MY OPEN BOAT CAREER

After the fiasco in Switzerland and my year of recovery, I decided to try again, but at a mellower pace.  I already had an open boat - a somewhat ancient OC-1 Short called a Rattler.  It actually was a pretty good design (derived from a CudaMax, I think.)  The 'Cudu was a short-lived but moderately successful C-1 similar to my own race boat, so the learning curve was very short.  The biggest problem that I had was that the boat seemed to be very "wet."  In bigger water, I always seemed to take in more water than the others.

I attributed it to poor technique, or something inherent in the boat design.  Unfortunately, the Rattler becomes very unstable with only a small amount of water, and I was forced to either flounder around or stop and bail in the major races of 1989-91.  Finally, in '92 someone mentioned that the front thwart on my boat had been narrowed considerably from what was "normal."  After I added a couple inches to it, suddenly the boat was much drier!

At the left:  Racing at Nantahala Outdoor Center at the Nationals in 1990, where I only finished third but the picture is great! Same old "wet boat" syndrome...

Another 15 minutes of fame in Wausau, Wisconsin! I managed to get in the local paper with a good grimace.  The reason for my displeasure: I had just put another hole in my boat.  The water was just a bit too low to take the "proper" line between two gates.  Every time I tried - crunch!  That night, I put 9 patches on the hull! I recall that I finished 2nd this year, having to stop and bail once again.

Paddling tandem was something I hadn't done in 10 years or so - you might remember that's how I started out paddling, but technique-wise racing is a whole 'nother thing in the stern.

NOC '92 Besides racing (and winning) solo, I raced tandem with Lisa.  We finished fourth after practicing together for only about 1 day. Lisa and I borrowed a boat from a good friend of ours - Jeff Dickson.  We flipped on our second run almost exactly where this shot was taken.  My fault.  We were running too close to the right gate, so I threw my body to the left on a cross-over stroke.  The result was a little ad-hoc fish census...

Deerfield '93 My Rattler was one of the oldest boats in the race.  Who knows - the warped hull may have some secret advantage... In all the Nationals before '92, I either finished with a boat full of water or had to bail.  This boat has a very flat bottom, and when it gets even a gallon of water in it, it becomes very unstable.  Finally, after some thwart modifications, I was able to finish a race almost completely dry! I also took 2nd in Master's Tandem with Marty Aureima.  She is a Nice Person, but it was a tandem partnership made in Hell.  Our individual techniques were set in stone, and not particularly compatible.

In '94, the Nationals were held in Durango, Colorado.  I broke up the long drive by stopping on the way at the Middle Yough in PA.  I wanted to get a little more experience in my radical new boat - the Reaktor, by Millbrook Boats.  It was an incredible boat, but very different from the Rattler.  With its rounded bottom, it had absolutely no initial stability, but it was fairly quick in a straight line, spun on a dime, and even was pretty dry, too!  It just scared the sh*t out of people the first time they attempted to get in it!  Definitely fun to watch! I decided to also run in the Combined Class, where you must use the same boat to run in both the downriver race and the slalom.  I'm really not very good at downriver- I've never seen an eddy I didn't like, but what the heck.  It was something different!  My time was OK in the Downriver, but I didn't feel very good, like I was pushing a much heavier boat.  By the next day, I was a hurtin' dude.  A pinched nerve in my neck (at the time I thought it was tendonitis) had come back with a vengence.  I could barely lift the paddle with my left arm!  I suspect that I had aggravated the situation by carrying my boat on my head for about a mile at the Yough - something that I used to do all the time.  The result was a third-place finish, and a whole lot of pain on the drive back.  A little Chiropractic and about 3 months and I was almost as good as new. In '96, I blew off the Nationals to run the Grand Canyon, but that's a whole 'nother story... In '97, I finished 4th at NOC.  To make my life more complicated, I sprained my ankle two days before the race, but it didn't get really swollen until after - I could still bend it enough to wedge myself into the boat.  My time placed me as second fastest, but penalties dropped me down.   In '98, I was so busy with the The Nike World Masters Games and building a boat, I skipped the Nationals in Richmond.

SLALOM NATIONALS '99 In '99, the Nationals were in Golden Colorado on Clear Creek.  Clear Creek was a wonderful site:  Cool, clear water on a course that was continuously challenging - but not intimidating.  It was fun just to be there. I trained only a little, having had a recurring bout with the usual tendonitis.  I was still in pretty good shape though.  I knew my competition would be stiff, though, with several "youngsters" graduating to the Master's Class.

I knew that Ray Ingram of Vermont was coming along strongly, having just beaten me in a local race for the first time.  My expectations were, let us say, realistic... Because the slalom race was a two-day affair, I entered Medium Masters with a borrowed boat to fill in the first day.  Time in the boat is better than spectating anytime! (Thanks to Ron Schmidt for the great photos.)

Considering I took only one practice run, I didn't embarrass myself too much, finishing second in a weak field.  Ray Ingram finished first, doing a very good job whipping my butt.  But he had lots of experience in the Medium boat.

On the second day of racing, Ray once again finished first in OC-1 Short Masters, beating me slightly by both time and penalties.  I can't argue with that...  On the plus side, I finished 6th overall in Premier short class.  I think that was my best finish ever. In the 2001 Nationals on the Dead River in Maine, the results were similar, except that my overall finish in OC-1 Short was good enough for 5th.  I used a new boat that I designed and built - tentatively named the Cobra.  This was my first attempt at laying up an open boat.  It didn't exactly come out "professional" quality, but it seems to float enough to finish! Another Victory in 2001 - Holy Cow!

Nike World Masters Games

Slalom Racing Explained!