2004-07-29 Hoigaards with Jason Larsen

Half way across Lake Calhoun, we found ourselves in the lead.  No other racing canoes out to our far left or far right from the 30 or more canoes at the start.  However, Todd Johnson and Steve Peterson and Devin Arenz and Eric Canny were glued to our side wake.  I stopped paddling as hard in the bow because I didn’t want to give the others a free ride, but Jason Larsen in the stern would not have it.  Several dozen canoes right behind us.  We were the first team to the buoy at the north side of Calhoun and just clipped it with the other two sliding around the corner along with us on our outside.  We could hear the thundering herd converging on the buoy behind us. 

I felt Jason gun it so I paddled harder to sprint.  After about 4 huts, or some 30 strokes, I realized that the two canoes on our side wake were still there and backed off a bit thinking it was a waste of effort.  Jason said “Keep going, we’re not trying to lose these two teams.”  Jason wisely wanted to avoid going through the fast approaching channel under the bridge ahead with a herd of canoes because the reverberating wakes made it more difficult to maintain speed and stay upright.  Three canoes could have made it side by side going into the funnel neck, but Devin and Eric were on the inside of the turn and took the corner too wide.  That forced Todd and Steve over and forced us to make a choice.  Since we weren’t ahead of their canoes coming into the turn, we had to slow up or slam into the 4 foot high cement wall.  Todd & Steve just skimmed the cement wall ahead with us bouncing along on their stern wake.

We held their stern wake all the way to the buoy on the north finger of the Lake of the Isles.  Coming into the buoy turn, Jason told me to keep the nose inside of the V of their stern wake or we would get blown out.  I did a crossbow rudder just long enough to make the turn and then paddled hard.  We slid up alongside Todd and Steve coming out of the turn.  Then Jason pulled us out further away so we had less of a wave to climb over to try and pull alongside the lead canoe.  Devin and Eric didn’t give anything away and I had to work really hard but we were able to pull alongside and drifted back closer to them.  I was snorting and spitting to clear my allergy clogged sinuses and hoping my heart rate would go back down.  Jason said “Good job!” and Devin and Eric grudgingly agreed.  I was in great company. 

The sprint to the railroad trestle bridge left Devin and Eric a big wave ahead of us going through the shallows with Todd and Steve behind us.  The suck water pulled at our canoe like molasses so I tried doing what Eric’s wily old dad said to do in the bow, spun my paddle blade in a quicker circle closer to me instead of further ahead and left my top hand almost stationary.  Jason adjusted his stroke to match and our canoe zoomed along without losing any more distance to the one ahead.  Jason yelled “Whee!” like the legendary Minnesota wake rider, Jeff Dubois, always does while riding good wakes.   At the end of the channel coming into Cedar Lake, Devin & Eric stopped to rest and we pulled up on their side wake with Todd & Steve still trailing right behind.

Devin and Eric put the hammer down coming out of the buoy turn, but Jason knew just where to put the canoe to stay on their side wake.  They tried hard to break away from us going back through the shallow channel and I thought they had succeeded three times.  Each time our canoe fell back until I was almost behind Eric in the stern of the leading canoe, but Jason kept saying “Go Rick!” as I was about to give up and fall back to their stern wake and we would slide back up beside them again.  They tried unsuccessfully to scrape us off at every bridge pylon on the way back to Calhoun.  Jason wouldn’t let me give up and give them the lead.  He told me to keep the canoe steady whenever I sprinted harder because I was bouncing in the seat from left to right.  Todd and Steve hadn’t given up either and were right on our stern wakes the whole time.

We came out of the last buoy turn on Calhoun side by side.  Shortly after that Todd and Steve sprinted hard and climbed up on our side wakes to the right.   With the finish line buoy in site, Devin put the hammer down and I tried hard to hang on, but I was at my limit after almost an hour of working near my physical limit.  I said “I’m sorry Jason” as we fell back almost 2 canoe lengths with Todd and Steve grinding hard to stay on the lead canoe’s side wake.  Again, Jason refused to let me give up and I concentrated on reaching to keep my mind off the fatigue.  Unbelievably, we slid right back onto the Devin and Eric’s stern wake. 

Todd and Steve fell back right beside us as Devin and Eric dropped them off their side wake just before the finish line.  We had the advantage of being tucked into the sweet spot of the stern wake and Todd and Steve were on our right fighting a worse wake so we edged them out to cross the finish line in second place.  Officially, we were only 2 seconds behind first place.  If it hadn’t been for Jason’s belief that we could do it, I would have settled for third place way back on Lake of the Isles. The moral to this story is never give up.  The finish hadn’t been decided until the last 30 seconds of the race.