Editor’s note: Jesse Cors works at Liquid Surf and Sail’s Fort Lauderdale store and wrote about its recent SUP race.

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On Aug. 30 a high quality of paddlers showed up for the fifth race of the Hobie Stand-Up Paddleboard Series, which is sponsored by Liquid Surf and Sail. Previous winners Packet Casey and Roray Kam and top female participant Helga Goebel were all in attendance. All three are from Fort Lauderdale.

With paddler Tyler Bixby back in school, Jim DeSilva on the IR and Rafael Sanchez out buying another custom Joe Bark, it was up to Miami’s Thaddeus Foote and the law firm of Eduardo and Eduardo to battle the FTL contingent and defend the home waters of Biscayne Bay.

Thad had been working in top secret on a new custom shape that he busted out for this event. After watching the craziness of Race #4 (Roray on a Bebop, Amanda on a rescue board, etc.) it seemed like a lot of people had gone back to the drawing board. Roray came with a new Ark prototype, Eduardo busted out an Open Ocean 14’ Naish 2010 and Thad had the “Creamsicle—Dreamsicle.” Sort of looking like a hard-railed version of DeSilva’s Hobie, it sported a little flatter rocker and a little less volume. And it weighed a ton.

So this was going to be an interesting comparison of a lot of different styles of boards in dead-flat butter water without a drop of wind. The definition of flat-water paddling.

The starting point was off the dock at the Coast Guard station in Coconut Grove and the course headed straight toward the Coral Gables Waterway. Early on it was Thad, Packet and Roray (no big surprises here) with Helga in fourth and Big Stud Josh Sampiero on one of Dan Barret’s rental Aquglides from the stand-up concession on Key Biscayne/Hobie Beach. Thad was stroking and posing a serious challenge to the Packet/Roray combo platter, which is normally always in front.

At the entrance to the waterway were the same positions, with maybe 20 yards between the three of them. Roray dropped back some, perhaps to see if Octopussy was on the James Bond boat that was moored halfway up the waterway. She was not, but Denise Richards was. Everybody knows she is flat-out crazy so Roray just gave her the courtesy wave as opposed to introducing himself.

As they approached LeJeune Rotary, Roray was within striking distance again. Hitting the turbo button at the last minute, Packet rounded right in front of Thad at the turning mark, hoping to take advantage of the favorable current on the way back. But shortly thereafter Thaddeus hit the nitrous button and got past the burly bald guy, emerging from the waterway with a 20-yard lead. Roray was about 50 yards back with Helga not that far behind Roray, so this was a pretty good piece of paddling on her part.

Observing technique from the boat, DeSilva noted that Packet was putting the paddle in the water 25 to 30 percent more often than Thad but it did not seem to be paying off. Thad’s power stroke was actually increasing the lead on the Creamsicle, which once it got up to speed seemed to be motoring nicely in the butter, perhaps due to the lead in the bottom (it took two people to get this board to the water). Meanwhile, Big Magazine Stud Sampiero had caught Helga and passed her in the last mile or so, and the two Naish Glides were battling each other behind these guys.

Thad finished first on the Dreamsicle Proto, Packet second, Roray third (but first in the fashion contest as he had his shorts perfectly matched to his board), Big White Magazine Stud Sampiero fourth, Helga fifth and the Doublemint Twins of Sam and Eduardo, both on Naish Glides and both with the same tan, same hair color and red shorts, coming in like little and big brother. (One of them actually dates the Colombian pop diva superstar Jery. See if you can guess which one from the photos at http://www.myspace.com/jery.)

Here are the Top 10 Finishers with their times:

Thaddeus Foote 1:05:10

Packet Casey 1:06:05

Roray Kam 1:07:37

Josh Sampiero 1:11:41

Helga Goebel 1:12:25

Sam Cambron 1:16:18

Eduardo De Camillis 1:17:38

Eduardo Owen 1:19:08

Bill Bentz 1:22:10

Miguel Carmona 1:25:40

Good job, and thanks to the Coast Guard for being gracious hosts and to boat drivers Anita, David and Susan.

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The next SUP race was scheduled for Sept. 27 in Key Largo. To see photos of previous races in the series visit http://fksa.org/showthread.php?t=8615.