Robe Race 2010
Printed From: ProfessorPaddle.com
Category: General
Forum Name: Events
Forum Discription: Read and Discuss Upcoming Events. Please Post Trips through the Trips Tool.
URL: http://www.professorpaddle.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=9394
Printed Date: 28 Apr 2024 at 7:09am
Topic: Robe Race 2010
Posted By: James
Subject: Robe Race 2010
Date Posted: 05 Apr 2010 at 2:09pm
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This is just a discussion thread for the Robe Race. There are a few Robe hounds here and there that might want to chime in to get people motivated to help, compete or maybe even show up and drink a beer. The event is planned by Todd over at TRL so don't post here thinking your going to reach the organizer of the event. A final important note is that after the Event folks are going to be encouraged to chip in some coin for Matt Thomas. If nothing else show up and have a beer so you can help fill " the hat ". Read more on TRL because these dates are only tenative!!! http://therangelife.blogspot.com/2010/04/in-twenty-ten-we-try-again.html - http://therangelife.blogspot.com/2010/04/in-twenty-ten-we-try-again.html |
Replies:
Posted By: water wacko
Date Posted: 23 Apr 2010 at 8:58am
| It's cool to see 15 teams have signed up so far and Shetzyl is already claiming the DFL Gnome!!! bold This has to be the best race going... |
Posted By: James
Date Posted: 23 Apr 2010 at 10:04am
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Shetzyl ... http://petzl.com/us/about-us - is that the guy who invented the head lamp? Regardless, looks like perfect flows and weather. I hope the hampsters get stuck behind the wheel so wetmouse can slip in for the win!!! |
Posted By: jP
Date Posted: 23 Apr 2010 at 12:54pm
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Originally posted by James
... http://petzl.com/us/about-us - is that the guy who invented the head lamp? Regardless, looks like perfect flows and weather. I hope the hampsters get stuck behind the wheel so wetmouse can slip in for the win!!!  Shertzyl , Shetzyl , Chinard, or whoever-- If Shertzyl wants that Gnome, he's gonna have to be slower than ME!! Bring it, Shertz!! Put that in your Funky Winkerbean Dispenser and smoke it!
 sorry- I'm like a kid with a new toy now that we have a Gnome icon!  ------------- 🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋 |
Posted By: Erik
Date Posted: 23 Apr 2010 at 2:08pm
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I just heard another Funky Winkerbean story the other day. I'll skip the details, but this someone said "I should have hiked out after my line at FWB". I think I'm gonna portage FWB on race day.
Sounds like a High/Low strategy starting to form. If you can't win the robes, you might as well go for the gnome. Who wants to go fast anyways? I like to stop and smell the flowers/trees/fungi/herbacious offerings, etc.
Troof is...I don't even have a race partner yet. ------------- |
Posted By: water wacko
Date Posted: 23 Apr 2010 at 7:32pm
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Posted By: Travisimo
Date Posted: 24 Apr 2010 at 11:05pm
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Old man Robe just hit 6 foot... at 11pm I dunno if I will even be a safety boater unless we have some droppage. Bummer, but if I don't hear from anybody I'll be there... Canyon Creek race 2010?  ------------- H2O please |
Posted By: justin
Date Posted: 25 Apr 2010 at 6:57am
| Just heard that the race is gonna be postponed till noon. |
Posted By: zenofww
Date Posted: 25 Apr 2010 at 7:19am
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Yup, the race will be postponed until noon today due to fickle flows. The river is dropping at around .07 ft and hour. If we start the actual race around 1 or 2 then we should have a pretty reasonable flow, like 5.8ish.
It would be great to have people come out and maybe just run the river, be safety, or maybe just show others down the run. Lets make this a fun day even if mother nature didnt cooperate perfectly. And there will still be a fun after party. |
Posted By: jP
Date Posted: 25 Apr 2010 at 7:53am
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Yup. well said- I really like the gathering of kindred spirits more than anything else-- I'm about to head out there (as early as I can). Honestly I'm glad it's been bumped back, a little. I'm game for whatever the day brings, and I'm gonna paddle Robe today no matter how fast or slow I go! ------------- 🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋 |
Posted By: PowWrangler
Date Posted: 26 Apr 2010 at 10:09am
| Results? |
Posted By: tiziak
Date Posted: 26 Apr 2010 at 2:42pm
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Seattle kept it Real!! Yeah boyzzzz!
------------- If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there. Daniel Patrinellis 360.434.4616 |
Posted By: explwhore
Date Posted: 26 Apr 2010 at 3:04pm
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#1 Aaron Johnson (AJ) and Brian Fletcher #2 Ben Hawthorne and Rob Mckibbon Top two spots were actually from the Seattle Crew. I swam so we ended up 10th out of 15. Ooopps. What an awesome day and event though! |
Posted By: Travisimo
Date Posted: 26 Apr 2010 at 3:29pm
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I'm posting pics I took... 5 swimmers total, it was definitely not low! I'm glad I opted to carry my son down rather than safety boat, I was jealous though when the level dropped down after I had made my decision  I'll keep adding today and maybe tomorrow, I have some good stuff! http://professorpaddle.com/media/albumview.asp?album_id=693 - http://professorpaddle.com/media/albumview.asp?album_id=693 Its in my gallery if that link doesn't work somebody else put up a link... ------------- H2O please |
Posted By: explwhore
Date Posted: 27 Apr 2010 at 8:52am
Posted By: jP
Date Posted: 27 Apr 2010 at 10:30am
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Man, I'm still high from that event!
6.2' in the morning had some knees a knock'n and some teams on the fence! We stalled for a few hours and by the afternoon it was about 5.8'-- still plenty juicy, and the Gnomes were Gnash'n!! They has an unprecedented array of pretty colorful morsels to salivate over!
HUGE thanks to Todd Gillman for organizing the event!!! There's something very inspiring to me about the unique stamp he has put on it- no raffles or gear for prizes or any of that- just a sincere gathering of paddlers who want to race! Robes for the victors to keep till the next year's race, and a Gnome award for the DFL!!
The team race aspect is a cool concept, complete with the requirement that every racer has a throwbag, is required to portage Landslide, the "Gentleman's Agreement" to concede if another team is overtaking you, ect. It mimics an everyday trip down a class V run, only much much faster!
It has powerful challenging water, endurance, strategy, ect.! And yes, 5 teams had swimmers! All 5 teams finished, though. One such Team in particular, while they were rightfully disappointed, mopped up their mess quick enough to beat a non-swimming team or two! Way to go Nick & Fish!
Speaking of swimmers two members of the Safety Boater teams swam. One guy is rumored to have broken a collarbone, forcing him to hike out.
Mostly a good time aside for the carnage. I hope the paddler who had to hike out is ok. ------------- 🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋 |
Posted By: justasec
Date Posted: 27 Apr 2010 at 11:14am
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The trail hike down and back on crutches with a broken foot and cast was like a step up on a new river! It was worth every crutch of it over the rocks, thru the creek, on the nasty old railroad tressles. The switchbacks were the ez part! Thanx Todd for putting this together and thanx to all of the racers who made my day so epic. Special thanx to the Aussies and Kiwis for comming so far to see our rivers.........Also super cool to meet some of you class fiver folk. I'ma 3-4 girl...........................Love you attitude JP
..............Be safe guys and gals and hope to run into you all again somewhere but it wont be at a 5er! SydneyPosted By: jP
Date Posted: 27 Apr 2010 at 11:53am
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Great to see you out there, Sydney! I gotta say I was impressed to hear you would crutch on in to check it out! That's class V Crutch'n terrain for sure and I was even more impressed to find out you followed through and did it!
while we're on the subject-- special thanks to those of you who came out to watch the race. Combining the race with a stout enough flow made it more of an adventure for sure, and while the race could have been carried off without spectators, somehow the presence of more humans lightened the mood and softened some of the harsh edges of Robe Canyon, altering the Human to Gnome ratio, which is good! So thanks for coming out.
As I came around the corner to drop Last Sunshine I could hear a few cheers for me and it was a good feeling.
Sydney, Irene, Gwen, Travis, Bill Petty!, Will from the OP, Hell- I think I even saw Ben Ross as Darren and I were queue'd up in the starting eddy! ------------- 🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋 |
Posted By: PowWrangler
Date Posted: 27 Apr 2010 at 12:34pm
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I was going to come down with the boy and watch but that never quite worked out. Looks like some good spectating to be had.
In the gallery photos, I noticed a queue of boaters above LS. Was this the safety boaters dropping in? The actual race started above T1 right?
Safety set at T1, Catcher's Mitt and Garbage I'm assuming? Any issues with the wood at Garbage?
Wish I could have made it this year, hopefully next year I'll be able to safety boat again.
