Hobie Treasure Island Series double slam weekend in Florida
[Photos] courtesy Lex Raas
Race 4 and 5 were completed with competition getting tighter than ever.
Race 4 saw Reid Hyle once again dominate in the Skis while John Edwards showed the OC1 division a clean wake and was never challenged. Further down the pack the best race of the day was in the OC1 Veteran Division. Mike Sieber and Mike Holland went head to head for the entire 8 miles with Mike Holland sneaking a wave coming into the finish and pipping Mike Sieber by a nose. Conditions were fantastic while on the cool side for Florida. A special thank you to Rob and Karen Mirlenbrink for organizing the event at Honeymoon Island. The Parks Rangers stepped in to make this a fabulous event. Thank you !
Race 5 held on Sunday at Treasure Island while stated out cool turned into a picture perfect day. Reid Hyle pulled out to a fantastic lead once again and his form continues to improve. Rob Mirlenbrink continues to improve and was in a comfortable second place. In the OC1 division Harry Mountain and John Edwards went head to head and did not give an inch with John eventually shaking off Harry. What was incredible were the amount of individual battles going on around the race course. JP Atherholt on his ski and Burch Baskett on his Kakua OC1 slogged it out all the way with JP pulling a slim win. Another great battle had Mike Sieber and Tonya Streinz locked in with their Hurricane OC1's and Mike eventually ahead by 5 seconds. On the Sea Kayaks Stan Holoquist, Paul Mehring and Peter Eichenberger finishing within seconds of each other provided another close battle for the entire 8 miles. On the short course, veteran Bob Terbush styled his way to a clean victory with Kathy Edwards making her first appearance on an OC1 at the series.
What is really amazing since the Hobie Series was started last year, is the incredible improvement of all paddlers participating, competition is getting tougher and times continue to get faster around the 8 mile and 4 mile courses. On Sunday there were 15 OC1 entrants and 8 Ski entrants, the Hobie Series has clearly got folks back out on the Ocean and having a great time. The Gulf of Mexico provided great conditions this weekend.
April 29th at 2 pm will be the start of Race 6 for the Series at Treasure Island. In total there are 8 races with 5 to count towards overall points. In most divisions the outcome is wide open and anything can happen, miss a race and you could be out of contention.
Look forward to seeing everyone out there, we will have a strong contingent from the East Coast as this race coincides with an OC6 race to be held the following day.
Hobie Ocean Paddling Series Race 4 Series 2 Long Course PositionName Elapsed Time Division Div Place 1 Reid Hyle 1:06:21 SS Open Men 1 2 Bruce Gipson 1:14:52 SS Senior Men 1 3 John Edwards 1:15:27 OC1 Open Men 1 4 Andy Gerber 1:16:11 SS Senior Men 2 5 Harry Mountain 1:17:04 OC1 Masters Men 1 6 JP Atherholt 1:17:10 SS Open Men 2 7 Jean Raas 1:17:34 OC1 Open Men 2 8 Cortland Reilly 1:19:05 OC1 Masters Men 2 9 Lex Raas 1:21:33 OC1 Seniors Men 1 10 Randy Perkins 1:22:03 OC1 Seniors Men 2 11 David Robertshaw 1:27:15 SS Masters Men 1 12 Michael Maddux 1:29:44 Sea Kayak Open Men 1 13 Stanley Holoquist 1:30:11 Sea Kayak Veteran Men 1 14 Paul Mehring 1:32:46 Sea Kayak Senior Men 2 15 Peter Eichenberger 1:37:00 Sea Kayak Veteran Men 2 16 Mike Holland 1:40:59 OC1 Veteran Men 1 17 Mike Sieber 1:41:15 OC1 Veteran Men 2 18 Tonya Streinz 1:51:42 OC1 Open Ladies 1 Short Course 1 Bob Terbusch 0:43:48 OC1 Veteran Men 1 2 Lewis Bayers 0:46:25 Sea Kayak Senior Men 1 3 Jim Bailey 0:46:53 OC1 Masters Men 1 4 Jeannie Schaffer 0:50:23 Sea Kayak Senior Ladies 1
Hobie Ocean Paddling Series Race 5 Series 2 Long Course Position Elapsed Time Division Div Place 1 Reid Hyle 1:04:26 SS Open Men 1 2 Rob Mirlenbrink 1:09:42 SS Open Men 2 3 Sean Wilber 1:12:50 SS Open Men 3 4 John Edwards 1:13:13 OC1 Open Men 1 5 Harry Mountain 1:13:59 OC1 Masters Men 1 6 Lonn Benson 1:15:20 SS Masters Men 1 7 Jean Raas 1:16:00 OC1 Open Men 2 8 Randy Perkins 1:16:34 OC1 Senior Men 1 9 Cortland Reilly 1:17:11 OC1 Masters Men 2 10 JP Atherholt 1:20:27 SS Open Men 4 11 David Robertshaw 1:22:36 SS Masters Men 2 12 Peter Eichenberger 1:22:47 Sea Kayak Veteran Men 1 13 Stanley Holoquist 1:23:00 Sea Kayak Veteran Men 2 14 Paul Mehring 1:23:15 Sea Kayak Senior Men 1 15 Mike Zajac-Batell 1:26:35 OC1 Senior Men 2 16 Burch Baskett 1:27:00 OC1 Open Men 3 17 Karen Mirlenbrink 1:29:02 SS Open Ladies 1 18 Deven 1:30:41 OC1 Senior Men 3 19 Mike Sieber 1:32:18 OC1 Veteran Men 1 20 Tonya Streinz 1:32:23 OC1 Open Ladies 1 21 Mike Holland 1:35:08 OC1 Veteran Men 2 22 Mike Moran 1:36:46 Sea Kayak Veteran Men 3 23 Rea Sieber 1:58:00 OC1 Senior Ladies 1 Short Course 1 Bob Terbusch 0:49:00 OC1 Veteran Men 1 2 Lewis Bayers 0:59:00 OC1 Senior Men 1 3 Kathy Edwards 1:18:26 OC1 Senior Ladies 1
Posted by keizo on Tue, 03/28/2006 - 12:29pm