LET'S RACE!

First - here are the results from Day 1 for those of you who are excited to check & haven't already:

http://www3.telus.net/public/cccweb/OCsprints/documents/RaceResults-Day1.pdf

Do check the website for your Day 2 schedule & lane draw.  Here's the up-to-date lane draw:

http://www3.telus.net/public/cccweb/OCsprints/documents/LaneDraw-Day2.pdf

AND... most exciting... here's the video of the Rapa Nui fellas that I tried to post yesterday and couldn't upload (paddler Kelly Sherwood said, "It's too hot for the Internet?"  Yes!) .... I finally just put it on good ol' trusty YouTube.  Remember to listen for Heather saying, "That's it - we're moving to Rapa Nui!"  Here's the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmeQsYJ97z8&feature=youtu.be

Now to today's races.  I honestly don't have a lot to blog about.  I was working all day.  I got to float around this morning doing this and that.  Worked on the docks for a bit, ran to the store to buy tape & post-it notes... and got to watch some races!  This afternoon I was an aligner... yes that was me, your favourite blogger, holding up (or not holding up, as the case may be) the black flag.  Sad to hear that the majority of the Tahitians won't be coming after all due to all the hold-ups from that airline strike!  Too bad!  We're missing a lot of awesome competitors.

Here's the scene from before everything got started:

It's pretty nice here, right?

The boats were blessed once again by our good friend, Brent Scout:

Brent blesses the boats while Jon Amundsen looks on

And volunteers got ready for the day, like Stephanie and Mo, who were rock stars at paddler check-in and the tower:

Stephanie & Mo - super smiley volunteers!

Races got underway and I think things ran pretty smoothly.  Races were pretty much on time. Brent's blessing must have worked, because although it was a little bit chilly and windy in the morning, we had no rain and the water stayed pretty calm right through the day.  Races were pretty close to right on time and there were a few upsets for sure, but generally people were pretty happy.  I only saw 2 small boats huli all day - with the last one being right on the start line.  That guy got back into his boat faster than anyone I've ever seen and made it for the start.  Probably not his best race, but kudos to him for carrying on! 

Then there were these guys - the Hawaiian 70+ team... including some pretty famous outrigger paddlers like Nappy Napoleon.  These guys do everything with a smile on their faces.  I think I'll smile a lot too if I'm still in shape to paddle like them when I'm over 70!  Do you know that this is a new category just added this year?   Here's a pic of the Hawaiian men's 70+ group:

Show me your ID! 

So that's about it for today.  I was busy lining up boats at the start this afternoon so can't tell you much else.  Here's one quick picture I snapped during a pause in the action (I promise, there was no flag at all at this point!)

My view from the start line...

All I can tell you is that I'm happy that no one was disqualified on my watch (at least not for going over the start line - there were lots of DQs for other reasons!)  I'm looking forward to doing it again tomorrow & can't wait to see you all at the start!