The weather was EVERY bit as nasty as forecast. The Coast Guard & the NYPD Harbor Patrol wouldn't let everyone race, but the elite racer were permitted to go.
As you'll see, these were really some amazing paddlers.
Even some of these folks didn't make it around. No shame in that, though. It was really filthy out there!
Here are the starts - my station on the course was at 23rd street on the East River so I did have time to watch before I headed out!
Tandem start. BTW, you know how I'd said there were only 3 women in the race? There had to have been at least a few more than that - the outrigger canoe is actually a 2-woman team. One of the more fun moments of a course marshall stint that was VERY long and wet and cold, several hours of sitting on a dock at 23rd street on the East River was when a friend of theirs turned up by bike (in that weather!) to cheer them on.
Here's the surfski start. The guys in the front row, with the identical Epic V12 surfskis, are Team USA (red-tipped bow, blue deck, white star graphics), and Team Holland (blue tipped bow, orange deck, white windmill-sail graphic).
Greg Barton is in there somewhere!
I did end up using a lot of the extra stuff I brought - I'd said I was bringing them for cold wet paddlers, and we did have one paddler come out who didn't say no to a mug of hot cider while the course marshall with the car went to retrieve his vehicle -- but I also definitely used them for cold wet me!
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