Bayou racing, Part 2: racing tandem

The first annual Lower Atchafalaya River Sprint Races would consist of three six-mile events: one for tandem boats at 9 AM, one for solo boats at 11 AM, and one for "big boats" (three or more paddlers) at 1 PM.  A single benefactor, Mr. F.C. "Butch" Felterman of Patterson, had donated a $5000 purse, and as a result each race offered, for men and for women, a $500 prize for first place, a $250 prize for second place, and a $100 prize for third place.

Several racers of repute came to Patterson hoping to raise their net worth a little.  Notable among them were Brad Pennington of Houston, an accomplished flatwater sprint and marathon racer, and Andrew Korompay of Kingwood, Texas, a former member of no less than the internationally-dominant Hungarian national team.  The organizers had hoped for an even greater turnout of paddling talent, and I suspect the main reason they didn't get it was simply that the word didn't really get out: the addition of the prize money hadn't been announced until just several weeks prior.  Participation was particularly sparse on the women's side.  Hopefully more racers will have this event on their 2018 calendar now that some paddlers have walked away from the 2017 edition a little bit richer.

I had myself a partner for the tandem race: Jeff Schnelle of Irma, Wisconsin.  Jeff and I had seen each other a month earlier at the USCA Nationals up in Iowa; a dealer for a couple of boat manufacturers including Epic Kayaks, Jeff had made the trip down to deliver a boat to a customer, and he had Epic's new tandem surf ski with him for us to paddle.  So as soon as the pre-race meeting was over we quickly put the boat in the water for a warmup.  After practicing a couple of starts and getting a feel for each other's stroke rhythm, we paddled up to the starting line.

The gun went off at nine o'clock sharp, and we got a pretty good start off the line.  In short order we were among the top three boats: to our right was the team of Brad Pennington and Andrew Korompay, and right in front of us was the team of Pellerin brothers Carson and Conrad.  As the first half-mile of the race passed beneath us I was a little surprised that these two teams didn't leave us in the dust.  Both were paddling ICF K2s, presumably much faster boats than the stable tandem surf ski Jeff and I were in.  And both teams were made up of what I would consider very solid paddlers: I have mentioned Brad and Andrew's CV above, and the Pellerin boys are strong 16-year-olds whom I have watched improve rapidly over a few years.

By the time we reached the first buoy turn Brad and Andrew had opened a lead of several boat lengths while Jeff and I sat on Carson and Conrad's stern wake.  Even though our boats were similar in length, Jeff and I made a much tighter turn and just like that we were on the brothers' left-side wake.

The course was three laps of a two-mile loop.  Having just rounded the buoy positioned a half-mile upriver from the start/finish line, we now headed downstream toward a buoy a half-mile below the start/finish.  There might have been a small bit of current helping us in this direction, but not much.  Technically we were racing on Bayou Teche, but the event's "Lower Atchafalaya" moniker was apt because down here the main Atchafalaya and all its tributaries and distributaries are part of the same mass of marshy swampland moving toward the Gulf of Mexico.

As we covered the mile from the top buoy to the bottom buoy Jeff and I held a comfortable spot on Carson and Conrad's side wake.  Brad and Andrew increased their lead on us a bit but were still not dominating the way I'd thought they might.  As we approached the bottom buoy the Pellerins threw in a surge that knocked us back to their stern wake, and I thought they were hoping to break away soon.  But once again Jeff and I made the turn tighter and were back on their side wake when it was over.  I was hoping our tenacity might be getting in the brothers' heads a bit.

Overall I was pleased with how Jeff and I were doing so far.  One reason was that our boat was proving faster than I'd expected: Epic has long manufactured a longer, tippier tandem ski that's intended for more elite-level racers, and I'd assumed that paddling this ski, made for the not so highly-skilled athlete, would be a drag by comparison.  But it was holding its own quite well.

Another reason is that racing in team boats in general is hard.  For the person used to racing solo, where anything he does affects nobody but himself, paddling a team boat can be a real psychological adjustment.  Not only is the boat itself bigger and heavier, but also you've got the extra weight of the person or people in the boat with you, and you can feel that extra inertia with every stroke.  Paddling in sync, so that the power of all the boat's paddlers is concentrated into every stroke, is paramount.

To our right Carson and Conrad were demonstrating beautiful synchronized paddling.  The two have grown up paddling team boats, usually a K3 with their brother Peyton, and it showed.  Jeff and I, who had never paddled together until 15 minutes before race time, probably looked sloppy by comparison.  I was in the bow so that I couldn't see how in sync we were, but I think he was faster to pull on the paddle after the catch than I was, because I could often feel that burst of power a split-second before I pulled myself.  But all told, I think we were making a competent go of it.

Up ahead of us Brad and Andrew looked anything but fluid, and I was a bit surprised considering how good they are as individuals, but even elite-level paddlers don't always mesh in a K2.  A few years ago Mike Herbert's wife Christel told me that the U.S. team coaches once tried putting Mike in a K2 with Greg Barton.  That would seem like a no-brainer, teaming up the two most successful international racers the U.S. has ever had.  But the two men's paddling styles were so different that the experiment was a flop.

We made another buoy turn and came back down to the start/finish line to mark the halfway point of the race.  Shortly after that Jeff and I broke away a bit from the Pellerins.  Carson and Conrad moved over so that they were off our left shoulders, and I thought maybe they were hoping to be on the inside of the next buoy turn; but Jeff and I threw in a little surge and soon we had increased the gap.  When we rounded the bottom buoy I could see that it would be a tall order for the boys to pull back even with us.

Jeff noticed it too, and he asked me if we should start trying to reel in Brad and Andrew.  "Yes, but slowly," I replied.  The Texans were a tantalizingly short distance up ahead, certainly, but I didn't want to get too zealous about going after them.  I had at least one more race to do, and I didn't want to blow myself out completely in this one.  Brad and Andrew had more racing to do as well, and I had a feeling they were holding something back themselves.  If they saw Jeff and me making a run they would likely surge away from us, and Jeff and I would have spent a lot of energy with nothing to show for it.  Then again, I didn't want to be a wuss or be afraid to take chances... and so in my usual wishy-washy fashion I advised that we go about it with caution.

As we moved into the final lap I think we did close the gap a bit.  We picked up the pace a little more as we approached the bottom buoy for the last time, and then, with a half-mile left, we surged hard.  We gained some more ground--partly because Brad and Andrew drifted over to the left quite a bit, adding some distance for themselves--but with a couple hundred meters left I could tell it wouldn't be enough.  Brad and Andrew crossed the line in a time of 48 minutes, 21 seconds.  They would split the $500 first prize ($250 apiece).  Jeff and I came in 21 seconds later for a second-place payday of $125 each.  We urged Carson and Conrad across the line about two minutes later.

There was only one female pair entered in this race: Jill Tamperello of Berwick, Louisiana, and Beth Felterman of Patterson.  One must show up to win, and that's exactly what these ladies did.  Hopefully there will be a bit more competition for the female title in the future.

The complete results are posted here.

It would be just over an hour before my next race, so I headed back to my car to dry off, drink some fluids and eat an orange and a banana, and relax for a bit.