Blazing Paddles Paddlefest 2023 Review

 This was the 5th year of the Blazing Paddles Festival in Cleveland, Ohio.  What started as a paddle board only event has grown into one of the largest paddling events in Ohio for paddle borders, kayakers, and canoes.  This year was the largest field to date with over 700 paddlers.  It was announced after the event that this year’s race field set a record for the most ever paddlers on the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland at the same time and place.

The event start was delayed due to log jams and heavy debris in the river from heavy storms the two previous nights before the race.  For many race organizers this probably would have postponed the event to another day or even cancelled it, but not for Mickey Rzymek!  Mickey had a fleet of barges ready on hand that were deployed to break up the log jams and debris.  When the fleet returned and was unable to break up the larger log jams Mickey went to Plan B.  With one phone call Mickey sent the 639 foot super freighter Mark W. Barker down the river to smash through the logs like they were toothpicks!  When I often speak of Mickey Rzymek working his magic at races this is exactly what I am talking about!  The Mark W. Barker cleared the river and after about a 80 minute delay we were ready to race.

I competed in the 6.8 mile race using my Stellar S18S Multi Sport which put me in the fast sea kayak class.  Both the high performance sea kayak class and the fast sea kayak class were loaded with national and state champions.  I knew that getting on the podium would be no easy task.  The race started and we headed up river about a half mile to the first turnaround buoy.  The faster paddlers quickly all fell in line behind the leaders all trying to get an early draft off of each other.  I quickly found myself in the lead pack.  Four of us all in the same class and all paddling the same boat where in a line just inches apart drafting off of each other.  I was in fourth place and was content to stay there for the moment drafting off of the kayak in the third position.  Heading past the start area is one of the best parts of this race.  There is lots of energy and excitement from the spectators and 586 paddlers ready to start the recreational paddle event.  For the first 1.5 miles of the race or so all four of us battled hard for position staying on each others sterns drafting and looking for opportunities to make a move, but then danger struck.  The safety patrol jet ski made a rapid turn creating wake and taking out the top paddler in the high performance division.  Hansel Lucas, owner of Performance Kayak immediately yielded his first place position to assist the down kayaker.  It wasn’t long before the kayaker was back in his boat and out of harms way.  Both the down kayaker and Hansel rejoined the chase and it wasn’t long before both were back in contention.  I give a tremendous amount of credit and respect to Hansel Lucas for sacrificing his own race to help a teammate in distress,  I would have assisted as well but they were ahead of me and by the time I approached the danger was over and they were back in the race.  As this was unfolding I had been battling hard to get and maintain the third position.  I secured the third position and moved into second.  Soon Hansel was back in the hunt with the fourth place boat drafting behind him.  Hansel was pushing hard to regain lost time and he along with the kayak drafting behind him shotgunned past me putting me back into the fourth position.   I started to have a little mental laps thinking my chances for a podium finish were gone, but I kept paddling hard.  Soon Hansel was back into the second position and had separated enough from the third place kayak that he could no longer draft.  The third place kayaker slowed down and I saw my chance.  I paddled hard and fast catching and passing once again moving into the third position.  From there I paddled as hard and fast as I ever had slowly increasing my lead and gap between the kayaker behind me.  Knowing he is a strong kayaker who usually beats me I knew I couldn’t let up.  Making one of the final turns towards the finish area I took an aggressive line around the corner and suddenly found myself in a massive debris field.  Barely anywhere to even place a paddle in the water without risking breaking it off on a log.  I got nervous thinking that the slow down might open the door for the kayaker behind me to pass.  I got passed the debris and went back to work paddling with all my might through the finish to secure third place in my division and 6th place overall in solo kayaks.  As for Hansel he finished second just 40 seconds behind the winner.  I was only 1:09 behind the winner and 29 seconds behind Hansel.  My finish time was 55:28 which was much faster than last year.  The high performance kayaker that was dumped by the jet ski wake, well don’t feel sorry for him.  He recovered and went on to be the overall winner of the race.

All participants received a nice shirt, tote bag, Carb Boom Energy Gel and a few other sponsor items.  Winners received their choice of either a logoed bucket hat or trucker cap and a mounted print of the race.  I can’t say what a great job Jim Ridge, Mickey Rzymek, Share The River, North Coast Multisports, and all of the volunteers did to put on this massive event.  If you like to paddle you need to put this event on your calendar for next year!