Back in mid-September, our very own Ivan Storck went up to British Columbia to compete in the 32KM Indian Arm Challenge. Here is awesome accounting of the event, direct from Ivan...... “I’ve never seen this place when it’s sunny, even though I’ve been here many times” said my friend Estelle Matheson. The skies had just opened up and dumped rain as the boat dropped us off at the campsite. It ’s an hour from the nearest road to Granite Falls. We were standing next to a raging waterfall and the water was thundering from the days of all the recent rains. I thought of my teammate paddling hard now to get here, so that I could continue our the relay race back to Vancouver. We were splitting the 32km (20 mi) distance of the Indian Arm paddle challenge so that we could paddle it on a standup paddleboard. Some of our friends on SUPs decided to do the whole way up and down “the arm”. Indian Arm is a fjord that starts within the city limits
of Vancouver, BC, in a village called Deep Cove. The deep water heads roughly North by NE into the mountains. Shrouds of clouds were spread across the steep sides of the fjord. A seal greeted us as the boat pulled up to the campsite dock. We were roughly 290km (180 mi) by water from the Pacific ocean and 40km from the Salish Sea, which near Seattle is called Puget Sound. Tall trees were everywhere, of course. I had to paddle about 17km back to Deep Cove, Vancouver. The way it worked was one person on a team paddled “up the arm” for the first part, and then the second person took over the board, (or kayak, Outrigger Canoe, or surfski) There were only four SUP relay teams. So only one team wouldn’t make the podium. I watched the partners of all the other three teams switch on the beach. Where was my partner, Troy? I didn’t know he was battling a strong tidal current - the water in the fjord was currently emptying out. However, once we
switched, and I was headed out with the current, things were good. Very good. I was able to catch one of the other relay SUP paddlers, and then make steady progress ahead of him. He was an athletic guy, probably in better shape than me, but he was a brand new paddler. He wasn’t standing on the center of the board, his nose was out of the water. I got him to move up and balance the board out, and encouraged him to draft behind me, but he wasn’t holding his paddle up and down perpendicular to the water, and was making wide arcs left and right. SUP racing is fascinating to me because there are so many different parts of the body and equipment to monitor and adjust: core rotation, paddle angle - in two directions, foot placement, lats, quads, shoulders, arms, hand grip, stroke length, and more. I forgot that my friends on team “5 feet” had started at 8am, so I was racing the clock with them. Liza is such a strong paddler I wasn’t able to catch her, and
Jessi made great time against the current. And I knew Matt Jones had given his wife Michaela, who is also a strong paddler, an amazing head start, and they had 1st place locked in. So much for keeping up with the Joneses. I was feeling strong, and the outgoing tide gave me super powers because I hadn’t really factored that in and wasn’t thinking about it. Every time I looked at my speed on my watch I saw above 5mph, which only motivated me to keep paddling harder. Because we were racing the clock, team #goodpaddleseattle ended up getting 2nd place. For our efforts we were rewarded with applause and a can of Canadian beer each. I love it! The BC paddlers have a smooth combination of being total bad-asses and incredibly humble and welcoming. You really have to go race there sometime. Props to Mike Darbyshire and the staff at Deep Cove Kayak for putting it all together. Lots of great grub and free beer for all racers at the finish. Mahalo nui loa to
my paddling 'ohana for a quick and fulfilling mini getaway to Vancouver. Thanks to Gretchen and Patrick for inviting me to the house, what a pimpin’ crib!! And my team mate Troy for making the relay happen, and fighting that current. I thought I had volunteered for the hard leg of the arm, but I’m not sure now. What a fun race!
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