race my Thunderbolt this weekend. The Thunderbolt is old, it’s beat up to shit, and I just had to put a big strip of fiberglass under the seat because the seat was wearing through the outer skin. And it looks like this is the second time it’s been patched there. The foam “beams” that are supposed to keep the back from flexing too much are broken. Also one of the screws that holds in the seat wears a hole in my hip. I’m much rather use my V10 Sport for this race, but it has some shallow water so an overstern rudder is a bit of a plus, and it has a portage – last year I slipped on the muddy hillside and dropped my boat. If I’d been carrying my V10 Sport instead of the Thunderbolt, I probably would have put a hole in it. That Thunderbolt is a tank. I’d love to buy a new one (and Roger Gocking has a new one for sale that he’s barely paddled) but since I basically stop paddling it after this race every year, I can’t really justify it to myself. Actually I’m kind of hoping that I’ll get good enough at paddling the V12 that I can use it next year, because it’s got an overstern rudder and it’s Performance layup so it’s more robust than the V10 Sport’s Ultra layup.

I guess my strategy this race will be to go out at a more moderate pace than usual, monitor both my heart rate and the condition of my shoulder, and if I feel up to it, increase the pace after a while. And hope that nothing horrible happens.

An ideal fitness device for kayak racing

I recently remarked to @GarminFitness that I wish they’d stop shrinking the displays of their Forerunners with each generation. Kayak racers are different from their main target audiences of runners, bikers and swimmers in that we don’t put the device on our wrists, we mount it on the boat. And therefore, smallness is a negative rather than a positive, especially for surf-skiers who usually stick it on our footstrap. A tiny display over a meter away from your face is really hard to read, especially for us older racers.

Garmin invited me to use their feedback form to suggest improvements. But before I do that, I want to figure out exactly what I want. And basically, it comes down to something the size of my old Forerunner 301, but with most of the guts of my Forerunner 310XT/910XT, and maybe some features borrowed from the 920XT.

In no particular order:

  • As big a display as feasible. When you configure the 310XT to display 3 data fields, the top one is just about the size I’d like everything to be. Ideally I’d like to have 4 data fields that size on the screen at a time. Some of the Edge GPSes are that size, but they appear to be only for cycling and I don’t know if they’re waterproof to IPX7 standards.
  • Make sure it’s compatible with polarized sunglasses! My iPhone is not. Neither are half the displays in my car. Is there something about making color displays that requires them to have a polarizing sheet? If so, I don’t want color!
  • When it flips between displays, don’t scroll the fields that aren’t changing. I currently have my 910XT set to have two 3-field displays, and my heart rate is the big top one in both. It would be nice if it stayed on the screen while the other two fields are flipping to the next.
  • Add support for multiple profiles that are tied to the activity list on Garmin Connect. I use the “Other” profile on my 910XT, but when I upload to Garmin Connect I need to change that to “Paddling”. Why can’t I make a “Paddling” profile on my Forerunner that will be “Paddling” when it uploads to Garmin Connect? Even better, allow a “Paddling Training” and “Paddling Racing” profile so I can get rid of the screens I don’t need during a race (like lap times and previous lap average speed).
  • The best feature of the 310XT/910XT over the 301 is that it charges and uploads without making a hole in the case. My second 301 succumbed to salt water when the USB port oxidized like crazy. So we definitely don’t want holes in the case.
  • Continue to support industry standard ANT+ heart rate monitors, even 3rd party ones. Perhaps add Bluetooth Low Energy support as well – my current heart rate monitor is a Wahoo TIKR, which does both.
  • And if you’re going to add Bluetooth Low Energy, tie it to my phone so it can upload live tracking the way the 920XT does. And then we don’t need that little dongle thingy tying up a USB port on our computers.
  • Keep the great battery life. I’ve tried using my iPhone instead of the Forerunner for workout tracking, and it sucks the battery down to nothing in a few hours. The Forerunner is still reporting 80% charged after that same amount of time. Because my Forerunner is mounted rather than on my wrist, I don’t care if you have to make it fat to give it better battery life.
  • If I load a course up, I’d like to have the course map added to the automatic cycling between screens. As a paddler, I can’t use my hands to do that the way a runner or cyclist can.
  • If I load a course up, I’d like to do a virtual “race” against the previous best time I’ve done that course. I suspect that’s there, but I’ve never figured out how to make it happen.
  • Can the current one be set up to start the timer as soon as you move without also making it stop timing if I stop for any reason? I don’t want to be pressing the start button when I should be paddling for all my worth, but there are legitimate reasons to stop moving in a paddling race that still count towards your time, like transitioning to portages or turning around a buoy. I’ve only found a feature to stop the timer whenever you stop, and that’s not what I want. If that’s not a feature yet, I’d like it.
  • Make the countdown beeps louder! I can barely hear the 5 second count downs at the end of a interval when doing a workout. That might be due to the foam block I mount it on, but it would be nice if it were louder.