The Great Iowa River Canoe Race

Take heart, seasoned paddlers: The most athletic competitors don't always win canoe races.

“In canoe racing, technical skill and knowledge of the river often beat youth and brawn,” said 58-year-old Gareth Stevens, who with 56-year-old partner Ted Cramer won the Great Iowa River Canoe Race on Saturday morning.

Paddling together in a tandem canoe, Stevens and Cramer covered the 9.25-mile course from the Sturgis Ferry Park Access in Iowa City to the Hills Access in 57 minutes, edging 32-year-old Alan Gage of Estherville, paddling a solo kayak, by 12 feet and half a second.

“It was a great race. We were neck and neck all the way down the river,” said Cramer of Rock Rapids, generally acknowledged to be the fastest paddler in Iowa.

The lead changed hands several times, with one craft surfing the other's wake as the paddlers saved energy for the final sprint.

Gage, an up-and-comer in canoe racing circles, gave full props to the veterans. He said his 21-foot-long, 18-inch-wide, 28-pound kayak “is supposed to be faster than” their 18.5-foot-long, 25-pound canoe.

“Those guys are good. It makes me feel good to stay up with them,” Gage said.

“You can be strong as an ox, but that means nothing unless you have the right technique,” Cramer said.

Stevens, who edits Canoe News magazine for the United States Canoe Association, said reading the river is one of the keys to success.

“You want the shortest route possible, which means clipping the insides of turns, but you also want to stay in the strongest current. It's a fine line,” he said.

Cramer said successful racers cannot waste power with steering strokes. “We maintain a straight course by shifting our weight and changing sides with our strokes. If you make a J-stroke (a stroke intended more for steerage than power) you are losing,” he said.

The Iowa River at Iowa City at race time was at 17 feet - 5 feet below flood stage but still plenty swift and muddy.

That was fine with Cramer, who said, “the higher it gets, the better I like it.”

It was also fine with the other 59 competitors who turned out for the first iteration of the race, co-sponsored by the Iowa Valley Resource Conservation and Development in Amana and Fin and Feather outdoor store in Iowa City.

“The current was not in the least intimidating,” said Duncan Woodward, 46, of Iowa City, who paddled the course with his 16-year-old son Alex in a wood-strip canoe handmade by Woodward and his father-in-law, Herman Voss of Rochester, Iowa.

“We were in the adult-youth recreation division, and we weren't worried about our placement or finish. We were just out to enjoy the river,” Woodward said.

So was Gerry Kenney, 51, of Riverside, who made the trip with his clever dog Oki in a canoe Kenney bought in 1981 for $110.

Kenney said he was hoping the organizers had a category entitled “solo paddlers over the age of 50 in a tandem canoe.”

That probably would have gotten him a place on the award podium, he joked.

Event coordinator Rick Hill of Iowa City and he and the sponsors were pleased with the turnout for the inaugural event. “It's something solid to build on for the future” of what organizers hope becomes an annual event.

Here are some photos from the first ever Great Iowa River Canoe Race. The race was about nine miles. The course ran from Iowa City to the Hills boat access.

I pretty much got photos at the start and some at the finish. I was entered to race after all.