Elk Lake Race, Mt Bachelor OR

Great weekend in Bend, trail running & paddling with my beautiful wife and great friends.

The race consisted of 2, 2.6 mile loops on Elk Lake at 5000' elevation.  About 30 people lined up including one prone board and two OC1's.  I knew in the first quarter mile that I was going to be affected by the elevation, as I couldn't recover from my too fast of a start.  Bend local John Rollert was on my tail and not fading at all.  I would pull away a little on each turn, but then he would reel me back in.  In the end, I barely held him off by about 15 seconds and Sun River local Paul Willerton had a solid 3rd place.

In the women's race, Brit Oliphant out sprinted Kerri Stewart for first, and Maria Randle was third.

As usual it was fun seeing Bend local and surfing legend Gerry Lopez out on the water and co-sponsoring the event.

A huge thank you to Meg and Dave Chun of Kialoa Paddles who once again let us stay at their beautiful home in Bend.

Lori at Sparks Lake

Sparks Lake

 Trying to finish strong at Elk Lake

Gerry Lopez!

Shade & margaritas

Our daughters monkey came along too...

Semiahmoo SUP Classic

7.5 kilos, White Rock, B.C.  Great event, beautiful, hot day.  54 racers!  Thanks Sun Dog for sponsoring!

Top 3 14' Men... Mike Darbyshire, Beau Whitehead & Yannick Michaud

Kona Red Stroke the Slough Race Report

Thanks to Kona Red for supporting this event and supporting Perfect Wave sponsored athletes!

http://blog.konared.com/post/28893129203/stroke-the-slough-7-29-2012

Stroke The Slough Race

Last weekend, July 29th, was the first annual Stroke the Slough SUP race.  It went from Redmond to Lake Washington and covered 12.4 miles in the Sammamish Slough.

The start was dicey with only room for about 4 folks to line up side by side... but then quickly came down to a hole shot around some shallow rocks that only allowed for one paddler at a time.  Mike Darbyshire of Canada had a blazing start and got to the narrow channel first, followed by me, Matt Parker, Rennick Woods and then Tom Haney. When the channel widened out again, I managed to creep by Mike and over the next 12 miles, slowly pull-away from the chasers.  It was hotter than I thought it was, and strange not knowing what laid beyond the next corner or how much farther we had to go...

There was a LOT of weeds and low spots, and not having a low-profile weed fin would really have been the pits.

In the end I finished in 2:00:56 with Mike and Matt around 5 minutes back... 

This was a really fun race and a very different venue for sure.  Props to the promotors and volunteers! I'll be back.

Great photos courtesy of Cody Xero:

Sprinting for the hole shot...

 The train leaving the station...

 Starting to sneak away...

 Chaotic start...

 The duel for 2nd...

 Ahh, clean water...