Shem Creek Shootout

Raced in the 2nd Annual Shem Creek Shootout a few weeks ago. The start/finish was at Red's Icehouse, located in Mount Pleasant, SC right next to Charleston. It was a great event put on by Charleston Watersports.

I entered the 8 mile Elite race in the Men's 12'6" division. As it turned out with the way the turn buoys ended up getting put out, it actually only ended up being 6.3 miles according to my GPS watch. It was a breezy morning that produced various conditions (and 2 turn buoys) out on the race course...it had it all with chop and wind from all directions...which I prefer to just an out and back flat water race. The first leg out of the creek had us paddling into the SW 10-15mph breeze in flat water. Once out of the creek, we dealt with wind and boat chop, then around a turn buoy and paddling with the wind (and side chop) coming across our shoulder for a very long leg.

The 2nd turn buoy had us at the Sullivans Island cut which had two currents running into each other producing some rough chop. Once around that buoy, it was more side wind but flatter water that took us back into the finish. At that 2nd turn buoy, I was neck and neck for the lead in my division with a local paddler. I took a risk and went hard for the inside of the turn around the buoy, stepped back and did a hard pivot turn with the board, then just turned it on from there and never looked back. Very happy with the 1st place finish in the Mens Elite 12'6" division.

Here are some pics from Beth's Picasa photo album. Beth was a major race volunteer who did a great job along with Dave Clifford, Charleston Watersports' proprietor.


The race course






The start...Waterturtle is in black/white and on the yellow Bark board. Photo taken by my friend Lori.



Crossing the finish line



The times



Won some money...it was very cool that the purse was the same between the 14' and 12'6" divisions.



All the mens' and womens' divisional top 3 winners

Here are the top 3 in each division:

Recreational Class Women’s
Name Finish Time
Bernadette Leach 1:01:37
Jana Foglam 1:02:46
Jenny Alderman 1:06:31

Recreational Class Men’s
Name Finish Time
Justin Schaay 0:57:58
Kenny Puckett 0:58:14
David Thorvalson 0:59:41

Elite 12’6″ Women’s
Name Finish Time
Kimberley Sutton 1:26:28
Kimberly James 1:28:48
April Zilig 1:33:21

Elite 12’6″ Men’s
Name Finish Time
Mac Barnhardt 1:16:53
Jeremy Whitted 1:17:30
Mark Colino 1:18:53

Elite 14′ Men’s Finish Time
Chris Hill 1:11:49
Craig Stephens 1:12:30
Rhodes 1:13:29

Kids
Name Finish Time
Jameson Sanders 11:28
Chase Michaelsen 16:40

Men’s 50+
Name Finish Time
Mike Evatt 1:15:55
Bill Curry 1:17:23
Clay Thornhill 1:23:39

Here is a local newspaper article about the race.