Some racing advice from Mr. Barton

Since I won't be racing myself this weekend, I'll share this bit of racing advice that Greg Barton posted on his Face Book athlete page last week:

Wake Jumping 

One km into today’s Lake Whatcom Classic, I found myself on the stern wake of Brandon & Heather Nelson in a double ski, who were on the stern wake of a 4+ rowing shell. Off to our left was DJ Jacobsen & Kevin Olney drafting a 4x scull.
About 4 km into the race, the 4+ shell starting making a right turn, indicating they were doing the short course while the rest of us were doing the long course. That left the Nelsons and me without our “ride”. By that point, the 4x scull had pulled 60-80m ahead of us.
This brings up a major decision in a distance race – do I attempt to catch the lead pack, team up with the Nelson double ski, or paddle solo? If you are capable of staying with a faster boat or pack, it will give you a noticeably faster time for the race – provided you don’t tire yourself out so much that you completely die off towards the end. Even then, it may be worth it if you can stay with the faster boat for a significant time before falling off.
I opted to chase down the lead pack. There are 2 ways to go about this – 1) Climb up and over a series of wakes from directly behind the leader(s), or move out to the side into clear water and angle up to them just outside of the wakes. Since I was already within the vee of the lead wake at the point, I opted to paddle up the center. Even 80 meters back, there are still wakes – especially if they are from teamboats (which are heavier) or multiple craft.
The strategy is to surf the small wake for a period of time, then put in a hard sprint to move up and over the next wake. Rest for a short period, then sprint again to move another wake closer. The timing and effort is important. You need to sprint hard enough to climb over the next wake in 15-20 seconds. If instead you push forward with a steady grind, you’ll likely tire out before gaining enough speed to jump the wake. Then you need to chose your rest period – not enough rest before jumping the next wave and you’ll be too tired to make it. But resting too long decreases your chance of ever catching the leaders – especially if they are moving faster than you can paddle on your own. A series of sprints and high intensity paddling can only be maintained for a certain period of time. More than 5-10 minutes and you will likely tire before catching the pack.
My sequence was to jump a wake, recover for 30-60 seconds until I felt capable of going again and sprinting over the next wake. This was not a full recovery – I was still tired from the previous sprint before going again. But I knew I had to catch them before my limited energy reserves would be completely depleted. The good news is that each progressive wake becomes slightly larger and an easier ride, until you finally reach the stern wake of the last boat on the pack.
I was dead tired when finally catching up, but then tried to paddle as conservatively as possible while maintaining a position on the stern wake of the double ski. I kept this position until about 1.5 km from the finish. First I moved up to the side wake of the double ski, rested briefly and then pulled up alongside the 4x scull to challenge for the lead – eventually pulling ahead.
Jacobsen & Olney followed me up on my side wake. Then they took the lead for a period while I rode their side wake. I managed to pull ahead for a final time and held them off in a sprint to the finish.
It was an exciting race. Experience definitely pays off. The more times you put yourself in these situations and try different strategies, the more you’ll learn what does and doesn’t work for you!
Here’s the results.

One of the things I've always admired about Greg is his desire to master every aspect of canoe and kayak racing.  Whether it's "wake-jumping," or starts, or buoy turns, or any other skill, Greg seeks to find the methods that work best for him and be a truly complete racer.  I also like his problem-solving approach to dealing with issues he encounters on the water: I remember reading something he wrote once about arriving at a race in the Pacific Northwest and finding the conditions much colder than he'd expected, and fashioning a makeshift pair of pogies from a couple of plastic bags.

Any time you read something on this blog that you find particularly wise or enlightening, you can be sure that it is full of stuff I learned from Greg and similarly accomplished athletes.