Fired up about Flatwater Races

[Tim Hladky]

Howdy. What in the world has happened to the realm of flatwater races in Maine? Good Lord, out of state there have been tons of races already run in April and May. Here we are in June and still whitewater races but flatwater is dried up.
I find it very disappointing, and there surely must be others that feel this way too?
The last few years I have seen an increasing decline, but this year is just plain pitiful.
Oh well, that is my two cents worth.
Oh, one more thing......
And also in other sports all around the world and other states a championship is held After various races have been held to lead up to peaking for an important competition...well maybe the whitewater people are all set with plenty of races under their belts and in peak racing form, but what of the poor flatwater saps that have hardly run a race before they are going to do the Flatwater Championships so early in their flatwater racing season with hardly any Flatwater races leading up to this???
Makes no sense and quite honestly is not fair, do you not agree?

[johnalsop]

Plans for Me State Champoinsip flatwater race are underway. we are hoping that saturday's lower dead participants will hang in the area to run the race first thing sunday morning on what is one of the best stretches of flatwater race course east of the mississippi; viz: solon bridge to north anson boat landing , approximately an hour in length starting with jaunt down backside of grey island and ending with clockwise trip around savage island to the finish. (checkout delorme for better idea) Entry fee will be bare minimum. emoluments will be modest, classes limited in scope. c2 mens, mixed,c1, open rec, open kayak. with other classes to be formed if numbers justify. google evergreen campground in solon for nice overnight accomodations. 9:00 am start so you can still get home to mow the lawn thereafter! cheers ja

[johnalsop]

Tim: I feel your pain but experience has shown that race enthusiasm dwindles as the summer progresses or is sucked up by new englands, wwnats, fw nats etc. so we though we would do the race earlier, and try to combine with lower dead ww gestalt!

Frankly maine's strength in canoe racing is found in the ww division and we should admit it. come flatwater season everybody is going in diffrent directions. ie outrigging, kayaking etc. there are less than a handful of dedicated canoe fw paddlers in the state and the number is not growing although with efforts such as Jeff is making this may improve. and for that matter how many racing kayakers are there? just my thoughts ja

[fred]

Be careful, John . . .

[paddlechic]

I think John is right about the fw races, people are just doing so many different things in the summer plus the numbers just got so low at a lot of the races that directors didn't find it financially possible to continue to put them on. With that said, I understand Tim's statement on holding a championship race at the end of the season, but who would be left to race? With so few races happening, I don't think ones performance would be effected by when the championship race was happening here in Maine, besides the stories are always better when you have a sucky race than a good race!