History of the Tsunami Rangers Sea Kayak Race – Part 4

Editor’s Note: This is the fourth and final installment of our race articles for Race Month 2024. Later we’ll take up the story at Michael Powers’ home on Miramar Beach, where the race continued under various names and over various routes for almost 30 years. Since the racers in 1991 were too busy racing to take any pics, we’d like to give a special shout out to the Neptune’s Rangers, who graciously shared some of their photos of the Devil’s Slide route. Thanks so much to Bill Vonnegut, Peter Donohue, and Cass Kalinski for the photos. The Neptune’s Rangers rock!!! 

The Devil Made Us
by Eric Soares

After we were unceremoniously kicked out of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area for good, the next year we moved the race down to Linda Mar beach in Pacifica, 20 miles south of San Francisco. The Pacifica city manager freaked when she saw the race poster tacked on a bulletin board at the local Safeway store. The poster headline read DEVIL’S DARE KAYAK RACE. Below that it said FREE. No wonder she panicked. She called me up and said “No organized events can occur on the beach in Pacifica until a bond has been paid, forms are filled out in triplicate, blah, blah, trah trah.”

I replied, “Not to worry, ma’am. This event is entirely disorganized, no one is responsible, we’ll be low key, and all we’re doing is launching and not returning. And I assure you, there’ll be no alcohol or fires!”

She laughed and let me off the hook, as long as I promised to never sponsor a non-event in Pacifica ever again. Being a gentleman, I swore. A lot.

The 10-mile, one-way race started at Linda Mar beach and ended at Tsunami Ranger Headquarters at Michael Power’s Viking lodge at Miramar Beach in Half Moon Bay. Steve Sinclair drove down for the race, but said his shoulder was shot, and he’d be lucky to even finish. Since the waves were only two feet high, it couldn’t get any easier. The wind was blowing from the southwest at two knots, which neither hindered nor helped racers.

After the whistle blew, it was a long haul down to Miramar. Most racers went way around ominous Pedro Point, but Steve took a shortcut through a five-foot gap in the middle of the point, and I followed him. My plan was to draft on Steve and perhaps pass him at the end when his shoulder might cause him grief.

After paddling by ugly Devil’s Slide, from which the race name was derived, I gave up on staying with Steve and just cruised the remaining seven miles to the finish. Steve managed to garner third place, whereas I settled in the middle of the pack. The winner was a downriver racer named John Weed. The Weed Man was the new King of the Coast.

It’s been fun to indulge in this nostalgic look at the earliest Tsunami races. To give you a preview of what’s next, this is a photo of Michael Powers, aka the Rhino-Horned Bowman, in front of his home at Miramar Beach.

We hope you enjoyed this article. If you missed any of the previous posts on race history published this month, go to the Most Recent Posts in the right hand column and click on the ones you want to read. 

Please let us know if you have questions or comments and especially if you have photos of the races you’d like to share. Stay tuned for more madness and mayhem when we do another Race series. Meantime, check out other Tsunami race stories by using the Search box, or sign up using the RSS button to receive bi-monthly articles on ocean whitewater, kayaking skills, and all things Tsunami. Thanks and happy paddling!