Curious to know if any of yall have participated in this race before?
http://www.texaswatersafari.org/
http://www.texaswatersafari.org/
quote:Really is something to be proud of! Many folks have never heard of this race, many folks who have don't want any part of it either! Have seen some gopro of the race and what you have to go through and that is usually a tipping point for most, it is not just paddling.
Hey Baitshack, did you only do it the one time? It's curious to me that most folks either do it once and only once (or at least until they get a finish) or can't stay away from it. I did it for 5 years until I had to miss one because of a back injury. Almost broke my heart when I realized they were gonna go through with it with me or without me! It gets easier every year you don't do it, and I have a good round # of finishes with ten. Not saying I'll never do it again, but it becomes increasingly unlikely every year that I don't. I had some of the same types of experiences as you did the first time.
My brother and I were too dumb to know what we'd gotten ourselves into, but were stubborn enough to push through. We'd bought a canoe the year before to compete in the Martindale triathlon, then just stuck with it until Safari of the next year. We'd swim on a lot of corners because we would try to overpower the river instead of just carving the turns and riding the edges of the current. Some of the old-timers called us The Swimmers because we seemed to spend about as much time in the river as we did in the boat.
Our first year we were up against the defending champs, and we traded the lead with them several times in the early going. I seem to recall that we got some separation just after dark the first day as we approached Gonzales. We'd planned on an hour or so of rest there, but our Team Captain thought we should push our advantage and wait until Cheapside to rest...I was pissed! I'd been preparing myself for hours for the rest I was going to get, and by the time we reached Cheapside, their was enough traffic that I couldn't sleep. I fidgeted for about a half hour until we said 'screw it', and took off again. Somewhere above Victoria, we convinced ourselves that we were lost (there is NO place to get lost above Victoria if you haven't left the river) so we pulled over on a gravel bar and fought mosquitos until first light.
We'd had a 2-3 hour lead at the previous checkpoint, but were told that it had dwindled to less than 20 minutes at Victoria. We dumped everything we weren't absolutely sure we'd need and left City Park at a murderous pace that we kept up the entire rest of the way. I do recall at one point realizing that the leaves on the water were all floating the wrong way....we'd turned upstream somewhere. Not sure how long we'd been in it, but we found our way back to the main channel and kept hammering. We had some later successes through the years, but I'll always be most proud of that fact that in our first year, only one boat was faster in the last 60 miles than we were, and that was the boat that was the overall winners.
Lots of family and friends at the finish, and could've kissed my older brother when he handed me a cold Shiner at the seawall. We were first C-2, 11th overall, in something like 57-58 hours, and within hours of the finish we were talking about how we could get better for the next year.
quote:I didn't have any extensive experience prior to the safari. I did a Boy Scout trip to the Boundary Waters in Northern Minnesota / Canada, but that was when I was 16. When we began training for the Safari, we didn't have much skill in the finer points of steering / paddling. While we learned some, a dare say we mastered anything.
Bait, your story got me wanting to do it so I talked my cousin into joining me. We're shooting for the 2017 race so we have time to get into shape and practice rowing. Anyways, a couple questions for you.
Did you have any extensive experience in canoeing prior to this or did you do what my cousin and I are doing and starting a yr in advance?
What did yalls supply list consist of?