2004-06-10 Hoigaards with Brett Arenz

Brett Arenz agreed to race with me and he paddled bow.  We both weighed the same at 175, but he is taller and lankier.  We had decided to put him in the bow the week before.  I had only paddled with Brett once before and I was looking forward to the race. The waves were very high with a side wind and windsurfers skidded across the waves on Calhoun.  We practiced paddling before the start and I couldn’t stop my butt from twitching and making the canoe tippy.  If I could relax, we would be more stable, but it was hard to do.

Eric Canny and Todd Johnson were first out of the shoot at the start.  Brett and I were the second canoe across Calhoun several canoe lengths behind them.  We caught them as we entered Lake of the Isles.  Al Dubois and Jason Larsen caught us on the way into the channel to Cedar Lake and we didn’t have any other canoes near us.   We rode Eric and Todd’s wake all the way through the channel with the canoe leaning so far left that I thought I might fall out.  Brett controlled the front expertly and kept it pointing inward as we rode within two feet of Eric and Todd’s canoe.  Al and Jason were riding their wake on the left side. 

We stayed on their stern wakes crossing Cedar.  Lost a canoe length at the buoy turn and got it back before coming into the channel again.  We tried to stay on the side wake again and fell off.  The two canoes pulled ahead of us by several canoe lengths.  We held the same distance all the way through the rest of the race.  Crossing Calhoun was just as difficult on the way back because the waves made it very tricky.  Every time I missed a stroke and the canoe tipped unexpectedly in a high wave, Brett instinctively reached out and dug his paddle in to compensate.  Never complaining about how tippy the canoe felt. 

We finished the race in third place.  Once again, I had been beaten by Al Dubois who was seventy years old.  Only in canoe racing can a seventy-year-old take second place in a canoe race that lasts over an hour.  But Al was training for the 125 mile Ausable canoe race.  Hopefully I can paddle as well in 22 years when I reach his age.