This is a lengthy race description of the 2003 Texas Water Safari that my brother Marty and I raced in. The TWS is a 262-mile marathon canoe race held every June in Texas.

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About a month before the 2003 Texas Water Safari, I still didn’t have a boat, and had never paddled with my partner-to-be, my brother Marty. Both of these facts were great causes for concern.

I finally found a boat, and went to pick up the well-traveled Wenonah Jensen 18 from Mark McClain in Irving, Texas. Bright red, in the old Tuff Weave lay-up, and a not-too-light 63 lbs. She has two tractor-style seats (non-sliding) and no foot braces. Mark had purchased this boat many years ago from Tom Goynes, and thankfully it still had the custom spray skirt that Tom had made for it.

This boat had already floated down the Mississippi, Red, and Trinity Rivers, and now we were hoping to race it down the San Marcos and Guadalupe Rivers.

I ordered a new ZRE bent-shaft paddle (the 12.5-ounce Recreation model), and was lucky enough to buy a used 8.5-ounce Black Bart bent-shaft paddle from TWS and marathon canoe racing veteran Lee Diviny. I knew that we should have a spare paddle, but I didn’t have the budget for another $150+ paddle, nor did I want to carry the extra 2+ lbs. of a cheaper paddle. We would make “Not Losing a Paddle” one of our highest race priorities.

The weekend after I brought the boat home, my wife Shannon and I put her into Town Lake for a test run. We paddled twice that weekend, allowing me to get some ideas about rigging her for Safari (the boat, not my wife).

Marty came down the following weekend, which was only two weeks before Safari, and we paddled about 15 miles in Town Lake, getting a feel for each other’s paddling and the boat’s handling. That night we added mini-cell foam foot braces and figured out a method for strapping our water jugs to the thwarts. The next morning we took her out and paddled the first 16 miles of the Texas Water Safari course, from City Park in San Marcos to Staples Dam. This would be the only training that Marty and I would do together before the race in two weeks.

Since Marty lived in Houston and I live in Austin, I continued to train solo nearly every day in my Dagger Delta kayak. Even though the double-blade paddle motion and technique used in my kayak differs dramatically from the single-blade motion and technique I’d be using in the race, it was still good to get some miles in on Town Lake and the San Marcos River however I could.

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• Day 1
• Day 2
• Day 3
• Day 4
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Posted by Robbie Cooper on Tuesday, June 10th, 2003 | Trackback |