West Coast Championship 2014 March 1st & 2nd Sand Key FL

The West Coast Championships was one of the best race event of the year.  Ideal weather and ideal location made for 2 days of intense paddling.  Saturday OC-6 500m sprints.  Saturday the beach was packed with hundreds of participants from clubs as far away as Miami and Atlanta.  Kai Aniani really over performed winning every event.  Sunday not as many participants but those who competed were very highly skilled paddlers.  We raced an ideal 8 mile course for SUP, OC-1 and Surfski from Sand Key straight out thru Clearwater Pass out to Marker #1 and back twice.  This course turned out to be one of the best course choices I have paddled in Florida.  The pass had its challenges on a great incoming current and side current as edge of the Sand Key jetty.  It was an ideal race under ideal condition, a real change from the last few years.  I stayed for both days and I'll be back next year.

Comments

Post a Comment

Feel free to ask questions or share your knowledge

Popular posts from this blog

Surfski Repair

Image
Surfski Repair (Step by step guide) While standing on a floating dock and removing the boat from the water one evening, my grip slipped and it fell on a dock tie.  The impact placed a small indent in the ski.  I knew I was in trouble because I knew nothing about boat repair.  I immediately called my friend & surfski training partner Brent.  He offered to help each evening after work to repair the surfski.  I quickly realized that my seemingly bad situation had afforded me a great opportunity to learn from someone who has extensive experience in professional auto body repair and had repaired surfskis before.  If this ever happened again in the future, I would have the experience behind me to fix it myself.  In repairing the ski we wanted to create a solid repair that didn't add unnecessary weight, was easy on the budget and made the ski look like it did originally.  Below are the steps we took to repair it: 1.  Create cardboard cu...
Read more

Outdoor storage of surfski

Image
I moved into a smaller house with a garage that is not big enough to store a 22' surfski. Here is how I properly stored my ski outdoors without sun or moisture damage in sunny high humidity Florida. I looked online and all the covers seem so expensive. I thought about it alot & finally got the perfect solution.  I picked up an industrial thickness white vinyl tarp cover.  Don't use the cheaper home depot variety.  Get the high quality thick industrial stuff in white.  I cut it in strips so that I could cover several boats.  I also found a silver/gray elasticized gray boat cover which someone got rid of (likely for a 20 foot boat) which I lay over the white vinyl.  Two layers of protection.  How fortunate!  Its elastic ends fit perfectly over my surfski. I use 4 straps to keep the cover firmly in place in high winds.  I store it in the shade of the trees and pool screen to keep it cool.  Finall...
Read more

My first surfski a Futura sport

Image
I raced and surfed this boat for at least 5 years.  It's very tough.  I originally picked this up from a guy in Orlando.  I was looking for a retro Magnum P.I. type surfski.  I didn't know about the high-tech carbon fiber models at the time.  I later used it as a trainer for newbies.  My brother-in-law now owns it.  The stripes, handles, and seat padding I added to it.  It had metal rudder cables, aluminum kick-up rudder, and aluminum rudder pedals. Very durable to own for many years.  I'm glad to have owned a classic boat as well as the modern ones.  There are rivers I was able to race in this one that I wouldn't have considered bringing a more expensive lighter boat.
Read more