The Ventura race has always had a certain quality to it, the weather, the wind, the harbor, the race always seems more feral.
Race #5 was a little different from the previous races. We had a bunch of guys traveling for Dragon Boat and other family events, so the line up in our crew had two new faces. Noah Rosellini and I, book-ended the canoe with Justus, Judson, Will, and Allen sitting 2- 5. Each of those guys being in the top crew and winning at least two other races.
Ventura is run notoriously quickly on race day due to the short paddle to the start line, so all the scheduled races were motoring on time under the grey overcast weather. Our crew was a little nervous as the women’s race was finishing because we were a stroker shy of a full crew. But up walks Noah, claiming he was in fact, on time, the race was just not running behind.
With a quick pump swap, team pep talk, and a doggy shuttle to Billy’s boat we were on our way; but we were still one of the last canoes to leave the harbor. At the previous race (MDR), three of our canoes ended up being boxed out on the start line and had to paddle from behind the whole race. Still, it was very inspirational paddling in the second crew as we walked through most of the field to finish 12th across the line. This week, leaving the harbor I hoped we weren’t going to be repeating that pole position. Paddling out, I aimed for the far-right side of the line away from any cluster and confusion, and it paid off with a clean start.
Will had reiterated during the prep talk that the race isn’t won in the first 15 minutes and that our competition is going to be blasting off the line to try and make a statement. With no one blocking our way and blue water in front of us we scooted out to the front of the pack. Noah and Justus setting us up, we had our bodies swinging together at a controlled slow rate. Using a big leg drive, the small ground swell and head wind felt like only a minor inconvenience.
15 minutes in, we were in the lead, under stroking the competition while we all converged onto a similar race path. Pale Kai and Lanakila’s 404 boat battling for 2nd and behind them Lanakila’s 419 boat was still within shouting distance. Controlled and steady, the race isn’t won in the next 15 minutes. Will and Judson calmly calling little runners and ups so that we could focus on the canoe skipping up swell.
It was around the 20-minute mark that things started to change. Lanakila 404 started to up their rate and made a push passing Pale kai and taking the lead. We kept the pressure and went with them, separating from Pale Kai and Lanakila 419, but slowly lost ground to 404. The first turn came and we had an equal distance of two boats open water behind 1st place and ahead of 3rd place.
Running to the 2nd turn is where 404 made a giant push opening their lead and separating themselves. The swell and wind not being as big as Ventura is infamous for making it all the more impressive for the gap that they were putting on us. Controlled and steady, the race isn’t won in the second leg. We found a few bumps and ran up our own lead on Pale Kai and fully separated from 4th place by the second buoy.
Coming into the turn I counted that we were approximately 26 seconds behind 404. That’s a big gap. The final harbor piece isn’t that long and with the small south wind there would be a push all the way to the finish. Controlled and… nope, the steady was over now, it was time to lock into the pain cave. That 404 canoe had gained all the ground that we were going to give them. There wasn’t much bump, and the wind that had been in our face and on our side for the first two legs was now on our tail and we were out running it.
This leg was all about work and effort. Downwind paddling requires staying composed with maximum output, and the willingness to sell out for your team. It doesn’t matter who calls up, you go! Fortunately, we had Will and Jud trading off on cracking the whip. Our competition was solidly in front of us, as we walked away from Pale Kai, but with every bump we crawled our way closer to 404. The Malama canoe being what it is, the canoe wants to track on a certain line; you have to let it do what it wants and correct it when the boat has speed. If you get stuck correcting in between bumps with no speed you stall the boat–in big swell, that can swamp a canoe, or make you feel like a buoy. Very rarely is the racecourse going in a direction that is fully advantageous for the canoe, but Billy nailed it, and the lead boat marked us right at the red buoy at the mouth of the race finish.
While the wind and bump wasn’t much, it was there if you could catch it, but racing from behind at the end of a race requires tough decisions. Do you cover the competition, or do you take a risk? I decided early on the third leg that we were going to take a risk and not cover our competition, we had to gamble from behind. Lanakila was staying high to the left, catching the bigger bumps and surfing strong. But our crew was pushing hard on the little runners going right, and while the canoe wasn’t getting a high-end speed, it was carrying longer and would link up with the next bump easier.
Battle to the Finish
I stopped hearing the canoes behind us and we locked in on the bumps in front of us. With Will and Jud still trading off calling bumps and me and Allen adding in supporting comments every once in a while. Slowly we cut Lanakila’s lead on us in half, but Lanakila being an experienced crew weren’t letting up. Their lead had shrunk but we had surfed farther right, so, it was anyone’s guess on the actual distance in between until we converged on the red buoy outside the harbor.
Three boat links open water. The race intensity got turned up again.
Before the buoy, we were gaining ground surfing to the right, with Lanakila staying high on our left. After the buoy, they aimed directly towards the finish line, and we surfed sharply left crossing to the north side of the harbor mouth. By heading toward the breakwater, we managed to dodge the flushing current in the middle where 404 was sitting in the dropping tide. Almost immediately, we closed the gap and surfed even with them entering the harbor. Will called out cool as can be, “lets make it hurt” as it came down to an all-out drag race. After nine miles of racing we closed in on the finish line trading leads on the small wind swells rolling through the entrance basin.
There aren’t many venues that have finish lines like Ventura. Spectators get to see the canoes coming in from a mile out, all the way through the harbor and straight into the finish allowing racers to hear the crowd yell and cheer them on. 404 would get a surge and then we would counter, changing the lead a dozen times in the last 500m. As we closed in on the finish, Will called one last up–Noah bumped the rate and the guys emptied the tank in the last 50m.
The finish line horn blew with two fast bursts, both canoes crossing at near the exact same time. We didn’t know who had won. Both teams congratulated each other giving props for a hard race, but no one was willing to claim the win. It was too close to call.
We watched a video that people recorded as we were loading the trailer, but it didn’t have the finish line angle, so we waited…Finally, Johnathan Mason came walking up with a smile on his face, phone in hand, “SCORA updated the results–you guys won!”
For the 2nd week in a row NAC’s top boat came from behind to pass Lanakila for the win! Trust in the stroke and belief in the process, the results spoke for themselves. Nine different guys, three different strokers, two different steersmen…one more race to go!
Steersman, Tyson Poppler
Thanks for letting a 40-year-old “Masters age” steer you!
Tyson Poppler