Avid Canoeist Chronicles
from the Canoe Race Hound
        

2004-07-01 Britt Jensen at Hoigaards Kid Race

Twelve year old Britt Jensen was my partner for the Hoigaards Kid Race.  Britt said she weighed about 80 pounds so we scooped sand into a plastic garbage bag and put it behind the front seat.  We were assigned black shirts with the number 17 so we looked like a team.  I took her out before the race started to practice a bit.  There was a mother duck with 10 baby ducklings who were oblivious to all the canoes going back and forth around the vegetation they were eating.  I had Britt learn how to do a crossbow rudder because I knew there were going to be a lot of buoy turns in this race.  She picked it up quicker than I expected without much explanation. 

 

Back on shore, almost forty canoes were lined up half in the water with no room between them at all.  Each canoe had a kid in the bow with a colorful numbered shirt clutching a canoe paddle anxiously.  Their adult partners all stood behind them on shore waiting for the starting signal.  Once it did, we all pushed the canoes into the water and had no room to paddle on either side.  Britt did exactly what I had told her and switched sides whenever she could find any open water to paddle.  We banged against the canoe on our right for the first few minutes until the crowd around us thinned out enough for us both to paddle freely. 

 

We ended up behind Eric Canny’s canoe with Kenn Ketter’s over on our left and Joe Manns’ over to our right battling with Jason Larsen’s canoe.   Coming to the first buoy turn, there were 2 canoes on our left next to the buoy and none of the kids in the bow knew how to do the crossbow rudder.  Britt knew what to do, but it didn’t help much because we were stuck on the outside.  I told her to go ahead and paddle and we helped the other canoes make the turn but ended up in the shallows next to shore. 

 

Heading into the next buoy turn, I tried to be smarter and we let the canoes on the inside go ahead so we could cut behind them.  Unfortunately, they stopped dead at the buoy and we were blocked from cutting behind them.   By the time we gave up waiting and paddled around them, we were several canoe lengths behind the lead canoes and had to paddle through a lot more weeds. 

 

Finally we made two great turns at the third and fourth buoys with Britt making me proud with her newly learned crossbow rudder.  However, we still were too far back from the lead canoes to catch them.  Even though Britt made a valiant effort and paddled faster and faster, we just couldn’t quite catch the first 4 canoes.  Still fifth place was a good finish.  All the kids got small wooden canoe paddles and ribbons.  Britt took 2nd place for her age behind Lily Manns and her father Joe Manns. 

 

There were a lot of canoes at this race and many of the spectators said it was a fun race to watch.  Most of the kids enjoyed it and the adults got a good workout too.  Thanks to Kenn Ketter and Hoigaards for sponsoring the very successful kid race.

© Copyright 2004 Rick Lorenzen . Click here to send an email to the editor of this weblog.
Last update: 7/1/2004; 10:30:09 PM.