NYMCRA Article Archive

Forty-seven paddlers enjoyed cool and somewhat breezy conditions for the fourth running of the Tupper Lake 8-Mile canoe and kayak race last Saturday.          Unlike last year, with its mass start, there were two waves: the first consisted of 17 canoes and the second 19 kayaks. The addition of a new digital chip-scanning system that Matt Skeels of St Lawrence University has recently developed made it possible to time these two waves very accurately to Olympic standards of a hundredth of a second.          The start at the Simon Pond Tupper Lake Boat Launch was in somewhat choppy water but after the paddlers rounded the first buoy into the Raquette River the main challenge was to pick the best line up the river avoiding as much as possible suck water on the corners.           Last  year’s second-placer, Jim Mallory from Henrietta in the Over 50 class and in an Olympic K1,  eventually managed to take the lead from the rapidly improving Royal McDonnell from Paul Smith’s in an Epic V12 sur

By Katie Peck 2018 marks the beginning of my 12th paddling season, but my first time to complete the General Clinton 70 miler. In 2007, I started my paddling career as an amateur dragon boater in Philadelphia. I eventually wanted to paddle competitively, so I joined the Philadelphia Dragon Boat Association’s Yutes (youth) Team. In addition to winning various local races, I have paddled in crews that have won Nationals in Mixed and Women’s boats, and I have competed internationally at four World Championships on Team USA. Knowing that if I wanted to be a better paddler, I decided to branch out to other paddling disciplines. I always wanted to try marathon canoe, and in September 2016, the opportunity presented itself through Glen Green’s Philadelphia Fall Classic. Linda Lensch had broken her neck, leaving Betsy Ray without a C2 partner. I jumped at the opportunity to paddle with her. It was my first marathon canoe race AND my first time ever in a marathon canoe. I don’t re