Pacifico Paddle
Challenge – St Pete’s Beach
When I was at St Simons Island SUP Challenge I heard a few
people mention about a race on the 9th/10th of November
at St Petersburg near Tampa. I had wanted to head over to the west coast of
Florida at some point and I was hoping that things would work out so I could
make this two day race. The Saturday was a Battle of the paddle style race and
something I was looking forward too, I am planning to enter the Battle of the
Paddle in California in 2014 and this would be a good test + practice run.
Multiple buoy turns in and out from the beach with a short beach run with the
paddle in between laps. The Sunday was the main event for me, The Elite 8 mile
distance race, I had learnt from my race in Georgia that you have to have a PFD
(Personal Floatation Device) or lifejacket to keep the coastguard/insurance
companies happy. A lot of the other races had a small belt PFD and I had to
take a lifejacket, fortunately I could strap it to the front of the Astro but
it was still extra weight and windage. I brought myself a belt pfd and
hydration pack to try and give myself a good shot at doing well, alloy
adjustable paddle and inflatable board should be enough of a handicap.
I got up at 3am on the Saturday ready for the 220 mile drive
to St Petersburg, the journey went pretty well, passing through Daytona,
Orlando and Tampa. After finding the hotel I would be staying in that night I
went to find the event to sign in and get my race top. The event was getting
busy and people were milling about, plenty of UTS with boards on the roof lined
the car park. I headed back to the hotel and walked through the lobby with my
board and gear in hand, walked onto the beach and started the task of pumping
up my board, the pressure pump gauge had broken some weeks before and I had no
idea what pressure I was at on the board so I just kept pumping until I could
pump no more.
Already the heat was becoming unbearable reaching into the 80
degree mark, (28oc), I paddled up the coast to the event location a little over
a mile north of where I was staying, the water calm and the beach actually had
a curve to it, a rare sight for my time in Florida so far. There were plenty of
tents set up with various board companies and paddles available for sale or
just to demo as well as clothing and massages etc. i plonked my board on the
beach and tried to get myself settled and take a look at the race course maps.
The elite zig zag course had 1 shorter lap with the turn out past a boat
anchored off the beach, the idea of this was to get a good enough gap between
people before a buoy turn so there wasn’t to much carnage at the turn, then
back to the far marker then back into the beach. We started about an hour
before high tide and had started on a small sand bar just off the beach line,
this meant there was a ditch between where you jumped off and before the beach
run. We all set off at a blistering pace and it didn’t take long before I was
over heating and feeling the pressure. There were perhaps 10/12 people in front
of me at this point and I knew that this was going to be much tougher than the
previous race. As we came into the beach for the first time it was hard work
going through the ditch of water, it sapped all your energy straight away, I
clearer that and tried to gain some ground on the run, I snuck past one person
and headed back to my board, I got a good launch and was just behind Alex
Hedman, I tried to keep up with him as he was also on a 14’ board. I felt a
lack of energy on the turns as I tried to recover from the run section. I felt
I was taking just that bit longer to move back on the board and execute the
step back turns, Alex was slowly pulling away and I tried again to catch him, a
few others were starting to catch and pass me and I tried to slot in behind one
of them to take a breather, it was actually very hard work to try and stay in
the draft and I kept getting pushed one side or the other, I figured I would be
easier to just slog it on my own and tried to pull past them, I got just over a
board length ahead of them by the time we hit the beach but lost some time on
the run. The heat was killing me by this point, it was proberly around 30
degrees and I still had 2 more laps to go. The section that ran parallel to the
beach was almost directly into the wind, it was just enough to help cool me
down but I could only make up so much ground on this section, as soon as we
turned I started to overheat straight away. A few more people over took me and
on the last beach run the tide had come in and was up to my thighs and made it
incredibly hard to wade through, as I slogged round the last lap I was glad it
was almost over, I came up to the last buoy and someone overtook me, I really
didn’t want to slip yet another place and I gave everything I had left, he hit
the sand bar about 5 seconds ahead of me and I charged hard through the water
and sprinted up the beach to the finish line, I just managed to pip him across
the line about .4 of a second ahead. I finished the race in 20th
place and 5th in the 14’ class, out of breathe and exhausted. I had
a few hours to wait before the prize giving and although I knew I hadn’t won
anything it was good to see who had done well in tough conditions. Plus there
was a hog roast and Luau later in the evening after the awards that I didn’t
want to miss. I headed back to the hotel fairly early as I had been up since
3am and wanted to get a good night’s sleep before the distance race the next
day.
Needless to say I didn’t sleep well at all, there was a wedding party in
the hotel and it was extremely noisy, the couple in the room next to me were
having arguments all night long, the worst being at 3am, I felt aweful, head
aching, lack of sleep and still boiling hot, I think I didn’t hydrate well
enough and was paying the price, as I was awake for some long I was debating
whether or not I could even race the next day, I did want to do the 8 miler as
I wanted to explore and see the area but I just didn’t have any energy. It was
time to make my dicission, I headed to registration and changed my entry to the
4 mile open race instead, but to the tune of an extra $20 which seemed a bit
steep considering it already cost $119 for the 2 days. As the time ticked on
and heat increased and I was unsure of how much race I would have in me, it
soon came time to line up and get ready to, Rule 5 it, Sam Ross can let you
know about rule 5 if need be. I got a fairly good start and it wasn’t until
after the race I found out just how important that was, apparently one of the
OC1’s caused absolute carnage on the mark and managed to slow down the back of
the fleet, about half a mile down the straight I glanced about and there were
about 6 of us all in a similar placing, with 2 more out front of us slowly
pulling away. I kept digging but was really not feeling great, dripping with
sweet and feeling weak I kept going, after another mile or so a guy started to
make progress and start to pass me, I started to paddle over towards him hoping
to get in the draft, there was now a slight gap from the others and I sure I
was now in 4th place but it was far from over, I managed to draft
the Boga board for about ¼ of a mile until round the mark and on the return
leg, as I rounded the mark I could now see the rest of the fleet and they
really weren’t very far behind at all, I was going to have to keep giving it
everything just to maintain 4th place. No matter how hard I tried I
just couldn’t catch the Boga board, my hydration pack had also slipped down and
made it almost impossible to get fluid on board, I could get a few slips but
really lost a lot of speed in the process only managing to just about do small
paddle strokes. As we had to stay inside the swim lane markers on the return
leg I would use these as markers to check behind me every now and then or as
drink marks. The 3 people behind me didn’t seem to be catching me but certainly
weren’t getting any further back, I could feel myself slowing and was really
suffering with heat exhaustion. I managed to finish in 4th place
overall and claimed a 3rd place in the 14’ class. Although unhappy
at the fact I had dropped out of the distance race and into the 4 miler it was
still far from easy and was pleased I managed to maintain a good pace on the
Astro and get a podium finish for Starboard in a state that is very much
dominated by other board makes.
I would like to thank everyone that made the race happen from
the volunteers to the racers themselves. Starboard and tushingham for the
continued support and also Tony at Jax Beach surf shop. Until the next race,
Whoop Whoop! Follow me for updates and training news @nipyoutside
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