It is spring again in Reno and you know what that means. The weather is slowly getting warmer, the water is starting to come up, the winds are gnarly in the afternoon, and it is officially home town throw down season. This past Wednesday was the first event of the year. Local World Kayak ambassadors, Noah Fraser, Colin Kemp and Toby Ebens, put on a great race at the Floriston rapids about 20 minutes west of town on I80. The race was as always, a fun filled friendly competition. We had a great turn out for this event. Twenty people showed up to race. In true HTTD fashion we didn’t just do a straight down river sprint. There were some twists. First you had to start backwards, paddle up stream a short distance and complete a back ferry around a boulder, then you could turn around and race down stream making sure to hit a few mandatory boofs. Penalties were added to the times of those who didn’t make the back ferry or missed the required boofs. It was a really close race, except for Jason who blew us all away. Only eight seconds separated second and seventh places. Here is the complete list of racers and their times.

Place Racer Time in minutes
1. Jason C 4:08
2. Scott H 4:18
3. Pete D 4:19
4. Craig P 4:21
5. Charles A 4:23
6. Mike H 4:24
7. Brian K 4:26
8. Ryan S 4:33
9. Tommy P 4:36
10. Scott S, Chris F 4:41
12. William B 4:48
13. Sage D 4:53
14. Nikos R 4:56
15. Connor W 4:56.6
16. Kirk S 5:12
17. Max H 5:36
18. Aaron W 6:11
19. Austin B 6:19
20. Jon L, Renee H 1 run only

We were all stoked at the after party to have Ninkasi brewing on deck and giving out free beer. As I understand it, there will be more free beer at the other events this year. If you missed this one you can catch the next event Wednesday April 17th @ Wingfield park in downtown Reno. Show up by 5 to sign up. If you have never been to one of these events, I highly recommend you check it out. They are great low key friendly competitions and everyone who signs up gets their name in a raffle for great swag at the end. Oh, and did I mention it is completely free to enter? Hope to see you at the next one!