Columbia Gorge SUP Challenge by Eli Fischbuch

Last month, was the Columbia Gorge SUP Challenge in Hood River.  This two day weekend event was packed full of excitement and races.  All the pro paddlers were at this race – like Connor Baxter, Kai Lenny, Danny Ching and it was very cool to be at the same event as them and to see them race.

 

Down-winder start photo: Taine Fischbuch

We arrived in Hood River a couple of days early and when we first drove into town the wind was HOWLING. There were big waves on the river – this is why this race is so popular but I have never seen anything like that before. I really wanted to get on the river to practice paddling in those waves but we realized that I couldn't just jump on this river by myself.  Luckily for me some paddlers from Vancouver that I have met at other racers were there and took the time to take me down the river a couple of times and give me some tips. I am really grateful to them for taking the time – thanks to Jason Lexa, Yannick Michaud, Tim, Dave, James and co.

Day one started out with the technical course race.  This was supposed to be the downwind race day but the wind had totally died down so they moved the downwind race to Sunday. This race was four laps with one lap being a mile long and had a lot of buoy turns.  It was a very long race for a course race! Even though there was a lot buoy turns, a lot of people were on 14 foot long boards.  I was on my 12’6 Naish javelin LE and was using my Werner Grand Prix S1000.

Eli rounding the buoy photo: Taine Fiscbuch

The groms went before every body else and they did two laps. There were tons of kids in this race which was neat to see.  After them it was the open women and the junior girls, they did four laps also.  After they finished it was the open and junior men. There was probably about 60 plus people in this race.

At the start I was really close to the people beside me so when the horn blew and I tried to get my first stroke I immediately hit the rail of the board beside me. I barley even got my blade in the water.  I went to try to paddle on my other and that was no better.  It was like this for a few more seconds and then I finally got a solid stroke.  By this time I was in the tail end of the middle pack. 

By the time I made it to the first buoy I almost came to a stand still because there was about 25 people trying to turn to go to the next buoy.  When I finally made it around the first buoy I actually passed a couple of people.  It was still a full out sprint to the second buoy even though there was a lot more paddling to come.  When I did the 180 degree turn around the second buoy I got into a nice pace for the longest stretch of the race.

When I started my fourth and final lap I started to get really hot and a little tired but I knew I had a little more gas in me to finish the longest course race that I have ever done. I was pretty tired at the end but felt good to have been a part of this race. 

The elite paddlers raced after the open races and it very exciting to watch them. All the pros were introduced before they went down to the beach. We got to watch Werner Paddles team member Lina Augaitis take second in her race – exciting!

Lina Augaitis going around the buoy with Annabel Anderson and Candice Appleby photo: Taine Fischbuch

The second day of this event was the down winder.  I woke up in the morning hoping for wind but sadly there was not even a breeze in the air.  I went down to the event site and there was still no wind.  After the skippers meeting there was still no wind.  But when we were driving to the start of the race the wind start to pick up and you could start to see little bumps in the water.  This was awesome because that is all you need. 

By the time the race was supposed to start the wind was really picking up – it wasn't as strong as when we did our practice runs but still much better than Saturday.  The start line was even more packed full of people because they had the men and women go at the same time.  I started to think that I might have an even worse start than the first race.  The horn went off and I jumped onto my board and started to paddle. To my surprise there was no body right beside me and I could get a good stroke in.  With this great start I headed to the middle of the river because you have to go around a buoy plus the wind is stronger in the middle of the river.  After I made it to the middle of the river I start to get into a nice rhythm and I started to surf a couple of little bumps.  I was having a lot of fun doing this, for a moment I forget that I was even in a race. 

About half way through the race the wind started to pick up a little more and made some bigger waves.  With bigger waves I had to focus a little more on not falling off my board.  While I was doing this I was keeping my head down and a huge sailboat just came up behead me.  This surprised so much that I almost fell off my board.  The good news is that this made me realize that I had to make way back to the south side of the river. When I finally got where I wanted to be I was basically towards the finish of the race. I just had to paddle around an island and then to the beach, so I started to paddle a little harder.  Then I made it to the last buoy I almost fell in turning around it but luckily I did not.  Then I made my final sprint into the finish line and sprinted up the beach to the finish line where I managed to finish second out of the junior men.  

SUP and the Shuswap River with Eli Fischbuch

This season has been a bit different for me than last because I am not doing as many races.  I decided this year to just commit to four races over the summer and this has given me some time to do some other kinds of paddling and adventures.  I have done some long paddles on the Shuswap, spent a day paddling at Adams Lake and helped with some kids camps at Kalavida Surf Shop.

One super cool paddle that I did was on the lower part of Shuswap river (lies Northeast of the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia).  This part of the river is wide and slow moving which makes it a nice relaxing time on the water. Even for the more beginner paddler you can still have a fun time on this river. 

 I started at Grinrod Park and I finished at Mara Lake, which was a total of 18 km.  This may seem like a lot but you are on a river that does have a current so it is not so bad, there are even cool places to stop along the way for a lunch break like little islands in the middle of the river.

