this that
Training at the Tuesday Night Race in Deep Cove, B.C.
On your Mark, Get Set, Grow!
KAYAK RACING PLANTS A SEED IN THE BIG APPLE
>> THE NEW KAYAK RACE AROUND MANHATTAN rages in popularity and incubates a culture of fitness pad- dling that covers the globe. That’s Ray Fusco’s dream. Last year, with support from the New York City Sports
Commission and the Mayor’s Office, Fusco organized the inaugural Mayor’s Cup New York City Kayak Champion- ship, a challenging 43-kilometre (26.7-mile) paddling mara- thon around Manhattan Island. Forty-five paddlers showed up, a pack of keen kayakers in
touring boats 15 feet and longer trailing an elite contingent in sleeker craft. Olympic champion Greg Barton won, pad- dling a surf ski to the finish line in 3:21.28. For the second annual Mayor’s Cup on October 14, Fus-
co hopes to raise a $10,000 purse and quadruple the num- bers. To draw up to 200 kayakers, he has launched a three- step program called “Train, Tune Up, Compete,” designating kayak shops across North America as “Regional Training Centres” and combining three other local races into a “Tune Up Series.” One of these regional training centres is Deep Cove Ca-
noe & Kayak in Vancouver, B.C., which stokes a thriving fitness scene with its weekly Tuesday night fun races. Fusco borrowed from the sport of running, where lo-
cal warm-up races culminate in major events like the New York City Marathon—and New York’s sister races in Boston, London, Berlin and Chicago form a series called the World Marathon Majors, attracting 150,000 runners and millions of spectators. Thinking on this scale, Fusco envisions a President’s Cup
on Washington D.C.’s Potomac River, and ultimately a world series of kayak races in several other major cities. “New York is the largest media market in the U.S.,” said
Fusco. “They will gobble this thing up and spit it up across North America and globally. It will hit the wire and take off.” —Tim Shuff
18 | | ADVENTURE KAYAK summer 2007
PHOTO: TIM SHUFF
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