Olympic canoer inspires Petaluma’s River Town Racers

At a recent evening practice, RTR played host to a special guest, Olympian Chris Barlow, who founded the San Diego Canoe Kayak Team.|

I undertook my first kayaking adventure on Maine’s Casco Bay. A bunch of us had decided to rent sturdy sit-atops and paddle a mile and a half to explore a Civil War-era fort. We were caught completely off guard by a tugboat regatta underway on the bay.

Let’s get one thing straight: The kayaks paddled by the members of Petaluma’s newest boating club, River Town Racers, are nothing like the floaty tubs, or the tugs, that met one another on Casco Bay that day.

On weeknights, you may see them from one of waterfront patio restaurants around Petaluma’s Turning Basin. The sleek racing boats, called K1, K2 or K4, meet international Olympic standards. A K1 is 17 feet, 2 inches long, weighs about 26 pounds and can be as narrow “as the paddler’s hips can tolerate,” says Susan Starbird, RTR’s head coach.

While my daughter Molly, seven at the time of our narrow escape from the tugboats, thinks all kayaking is scary, these racing kayaks will tip beginners, and yet when everything is done properly, with the legs doing as much work as the arms, and the core doing the most work of all, the speeds reached are incredible. Olympic paddlers recently hit 20 mph on short courses of 200, 500 and 1000 meters.

River Town Racers was founded just three years ago. Starbird, her husband, coach Misha Riszkiewicz, and president Craig Caddell, formalized their dream of bringing the sport to the Petaluma River, which is quite calm, nicely mimicking the Olympic race courses.

At the time, they had just two additional paddlers, of vastly differing skill levels: Caddell’s son Jasper, then 12, and National Masters gold medalist Kurt Kaunzinger. But the club’s summer camps, held under the auspices of Petaluma Small Craft Center since 2011, have enticed individuals aged 11 to adult with the promise of more speed and more camaraderie. There are now 24 River Town Racers, traveling from Petaluma, Cotati, Sebastopol and Rohnert park to practice two to three times a week.

Caddell says the club, which mixes in fun events like cultural outings and “overnight camping at Tomales Bay to paddle in the bioluminescent waters of late summer,” aims to promote lifelong fitness, enjoyment of our public waterways, and competition at all levels of canoeing, kayaking and other paddle sports. In fact, while the members of River Town Racers impress other boaters on our river and in competition on other waters with their determination and scrappy independence, most notable to even a casual observer is their dedication to all human-powered water sports.

River Town Racers volunteer at the Annual Day on the River, help with the Petaluma River Marathon and Half-Marathon, and host two annual races, the Roostertail Drag Race for K1 sprinters, and the Post-Thanksgiving Turkey Race, a fun mixer to which all boaters are invited.

But this growing group is outgrowing its aging equipment. Noting aptly that “A kayak team without boats is a swim team,” Caddell designed a fundraiser to buy five performance kayaks. Donations are tax-deductible and accepted until October 1.

At a recent evening practice, RTR played host to a special guest, 1992 Olympian Chris Barlow, who founded the San Diego Canoe Kayak Team almost 20 years ago. Today SDCKT is a stand-alone non profit with over 100 members aged 7 to 75. Barlow is the Sprint High Performance and Development Director of USA Canoe/Kayak, the national Olympic affiliate, and has coached juniors to many medals in national and international events.

Watching members practicing on the Petaluma River, he pronounced RTR part of a necessary movement to bring glory, and the funding that goes with it, back to the sport in the U.S. for the Olympics, which had only one qualifying boat this year.

“Being here today and seeing the 40-foot containers absolutely reminds me of when we started. The kids had to share boats and paddles. I see dedicated people here, a great venue, and enthusiasm. It’s building clubs, and getting kids on the water, that is going to take the United States back to the strength in the sport it had in the past,” he said.

(Maggie Hohle moved her family from the East coast to Petaluma in 2007 and immediately fell in love with rowing on the Petaluma River thanks to the North Bay Rowing Club. She spends her spare time working towards river access for all on “Petaluma’s Longest Park.”)

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