2009 Rainbow Sandals Battle of the Paddle Re-cap
By Byron Kurt
Whoever did not attend this years BOP missed one heck of Nascar, I mean SUP event. Forget what place you finished as the first thing that came to my mind when I crossed the finished line was, “funnest paddle race I have ever done, by far”. While I was paddling through boards and people through the surf during the race all I could think of was this has to be so much fun to watch. It was very clear by comments from the participants and on lookers that this was truly a great event.
I do not think that the Rainbow Sandals crew could have asked for a better day to hold the BOP at Doheny State Beach. I grew up in both San Clemente and now Dana Point and can honestly say that you only get Doheny like last Saturday (for the exception of a huge swell) a few days a year. We had wind, head high surf, low tide and 94 of the best paddlers in the world on $2000 - $3000 boards playing bumper boards. They tell me the crowd was close to 2,000 people however we could not get a full appreciation of the impact while being focused on the race and trying not to get your head taken off.
When you see the winner and great waterman Jamie Mitchell swimming for his board that got loose on the first inside bouy rounding, you know it must be tough. Many of us had a little help getting launched off our boards from other participants however it was quite a show. My hat goes off to the Aussies and Jaime to their great showing. I just want to be invited to the same type of race down under. Jamie, Billy and Shakira came to the BOP and paddled awesome! I raise my schooner to you!
The race itself was a series of short sprints in and out of the surf for over an hour which takes strength from your entire body, good strategy and some good luck. Every bouy rounding at the inside Hammer or Rivermouth was bodies and boards rolling down through the white water. I remember my first bouy rounding at the Hammer and all I saw was 8 guys surfing (on boards that are not made for surfing) at me and 3 boards loose in the white water coming straight at me. I was just hoping to make it through without getting hurt. I made it through standing while getting hit in the shin and ankle by two boards and one putting a nice hole in the rail of my board. The Fly will be keeping busy patching boards this week.
Our Hobie team, Chuck(5th), T Lloy(7th), Bryce(8th), Colin(10th) TJ(13th), myself(18th), Mitch(20th) and Rob P(28th) all put in a solid performance in the Elite and Elite Relay races with our carbon machines produced by non-other than our chief mechanic Mark Johnson along with Jeff and Hobie Jr. All of the Hobie team was fairly close to one another for much of the race then a few picked off some good waves from the outside to spread things out near the end.
The great part of this sport is the camaraderie that every shares and with paddlers helping one another retrieve stranded boards for others in the surf while trying to gain valuable positions at the same time. You would not find this in other sports with everyone back on the beach giving high-fives and telling each other great race. This is what competition and all sports should be about as it is really about the great time we all have competing together and then laughing while having a few cold ones afterwards. I also had a great time seeing the attendees from the Holland race again, Mark P, Zane, John H., even Eric and Conner B.(what a great kid).
Looking forward to seeing the video footage of the Elite race and anyone that missed it in person needs to keep themselves watching for the posts on line. I promise it will be great viewing. Great job to the Rainbow staff, Sparky, Barrett, Pat Gerry and the volunteers, what the heck are you going to do next year to top this! Keep up the good work and just a few hint: One design Paddle Surf race along with the Elite Paddle Surf race, think about it!
Final thanks to my sponsors, Hobie Boards/Paddles, Hobie Sunglasses, DaKine, Future Fins, Rainbow Sandals, Lowrance GPS, and Erik at On It! Sean, Colleen, Kirby, Murph and James for the world class glass jobs and spitting out our team boards so quick. Pop’s, we are thinking of you and keep up the good fight! See you in the water.
