Canoe race makes a splash
The S.S. Booty team of Kerri and Darla Ricker get ready to launch their canoe for the Marianna Canoe Race. They tied a mermaid doll to the front of their boat as a figurehead.
0428_SPT_canoerace Katie Roupe / Observer-Reporter Participants of the Marianna Canoe Race gather by the starting point on Ten Mile Creek. After three miles of paddling, particpants enjoyed live music, food and games at the finish line party.
More than 100 water vessels were registered for the Marianna Canoe Race, which is now in its seventh year. Competitors can bring a canoe or throw some tubes and rope together to make their way down the river.
Jake and Kristy Shoup work their way down Ten Mile Creek in the canoe race. After going down the creek for 3 miles, competitors enjoyed a finish line party with music, food and fun.
While some canoe competitors speed down the creek, others stop along the side for a break and a drink. Some never make it to the end of the race because they’re too busy having fun kicking back, drinking and having a good time.
Some arrived on the beds of pickup trucks. Some made it on the back of trailers. One was even lashed to the roof of a Ford Crown Victoria.
These canoes came in different colors, with flamboyant ornaments and loaded down with everything imaginable, from novelty store items to coolers that contained a favorite beverage.
One by one, almost unceremoniously, the canoes – all 124 of them – were unloaded and pushed over a hillside to the edge of Ten Mile Creek.
The great Marianna Canoe Race was about to begin.
This year, 124 canoes were set in the water Saturday, April 27, some top of the line, others a mishmash of wood, plastic and inner tubes. Two-by-two they were launched amid the cheers and jeers of the large crowd at the top of the hill that runs along the creek.
One canoe was made out of bamboo and piloted by a dog – yes, a dog. Twice the dog leaps from the canoe and into the water, hoping to save itself from making the trip, only to be dragged back onto the rickety floating device and sent down the creek, a forlorn look in its eyes.
The crowd cheers again, and the dog seems to relax, happy with his newfound attention.
“This is something,” Jason White, Marianna Canoe Race president, would say afterward, “that we hope breathes life into Marianna.”
The canoe race is one way this tiny community is battling back from a damaging economic body blow when the Marianna Mine closed in 1988, crippling the ability of people to earn a living and forcing many to leave.
“The goal is to liven up the town (by using) Mother Nature,” White said. “It’s so rewarding that there is a nice place you can go to and hear nothing.”
The Marianna Canoe Race is a raucous affair that offers prizes for the winner, though not many make much of a competitive effort to cover the little more than three miles to the finish line. Make it to the end and a wonderful bash awaits, filled with food, drink and music. The barbecued pork chops are to die for. Jason White’s mother, Michelle, and a staff of volunteers handle all the cooking.
Some cross the finish line in a little less than an hour, tired, arms weary but happy for the workout. This year’s winner, a canoe manned by Pat and Sean O’Brien, received gifts and a plaque. Others straggle in a few hours later. No one asks what the holdup was, and even the official race timers don’t seem to mind, having long since given up their post to chase down lunch.
Last Saturday’s race was the seventh in this annual series, which raises money for the restocking of trout to Ten Mile Creek. It has had some different routes in the past, but now the one that begins in Marianna appears to work the best and will stay.
“The first time we did this, we had 17 canoes. This year, 124,” said Josh Steppe, who along with Ed Thomas lead a three-pronged attack with Jason White in organizing the event. “We hope this can be the foundation in which this town can grow.”
Thomas expects this year’s total to reach $5,000 and hopes that number someday rises to $10,000. The more trout brought in, the more fishermen arrive. The more hooks cast, the more bites you get.
“I wanted to do this a long time ago,” Jason White said. “Who wouldn’t like to go fishing with their friends? You get out to the creek. These kids have a chance to do it here. They don’t have to travel somewhere else.”
Carson James Swarrow appreciates the effort. The 2-year-old, held tightly in the arms of his grandmother, Helen Bauer, waited patiently along the shore for his mother, Melissa Swarrow of Fredericktown, to pass.
When she did, he let a yell, “Hi, mommy.”
Mom got a huge hug at the end of the race.
