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BANGOR – A couple of weeks before the Kenduskeag Stream Canoe Race, Kenny Cushman of Hampden e-mailed fellow kayaker Trevor Maclean with an invitation to join forces for the 2004 edition of the race.
Their boat would be a fast two-man kayak. They’d paddle together. And they’d take on all comers.
Maclean – the two-time defending Kenduskeag champ from Dartmouth, Nova Scotia – politely declined.
“I said, ‘Oh, maybe next year. Not this year,'” Maclean said on Saturday … after finishing second overall in the race.
The winners: Cushman and partner Fred Ludwig, who paddled with his pal despite only 10 days on the water since suffering a suspected broken rib four weeks ago.
“I just didn’t want to go head to head with [Maclean] if I didn’t have the same equipment,” Cushman said after finishing the 38th edition of the Kenduskeag-to-Bangor classic. He explained that his one-man kayak is designed for whitewater, thus he didn’t want to take on Maclean, who uses a flatwater boat better suited for the Kenduskeag.
“I really didn’t want to paddle alone, and I actually thought about getting a canoe partner, or going in a war canoe,” Cushman added.
That wasn’t necessary.
Ludwig and Cushman made late arrangements to team up in a two-man flatwater kayak, then toured the 16-mile course in a speedy 1 hour, 58 minutes, 35 seconds. Maclean finished 26 seconds behind.
“The goal today was to have the fastest time, which is our usual goal,” Ludwig said. “We paddle the fastest boat in the river, so we have an advantage already.”
Maclean and the winners raced in similar flat-water racing kayaks.
“Maybe next year I’ll have to bring a partner down from Nova Scotia and we’ll put a K-2 in,” Maclean said. “I’ll have to be in contact with Kenny and see if we can get everybody out in K-2s. That would be a lot of fun.”
David Smallwood and Jeff Sands paddled to third place overall in 2:07:15 in a two-man wild-water kayak, while Steve Woodard and Jeff Owen finished fourth overall and won the competitive C2 medium experienced class in 2:08:33.
Six of the top 10 boats were from that class, which featured some of the race’s top paddlers competing in two-man canoes designed for racing.
Paula Lunt was the first solo woman to cross the finish line in her long kayak (2:20:52, 12th place overall), while Barry Dana was the first solo canoeist (2:25:14, 15th overall).
In all, 1,024 paddlers in 570 boats took part in the race. Those totals were the highest since 1995. The race records for participation were set in 1994, when 754 boats and 1,529 paddlers took part.
Race director Tracy Willette of the Bangor Recreation and Parks Department summed up the reasons for the large turnout succinctly.
“Weather and water,” Willette said.
The weather: Sunny, with high temperatures around 60. The water: High … but not too high.
The conditions were fine with Smallwood and Sands, who competed together for the first time in a boat designed for white-water, not flat-water speed.
Smallwood, who kayaks regularly on some of the state’s most challenging white-water rivers, hadn’t competed in about 15 years.
He enjoyed the experience, but said it proved interesting.
“[There’s a mandatory portage at Flour Mill Dam], and if I’m paddling, that’s where we put in,” the thrill-seeking Smallwood said with a chuckle. “That’s the good stuff, and [today] they make us carry.”
Among the top paddlers was one duo that have been absent from many races over the past few years.
Five years ago, Owen and Woodard, who grew up together, each attended Orono High, and began paddling at the age of 15, were among the state’s best in their class. Back in 1997, they set the Kenduskeag record in the C2 medium experienced class, as a matter of fact.
Families, children, and time commitments broke up their paddling partnership for three years … but they were back on Saturday.
“We’d dream about [paddling together] every year, but we couldn’t get it to happen,” Owen said.
His partner agreed.
“There was a lot of party talk going on,” he said.
Last fall, while running together, they decided that they’d make a commitment to paddle together again.
“We swore to each other that we’d be ready for the Kenduskeag,” Woodard said. “And we just kept reminding each other.”
They were ready … and topped an impressive group of C-2 medium experienced paddlers.
John Alsop and Steve McAleer finished second in that class, just 2:07 behind, while Chip Loring and Jamie Hannon took third, another 1:07 behind.
“It felt great,” Woodard said. “We had good competition from the start. There were five fast boats.”
One of the race’s fastest -and most entertaining – boats was the 26-foot-long war canoe paddled by J.R. Mabee, Leslie Mabee, Tammy Kelley, Ander Thibaud, Bill Smith, and John Cangelosi.
Though there is no war canoe division in the race any longer, the six-paddler team shattered the previous war canoe record of 2:17:21 by finishing sixth overall in 2:11:14.
The fact that the war canoe category doesn’t actually exist any more was of small concern to the crew.
“We thought with the right year we could maybe go for the record,” J.R. Mabee said.
“It’s fast when everybody gets moving,” he said.
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