This weekend drove with Pa to a hotel on the California border part of the Colorado river for the most competitive and biggest….I don’t even know the term….”paddle sports” race? They had all these different watercrafts there; I believe the bigger ones are called “outriggers” because I noticed the teams were “outrigger clubs” from various states, complete with cute matching uniforms
And apparently “paddle sports” is a big deal in Hawaii, so there were a lot of Hawaiians who were clearly pro’s. Talking yoked-out Hawaiian dudes with beautiful expensive hand carved paddles and wearing all their pro gear complete with a film crew. Dad and I were talking to one who said he flew in from Hawaii, and I was like “why the hell would anyone come to AZ from Hawaii? Have you seen how it is here?” He laughed and basically said just for the race
We got to take a look around the day before the race when we got there, and I realized kayaks were the minority of crafts on the river, and also the least expensive. There were these huge fuckers that apparently cost as much as a car:
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And I realized that we stood no chance even against these sleek 17”+ whatever-the-fuck-they-are racing crafts. There were more people there from CA than AZ even. I was talking to these middle aged ladies from CA and they casually mentioned how they’re whatever these things are called (I forget, so many diff boat names to remember that day) cost $4,500. And that was starting. The others said theirs were between $5k-8k. So I’m assuming most of the Californians at this thing were rich. And that we were screwed, because those things are fast as fuck
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Continued in next post….