fitness paddling: exercise, train, race by kayak & canoe

A few months ago I had a couple of posts about Brandon Nelson, his project KayakForCare, and his attempt to break the 24 hour paddling record on a flat water. Brandon did his record attempt on May 3-4 and covered 147 miles in a custom built racing kayak with a Seda Glider used as backup boat when the prime kayak needed some emergency repairing.

I also got a message from Carter Johnson who attacked the same record just a few days before Brandon. Carter, however, preferred not to publicize his record attempt at that time. He paddled a stock HUKI S1-X surfski on Lake Merced in San Francisco. I believe that I saw Carter in the same "coral snake" surfski in the Colorado River 100 Race in 2004.

Today, I received the following happy e-mail from Carter:

Marek,
I mentioned that I would get back to you when I heard from Guinness, Finally, just this morning, my record attempt is official.

Unfortunately they did not Recognize my GPS distance of 152.48 miles, but rather the distance between the buoys on the Surveyed course of 150.34. Can you believe over 2 miles of turns!!! Whooh, lots of that was due to a very poorly placed end buoy that required me to go around a large bed of reeds.

Other issues were a 15 to 20 knot winds for the first 15 hours of the event. This made for some brutal traveling and significant energy expenditure. I also ended up taking over 45 minutes out of the boat with Stomach issues and lost both venturies on my Huki S1-X surfski at hour 12 during one of my bathroom stops.

It took me over 2 months to recover from this event, but I will gladly do it again to defend the record if necessary. I feel 160+ miles is well within reach for me on a lake with no winds and buoys that are set up better.

Ok, now that its official, you can post anything you would like on your site. Thank you for not mentioning it before now.

Carter

The official e-mail from the Guinness World Records:

Claim ID: 163089
Membership Number: 148420

Dear Mr Johnson,

I can confirm that you have broken the record and you details have been entered onto our database as follows:

The greatest distance canoed/kayaked on flat water in 24 hours is 150.34 miles (241.95km) by Carter Johnson (USA) on Lake Merced, San Francisco, California, USA, over 29-30 April 2006

A certificate and letter shall follow in due course.

Yours sincerely,

Scott Christie
Records Research Services
www.guinnessworldrecords.com

The event statistics:

• a year of planning, and 4 months of waiting to hear back from the record judges
• 23:15 moving time, 45 minutes stopped time with stomach issues
• from the GPS 152.48 miles, - 6.55mph moving avg, 6.35 mph overall average, 75+ turns
• only 150.34 miles between the surveyed buoyscredited to the Guiness World Record
• Carter Johnson Log Book

Congratulations !

Related posts:

• More Pictures from the 150 Miles / 24 Hour Record Paddle on Lake Merced, CA
• Paddling Non-Stop on Still Water to Cover 144 Miles in 24 Hours?
• New 24 Hour Paddling Record by Brandon Nelson: 147 miles