SUP Race Report: CGT Summer Series #4

Race: The fourth race in the CGT Spring Series.

Date it happened: 18 June, 2017.

Host: CGT Kayaks and Paddleboards, which you can become a groupie of by joining the CGT Tribe facebook page.

Location: Riverside Park on the Imperial River in downtown Bonita Springs, Florida.

Course / Distance: For this series there are two courses: a short one that goes downriver to a buoy and back (2.9 km), and a longer one that goes downriver to the US 41 bridge and back (6.4 km).

Conditions: It was very hot and humid, about 31 C, with a faint breeze from the east. The river was high and flowing strong due to two weeks of heavy rain. The current was 1 kph according to my paddling in current calculator. The current was more intense in the narrow upriver part near the start/finish line, and less intense downriver at the bottom of the course.

Participants, Results and gear: Some people were missing, probably because of the Father's Day holiday, but most of the serious CGT race team folks were there, including venerable coach Mark Athanacio, who won. My best recollections of who rode what and how fast they were are in the list below. Official results may be posted at some point on the CGT Time Trials page.

Racer ** Board Class ** Board Width and Model ** Course ** Time
Mark Athanacio ** 14' SUP ** 21.5 Hovie GT ** 6.4 km ** 0:40:40
James Douglass ** 14' SUP ** 23 Riviera RP ** 6.4 km ** 0:40:47
Matt Kearney ** 14' SUP ** 23 Starboard AllStar ** 6.4 km ** 0:44:10
Justin DiGiorgio ** 14' SUP ** 23 Hovie Flatwater ** 6.4 km ** 0:44:27
Devin Turetzkin ** 14' SUP ** 23 Riviera RP ** 6.4 km ** 0:46:02

Bryan Herrick ** 14' SUP ** 23.75 Riviera RP ** 2.9 km ** 0:22:12
Jared Hamilton ** 14' SUP ** 24 Hovie ZXC ** 2.9 km ** 0:25:00
Jen Hayes ** 12'6 SUP ** 22 Hovie GT ** 2.9 km ** 0:26:35
Steff Bichi ** 11' SUP ** 34 BodyGlove iSUP ** 2.9 km ** 0:42:27
Mark Payne ** 14' SUP ** 27 404 v3 ** ?? ** DNF

Play by play: During the week I discussed with Matt Kearney that we would both race 14' boards and he would try to stay in my draft as long as possible. He took CGT's 14x23 Starboard AllStar hybrid construction, which is a good match for my 14x23 Riviera RP. Justin, also on a fast 14x23 board, started in the same group as us. Matt sprinted pretty fast off the start and was parallel to me for a long time. I'm not sure if he was vying for the lead or just trying to draft in my "side wake". If I'd wanted to be a jerk I could have squeezed up against a dock or tree branch to force him to get behind me, but I didn't want to be a jerk, and I thought doing so might actually be dangerous with how fast the current was moving. Anyway, Matt got into the usual directly-behind-my-board drafting position after about 500 meters. Around that time I heard a "SPLASH" and thought he might have fallen in, but it turns out it was Justin, who had been right behind Matt until then.

On the way downriver I struggled to set an appropriate pace that was fast enough to get me a respectable time but easy enough that I wouldn't burn out prematurely. One thing I did differently than in the last CGT race was I never yielded the lead to Matt. If I was only competing against Matt then it would benefit me to make him pull some of the time while I rested in his draft, but since I'm also competing against Mark Athanacio for overall fastest time, it's better if I just keep the lead and go the fastest possible pace. Though Mark hadn't been in the starting line, I knew he'd be in the race because we passed him as he paddled from his house upriver to the start.

At the US 41 bridge at the bottom of the course I did a good, tight buoy turn near the bridge piling, and took a few sprint strokes to get back up to speed. The turn put a 3 board length gap on Matt. I didn't intentionally sprint to get away from Matt, but I kept a hard pace. Matt says he'd been having no trouble keeping pace when he was in my draft, but that once out of my draft it nearly killed him trying to get in again. Ultimately he had to give up, drop back, and recover. On the way upriver I tried to guess the fastest "line" to take to avoid the strong current and shallow water and to minimize the distance traveled. Since the water was high I didn't worry about shallow water spots too much, which helped me cut more corners than usual. I felt very hot, tired and out of breath, and tried to focus on taking efficient, effective strokes to save energy without slowing down. I was encouraged when I got to where I knew there were just 800 m left, and I increased my effort just a bit there, and at 400 m and 200 m from the finish line. I was super exhausted and overheated at the finish, but happy to approximately tie my personal best time for this race series. I still haven't come near Mark Athanacio's amazing 40:00 time from the first race of the series, but I was only 7 seconds behind him today, which suggests that I'm at least holding my ground. I don't think there were any technical or strategic things I could have done differently to go faster today, but generally improving my strength, conditioning, and stroke technique could help me gain a few more seconds in the future.

This is my GPS track from the race. You can see more details if you view it in Strava.


Sitting in the water after finishing I saw that Matt was the next over the line, but that he'd given up a lot of distance to Justin who nearly caught him in the end with a time that was 18 seconds faster than his race #3 time. Pretty impressive in these conditions. Devin Turetzkin also went faster this time on his 14x23 Riviera than he did on the 14x23 Starboard AllStar in race #3. Matt went slower than in race #3, probably because he burned himself out physically with the failed drafting moves and had trouble getting back in the mental groove after that. I think only when he heard Justin creeping up on him did his mind wake up to spur him faster again.

After the race we had good eats and socializing at CGT. There's a lot of buying and selling action on the board racks at CGT, with Mark Payne trading in his 14x27 404 v3 for a 14x24.5 StarBoard AllStar, and Devin Turetzkin talking about how amazingly fast he's going to be when he gets his five-finned 14x23 Infinity Blackfish in August. (CGT is an Infinity SUP dealer now.) One of our other local racer guys, Mark Hourigan, just got a 14x25 Blackfish that he seems to be in love with.

What's Next: I'm done teaching for the summer, but I have lots of research and writing to do. I have to try to do lots of impressive things in the next 6 months because I apply for promotion to associate professor in January, and it's definitely not a given that I'll get it. (Unfortunately I don't think I can list SUP racing as a work-related achievement in my portfolio.) Although the work will be hard, my schedule will be flexible, so I should have plenty of time for sup training, including getting to the gym, which I haven't been very consistent about since last summer.