Welcome to BAIR ISLAND NEWS, BIAC's electronic newsletter. The purpose of BIN is to communicate with members about the Center's activities and programs, to promote a greater sense of community within BIAC, and to spread awareness of BIAC's activities beyond the membership list.

Your comments and contributions are always welcome. Please email them to the editor, Craig Canine. Thanks!

IN THIS ISSUE

GENERAL BIAC NEWS

  • Feature Story: BIAC Paddlers Place Second in Ocean-to-Ocean Race

PADDLING NEWS

  • BIAC's "Team Futura" Brings Home Silver in International Competition
    (see Feature Story)

ROWING NEWS

  • BIAC Junior Crew Updates

  • THE Boat Race

COMING EVENTS

GENERAL BIAC NEWS

Team Futura, named for their generous sponsor (please visit www.surfskis.com), traveled to Panama in April and brought home the silver. Dave "Tex" Jensen, Jon Robinson, Irvin Taputuarai and Brett Byers finished the 40-mile race through the Panama Canal, from the Caribbean Ocean to the Pacific, in 5 hours and 22 minutes, only 1 minute off of the record, prior to this year's race, for the course. A record 70 boats raced in this year's 50th anniversary race.

The race was held in 5 stages over 3 days, during which much fun was had. As this was the 50th anniversary race, the experience included a transit through the canal locks via cayuco. Monkeys leered, screeched, and tossed nuts at Team Futura as the team screamed past Monkey Island in Lake Gatun on Day 2. Each member of Team Futura was greeted by kisses from Miss Panama 2000 after smashing the record for the fourth stage of the race. Jon and Brett plastered their sponsor's stickers on the boats of their competitors, the official race sign and various boat trailers and cars, leading the multitudes at the races to murmur "Futura" incessantly and to make mental notes to surf over to www.surfskis.com at the next available moment. Team Futura also was mobbed by reporters from Canoe & Kayak Magazine, Paddler Magazine and Hull Speed Magazine, and gave in to requests by a prominent local cayuco designer to test his latest creation.

This was the second visit by three of the members of Team Futura to the annual cayuco race. The team, with the welcome addition of Dave, outdid their fourth-place 2001 finish (6 hours and 15 minutes) by a wide margin. The best is yet to come, however, according to Dave, who proclaimed to the cheering crowd after the race that "We will be back and we will break 5 hours next time!" Dave maintains that the breaking of the 5-hour cayuco race barrier will be as important as the shattering of the 4-minute mile nearly 50 years ago.

The cayucos used in the race are wood dugout canoes made by indigenous Panamanians. In addition, in order to conserve threatened trees, fiberglass replicas of the wood cayucos have been introduced to the race over the past two years. The cayucos are sleek and fast, but are also very tippy and unstable compared to most other canoes. Nonetheless, after the race and while touring in Costa Rica, some members of Team Futura witnessed indigenous Costa Ricans paddling cayucos while standing up! Dave is planning to try standing paddling and kayaking real soon, and to make this a regular part of his training regimen.       - Brett Byers

For more information about the cayuco race, visit www.cayucorace.org.

Photos: (top right) Team Futura showing their championship style in the canoe Coiba (photo courtesy Francis Zera); Team Futura and other racers leaving a Panama Canal lock (courtesy Francis Zera); El Capitan Jon Robinson with fans; traditional wooden cayuco made by an indigenous Panamanian.

You may have noticed the large floating structure off the dock that resembles a U.S. Navy landing dock ship. No, it is not David Abraham's new, mobile presidential palace. It's the "foundation" of a houseboat whose owner has paid BIAC a fee for temporary mooring. Don't worry: It will be gone soon. Thanks for your patience.

In an effort to make the BIAC web site more useful for members, the Communications Committee has added a "Members Only" section. This section will be a repository for minutes from board meetings, a copy of the Center's bylaws, online versions of frequently used forms (such as the Member Intake and Boat Storage forms), contact information for Board members and officers, links to members' personal sites with relevant photos, FAQs, and anything else that seems useful or interesting to BIAC members. This section of the site is very bare-bones for now, but it will be expanding over the coming months. Please contact Communications Director Victoria Szabo or Newsletter/Web Editor Craig Canine with suggestions for enhancing this, or any other part, of the BIAC web site.

Members will soon receive an email with the username and password needed to gain access to this password-protected portion of the site.

PADDLING NEWS

See Feature Story, above.

ROWING NEWS

The BIAC women's crew took an impressive third place in the Petite Final of the Women’s Open 8+ division at the San Diego Crew Classic on Sunday, April 6th. In an exciting contest over the 2000m course, BIAC lead the field in the first 500m, saw the gap narrow in the main body of the race, and battled it out in the final 250m sprint for second, third, and fourth place. Crossing the finish line in a time of 7:31, they fended off competition from Davis Alumni, ZLAC Cruz and UC San Diego.

