2014 Mammoth SUP Race Recap and Results

That was some day we had on Sunday at the Toronto Windsurfing Club! The TWC hosts our annual Mammoth SUP race around Toronto Island in September. It usually offers us one of the most scenic races in the GTA. 

Pouring rain and south winds of 27mph at the originally scheduled 10am race time had me worried if we'd get in a race at all. Not surprisingly, a few people saw the bad weather at 10am and decided it wasn't worth it. Sure glad we can get weather radar on our phones - it predicted the system would move on shortly. An hour later, our patience was rewarded with sunny skies and still strong but manageable winds of 17mph from the SW. Due to the strong SW winds, we decided to modify the SUP course so that it didn't go all the way around the Island. Instead, the SUPs took a detour in the Inner Harbour at the east side of the Island airport through the Island canals followed by a portage at the Gibraltar Point lighthouse and then back to the TWC on the south side of the Island. 

Here's a map of the route:

The race started upwind against the waves at Cherry Beach for about 1km, then we got break from the wind in the Eastern Gap, although it was pretty choppy in there. Once we turned the corner and entered the Inner Harbour, the full force of the wind hit us again and by this time it had picked up a bit as well. I could see the Island airport waaaay at the end of the Inner Harbour and it sure looked pretty far away in that wind. I tried veering close to the Islands to see if they would provide any shelter from the wind, but it was no better there and I also had to deal with the reflected waves. A few of the long course SUP paddlers turned back in the Inner Harbour and returned to the start line as the winds were getting stronger and the airport seemed so far away. Normally this is the perfect place to have a quick glace of appreciation at the Toronto skyline from the water, but not in that wind. The upwind torture subsided as we got closer to the airport and the wind shadow of the Islands was making life easier. The Inner Harbour upwind leg was just under 3km if you paddled a direct line. 

Once we entered Blockhouse Bay in the Islands, the water went completely flat, but we still had some quartering wind gusts to deal with - a welcome respite from the Inner Harbour. We could also enjoy nice Toronto Island views while paddling the almost 3km to the Gibraltar lighthouse - picnics, yacht clubs, and cruise boats. 

It seems that everyone found the take-out point for the portage at the end of Lighthouse Bay without too many issues (Hanlan's Bay). There was a 250m portage to Gibraltar beach on the south side of the Island. Here we were met with SW winds of 19mph and rows of breaking waves off the shallow beach. It was a bit tricky getting out beyond the line of breaking waves. Once past the breakers, it was downwind paradise! The wind direction was perfect for a run all the way back to the TWC at Cherry Beach. The stronger winds earlier that morning had built up some nice sized swell. Going upwind in the Inner Harbour was definitely worth it to earn this almost 5km downwind leg. 

Unlike the SUPs, the surfskis went all the way around the Island by going through the Western Gap. I was told there were 5 foot waves coming at you from multiple directions at the same time just outside the Western Gap. Going up the west side of the Island was also tricky since the wind and breaking waves were coming at the surfskis directly from their right. Good thing the SUPs avoided this nasty section. 

On the downwind leg, a couple of surfski racers lost their boats (always wear a leash in windy conditions!). One surfski racer was swimming for some time in the rough waters when Del DaSilva, another surfski racer, spotted him. Del jumped out of his boat to let the other racer take it. Del was swimming to the beach when this time he came across a SUP racer that was having trouble in the downwind conditions. Del paddled the other racer's board back to the finish while the other racer waited for the safety boat to pick him up on the beach. So that's how Del started the race on a surfski and finished on a SUP! Meanwhile, another surfski racer lost his boat and was picked up Tracey Finlay on her SUP. She put him on the back of her board. Jeff Martinek, Chris Lightbound and I grabbed the runaway surfski and were waiting for Tracey and the surfski racer to reach us. Ultimately a police boat picked up the racer off Tracey's board and also picked up the surfski. The four of us then continued on our race. 

Thanks to Del, Tracey, Jeff, and Chris for helping out our fellow racers! Some things are more important than racing. Del ended up with a DNF for the race but he's the leader in terms of rescues on Sunday!

The SUP short course was also quite a challenge as it started in WSW winds of 18mph, gusting to 22mph. The race was held just off the TWC beach. Hugh Wilson and his team wisely shortened the course distance and it went off without any issues. The racers did a nice job dealing with the strong winds and waves - which come in unobstructed in a WSW or SW wind. 

Seven year-old Hugo Robinson was the sole competitor in the Kids race and he did a great job. Impressive that he spent 20 minutes battling the tough conditions to complete the course. 

