09/11/2011 220km Eleven City Tour – Interview with Ryan James

Congratulations, Ryan, on an amazing paddle! That was incredibly close between you and Bart! How many seconds were you ultimately apart?

It was crazy, we were so close through 220km of paddling it was 2 seconds then 10 then 4 I couldn’t keep up! I think we finished up 10 seconds apart?

Just looked it up. Actually it was 7 seconds. That is ridicoulously close and personally I think such a few seconds over such a long distance are within margin of error and both should have been given the 1st price.

220km of paddling in 5 days, that’s tough. But on top of the length, the conditions were grueling. Which one was the hardest day and why?

When I signed up for the competition, I new I couldn’t afford to be under prepared and that was my biggest fear to hit day 2 with nothing left in the tank! I put in loads of big day in training but day 2 for me was insanely hard. We still had 3 days to go the conditions weren’t letting up, day 1 through a 4 km lake crossing with 30knot winds and to top it all we all had to paddle back onto the lake in day 2 and cross the lake again, and to top it all it had to be done at the start so it killed everyone off still with 41km to paddle!

What board/paddle/equipment did you use?

I used a 2010 Starboard 14’ ace carbon which loves the up and down wind but hates the cross winds and my savoir ZRE Power surge Paddle which has hardly any flex, and loses none of my energy

Anything you would have done differently?

Yep, missed an opportunity to hop on the back of Caspers wake on the last day, which may have pulled me in ahead of Bart, but hey that’s racing.

Will you be back next year? Or is that a once in a life-time experience?

Absolutely I’ll be back, next year to win convincingly

Where are you headed next? What’s your next adventure/race?

Trying to get out BOP and maybe Fuji for waterman tour and getting in my OC1 for some big down winders before it gets too cold!

Thanks, Ryan, and good luck for BOP!