The 47th Toms River Paddling Race: Reviving a Tradition.
When I discovered that the Toms River Race was going to be cancelled in 2019, I was disappointed because, aside from the Treasure Island Pirate Paddle, this race, as far as I knew, was the only other similar paddling competition in Ocean County. I had already been sea kayaking for 11 years since my relocation to New Jersey, and I had just transitioned to surfski for a full year after beginning to race in 2018. My former kayak coach John Pagani, owner of Kayak East, was the one to tell me about the Toms River Race, since he originally recommended that I should become a competitive paddler but several years passed after John’s encouragement, and after injury and chronic pain periodically interrupted my paddling and threatened to crush my hopes of racing before I believed enough in my ability to enter a paddling race. So by the end of last year, after having participated in seven races, recovered from two completely different surgeries performed within the decade, and taught myself to triumph over every “No!” I told myself in paddling, I was not ready to hear “No Toms River Paddling Race.” While my physical ability and spirit for adventure do not pale with those of Fearless Freya whose almost mythical status in the paddling world I much admire, my personality, like hers, is rotomolded from the same unique material: German stubbornness. Accordingly, when my father, who always believes in me, was somewhat skeptical that I could host my own race while reminding me, “It’s going to be a lot different from organizing a paddle as you’ve done for your club,” I decided to move forward with my plan to research the Toms River Race and to reach out to as many people as possible to explore how to prepare for organizing the race.
By February 2020, I succeeded in receiving precious advice from: my friend David Russo, park ranger for the Ocean County Parks and former employee of a previous Toms River Race sponsor The Jersey Paddler in Brick; Rich Bubnowski, race organizer for the Treasure Island Pirate Paddle; Wardell Lee, member of the Wanda Canoe Club and organizer of the Hack Race; Alessia Faverio, who immediately offered to be a sponsor by proposing to make two of her own stained glass art pieces for me, which I would later decide to use as the awards for the categories of fastest overall man and woman; Austin Kieffer, who remained patient for many months ahead as I swamped his tech support email for Paddle Guru with questions worthy of the naïve luddite that I am; Joe Ervin, who agreed to show me the open-water course on one spring-like day in the winter; and most significantly, Fred Linkhart, owner of Mac Tools, veteran racer and sponsor of the Toms River Race, and Josette Lata, SUP champion, who would become my sole committee chairs and biggest supporters on race day. By coincidence through my first contact Dave Russo, I met a mutual friend on Facebook: Graceanne Taylor, whose post, was inquiring about ideas for new fundraisers for her non-profit organization called Save Barnegat Bay. I immediately replied to her post by asking, “Have you ever thought of a paddling race to support your cause for the preservation of the bay?” Graceanne was intrigued and soon I adopted her cause as my own for this year’s race.
As soon as I identified my supporters, I established my insurance company, got my permits, and found Robert Krohn, Lieutenant of Toms River Fire Co. 2 and Chief of the South Toms River First Aid and Rescue Squad, who later provided me with land and water safety and rescue support—support that was never before available for the Toms River Paddling Race. But before I could publicize the Toms River Race on Paddle Guru, I still needed volunteers: after another series of phone calls, I finally found the Boy Scouts Venturing Crew no. 129 in Toms River. The leaders of the ship Melissa and Jerome Townsend were more than eager to provide me with help in every role that I needed filled on race day.
With my advertisement on Paddle Guru in early March, I was convinced that my lofty thinking was formulating into reality. I therefore dared myself to wish even bigger: I messaged my Facebook-only friend Ian Black who had shown great support for my personal triumphs on surfski, and asked him if he would like to come to my race in NJ, since it would be held on July 12, the Sunday before the Blackburn Challenge, where I knew Ian was positioning himself for a second year-in-a-row win. To my astonishment, he accepted, his flight to New York was scheduled before the Toms River Race, and I found him an Air BNB one mile from our venue. A few days later, I was astonished again: the U.S. had imposed international travel restrictions due to the fateful shock-of-the-century COVID-19. My race now seemed like a pleasant dream from which I had awoken and, I had now passed into a nightmare for the entire world. Who could care less about racing the rest of 2020?
But did I mention I was stubborn? When Governor Murphy issued a lockdown, I did not cancel my event but chose to postpone it to September. While all of us witnessed events cancelling like falling dominoes, I waited patiently, stayed hopeful, and continued to promise the most dedicated paddlers a great event within the limits of local and national laws. When Ed Acker and Keith Tsang kept their promise to hold the Hudson River Cup and did so with pioneering measures in place that kept us all safe while we enjoyed their third annual race in late July, I gained much greater hope for a postponed Toms River Race.
