Texas Water Safari

Story ID:	516
Written by:	Carol J Garriott
Organization:	home/retired
Story type:	Only Here
Location:	Seadrift Texas USA
Year:	2006
Person:	Athletes

I’d been enthralled by the Texas Water Safari for a long time, living in the Austin, Texas, area where news coverage of the race was frequent. To my delight when I moved to Seadrift, Texas, I discovered the finish line was the flagpole at the seawall in Bayfront Park.

On June 10 this Texas tradition since the early 1960s, billed as "The World's Toughest Canoe Race," saw 101 canoes in TWS 2006 leaving San Marcos, Texas, at 9 a.m., heading down the San Marcos and Guadalupe Rivers, crossing Guadalupe Bay and San Antonio Bay to Seadrift. Wednesday, June 14, at 1 p.m. is the 100-hour deadline for reaching the finish line. Winners will begin coming in Sunday evening. Entries range from one- and two-person canoes to 8-person racers. Some women compete along with the men, and occasionally there will be a father and child combo.

In 1963 the first Texas Water Safari was, so to speak, launched. The Safari is a long, tough, non-stop (can you imagine!) marathon canoe racing adventure which traverses 260 miles of challenging rivers and bays. Most participants enter the Safari with no intention of winning, merely wanting to join the elite group of finishers and earning the coveted Texas Water Safari patch.

The Challenges
From dams and logjams to alligators and water moccasins in the rivers, to the perils of nonstop paddling through the night, to finding the most efficient, accurate way across the bays to the finish line, finishers in the Texas Water Safari exhibit stamina and determination beyond comprehension. It’s said that possibly the most dangerous obstacle on the Safari is Ottine Dam, situated in terrain where the river is crooked and has high steep banks. In normal or high river conditions there may be little warning of the dam except a 12-foot vertical drop in river level, similar to a waterfall.

Treachery Abounds
The first part of the Safari is on the San Marcos River which ranges in width from 20 to 50 feet. Most of the canoes which are destroyed on the Safari meet destruction here. