Saturday June 22 was the much anticipated second round of the Ontario SUP Series held on the Niagara River – the outflow of the biggest waterfall in North America, Niagara Falls. Niagara Falls itself dumps 168 000 m3 of water a second over the 160m drop so even downstream 12 km where the race is held there are some crazy currents, eddies and conditions.
For me, this race summary needs to begin with an event I did two weeks previous at The Mattawa River Canoe Race. During the 65km ultra distance of Mattawa, I clipped my fin off of a rock, dove off my board and proceeded to smash my ribs on the right side of my body into another rock just below the surface. The resulting damage was 2 cracked ribs and a total of 13 days off the board… not the ideal lead up to OSS race #2!
The decision to take to the start line came only the day before the race where I took some hard paddle strokes on the board and found that although it was uncomfortable, I felt I could survive the 11.5km race.
Race day brought some beautiful weather and relatively calm conditions. The course for the “Battle at the Boarder” consisted of approximately 4 km up river closer to the Canadian side of the river followed by a buoy turn, another 4km back down river closer to the American side. Once back to the river opening, a further 3.5km in the open waters of Lake Ontario.
As I have for all but one race this year, I decided to paddle the 2024 20.5 All Star with my Lima Pre-preg paddle (L blade). In my warm up paddle, I had on the Flash fin and purposely went out into the heavy current at the mouth of the Niagara River to scout out the conditions. I noticed that the water was very dynamic and turbulent and decided to swap out the fin to the Flash Plus to add a bit of stability.
With some ibuprofen in the system I waited for the start horn to sound and we were off. I had a very specific race plan of letting some of the field lead out and finding some wash to ride in order to preserve my ribs as much as possible until I really needed to pull hard.
I found myself second board off of the start and settled nicely into the wash on my All Star. I have said it a few times already but I can’t get over how good the 20.5 All Star is from a stability and drafting aspect. I was able to comfortably surf behind the leader taking one stroke for his three.
The massive current heading up river had us moving quite slow for the first few KM’s with the water closest to the Canadian side of the river being the choice line to take. There were quite a few sections going up river where it was evident that if you moved slightly closer to shore, you could dart out of the current and increase the speed instantly so about 20 min into the race I just drifted out of the wash and took a few strokes without really trying to attack the leader. This proved to be very timely in that no sooner had I found faster water, the strong current knocked the race leader off his board and I shot into the lead.
Taking the lead this early in the race was not my plan and instead of sending it hard like I normally would, I just paddled at an even tempo up front with the chase group sitting about 20-30m behind me. I reached the downriver turn first and decided to just keep the same rhythm. The fastest place to be at this point in the race was right in the middle of the river literally with one foot in Canada, and the other in America!
We all quickly noticed that there had been a tail wind going up river and despite the speed being high now going back down the river, the wind created quite choppy conditions headed back to the lake. I decided that I would continue to stay steady until reaching the Lake and once in front of Fort Niagara on the USA side I would go hard.
I put it into high gear and searched for the best line out to the green “mile Buoy” that was our next turn well out into Lake Ontario. This stretch of the course was were the nastiest current and turbulence was based on the speed and sheer volume of water being spit out into the lake. I had made a decision based on my recon that I would try to surf the heaviest current as far out as I could and then at the last-minute cut back to the buoy to make the turn. I had not looked behind since I started down river and kept my head down and went with the plan.
It turned out that my plan sucked! As I approached the turn, I saw in my peripheral vision the 2nd place paddler had made up ground and taken a line much closer to the fort and the American side of the river. With around 2.5 km to go I knew it was going to be a grind so I tried to dig in as best as possible, ignore my ribs (which felt like a running side stitch) and get on with it.
The water for this portion of the race was quite slow which made it tough on everyone and it felt like the Km’s were not ticking over fast enough. After searching for any little bump I could grab on my All Star, I came to the final turn at the shoreline took one final look over the shoulder and realised I had about a minute lead and put it into cruise control to the finish line!
Considering the lack of training and my cracked ribs, I was super stoked to have salvaged a win in Niagara and really enjoyed the spectacular and challenging race course. This was a day where having the best board really made a difference and helped me even the odds with my injury.
Thanks so much to Starboard for giving me the best gear! Also, a huge thanks to The Ontario Sup Series (@ontariosuspseries) and Paddle Niagara (@paddleniagara) for putting on such a stellar race! Finally a massive thank you to Kent Keeler (@keeler.photographic) for all of the amazing pics from the race.
Thanks for reading and see you on the water!
Tim
