Battle of the paddle

Published 12:00 pm Tuesday, June 19, 2001

“Probably the worst thing about kayak racing is that champions have nothing cool to do when they win.They can’t spike a ball, do a back flip, or raise their gloves in victory while a referee counts to 10 over the unconscious body of an opponent. But Langley paddler Drew Dixon likes the fact that his sport is quiet, even in victory. He was more than happy to celebrate his first kayak race win late last month by simply pulling his boat out of the water and shaking a few hands.Dixon won the fast kayak division of the two-day, 42-mile San Juan Challenge kayak race on May 20 and was almost too surprised at the victory to think about a finish-line jig or spiking his carbon-fiber paddle. Categorizing himself as someone who kayaks recreationally, Dixon does only a few races each year. Last month’s race was his third San Juan Challenge and was by far his fastest. Though the course was longer this year than in the past, Dixon slashed an estimated 30 minutes off his best performance. The improvement was something he did not expect.I’m not really a racer, he said.Dixon said long-distance kayak racing is not for the inexperienced paddler. Now 43, he has been kayaking for more than a decade. At last month’s race, it was difficult to find a top finisher under the age of 35. Many of the better kayakers were in their 50s and 60s. Dixon used his age and experience to pace himself through the long race, which circled Cypress and Guemes islands, to read tides and to recognize the best patches of water for paddling. All that knowledge was hard won, mostly by suffering somewhat unnecessarily through his first race three years ago.I didn’t understand the level of exertion that would be required, he said.The first day of this year’s race was the shortest, sending more than 60 paddlers on a 17.3 mile cruise around Guemes Island. Dixon, who was paddling a borrowed, carbon fiber sea kayak, grabbed an early lead on that leg of the race, putting about nine minutes between him and his closest competitor, Jim Zimmerman of Anacortes. On the second day, Dixon stayed close to Zimmerman until he lost sight of him near Strawberry Island. Knowing that his lead was slipping away, he dug in and paddled hard to the finish, where he found that he’d lost only two minutes of his lead.Dixon’s final time of 7 hours and 46 seconds was not the fastest of the entire contest. Several paddlers in the high-performance kayak division, the outrigger canoe division, and in the tandem kayak division finished ahead of him.Dixon has no plans to move into the high-performance category, where paddlers race atop – not inside – fast, narrow vessels. He said he prefers to race to check his personal progress and to gauge the effectiveness of his stroke.Dixon said he plans to return to the race next year to try to improve his time and defend his title. “