Notwithstanding my optimism, Josie Lata’s prediction that my race would attract record numbers still had me unconvinced until late August: after moderate advertising on social media, I slowly began to consider myself the luckiest person in the most unfortunate of years when my “maximum” of 50 participants on my marine event permit was reached before Labor day. The weeks leading to September were indeed magical to me: suddenly, I found former Olympians and current Olympian hopefuls alike wanting to compete in the race. Friends, old and new, from as far west as Ohio to as far east as Massachusetts reserved their place on the start line. Surfski names like Sean Brennan and Ed Joy were now people I knew who were coming to my event. These two champions would intensify the playing field with three-times Olympian Terry Kent and member of the Ukrainian kayak team Andrii Monastyrskyi, winner of this year’s Hudson River Cup. With the field of competition this large, a prediction of the results would be as unpredictable as the year 2020 itself. Yet all the surfski competitors this year were balanced with equally great men and women in SUP, OC, prone, and my one loyal open water rower Bob Russo.
While personally balancing a new job, professional training, and my own paddling, I couldn’t sleep for the last two weeks before the race. I went through rolls of adhesive paper to make the bib numbers, and had to trash batches of them that I made while bleary eyed at night and barely having the sense to count. I wrapped more gift bags than I ever did family gifts for Christmas. I spoke to more people than I could remember from day to day and organized my first zoom meeting for our virtual pre-race Captains’ meeting that was a success for some and a technological blunder for others who were accidentally locked out.
Finally, Sunday, September 27 had come: the weather, while overcast, was better than a day of intense sun, and still provided a summer-like day with moderate wind. The morning was a blur but somehow we all paddled up to the start line. After a few overanxious moments of listening to the airhorn blasts while being tempted by the strong ebb to second-guess the start, we were off—the men’s surfski team disappeared quickly as one would expect. I saw Jon Miller in is sea kayak laughing as he effortlessly lost many of us within minutes after the start as though he were on a surfski. Being slow, I had the advantage of seeing the middle section of the race. Coach Joe Ervin in his sea kayak always managed to stay out of reach, and his experience showed when his reservation of energy gave way to real speed in the last two miles. I fought hard to keep Jennie Vongsoasup on her OC-1 in sight, but even with her mere 1.5 years of experience, she easily lost me after the first three miles. Depending on the racer you ask, the water was lumpy around the points, though for me the river was flat with hardly any boats except the jet ski and three safety boats I had requested. As I neared the turnaround buoy (at about 3.75 miles from the start), I saw Sean Brennan in the clear lead with Andrii threatening to tear his stern—not really, of course, he was simply in very hot pursuit. Soon I saw the Lambs in their tandem surfski, smiling and gliding in perfect synchrony. After turning around, I felt that my pace was still steady but when a petite woman on a SUP approached my port, I used my leg drive more, thinking, “How could I not pass a 14ft paddleboard with my 19ft v8 pro?” To my stupefaction, she eventually passed me during the last mile. This amazing woman who beat me by almost two minutes turned out to be Veronica Ribot-Canales, a 4-times Olympian diver from Argentina. Once I discovered her celebrity, I wondered, “How DID I keep up with her at all?” Veronica, a yoga teacher in Ithaca, and I enjoyed a good chat afterwards, and she even treated me to a mini lesson to help me stretch my back.
Veronica Ribot-Canales and I are sharing her special moment at the podium. Photo by Vadim Lishchuk.
The results: Sean Brennan took the gold, Andrii Monastyrskyi the silver, and Terry Kent the bronze. Ed Joy placed an honorable fourth, with Bill Ruthrauff rounding at the fifth. There were only two of us females on surfski, and as much as I was proud of my gold in 1:25:10, I was prouder still of my teammate newcomer Andrea Natalie who did some hard work on her v6. I was glad to see Loukia Lilli waiting for us at the finish but sad she didn’t race: the amazing Grecian tri-athlete now converted to surfski/k1 this year would’ve beaten me to a pulp. In the men’s OC-1 division, Greg Lowry proved his winning streak this season by taking the gold, with Martin Lowenfish taking second and David Andrien taking third. Ausra Milano, the fastest overall female, won the women’s OC-1 with Jennie Vongsoasup taking the silver. In SUP, Tyler Hunter emerged the victor, with Ryan Oliver placing second and Scott Cleveland third. The top three SUP women in order are: Veronica Ribot-Canales, Kate McBride, and Josie Lata. Drake Anzano won the prone division, and Jon Miller won in sea kayak with an incredible time of 1:15:47- he told me he would try his surfski next time. Finally, the fastest tandem belonged to Erin and Alan Lamb. Congratulations to all!
My one nagging concern the day of the race was the open water course that I made new this year: instead of a double 3-mile sheltered loop, I wanted a longer, more exposed open water course in a single out-and-back challenge that, according to my measurements, was about 8 statute miles. As a rookie organizer, I demanded that everyone hug the shoreline and stay “midway” inside each cove. I promised Sean Brennan to accept his generous offer to help me make the course much better next year.
This year has been a GREAT year. As I once told students, victory happens only after you suffer your greatest defeats. Consider every paddler at the 47th Toms River Paddling Race a victor in history.
The early morning already had me feeling victorious before the first arrival of racers. Photo taken by sponsor and volunteer Fred Linkhart.
