Owen wins four golds in national canoe event

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Standing on the banks of his home river earlier this week, Jeff Owen reflected on his earliest paddling days, and the places he has visited as a result of his passion for the sport.

“We trained here when we were kids,” the 41-year-old Orono native said, standing in the shade of a tree, the Stillwater River behind him. “We’d train for an hour. Or even, we’d paddle up for a half an hour and then float back down, listening to the Rolling Stones or something.”

Over the past several years, Owen has established himself as one of the state’s top paddlers. And earlier this month, he won four gold medals at the National Open Canoe Whitewater Championships.

Two days of training and four days of racing were held on the Youghiogheny River, which is located in Pennsylvania’s Ohiopyle State Park.

Owen and other Mainers have fared well at national competitions in the past, and this year was no exception.

Owen said competing at the national level gives him the chance to achieve two goals at once.

“One [goal] is just to travel to new rivers, and one of the appeals that nationals has for us is that you get to go to new rivers that you never would go to otherwise,” Owen said. “I’ve heard about [the Youghiogheny] for 20 years, and I finally got to go to it, and it was worth the trip.”

For some, just seeing and paddling on a new river is enough. For Owen and many others, that’s just part of the allure.

“The other [goal] is to go up against some of the other really good paddlers from around the country and to try to beat ’em,” Owen said. “It’s all about the competition at that event. For some of us, anyway.”

Owen won both solo races he entered – a sprint and a downriver competition – and teamed with his longtime paddling partner Steve Woodard of Cumberland to capture the gold in the two-man downriver competition. He also won an age-group gold with Charlie Brackett of New Hampshire.

Sprint races are short, and can be completed in about 11 minutes, Owen explained. Downriver races are about eight miles long and take nearly an hour to complete.

In April, Owen and Woodard teamed up to capture the overall championship in the Kenduskeag Stream Canoe Race. It was the first time in more than a decade that a team of paddlers in an open canoe had won the race.

Owen started racing on the Kenduskeag when he was 12, racing with his mother, Sue Owen. Then he began racing in the Junior-Senior class with his father, Bucky Owen.

Eventually he outgrew that class and began paddling with Woodard. Even though Woodard, also an Orono native, now lives in southern Maine, the duo make plans to team up for about five races each year.

Owen said the number of paddlers at this year’s national competition was the lowest he’s ever seen it – about 20 or 25 – but the trip was well worth making.

The river was one important reason.

“It was fantastic,” he said. “On the Souadabscook here in town, in Hampden, there’s a drop called ‘Crawford’s’ that everybody’s eyes get really big at. That river’s full of drops like that. Just tremendous. Big fun.”

Owen said the national competitions are open to anyone – no qualifying is necessary – and the most competitive races often take place in the recreational classes, where there are no high-priced racing boats allowed.

“[Those races are ideal for] people who drag the canoe out of the woodshed and jump in it,” Owen said. “That’s what a lot of people are paddling now, and it’s not a big step to learn how to make a boat like that go fast.”

Owen paddled in both racing and recreational boats at the nationals, and said the river ended up winning a few skirmishes.

“The boat that I raced by myself at nationals is up on sawhorses, getting fixed,” he said. “Steve and I raced a rec boat together on the last day and that boat needed a nose job afterward, too. A whole bunch of us hit the same rock over the course of a week.”

Owen, who teaches science at Orono High School, said he’s hoping to introduce others to the sport he loves, and said he’ll begin with his students.

“I’m hoping to get others into this because of what it’s done for me over the years,” Owen said. “I really like clean water and wooded shorelines, and seeing wildlife, and I like being physically fit, and this sport just weaves together all of those things. It’s a sport that can really put your mind at ease while you’re working your body hard.”

Last chance for any-deer permits

If you’re looking to increase your odds of taking a deer this fall, you have less than a week to register for the annual any-deer permit lottery.

Success in that lottery earns a lucky hunter an any-deer permit – more commonly called a “doe permit” – for a specified Wildlife Management District.

Licensed hunters have until 11:59 p.m. on Aug. 3 to apply for those permits. Receive one of the 66,275 doe tags and you’ll be allowed to shoot an antlerless deer, should you choose.

Interested hunters can apply by mail, but the quickest, easiest way to put your name in the any- deer hopper is via the Internet.

If you’re a traveling hunter who’s not necessarily committed to hunting in just one Wildlife Management District, here are your best bets for garnering an any- deer permit: WMD 17, where 11,000 permits will be awarded, WMD 23 (10,125 permits), and WMD 22 (7,275 permits).

An added benefit for those using the Internet: Just for applying via the state’s automated MOSES system, your name will be automatically entered in a drawing for a classic Rangeley boat.

To register for the lottery on-line, go to www.mefishwildlife.com and follow the links.

Striper tourney on tap

Saltwater angling enthusiasts will have an extra reason to be on the water in September, as organizers launch a monthlong catch-and-release tournament.

The 17 Rivers Striper Tournament will be held in coastal waters of Maine from Eagle Island in Harpswell to Metinic Island near Owls Head.

Maine Striper September, the group sponsoring the tourney, said in a news release that it is trying to provide an opportunity for fishermen to experience a world-class striper fishery and explore the beauty of coastal Maine during September.

The tournament area includes the tidal estuaries of 17 rivers: the Androscoggin, Muddy, Cathance, Abagadasset, Kennebec, Eastern, Sasanoa, Back, Sheepscot, Cross, Marsh, Damariscotta, Johns Pemaquid, Meduncook, St. George and Weskeag.

The official host city of the tourney is Bath.

Interested anglers can get more information at www.mainestriperseptember.com.

Tree stand users take note

Hunters who prefer to spend their autumn days perched in trees, waiting for deer to pass by, should take note of a law suite recently filed in Wisconsin.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has sued Ardisam, Inc., alleging that the company failed to report in a timely fashion serious injuries suffered by hunters using two of the company’s tree stands.

The Big Foot and Lite Foot series tree stands are at issue, and in July of 2004 the stands were the subject of a recall, according to a CPSC press release.

Those hunters who may not have heard about the recall in 2004 should check to see if their tree stands are among those that were recalled.

More information on the lawsuit and the tree stands is available at the CPSC Web site: www.cpsc.gov.

John Holyoke can be reached at jholyoke@bangordailynews.net or by calling 990-8214 or 1-800-310-8600.