You can tell it's close to race day when you see this line up in front of the Maya Hotel. As always, Friday afternoon involves good times talking with friends and teams you may only see at the Catalina Ski Race. I had the opportunity to talk to team 70 that consisted of a double up team from Australia with skiers, Steve Berry and Troy Barens skiing behind a 38' Hustler driven by Darrell Nottke with Todd Kelm observing and Keefe Nottke navigating.
In a testament to the Catalina Ski Race being recgognized as "The World's Greatest Water Ski Race" there were over a dozen Aussies that came over to ski and several teams from England as well! On race morning we were anxious, and on the water by seven am on our way to the turn boat at Avalon. It was pretty bumpy on our way over, which made us ponder how the small boats were going to fair, but conditions cleaned up about half way to the island.
(You can see Daren, the primary photographer and Author of this article standing on the upper deck of the turn boat)
As we were sitting on the turn boat, the anticipation was growing, first to see when the first boat was going to crest the horizon and second to see who was going to be to the turn first! The small boats generally arrive first to the turn, being that they get a head start over the larger boats, but with the bumpy conditions we experienced earlier, and not knowing if they had gotten better or worse it could be anybodies game.
The smaller boats got a seven minute head start this year, and pretty soon we saw the spray off the bow of a few boats on the horizon. As they approached it was the infamous single engine twin outdrive 193 that would be first to the turn. It's a 21' Nordic driven by Freddie Brennan with Sean McCann observing pulling Ben Manchett from England.
As the 193 rounded the turn and started off back towards the Horizon, our eyes drew onto the larger boats, and chase Helicopters drawing down on us. It's a little surreal at first and almost intimidating as they approach. 40+ foot boats, with 15 plus thousand combined horsepower, being chased by Helicopters all heading straight to where you are standing is an experience in itself. I almost had to remind myself that I was there to take pictures and keep things in focus.
Having experienced this race from a variety of different locations and capacities, I can tell you the people back on the shore of California are always interested in knowing which small boat, and which big boat got to the turn first. It's almost a temporary bragging right to set the tone of who might potentially win the race. The first big boat to the turn was Boat 11, Team Warpath! It's a 42' Fountain with triple blower motors owned by Mike Avila.
When the group arrived the action was nonstop with a field of large boats and small boats all arriving in close quarter. A couple times it was hard to focus on just one skier with 3-4 boats in the turn, but it really made for some great photos and exciting racing from our vantage point.
Some "RDP Favorites" include the "Team Nordic" boat 191. It's 43' Nordic driven by Randy Davis, with Dennis Hall observing and Randy's son Stevie Davis navigating, pulling 10 time winner Todd Haig. They had a race finish time of 51m 46.00 which yielded them 3rd place.
Another "RDP Favorite" includes "Team Schiada" seen here charging at the turn Boat in the massive "788" a 43' Schiada Super Cruiser being driven by Lee Spindler, with Daniel Cotton observing and Gary Heinbuch skiing. They had a finish time 56m 46.98
Below 1st place Veteran Men's class Trevor Wendt rounding the turn and passing the Casino getting ready to make the 30 mile trek back to California.
Boat 38 Wilson Motorsports 21' Cyclone took first place in the Sportsman class with a time of 1h 16m 06.11 Skiing was Brett Leonard, Driving was Colin Morris and Steve Irwin observing.
Boat 70 38 Hustler pulling a Double-Up team that came over from Australia. Driving for the team was Darrell Nottke, skiers were Steve Berry and Troy Barens while Todd Kelm observed and Keefe Nottke navigated, the team took 1 st place in their class and a time of 1h 10m 21.08 (Pic_15_70c) and (Pic_15_70d)
Not the sharpest photo in my repertoire but the story it tells makes it worth including. You can see three boats racing side by side, with the Catalina Flyer ominously behind them. If you look close you can see the skier behind the middle boat falling, and as you can imagine they don't have much time to gather him up and get going again with the Flyer bearing down on them.
Boat 9, a 21' Nordic with their team "Tyler Murray, Wayne Murray, Mark Honsowetz" battling with Boat 145 21' Hallett 210 with Chad Bolton, Andy Anderson, Ron Holman both competing in the Sportsman Class.
Featured here with a Huge congrats is the overall Winner for the 2016 Catalina Water Ski Race! Team Warpath Wayne Mawer with a time of 50m 26.80: Mike Avila-Driver, Matt Ducie-Observer, and Kevin Wynne-Navigator!
In an interesting side note, the oldest skier for the 2016 Catalina Ski Race was Jay Gotfredson at 76 with team Bob Leach Driving this Eliminator Eagle, Elliott Gotfredson observing and Cory Vodvarka navigating to the turn.
I want to thank everybody on the turn boat for letting me board and shoot, a huge thanks to JP Krieger for setting me up with the turnboat and putting me on the action, and many thanks to Chris Maddalone for the ride to the turn boat in the morning and the ride back to Long Beach.
Thanks again and looking forward to doing it again next year
Photos and Words by :
Daren Van Ryte - OC Photographics
