Dec 6 - Melbourne Florida Race Results

Paddlers awoke to a decidedly wintery morning in central east coast Florida after a strong cold front passed in the middle of the night. Grey skies, temperatures in the low 50's and a howling North wind blowing 20 kts down the length of the Indian River greeted a fantastic group of paddlers from all over the state.

Twelve boats toed the line on this frigid morning. Their warm spirit was no match for the weather! The course was shortened to accomodate the wind and cold, but mostly because the hot food was arriving at noon!

A Canadian high kneel olympic team in training felt right at home in the weather conditions and decided to try outrigger paddling for the first time. They picked it right up and battled the Outrigger Outreach boat back and forth for the entire race at the front of the pack. At least that is what I am told. I was no where near to those two distant specks on the horizon. It was quite impressive to see the Tampa team match the Canadians blow for blow!

The course provided a wide variety of conditions. The most exciting was surfing downwind through the narrow relief bridge at the east end of the River. More than one paddle was broken!

The results are as follows:

Men's Open

1) Crazy Canucks 56:53
2) Outrigger Outreach 57:45
3) Space Coast 1:01:34

Mixed

1) Hui Lae Makani (Melbourne) 1:01:21
2)Outigger Outreach 1:04:04
3) Lana Kila 1:07:02

Women's

1) Ft. Lauderdale Canoe Club 1:28:38

A big thanks to the volunteers and paddlers that braved the
conditions!

Posted by keizo on Mon, 12/08/2003 - 11:29pm