One of the reasons we decided to paddle this part of the river is on July 27 the Lower Shuswap River Stewardship Society held a “No Wake Flotilla” and paddled this stretch of river to raise awareness about the effects of power boats on the shoreline and the river. We had planned to take part but then couldn’t go that day so went the next weekend instead.  When we were on the river we could see the effects from boat wakes – there are lots of trees fallen in the river because the banks have eroded away.  When we got closer to Mara Lake there were a few boats towing wakeboarders or tubes on the river.  So even though this is a very easy river to navigate you still have to watch out for boats. Most of them do slow down but you should still keep to the side and just keep an eye when you go around blind corners. 

Since this is a river I used an all round surf board just because it is more stable than a race board and I was in no hurry to get down.  I also used my Werner Nitro M, which I found worked perfect for this river because the paddle blade does not have a huge surface area so it would not put a lot of strain on my shoulders.  You want to be comfortable for when you are paddling for along time. 

Next up for me is the Columbia Gorge Paddle Challenge in Hood River which I am super pumped about.

***we will be seeing Eli this weekend at the Kalamalka Classic in Vernon, BC hosted by Kalavida Surf Shop and we are sure we will hear all about his Columbia Gorge experience.***

Tofino Surf SUP Race - Team Paddler, Eli Fischbuch

Check out this great write up from team paddler, Eli Fischbuch about the Tofino Surf SUP race last weekend

in Tofino hosted by Stuart and Andrew Robinson and the crew from SurfSUP

 

This past weekend I took part in my second race of this season, the Tofino Surf SUP race on July 19/20.  I have my new Werner Grand Prix M1000 which I was excited to test out, I’ve paddled a bit with it so far and love the extra reach that it gives on each stroke (this paddle is longer than my Nitro).   This race was part of the Vancouver Island stand up paddle board series.  This was the second out of three races of this series.  This race consisted of a short course which was on the first day of the competition and the second day was the long course.  The short course was the surf race which meant you can catch small wave when coming into the shore.  The long course was in the open ocean. 

 

Catching a little wave while going around a bouy photo: Taine Fischbuch

 The short course was super fun – it was made up of six bouy turns and a beach run in between each lap.  The youth, junior, surf class and masters did three laps and the open and elite classes did 4 laps.  I found this course challenging because there were four right turns and two left turns, which made it easy for goofy footed people but not for regular footed people like myself.  One of the right hand bouys was really close to the shore so you could catch small waves going into the turn and then try the turn while still on the wave.  For me, the first two laps went well for this turn but on the last I mistimed the turn and got caught by the wave and fell.  Another thing that added to the difficulty of this race was the beach run.  The tide was out, which meant that the run was extra long. This added to the excitement though – especially for the spectators!

It's a long beach run when the tide is out. 
photo: Taine Fischbuch

 

The second day was the 10km long course.  For this race we paddled straight out from Mackenzie beach into the open ocean, turned around an island and then paddled south towards Chesterman beach.  This was the longest and most difficult stretch of the race because the wind was coming from one side and swells were coming from the other side which made me fall in ALOT.  My board (Naish Javelin LE 12’6”) is great for flat water and I have had a lot of fun on it in downwinders before but for these open water, choppy conditions I definitely had a hard time!  This year the juniors were to paddle 2 laps of this course along with the open and elite paddlers.  After the first lap I was quite shaky on my board because of the conditions and had fallen in a lot.  I noticed a few of the open racers were going in after the first lap and thought this might be the best thing for me to do too.  I didn’t want to quit so turned away from the beach to keep racing but as soon as I did this I was back in the wind and chop and realized it was going to be too hard for me.  This made me stop after I finished the first lap.  Even though I think this was the right decision I was frustrated and disappointed to not finish this race.  Big congrats to the other juniors who had great races – especially the only junior girl, Mia, who completed both laps and still finished strong! 

First Place Junior - Evan
photo: Taine Fischbuch

Thanks again to Stu and family from SurfSUP and TinWis Resort for putting on another great event!

Stand Up Paddling - Copper Island Provincial Park

Welcome, guest-blogger Eli Fischbuch!

Now that school is done for me we have headed back to our cabin in Blind Bay, BC. One of my favorite places to paddle here is out to Copper Island, which is just out from Blind Bay. I thought I would do up a trip report in case there are others looking for new places to paddle.

Copper Island is the only Island on the Shuswap Lake and is a Provincial Park.  This makes it a neat destination for the day.  On this island there is a small rocky beach on the north side.  You can access the 3 kilometers trail that circles the island from this little beach.. There is an awesome view on the south side of the island from the trail.  If you are up for more excitement there is also cliff jumping on the south side of the island.  There are three main jumping heights 20, 45, and 65 feet.

From the main public beach in Blind Bay to Copper Island it is around 4 kilometers and from Reedman’s Point, which is also a public beach, it is about 2 kilometers.  If you want a little bit of a longer paddle you can go to Shuswap lake Provincial Park, which is across the lake another 1.5km approx.  There is also camping at this park, which there is not at Copper Island.

We find the best time of day to do this paddle is in the early morning before all the boats get out on the lake and make it choppy. But it can be fun to surf some boat wakes later in the day too! Sometimes we pack a breakfast and paddle out, do the trail and have breakfast before we paddle home.

Blind Bay is 25kms west from Salmon Arm right off the trans Canada Hwy..