Source: Originally written by F-One Team Rider, Olivier Guincetre
Today was the 11th Annual Jay Race in Santa Cruz which I experienced for the first time. This day I will remember forever…
It was a little bit over cast earlier this morning then it cleared up and became a wonderful day. There were over 200 paddlers in Capitola who showed up in memory of big wave rider Jay Moriarty. Some of the best paddlers in the world were in town like the famous Jamy Mitchel from Australia (10 x World Champion), and Mat Becker who won the last Paddle Surf Shout Out and some others big challengers as Anthony Vela and Ben Sarrazin. The main event of the Jay Race is the 12 Mile Race and there is also a 2 mile course, a relay team race and the Waterman Challenge. For the last couple weekends I’ve been on long paddle group rides trying to keep my fitness up and be ready for my first real long distance race.
At the beginning I was worried by a painful lower back that was giving me a hard time already at the warm up. Right after the start
the pain made me feel like almost turning back and giving up the race, but I paced myself and, 15 to 20 minutes later the pain went away. What a relief, I can finally enjoy the effort of pushing myself to catch up with a group of solid paddlers.
As my first 12 mile race, I preferred staying low drafting behind the others strong paddlers of the pack. I knew from bike racing that racing long distance is really demanding and nutrition is a key and I was so glad to use my new Camelback. For this race I just got a new paddle. It is the Battle with a blade a little bit bigger than my Peak I was using before. I was able to paddle harder and that paddle was helping me to gain speed and passing people, especially after the mile buoy where it becomes downwind on the last part of the race.
I love that section. The F-One Race SUP Board is so much fun downwind. It has well designed rocker that allows you to surf anything. Today there were some good bumps with the south swell and a consistent wind that helped push me to finish for the last 5 miles.
After 2 hours and 20 minutes I was catching my last wave on Capitola beach before running across the finish line right after Hunter Griffin, another F-One team member, Good job mate! We were both stoked!
Overall Jamie Mitchell won with a time of 1 hour 57 minutes, 2nd Matt Becker and 3rd Anthony Sarrazin 2 hour 5 minutes. Hunter Griffin finished 1st in the Junior Division, I finished 3rd in the 30-40 division. In the overall – where all the SUP paddlers competed together Hunter placed 30th and I placed 32nd out of 200 paddlers. We finished 9th and 10th in the 12.6 category. All and all a great day!
What a fun day and a great event. Congrats to all paddlers but also thank you to all Surftech crew for the organization.
We are looking forward to participating in the next race in Santa Cruz is the Cove Water Classic in September.