We are camping at Suwannee River SP in Florida and over half the campground is filled with canoe racers from Quebec. They have long,kevlar canoes in bright colors with logos and numbers on them. We tried to ask where they were racing and they tried to ask us something (?) but our French and their English wasn’t up to it. Maybe we can communicate better in the morning. Anyone know about this race?
Answering my own question
The 30 young men left this morning, returning to Quebec. They were in Florida for eight days practicing for an upcoming racing season. The young man who spoke some English said they race “full time” and had paddled on seven rivers in the area, including “this one” (the Suwannee). He said they came here because it was warm enough to start paddling but they were amazed by how beautiful the rivers were. We will be paddling on the Withlachoochee (south) and the Suwannee this weekend with our group.
pretty sure
The race on that river is in October.
Ryan L.
Yes it is.
We do it every October, so they will be long gone by then.
We usually see a few from Quebec in the Rainbow River race next month.
For Those interested, the WaterTribe Everglades Challenge, (300 miler) and ultimate Challenge, (1200 miles) has been going on all week in horrendous conditions. Saturday at the start crossing Tampa Bay it was into 30 mile winds gusting to 36, with 4 to six foot breaking white caps and Sunday there were 40 mile winds with gale force gusts and some at 50MPH. then up to and including today there has been 20 to 25 MPh ones.
Ardi-O was the first kayak into Key Largo yesterday and is about at Key Biscayne right now about 30 miles ahead of the rest of the field, including the sailboats.
Lots of the small sailboats ended up with broken masts, and capsizes, and and only a hand full stayed in the race out of about 85 starters. Some never left the beach and others turned back after starting out.
Jack L
CANADA
IF YOU ARE A CANOE RACER YOU OWE IT TO YOURSELF TO RACE IN QUEBEC YOU WILL SEE WHY THESE GUYS GO SOUTH THE BEST RACERS IN NORTH AMERICA
DONT GET ME WRONG, THERE ARE MANY VERY GOOD PADDLERS IN THE USA
Training Camp
This is the 14th year of Canoe Racing Traing Camp at the Suwannee River State Park. It was started by a few racers from Michigan. This year there were over 60 racers from all over North America with 12 from Quebec. Triple Crown Champions Steve LaJoie and Andy Triebold attended this year.
Thanks for the info.
After my posting I realized that not all the racers were from Quebec, just the ones camped around us. A very nice group of folks. We paddled the Ichtucknee yesterday, the Withlacochee(N) today. The latter two rivers are high from last weeks storms and the springs are flooded with tannin water. Made for a fast trip though!