On Saturday (the day before the final), the BIAC women qualified for the Petite Final from among a total of 21 crews, including "Lookout," the U.S. National Team. Crew members were (from stroke to bow): Kristin Henny, Bethanie Bayha, Tyler Morse, Karna Nisewaner, Jenny Antons, Victoria Szabo, Laura Foster and Fiona Ashley, with coxswain Rich Tzeng (aka "O Most Revered One").        - Fiona Ashley

Editor's addendum: BIAC also fielded an men's 8+, in the Men's Open category of the Crew Classic. Although they battled the wind and waves of the infamous Lane 7 with great determination, the men turned in a somewhat less-than stellar race performance (hey, it's a building year). The men's crew DID distinguish itself, however, after the end of their race. As the boat approached the shore for a beach landing, Cox Min Tang (aka "She Who Must Be Obeyed") asked stroke Craig Canine to test the depth of the water. The well-trained Canine obeyed orders, hopping out of the shell and immediately disappearing from view in what turned out to be 8 feet of water. Observers on the beach found this very funny, as did the rest of the men's crew (who were, after stroke seat: Skip Tasker, David Abraham, Karen Osman, Jason Blackstock, Tony Lalli, Zoltan Gombosi, and Rudy Schreiber). Looking like a wet labrador, Canine dog-paddled the boat to shallower waters. Next year's trick: a somewhat more impressive performance in the race itself(?). Stay tuned . . .

Photos: (top) BIAC women's San Diego 8+ (back row: Bethanie Bayha, Tyler Morse, Jenny Antons, Laura Foster, Fiona Ashley; kneeling: Karna Nisewaner, Rich Tzeng, Kristin Henny); (middle) men's 8+/- (back row: David Abraham, Skip Tasker, Craig Canine, Jason Blackstock, Rudy Schreiber, Karen Osman; front row: Tony Lalli, Min Tang, Zoltan Gombosi); (bottom) Where's stroke? (hint: look in water beside cox)

  • Congratulations to the BIAC Juniors (and the Serra High School Crew) for finishing a great league season this past Saturday (April 27). Good luck at State Championships in Sacramento on May 10-11!

  • Thanks to all who helped the Juniors raise $900 in the recent Cookie Dough fundraiser!

  • Remember, drinking water is available in the boathouse office for $.50 a bottle (on the honor system -- there's a money jar near the water bottles). As we head into the warmer months, stay hydrated and help support the juniors.

Throughout the summer, our team will practice Tues. and Thurs. mornings from 5:15am to 7:15am and Saturdays from 7am to 10am. We will be racing in at least one regatta, in August.

We will be teaching you how to row in a variety of boats, from the bigger boats (8s) down to singles. We will be doing both sweep (each person has one oar) and sculling (each person has 2 oars).

The season will run from June 7th to Aug. 30th, and the cost of the program is $200/person. (Financial assistance/Scholarships may be available - please contact me directly with any questions.) This fee includes: coaching, summer membership to BIAC, and use of the facilities and equipment (on a supervised basis).

We look forward to seeing you all on June 7th. Please mention this to anyone who might be interested. If you cannot make it on June 7th but are still interested in checking out the team, please contact Coach Carl or me (Coach Ally) to work something out.

- Coach Ally Bocchieri

Program Director David Oliver has compiled the following list of summer '03 adult rowing programs, together with the boats assigned to them:

MON/WED/FRI @ 5:30-7am: Advanced men's and women's sweep (men: Maruja; women: S&T for training, Intrepid for racing)

MON./WED/FRI @ 6-8pm: Intermediate group rowing the S&T and using
launch #1, with the blue Heron as a 4.

TUE/THUR @ 05:30-7am: Novice group rowing the Maruja as
an 8; 4 tbd

TUE/THUR @ 6-8pm: Beginning group rowing the Maruja; 4 tbd

If you are participating in any of these programs, please put your boat in slings
and do an equipment check before you go to water.

THE Boat Race:

Oxford Edges Out Cambridge in "The Greatest Boat Race in History"

On Sunday, April 6, Oxford clinched a thrilling victory against Cambridge. The Dark Blues of Oxford won their second consecutive Boat Race by just one foot -- the closest margin in 149 events.

But Oxford, stroked by president Matt Smith, held on for their 71st victory in a time of 18 minutes six seconds, thanks to a sprint finish that saw them hit 40 strokes per minute. The traditional course is 4 miles, 374 yards long, and runs up the Thames from Putney Bridge to Chiswick Bridge.

Photo: The crews close in on the Chiswick Bridge finish line with Oxford (right) struggling to hold on to a narrow lead (AP photo)

See the full BBC report, watch the race video.

Check out the official Boat Race web site.

COMING EVENTS

  • May 10-11 State Junior Rowing Championships (Lake Natoma, Sacramento)

GO BAIR!