Great Stone Dam Classic Summary

Although the Great Stone Dam Classic is held on the relatively placid waters of the Merrimack River, it never fails to attract a robust field of surfskis – the largest in New England for 2021. This past Sunday, 30 skis (along with assorted other kayaks, canoes, and SUPs) met at the Abe Bashara Boathouse for the 11th running of the GSDC. Francisco Urena and Shawn Burke, with assistance from a raft of volunteers from the Greater Lawrence Community Boating Program (consider donating to this amazing resource), always throw one of the best races in New England.

The weather was fine for the 8.2 mile race, with temperatures in the mid 70s and a moderate breeze of 10-15 mph from the southwest. Paddlers would start off the boathouse docks, proceed 3.25 miles upriver to Pine Island, then return to a turn buoy just shy of the docks, where they’d start a second, smaller loop. In this second 1.6 mile loop, paddlers would turn around two buoys on opposite shores before returning to finish at the docks. With two upstream and two downstream legs, finding the right line to balance the wind, current, and depth factors can play a significant factor in the race.

The GSDC tends to draw from both the flatwater and ocean surfski communities, and this year was no exception. The favorite was once again Rob Jehn, making the long trip up from New Jersey. But a surprise visit from California by Ben Lawry – long time kayaking instructor and exceptional athlete – muddied the waters a little. Locals Greg Lesher and Janda Ricci-Munn hoped that an upset might be in order. On the women’s side, it seemed probable that JoAnn Hanowski (VT), Leslie Chappell (MA), and Loukia Lili (NJ) would be fighting it out for the win on surfskis, with Andrea Vogl (VT) a threat for the overall kayaking crown in an ICF trainer. The sole double entrant was the local duo of Bruce Deltorchio and Ed Duggan.

Bruce & Ed started alone in the first wave, to be followed by all the single kayaks (all but 2 of which were skis) a minute later. Rob jumped to a quick lead along the right shore, with Ben and Janda in pursuit. Although Greg was slow off the line, he managed to catch up to Janda within the first couple minutes of the race, with Jon Greer just behind. With a left bend coming up, racers had to decide when to venture away from the slower current near the shore to cross to the left bank. While Rob and Ben chose a late break, Janda, Greg, and Jon started their diagonal cut much earlier. Behind them, Tim Dwyer, Kirk Olsen, Wesley Echols, Tim Hacket, and John Redos had started even earlier.

The difference in paths across to the left blank did nothing to change the order, so it’s difficult to judge which line was the best. This would be a recurring theme for the remainder of the first upwind/downriver leg, as paddlers took different approaches to avoid wind or current (or both) with little in the way of obvious gains or losses. Rob was slowly pulling away from Ben, who was doing the same to Janda and Greg. Jon had fallen back slightly, and roughly 1.5 miles into the race was caught by the chase pack of Tim D, Kirk, Wesley, Tim H, and John. He would remain mostly in the lead of this group for some time.

Rob took the upriver turn at Pine Island slightly wider than his pursuers, allowing them to cut into his lead by a modest amount. Ben may additionally have been helped by staying out of the current for longer than any of the other top 4, ferrying across to Pine Island much later than the others. Immediately after the turn downstream, Janda pulled around Greg, who hopped on his draft. With Rob and Ben enjoying a significant lead by this point, Janda figured that he’d need to start putting in some hard intervals to have any hope of catching them. Greg hung on for a few minutes of this before dropping off.

Although Ben and Janda would keep things interesting by continuing their relentless pursuit of Rob, the ordering would ultimately stay the same for the top 4 men’s positions. The real drama would come in the fight for 5th through 10th. These 6 paddlers would remain within a minute of each other for most of the race, with 5 finishing within that span. At the start of the downstream leg, Jon was in the lead. He would eventually drop to the back of the group. Tim D emerged as the leader during this leg, with John surprising several members of the group (who wasn’t aware that he was actually part of the group) and moving ahead with Tim. Shortly behind them, Kirk was pulling Wesley, with Tim H and Jon just off of them.

Coming into the turn at the end of the first loop, some confusion about the turn buoy by the leaders caused the paddlers to accordion together. John emerged in the lead, but the rest of the group was now within a dozen boat lengths. The order remained fluid over the second loop, but Tim D passed John and started pulling away from the others. Kirk and Tim H also managed to get around John. The final order was Tim D, Kirk, Tim H, John, Wesley, and Jon. It should be noted that John was technically in a different class than the others (Touring), paddling a V9 against the slimmer boats.

Rob (1:05:21) had finished first, roughly 30 seconds ahead of Ben. Janda took the final podium spot some 45 seconds later. On the women’s side, JoAnn enjoyed a slight lead after the first loop, but was ultimately nipped at the line by Andrea (1:16:21) by a one second margin. Leslie pulled in a couple of minutes later (as the 2nd surfski), followed later by an under-the-weather Loukia. Here are the complete results:

You may also want to check out the SurfskiRacing.com series standings and more detailed race results from SurfskiAmerica.