The San Francisco Bay Area's Ultimate Paddling Group WaveChasers
Northern California's WaveChasers group has long been known for their high quality winter paddling series that has something for paddlers of all abilities. The summer series however is geared for the more hardcore racers who gathered this Sunday August 15th for the summer series final race of the year a 12.3 mile down-winder.
The WaveChaser Summer Series consists solely of long down winders with no shortened courses for the novice paddlers. This past Sunday August 15, the final race in the series started from Fort Baker at the north end of the Golden Gate Bridge.
The course (pictured above) saw paddlers first heading out under the bridge toward Point Diablo and then turning around for the long downwind run to OCSC Sailing in Berkeley. This particular course takes advantage of very consistent summer afternoon winds and is arguably the best downwind run in the Bay Area. Much of the course is to be used for the US Surfski Championships starting this weekend, Saturday August 21st on San Francisco Bay.
As the 58 paddlers, in 53 boats (8 two-person boats were racing) headed out of Fort Baker they were greeted by a 1.5 knot flood tide that was going to make the first mile of the race a grinder as they worked not only against the current but also a nice 15 mph headwind. However both the wind and the tide continued to build all race long, so as the racers turned the corner at Point Diablo, both forces of nature were at their backs making for very fast times down the course.
The race even had sunshine on most of the course, something that has been sorely lacking in San Francisco this year.
It was an incredibly tight battle at the top this year with the top four paddlers coming in only 34 seconds apart after almost 90 minutes of paddling! Carter Johnson took the prize in the open division while Patrick Hemmens and Dave Jensen came in second and third respectively. What makes Hemmens' and Jensen’s efforts even more impressive is they were racing in the masters' division and bested a large fleet of young pups. DeAnne Hemmens was the first solo women’s finisher in the Surfski division.
The WaveChaser’s kick of their winter series schedule kicks off soon, so stay tuned to the WaveChasers Website for more information.
Photo Credit Don Albonico/www.serriaphoto.com
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