Charleston paddleboarder Jeremy Whitted opened a lead over 30 other participants in the seventh annual Wrightsville Beach Biathlon March 5 and never relinquished it, winning the race for the third time in a row.
Virginia Beach paddler Steve Dullack finished second and Harrison Deisroth, one of the race’s youngest competitors, finished third. A relay team from Wrightsville SUP won the corporate relay division and Vicky Lowe from Hatteras Island won the women’s divison.
Conditions were ideal, participants agreed. The race started at 10:30 a.m. in Banks Channel, just minutes after low tide, which made for fewer currents during the four-mile flatwater paddle and hard-packed sand for the four-mile beach run. Light northeast winds ruffled the surface of the water, and the texture made maneuvering the 14-foot flatwater boards easier, Whitted said.
Whitted led the racers in counter clockwise a loop around Money Island, starting against the current and finishing with the current. Whitted said it was nice to get that push from the tide the second half of the race.
Paddlers encountered one unexpected obstacle midrace: a massive dredge anchored in the shoals near Money Island. Racers could either cut through the narrow, shallow channel between the dredge and the island or take the longer way around.
The lead pack, which included Whitted, Deisroth and Wrightsville SUP team member Kevin Rhodes, paddled around the dredge because they had to cross Banks Channel anyway, but several paddlers took the short cut and, in doing so, appeared to gain on the leaders.
Whitted finished the paddle leg about thirty seconds ahead of Rhodes and Deisroth. He paused to rip off his waterproof booties and hydrate before running barefoot to the beach strand. Whitted’s transition took no more than 10 seconds, but several competitors didn’t spare even that much time.
Deisroth completed both legs of the race barefoot, although he admitted a few of his toes were numb by the end of the run. Vicky Lowe raced both legs in the ankle-high Neoprene booties she usually wears when she kiteboards around the windy Outer Banks.
Whitted continued to pull away from the other biathletes during the four-mile beach run and crossed the finish line in 1:16:57. Dullack, whose strong run leg propelled him to a second place finish over Deisroth, said his beach-running strategy was finding the 20-foot wide, undulating path of hardest-packed sand close to the water’s edge.
Deisroth finished third, but Dullack and Whitted joked that since this was only Deisroth’s second paddleboard race ever, next year’s biathlon might be a different story.
While Deisroth’s paddleboard results are limited, his experience on the water is not. He’s an accomplished outrigger canoeist who lived in Hawaii and California before his father’s profession brought them both to Wilmington a month ago.
Despite being new to the east coast paddle community, Deisroth was congratulated warmly by all his competitors after the race. That fun but competitive atmosphere the biathlon creates is what brings paddlers like Vicky Lowe back four years in a row.
“It’s just a low stress, well-organized event,” she said.
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