2013 Little White Race

LDuB Race - 2013

 

So, with a Cali mission looming, Scott and I decided that the best way to prepare for our impending bar-fight of a hike/boating excursion was to head down to the Little White Salmon and watch the race.



I heard about the Little White Race last year and I thought it was a pretty cool idea, even if it was a bit above my head. Racing Gettin' Busy sounded awesome, in theory. Then the idea of having to stick a boof at the bottom of Boulder Slouce (when I'm completely gassed) with a crowd screaming for blood crept into the back of my neck and I tucked my tail between my legs. I said maybe next year and cried into by sprayskirt.



Next year is here, and, the course is even tougher now with a giant slalom course below Spirit Falls. So once again, crying into my sprayskirt, I told myself "next year is your year man!" And raised my hand to help with safety.

The Little White race is long: from the top of Gettin' Busy down to the pool below Wishbone Falls. This is no slouch stretch of whitewater. The race organizers also decided to have the option of solo racers. Most creek races in the class V arena are team races with the obvious exception being the NF championship race on Jacob's Ladder.

 

Another glaring example of change in the modern boating community was the inclusion of a slalom course on the run, after the race. Slalom courses have been around for a long time, and there's entire tribes of Latvian youths that have never seen life outside of a slalom course and lashes from Gunther's whip, but I've never seen one like this:





Naturally, the best and questionably brightest showed up on race day to throw down on a slightly cooler but much brighter Sunday than we expected.









As my lines are pretty suspect on this run, I raised my hand to help with safety and was promptly stationed at Sacraledge. With multiple throwbags arranged for Human Fishing, I felt a little less guilty about bringing out the camera for the racers.













I was fortunate to see some of the worlds best kayakers blaze through the bottom of a rapid sequence, that normally leaves me breathless and wide-eyed, without even mouth breathing. Angles on these photos are limited, as I felt I was morally obligated to stay within throwbag range of the cave that was the real beatdown hazard at this river feature.

 
 

 






 Once we got the go ahead, that the last racer was through the course, it was time to head down to Spirit Falls and the Giant Slolom course that was waiting to take some names. As we (Team Safety) where pretty late to the party I opted to head down to my perch above the pool that creates the birthday eddy on river right of Chaos.

My thoughts on the 2013 Little White Salmon Race? That shit was amazing! My hat is off to all the racers and all the support crew members. Huge shout out to World Class, without which, none of this would have taken place.

LDuB Race Results

Down River Team

1. Niceto Yalan Quintana / Michael "Miguel" Shields              17 min
2. Orion Meredith and Niko Peha                                              17 min 7 sec
3. Chris Leach and Matt King                                                    17 min 52 sec
4. Kim Becker and Dave Hoffman                                             18 min 1 sec
5. Dylan McKinney and Clay Lucas                                          18 min 8 sec

Down River Men

1. Evan Garcia                                    15 min 2 sec
2. Gerd Sarrassolses                           15 min 11 sec
3. Louis Geltman                                15 min 12 sec
4. Todd Wells                                      15 min 25 sec
5. Darren Albright                               15 min 50 sec

Down River Women

1. Katrina Van Wijk                             17 min 3 sec
2. Sandra Hyslop                                 17 min 9 sec
3. Nouria Abou-Newman                    17 min 21 sec
4. Nicole Mansfield                             17 min 43 sec
5. Lu Urwin                                         18 min 9 sec

Men’s Slalom

1. Evan Garcia                                      50.59
2. Galen Volckhausen                           50.86
3. Kyle Hull                                          54.22
4. Erik Johnson                                    56.64
5. Rush Sturges                                    57.21

Women’s Slalom

1. Katrina Van Wijk                             1.31.60
2. Nouria Newman                               2.54.77
3. Sandra Hyslop                                  2.56.04

Stay Stoked. Stay Safe.