Post Race Awards at Deep Cove Outdoors' Tour de Indian Arm

Deep Cove Outdoors held their annual Tour de Indian Arm small boat race on Sunday May 20th, 2012, and for the most part was a great success!

What has traditionally been a surfski and kayak race has grown to include SUP over the past few years, and though the surfskis were the largest group by a fair margin, SUPers had a noticeable presence, to the point where I wouldn't be surprised if we overtake the boaters' numbers some time in the next couple of years.

Vancouver had an awesome 10+ day stretch of great weather leading up to the event, but Mother Nature decided to change things up and deliver some rain along with some light winds for racetime. Nothing too difficult to overcome during the race, but the weather did put a bit of a damper on post-race activities.

The Race Course

Stand up paddlers all raced the shorter 10.88km course. Here's my GPS track from race day.

Paddling straight out of the Cove, hanging a right at the 5kt. buoy down to Grey Rocks, then a sprint down the arm down to Cates Park. From there we hung a left, paddled straight across the inlet into a mild headwind to Belcarra, then diagonally across back to Grey Rocks, back to the 5kt. buoy and then back into Deep Cove.

As for my race, I was feeling the "effects" of a particularly fun Saturday night and as such had a fairly mellow start, ending up close to the back of the pack by the time we reached the Cate's Park buoy, top right corner of the course in the map above.

As my head started to clear I slowly gained four or five places by the finish. I also noticed 3/4 the way through that my PFD was dragging off the back of my board for who knows how long, but whatever... I'm not the most competitive of paddlers and was certainly in no position to win!

All in all was great to see all the local racers out on the water, along with a few from a bit further abroad such as Paddle for the Planet's Bob Purdy who made the trip down from the Okanagan, Yannick Michaud from Victoria, race winner Norm Hann from Mountain Surf Adventures in Squamish and perennial front runner Beau Whitehead who made the drive up from Bellingham.

The overall vibe was super positive and friendly, as whats come to be expected whenever a group of stand up paddlers get together!

Deep Cove Outdoors will also be hosting Board the Fjord, their SUP specific race, later on in the Summer... Check back here for details as they become available!

Huge thanks go out to Mike Darbyshire and Bob Putnam for their efforts in organizing and running an exceptional event and I'm most definitely looking forward to the next one! On that note, don't forget Deep Cove Outdoors also hosts a weekly race every Spring and Summer Tuesday night in Deep Cove. A great way to learn, get fast and then get competitive!

Here are the filtered (i.e. kayak/surfskis removed) SUP results from the race: