The 7th Annual Sky and Oar was held on August 20 on Beautiful Morse Reservoir in Noblesville, IN, which is a fantastic place to race with the sandy beach and close, long shoreline. The race features categories for 12'6" and 14' SUP, outrigger, kayak, and prone. There are male and female divisions for each craft type and a mixed division for the youth. This is the last race for points of the SUP season for racers in the Midwest Paddle League. It is also the final leg for the MWPL Waterman award. Award winners needed to race in 4 states (Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Indiana to earn the award.
For 8 years, the race has been supporting our wonderful charity, Guardian Angels Medical Service Dogs. Which is a non-profit organization dedicated to rescuing, raising, and training highly skilled medical service dogs for people with both mental and physical disabilities.
The race features a unique 5k and 10k experience. The 10k starts first and the course circles around an island and back, a loop of about 1.5 miles. The 5k starts 5 minutes after the 10k, where they are the first on the down and back course (or section for the 10k) which features Shaka SUP Racing's trademark inflatable ducky buoys. It is a straight down and back, with several bays on the right side of the course. Passing or nearing the end of a few bays leaves racers thinking, "Where the F*ck is the duck?!"
After finding and rounding the duck all racers return to the start-finish area where the 5k ends, but the 10k goes around the island a second time. The other great part about this race course is that having the 5k racers ahead of the 10k racers allows for fun shouts of encouragement or joking disparagement between the racers. After the longer distance races, there is a 1 mile race for kids and adults who may be racing for the first time.
Going into the race for the women's 14' 5k division, Ana Ebright and Elizabeth Duke were within 60 points of each other. Whoever beat the other would take 1st place for the season.
Everyone had a great time at the after-party on the lower deck of the Boathouse Kitchen & Swan Dive. There were 10 SUP racers who earned the Waterman award.
The final race results are below. Elizabeth Duke edged out Ana by less than a minute to take the race and the season title.
In the 1-mile race SUP division mixed youth, we had
Kara K. 1st
Evette L. 2nd
Castiel L. 3rd
1 mile SUP adult Results
Andre Balentine 1st
Sara Ott 2nd.
5K Distance
Male-SUP 14'
David Ewald 1st
Patrick Reeg 2nd
Rob Wilkinson 3rd
Male-SUP 12'6"
Aaron Lugo 1st
Female-SUP 14'
Elizabeth Duke 1st
Ana Ebright 2nd
Jill Bloemendaal 3rd
Female-Sup 12'6
Chioma Jjoku 1st
Laura Kinne 2nd
Lori Miller 3rd
10K Distance
Male-SUP 14'
Joe Bechtold 1st
Michael Weidman 2nd
Keith Conway 3rd
Female-SUP 14'
Kirsten Marina Lefeldt 1st
Katy Mcrae 2nd
Meg Grady 3rd
Post race pic of everyone
