We were up early this morning to grab breakfast. The hotel was actually serving hot items in the breakfast area, so that was a nice change from the previous COVID precautions in place.
After loading up our stuff in the car, we checked out and headed over to De Anza Cove for the morning festivities.
We found a spot on the shore next to the UCLA encampment. M happily informed us that their canoe passed the swamp test earlier, meant to ensure that entries wouldn't sink to the bottom during competition. So they were cleared to paddle!
However, he was still concerned about the seaworthiness of their vessel. Because of the rise in COVID cases in the community at the start of winter quarter, UCLA moved back to remote learning for the first few weeks. This also meant that the team was not permitted to meet in person to work on their canoe, pushing back their timelines.
The first event was the women's 2-person slalom. Each school launched their canoe just before attempting the course to post their respective times.
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| It takes teamwork to move a 200+ lb canoe! |
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| 9:48AM - uh oh, bilge pumping before the start! |
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| 9:56AM |
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| 10:02AM |
They ended up towing the canoe back to shore, while someone played the Celine Dion song from the "Titanic" soundtrack on a portable speaker. (Sorry, son - not to laugh at your misfortune, but I thought it was clever!)
The compressed timeline must have impacted the porosity of their concrete, resulting in water seepage. After consulting with the organizers, the project managers decided not to compete in any other canoe events, because the point penalties for repair attempts would outweigh any points potentially earned from participating. So no paddling for M - bummer!
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| So many PSWS participants! |
Since M didn't have anything further to do, R and I decided to bail (ha!) and grab lunch on our own. More on the rest of our afternoon in the next post.
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