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Posted By: Jule
Date Posted: 27 Apr 2010 at 12:39pm
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I schlepped my 3 and 5 year olds into the canyon to watch the proceedings. They now probably think that it is normal for people to hurl themselves off 20 foot ledges into a steaming cauldron of gnome soup! A wonderful event, thanks guys. And while I've often been proven wrong when I said "I'm never gonna do this", I think in this case it will hold true forever. |
Posted By: Travisimo
Date Posted: 27 Apr 2010 at 1:05pm
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Yep those were all safety boaters on river right. The race started right above T1. ------------- H2O please |
Posted By: Travisimo
Date Posted: 27 Apr 2010 at 1:06pm
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Oops, can't edit.... river LEFT not right.
------------- H2O please |
Posted By: huckin harms
Date Posted: 27 Apr 2010 at 1:17pm
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Good to hear the event went off without a hitch!
Congrats to those who participated and put it on - no minor feat of strength.
------------- |
Posted By: Erik
Date Posted: 27 Apr 2010 at 2:50pm
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Originally posted by PowWrangler
Safety set at T1, Catcher's Mitt and Garbage I'm assuming? Any issues with the wood at Garbage? Safety crew talked about setting safety at T1...but we didn't. I felt kind of weird not having people there, but there were lots of racers/spectators around. We had a very limited amount of safety personel. Luckily no safety needed at T1/T2, but I heard of some close calls.
We put safety in-between Sunshine/Hotel to bag anyone swimming outta LS. Potentially long swims can result. Two swimmers there were bagged & tagged.
Myself and the gold-glove (Mr Gifford) were at Faceplant & The Mitt. I bagged one fugly-mugged swimmer outta Faceplant, and Mr Gold Glove stayed busy collecting gear/bodies from 3 swims at The Mitt.
We also had people at Landslide to help one of the racers with the portage (dude had a broken ankle and still raced...gotta love Marco).
Only one other swim at an innocous rapid (no name), which was sorted out by the race team.
Higher water makes the wood at Garbage almost a non-issue. No safety set or needed.
There's the safety report...back to your regularly scheduled safety meetings.
~Cap'n Safety ------------- |
Posted By: water wacko
Date Posted: 27 Apr 2010 at 8:34pm
| This race is destined to become the West Coast's version of the GREEN RACE. I love Robe and one day (when I know all the rapids) I'll be racin' ya, JP. Watch out! |
Posted By: jP
Date Posted: 28 Apr 2010 at 7:44pm
Sweet! I look forward to seeing ya queue up in the Starter's eddy! 
Ya know what was the coolest thing about that race for me? Robe is powerful enough at 5.8' that the whole endurance thing was really an issue. probably my weakest quality that day.
But it's a race. So just to be competitive at all and not take home the Gnome, obviously you're going to get your heart rate up. Now, racing down the 9 min or less E. Frk Lewis course is one thing- by the time you hit the wall within you are done. But to get your heart rate up for 30 some minutes-- now you are pushing yourself into a transformative state that your average paddler (myslef included) rarely-if ever- experiences.
And that's a shame. Because paddling with an elevated heart rate for that duration is mind altering. If you ramp it up properly you can ease into a state where your already athletic paddling body is at a heightened state. Your mind tags along for the ride and is capable of making much quicker decisions. Your perception is fine tuned to the point where your timing can really get precise. It is indescribabble and truly amazing,opening up new doorways to possibility.
Honestly though, without the cumulative hours of paddling flatwater at a race-like pace, I would never be able to tap into that. Without all of those days on Robe where Fish and I raced the flat to the T.O., I would have taken home the gnome even if I didn't swim. More likely I would have gotten my ass kicked by a gnome and swam. (That could randomly happen anyway. Afterall- it happened to a few seasoned Robe Runners who know the run well, are in good shape, and are EXCELLENT paddlers. It could've happened to any of us that day.)
So I will continue to preach the power of the Flat. When you strip away the whitewater (externalities), you are freed up to focus on the internal- the way your blade slides in for the catch, what your knees, toes, hips, ect. are doing to help control your craft. Your back, neck, abdominals, ect--because 90% of all paddlers-even really good ones-only paddle with their arms. It is proven that this is inadequate technique. It is true though that some racers can compensate and still win, but imagine how good they would do if they learned proper technique and continued to refine it?
My forward stroke is far from perfect, and I am no champion. But hopefully my stroke will continue to incrementally improve till the day I die. Cremate me and send my ashes into the Clarksfork of the Yellowstone's Box when that day comes!! ------------- 🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋🐋 |