The Mass Start race is always a crowd and competitor favorite because you have to run Carter's in a playboat through two gates of Luke Spencer's choice. After changing the
gates 3-4 times they decided on the two 3 and 7 that should in short provide the most carnage! It didn't disappoint. With Carters blown out there was only fast moving water and one large hole that we had to punch directly behind the first gate. Most made it though upright but not necessarily on line anymore. Me and Devin both made it through OK. Though when I came out of the hole and headed down a steep wave I found Robbie Virostek surfing the wave directly in my path so a quick change of course kept us from coliding. In the end, Todd Anderson took 1st and Austin Rathman claimed 2nd even though Austin head ruddered a large portion of the run after the hole!
In the pic, Todd is bottom left with Austin upside down next to him, myself in the background with my white fullface and Devin in the hole on top right of the pic. You can just see his paddle. pic provided by Todd Anderson. Taken by Nicole Rose I believe.
The relay race was next and myself, Devin and Todd Anderson had decided to be a team and quickly added Christie Glissmeyer to our needed 4 kayak team. Making me the non sponsored odd duck out I guess. Oh well? Todd and Christie hadn't done Fish to Bob's before so we decided for Todd to fire out the first stage from Fish to above Carters, Christie to run Carters, myself, down to below Big Eddie and Devin would then carry all 4 beers to Bob's. Oddly enough that put me and Devin on the longest stretches but it was for fun and we were up for the challenge. All went great till my and Christie's transfer where I fought to get the 3 beers into the mesh bag me were using in a surging eddie. Once I got my crap together, I was in 4th at that point. I passed Robbie and Sandra to claim 2nd and Devin kept the pace and we ended up with a close 2nd place trophy out of it. The best part was Todd paddling along with us cheering us on like a drill sergeant!! Todd, you are in amazing shape for sure!!
Our trophy from the relay race!!
The freestyle ramp was a new 40' steep ramp that Devin did a few practice laps on a decided it wasn't worth the back pain on the landing as did I after my 2nd lap when I too landed flat and felt it for the next week. Talking later in the week with Ryan Scott who won the event. He stated, "it hurt his back as much as running Spirit Falls". Me and Devin missed out on the main portion of the event when we chased down Steven Olsen and his boat after imploding his skirt on the landing. A common occurance this year. We got his boat just below SlingShot and had to run all the way to Big Eddie to get back up.
Devin exiting the ramp in what I call, "training for Spirit Falls!"