The sunshine continued on the for lunch and the awards and it turned out to be a great day. Despite a few on-water incidents and weather delays, I'd say overall, it was the most fun Mammoth SUP/surfski race we've had in the 4 years we've been running it. 

Congrats to the winners:

- Tamas Buday, Mens long course Overall

- Larry Cain, Mens long course 50+

- Tracey Finaly, Womens long course Overall

- Ulrik Bedos, Mens short course

- Irina Anisimova, Womens short course

- Hugo Robinson, Kids course

- Brian Heath, Surfski Mens

- Mike Fekete, Surfski Mens 50+

Interesting to note that 4 of the top 8 SUP finishers represented Canada as paddlers in the Olympics. 

Thanks to all our volunteers that made the day possible:

- Hugh Wilson, Nadia Rahman, Karen Wilson, Sierra Wilson, Susan Pospishil, Glen Buchanan, for organizing and running the Short Course and Kids Races, handling registration, recording race results, colour commentary during the races, and their general all-round helpfulness! We couldn't have done it without you!

- Henric Wiegenbroeker for organizing the safety boats and Murry McKercher for piloting the boat for our race

- Mike Fekete of Kayaksport.net for contributing the trophies, gift certificates and draw prizes

- Aaron Pilon of Bluwave for contributing draw prizes

- Silent Sports for contributing event shirts

- Andree Gauthier and her team for getting lunch ready

- And all the others not mentioned here that helped plan, organize and run the event 

Race Results: http://1drv.ms/1ruBLsE

Downwinder in 30mph winds, with gusts averaging 40mph - with Dan, Jess and Del

Probably the windiest downwinder I've done so far. During our paddle on Sunday, winds were averaging 30mph and gusts were averaging 40mph. It was nice to have some company as Dan, Jess, and Del joined me.

Since we hardly ever get conditions this windy, it was challenging but still a blast. Problem is that our windy days occur outside of summer. Downwinding is not a summer sport here. Just get the right suit and it's comfortable, even in winter. 

We launched from Norris Cres., just west of Humber Bay and finished at the Toronto Windsurfing Club. In Humber Bay the larger groundswell pushed us WSW while shorter period wind waves were blowing WNW. This made it tricky to maintain longer glides.
As we reached Toronto Island, there were a few minutes of howling wind that threatened to push us away from the Island so we dropped down to our knees and paddled hard to make the beach on the point. Took a break on the beach before doing the rest of the paddle mostly sheltered from the offshore wind by Toronto Island. 


I did get a bit of video, which I'll post at some point. In the mean time, here are some pics I took today:

Wind readings at Toronto Island

Launch site:

Dan with his prone board. He came 7th in the stock class at the M2O this year on that board.

Dan:

Jess. Watch out for swans near the launch.

Jess:

Del:

Speed Test of Six 14' Race Boards

We tested 6 14' boards with 5 paddlers. 

The boards tested:
Starboard Ace 25" wide

Starboard All Star 25"

Starboard All Star 26"

Bark Dominator 27.5"

Custom Bark (based on Dominator shape) 26.5"

JP Race (2013) 27"

The paddlers:
The testers were all experienced paddlers and competitive racers. To provide an idea of their speeds in flat water, they all competed in a race last fall and averaged between 5 - 5.5mph over a 9 mile course. 

- Male 5'11", 148lbs, racer
- Male 6', 185lbs, racer
- Male 6', 190lbs, racer
- Male 6'4" 225lbs, racer
- Female 5'6", 135lbs (estimate), elite racer

Test methodology:
- Length of the run was about 0.3 miles (or 1600 feet or 485m)
- Paddlers were allowed several seconds to reach full speed before hitting the start line for each run. 
- Straight line runs with no buoy turns
- Each paddler tested all 6 boards doing an upwind run and downwind run for each board (actually 7 boards were tested but there was insufficient data on 1 board so it was eliminated from the results. Each paddler completed a total of 14 runs)
- About 3 minutes of rest between the upwind and downwind legs for the same board. About 7-8 minutes rest between boards. 
- Staggered starts were used to avoid competitive racing effects


Conditions:
- Lake Ontario
- Flat at start with about 5mph side-offshore breeze
- Wind speed increased to about 7-8mph and shifted to side-onshore, creating small chop as test progressed

Conclusions:
The fastest boards were the Starboard All Star 25" and Starboard Ace 25". 

