photo by David Dobbins
several years during this period. Winners tended to be some pretty rough and tough characters that spent their leisure time plying the waters of the course. Homemade boats became the norm, designed to take hits from the numerous rocks, stumps, log jams and concrete dams that crowd the course. Tandem and three-man rowing teams faced the wrong way all the way down, cranking away on homemade oars and setting records. Classes and categories changed over the years. Tom Goynes won the rowing class one year because they didn’t have a classification for two paddlers sitting forward stroking away with kayak paddles. It was a new concept and the dawn of a new era.
Organizing the chaos After the disorganized melee of the first year, organizers slowly adopted some rules to lower the risk of death and destruction, but not by much. Classes of boats were added after racers from Michigan started to badly outdistance everyone else. The Widing brothers spent a few years teaching Texans how to race. Prizes and festivities escalated to carnival proportions. Along with a large amount of cash, spoils of war included lakefront lots, Alaskan bear hunting trips, Copper Canyon train trips, camper shells, deep sea fishing trips, camping gear and endless other items. Television stations began to give the race air time. At its peak in the late 1960s, events surrounding the Safari included no less than a Miss Texas Water Safari pageant, a parade, a formal ball and celebrity starting gun shooters that included astronauts, politicians and notable football clergymen, the great Darrel Royal. During this time the locals were start-
14
ing to learn a thing or two; not just about canoe racing, but specifically about canoe racing in Texas, which it turns out is a lot different than what the world perceives as canoe racing.
The 1970s also saw the advent of the final resting place for the finish line: Seadrift, Texas. Previously, the finish line designation fell upon the coastal town that donated the most money. Seadrift lies a few miles across the bay from the mouth of the river and is a natural stopping place. The mileage of the race was slowly becoming more defined, with the most recent GPS-assisted tally being right around 260 miles, but is incrementally up for debate by people with way too much technology and time on their hands.
While highly organized canoe clubs in the north were developing a formula to create a more equitable playing field, the Texas Water Safari was leaning towards an unlimited Race organizers in the late 1960s Prizes went class of boat. and early 1970s exemplified the by the Picture a wayside Texas spirit by not caring how as the race Formula 1 car versus a other canoe races were run. organizablindfolded tion changed swamp buggy hands and and you’ll get a good sense of the participation waxed and waned. environment that began to unfold. In the early 1980s someone looked Race organizers in the late 1960s and up the definition of the word unlimearly 1970s exemplified the Texas ited and things haven’t been the same spirit by not caring how other canoe since. A four-man boat was built out of races were run, and sought their own bomb proof Kevlar, known as “tough path. weave,” and reinforced with alumiBoat classifications even- num tubing. It was a massive Freudian nightmare. Without much immediate tually emerge success, the idea of a four-man boat Rowing rigs dominated the race for floundered while lightweight and