Tour de Indian Arm SUP Race Report by Nikki Rekman Sales Team Member, Eli Fischbuch.
The first race for me this summer was the tour de Indian arm on May 12 (the race was 11.7km long). It was the longest paddle I have ever done. The longest I have ever done before was about 5 km. I wasn’t sure if I could even paddle that far so I decided to set my goal of just finishing the race. When I looked at some of the times online from last year I wanted to get less than two hours.
When we got to Deep Cove it was raining a lot and a little bit foggy so I was a bit worried that I wouldn’t be able to see the islands I had to paddle around. By the time the race started it cleared up and the weather was calm. I was looking forward to paddling on my new Naish 12.6 LE – I’d only been on it a couple of times. And also I had just got a new Werner Nitro so was looking forward to using that too.
Before the race I started to feel a bit nervous because there were lots of pretty hard-core people there. As we started paddling I went pretty easy because I didn’t want to tire myself out too soon. The first stretch to the red buoy felt long because we just paddled straight for a long time. Then we crossed the bay and had to weave in and out of three islands on the way back – it was cool because you could see the rocks under the water by the islands. Going past the first island two scuba divers came up right beside my board! About three quarters through the race I felt tired but I knew I could go harder and faster to finish the race. In between the last island and the finish line I really started to push myself because I knew I was almost done and I wanted to finish strong. My time was 1 hour and 42minutes, which I was pretty happy with. Overall doing this race was a neat experience because it was my first long distance race and I feel proud of how I did.
Great job Eli!!!! We are looking forward to hearing about your summer of racing and your time on the river too.
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