Beyond that, it was more difficult to draw reliable conclusions since the times were pretty close and there were also some data gaps (software glitches and some missed times due to spotting problems since there was only 1 person recording all times at both ends of the course with binoculars). One lesson learned doing this test is that we need at least 2 time keepers/spotters to make sure we capture all results. We just didn't have that luxury this time round. We used paddler signalling at the far end to mark lap completion times. 
Because of data gaps, changing water and wind conditions, and fatigue effects in later trials, I only feel comfortable listing the overall speed order of the boards tested and not all the gory details. With those caveats, here is the order of the boards tested (fastest first):

1. Starboard All Star 25"
2. Starboard Ace 25"
3. Custom Bark 26.5"
4. Bark Dominator
5. JP Race (2013) 27"
6. Starboard All Star 26"

The 25" All Star and 25" Ace were very close (although if we removed the 225lb tester's results, the Ace would be slightly faster). Of course, the order will depend on the individual paddler and especially their weight. It's interesting to see that the 25" All Star was the fastest board while the 26" All Star was the slowest. It goes to show you that these shapes were very close to each other in our test. 

The 25" All Star was the board our elite female tester and our fastest male tester (6', 190lbs) said they liked best. The Ace was just as fast if not faster, but it's unusual shape has more of a learning curve and testers may feel uncomfortable on it the first time round. 

In general, narrower boards are faster but some shapes are more flat water focused while others are more of an all-round shape. Of course, if you get too narrow for your weight, you end up being slower - and we saw this in our test, particularly with our 225lb tester. Being a flat water focused shape seemed to help in our test, which was mostly in flat water. Of the boards tested, the Barks are the ones that have more of a flat water shape. However, when the wind and waves picked up a bit in the second half of the test, paddlers made favorable comments on the speed and handling of all-round shapes - particularly the All Star. 

It's interesting to see the different approaches to nose design by Starboard vs Bark. Starboard's noses are blunter/higher volume and have some rocker. Bark noses are piercing and try to take advantage of the full water line of the board. The Starboard noses tend to splash as they're being paddled, even in flat water. It looks like you're going slower, but that wasn't the case. They also tend to ride over small chop. The Bark noses cut more quietly through flat water and when it gets a bit choppy, the nose will cut through the water more. Depending on the paddler, they have different preferences on which nose style they prefer. Our fastest elite male racer (who couldn't make it to our test) prefers the piercing Bark-style nose since there is less up and down movement of the nose going upwind. He's been riding a Dominator for a few years though and that's what he's used to. Personally, I prefer the Starboard nose that rides over small chop and it's definitely faster for me upwind (and downwind). My All Star and Ace go faster upwind in chop for me than my 25.5" wide custom Bark did. Recent 2014 race designs by Fanatic and NSP/DC also seem to be adopting the Starboard style nose.  Just make sure your board is well suited to the type of conditions you like to paddle in. And of course, demo in your local conditions. 

Hail Storm Downwinder from Humber Bay Park to Cherry Beach

Ivan and I launched from Humber Bay Park late on Sunday afternoon after 4pm. The weather was momentarily sunny there among the green grass and dandelions, a false indicator of the conditions we were about to get into. We were in the wind shadow at the stone beach and the water looked calm. However, mini storms had been moving through the area in the afternoon so we know we'd likely hit some interesting weather. Ivan was on his Dominator and I was trying out my new Starboard All Star on its first downwinder.

As we got further into Humber Bay, we could see that the winds were stronger than anticipated when the storm clouds would pass over us. Complicating matters was the direction of the groundswell, which was not aligned with the wind direction.

Toronto skyline from Humber Bay:

Here's a video taken sitting on my board while in Humber Bay. Unfortunately, I didn't have the mount for my camera so all the video was handheld while I was sitting on my board.

Ivan's visible where the water meets the sky. Tricky groundswell in Humber Bay as we got closer to the Island:

Corduroy texture on the water from the strong winds:

Wary of the wind shifting offshore, we decided to go through the Western Gap at the Island Airport and through the Inner Harbour, rather than sticking to our original plan of going outside of the Island. As we approached the Western Gap where the Island Airport is, the bounce back of the waves off the Island was creating swell coming at us from both behind and from front. This also resulted in very choppy, steep, and unpredictable waves. Very weird. And impossible for Ivan and I to paddle standing up.