“I wasn’t in it to win it,” she said after pulling the canoe onshore. “I saw a lot of friends. (Carson) has been boating since he was 6-months old. Next year, I think I’ll take him.”
The popularity of the Marianna Canoe Race has increased each year. Even last year, when the weather was cold and rainy, a good crowd showed up. This year’s race drew about 300 canoers with at least that many following the canoers along the roadway before meeting them on a large flat patch of ground in the backyard of Dale Wyels, who lives just off Beallsville Road. Cars are parked on land made available by Lee Pryor.
On a sun-baked Saturday, the race field was stuffed with some rather interesting individuals, who wore even more interesting costumes. One man was dressed as a slab of bacon and manned the bow, his partner, decked out in a banana suit, handled the stern.
Ashley Pinkney and her boyfriend, Ryan Carroll, made the trip from Fort Wayne, Ind., to compete in the race. Pinkney wore a prom dress and Carroll a gaudy sport coat with paisley styled pants they found at their aunt’s house in Marianna.
“It’s how you dress for something like this,” Pinkney said. “I think I might get married here. I know there is this cute little church nearby.”
It was unclear whether race rules allow captains of canoes to perform the ceremony, but it’s a thought.
Mike and Chris Kovacich brought their son and canoe from Hagerstown, Md., to compete in the race.
“I loved it,” Chris said, “and we’ll probably do it again.”
Mike was impressed with the craftmanship that went into some of the canoes, which by rule just needed to be able to float to be eligible.
“I saw one made of bamboo out there,” he said.
He didn’t remember seeing the dog.
John Fincham didn’t let a bout of bronchitis stop him from enjoying the day or piloting his creation. A sheet of wood, held together by nails, was lashed to three large tractor tire inner tubes. Two deck chairs were screwed into the wood and a PVC pipe flew the colors of what they christened the Swamp Donkey.
“John is an architect on the side,” said his wife, Alecia said.
Fortunately, Fincham has not quit his day job with Coca-Cola. When the canoe was launched, one of the deck chairs broke free and tumbled into the creek. It was tossed to the shore and the crew went off … never to be seen again. Well, the timers didn’t remember seeing them at the finish line.
The Ricker family launched their canoe – The Lu-Oww – in style, with a toy pig rotating on a stick spit just up from the rear seat and an inflatable palm tree at the bow.
“We usually take our dog, Mr. Bojangles,” said Cathy Ricker of Prosperity. “We wanted to see what this was like first. He’s a basset hound, and he loves the water. You can’t get him out.”
Before the launch, Bob Ricker made sure his cigarettes and lighter were secured in the waterproof case around his neck, and Cathy pulled out a seashell bra bought at a dollar store, slipped it over her clothing and then started the race. Three women in plastic grass skirts patiently waited in line.
Sean O’Brien found a unique way to get his canoe to Marianna from his home in Monroeville, though he didn’t own or have access to a truck.
“I put it on the top of my Crown Vic,” he said. “I just lashed a few nylon cords together.”
And tried to avoid wind shear.
At the end of the race, canoers found the fun was just beginning.
Once they managed to get the canoes out of the water and out of the way, most headed for the food. Besides the pork chops, Sloppy Joe sandwiches, hamburgers, hot dogs, baked beans, pasta salad and an array of desserts were available.
Four bands played beginning at noon and ending at around 8 p.m. Jason White sings and plays lead guitar in The Split, a country rock band out of Pittsburgh. The others were Ruff Creek, a country band from Pittsburgh; Proof Positive, a Greene County band that played pop rock; and Lady and the Tramps, which plays rock.
“Where else can you go where you can kick a ball in the yard, play (games), go swing on a tire (tied to a tree)?” White said. “We came from nothing, a small coal-mining town that everybody thought was dead. Look at it now. We’re turning people’s heads. People want come here. They say, ‘I want to do that.'”
Plans are being made for next year. White wants to rent canoes to attract people who don’t have or can’t get them. He wants to continue to increase the number of sponsors, which now stands at 63. A golf outing is scheduled at Carmichaels Golf Club Aug. 18.
“This is a day where Marianna gets to be in the spotlight,” said Jason White. “It has solitude, and it has beauty. Now, people are appreciating that.”