About 65 canoes set off south Saturday morning with a light breeze, some mixed bumps and plenty of current. The race committed decided to prank the short course paddlers by telling them to stay inside and their turn would be in the bay near the shore. Their turning boat followed the fleet on the inside then took an abrupt 90° turn to cross both the short course and long course paddlers to set their mark outside. Naturally this caused some confusion and a lot of canoes crossing each other. But their 7 mile course and the long course 9.7 mile course didn’t overlap after that due to the currents. The long course had some surprisingly strong currents past that point and no one seemed to escape the struggle easily. Almost all the short course paddlers finished before the long course caught up.
Our open mens paddlers had their #1 seasonal streak broken as no one could make it to this race to represent. In fact, the turn out was pretty low for this race possibly due to spring break vacations. Good work to the paddlers who came out and battled their way though the current streams and heat. Lots of paddlers placing on this race.
Long Course: Kyle, Keola, Eric
Short Course: Grant, Rodrigo, Loren, Gary, Kawai