Video taken when approaching the Western Gap at Toronto Island:

We dropped to our knees and paddled through the Western Gap, making sure we avoided the airport ferry. As we emerged on the other side and in the Inner Harbour, the swell and waves were flattened by the Island. To make things interesting at that point, a dark storm cloud passed over us and brought some nasty hail and extreme winds. We also had some pretty loud thunder claps during the storm but I didn't see the lightning. Looking at the readings from Toronto Island Airport for that time, the wind was 36mph with gusts to 46mph. The flat water quickly took on some texture and small bumps appeared. As I stood on my board with my paddle in the air, I reached speed of 9.7kph in pretty flat water!

Wind readings at Toronto Island airport:

Here's a pic of the water in the strong winds as the storm kicked up:

Here's a video that I took while sitting on my board during the hail storm. You can see the strength of the wind by the texture of the water. It was so easy to link the small bumps with the help of the high wind. I was standing on the tail of my All Star as it just kept connecting the runners. This part was a blast. Fun with no risk of wiping out on a tricky or big wave. 

As we approached the eastern end of the Inner Harbour, conditions became very tricky once again as we were now dealing with bounce back waves from the eastern wall of the harbour. At this point, a Toronto Marine Police boat pulled up beside us to check if  we were OK. I guess they don't see too many stand up paddlers going for a paddle with 30mph winds in the midst of a hailstorm. They followed us through the Eastern Gap and out into the Outer Harbour just to be sure. 

From there, it was a routine paddle back along Cherry Beach as we were mostly in the wind shadow at that point. We did paddle hard to catch the groundswell back to the beach with no help from the wind.

My 14'x25" Starboard All Star performed very well in the varied conditions and was quite a bit more stable than it's 25" width would suggest. It felt about as stable as a typical 27" wide board to me. The nose is well shaped so that it doesn't bury too much after catching a bump. The few times I buried the nose, I was able to maintain much of my speed and just waited a bit for the nose to pop back up.

I wasn't sure how it would feel to move to the tail of the board when on a big bump, since the deck is sunken at the centre. It was fine - the sunken deck gradually rises to the flat section at the tail and I didn't notice any transition in the deck when stepping back. Overall, I was quite happy with how the board performed on its first real downwind paddle.

A weird but fun downwinder!

Pre-Christmas Downwinder

Dan and I had some very nice conditions today on our downwind run this afternoon. He was on his 18 foot Bark prone board and I was on a 14x25" Starboard Ace (borrowed from Mike Fekete - Thanks Mike!).

Temperature was around freezing and we had beautiful clear skies throughout.

When we left Sunnyside Beach in the WNW wind, it was blowing 29mph with gusts to 38mph (according to Toronto Island weather station)! Wow, that's a lot of wind. In the flat offshore wind near the beach, my board was going 10kph WITHOUT paddling.

As we got further out, the swell quickly formed. It only took a stroke or two to easily get into a ride. Midway to Gibraltar Point on Toronto Island, the wind dropped to about 20+mph with gusts to over 30mph - still nice conditions. The bumps were also bigger now due to the longer fetch. I was hardly paddling and catching whatever bumps I wanted. It was novel to be riding the bumps while not breaking a sweat since the wind and waves were so good. The Starboard Ace again showed it's fantastic ability to catch and stay on bumps in downwind conditions. I've had quite a few sessions now on this board in all sorts of conditions. It's an extremely impressive board and I'll write a review of it sometime soon.

As we approached Gibraltar Point, the waves got a little bigger due to the groundswell and the stronger wind. It was actually more difficult to to ride the bumps and maintain longer glides since the faces were steeper. I would decelerate more readily as I went up the back of the following wave.

As we rounded the point, the water got flatter but there was still some decent quartering wind. Dan got some interesting wave action around the point as he was closer to shore where the waves were breaking. From the Centre Island pier to Cherry Beach was the only time I felt like I had to exert myself paddling. There was very little wind there since were were in the wind shadow of the Island, so it was typical flat water paddling the rest of the way back.

Very nice paddle overall and probably the only possible downwind route in a NW wind. Toronto Island gives us quite a few options for downwind routes that wouldn't be possible otherwise.

Kudos to Dan for doing the paddle prone. I can't imagine doing that myself.

Here's a link to a video that will give you a good idea of today's nice conditions. I took this while sitting on my board. Sorry no video while I was paddling. Camera was in my lifejacket pocket.

Some photos below:

Here comes Dan:

There goes Dan:

Nice bumps:

Beautiful late December day:

Lots of whitecaps:

CN Tower and Dan's toque tower:

Looking backwards:

Here comes a nice swell from behind. That's the tail of my board at the bottom:

Nice wave:

Dan rounding Gibraltar Point: