NESurfski Downwinder

Hi guys,

Great day of racing today with my old training group of New England Surfski paddlers. Today was the annual end of the season Downwinder.  If you’re paddling in New England, you have to check out this series http://www.newenglandsurfski.com/ I was pumped this race happened during my end of the season 2 week break at home. So I went out and met up with the group today for one of the most epic New England races I’ve ever paddled.

Usually this race happens in Maine (Kittery-York), but this year, wind and swells were coming from the east northeast demanding a coastline that could match this angle. 24h in advanced, a Facebook blast went out announcing the course had been changed to the always-choppy Gloucester to Beverly (Massachusetts) coastline, about 10 miles. This stretch would promise a better downwind experience.

And man, it was a downwinder. We got a relatively protected start in the bay at Gloucester; then quickly hit confused waves as we rounded the corner and headed southwest towards Beverly. At first, we had wind chop heading in our direction while the ground swells were coming at us mostly from the side. This turned into a game of reading the small bumps through the big rollers if you hoped to get any rides/help from the water.

About a half hour into the race, everything adjusted to our direction. We had wind chop on top of ground swells and current all heading in our directions. The water was big and powerful with swells at 6-8 feet. So for this stretch, it was all about string together as many rides as possible while watching out for the occasional rogue wave. This is one of those classic examples of New England coast: islands and peninsulas everywhere. This topography caused us to occasionally get hit by an unexpected rebound wave heading in a weird direction. Consequently, this course required a lot of focus.

The field became quite spread out in the rough stretch until we eventually ducked behind a few islands and the course mellowed out a bit. The last 1/3 of the race felt like a flat grind, or maybe this was just by comparison with the first stretch of the race. A few daring paddlers took the wide course around the islands giving them a longer stretch of rides but also a slightly longer course.

I tried my best to keep a steady rhythm for the flat bit as I headed towards the finish line. At the very end, we had a run up the beach finish: the traditional end to the NESurfski downwinder. It was an all around great race, complete with tons of surf and rides. We had 23 competitors in total which is an awesome showing. I was pumped to see how much the series has grown in the 2 years since I’ve moved away to Georgia. Thanks to the guys for putting on such an awesome event and for welcoming me back so kindly. It was really great to be racing back home again!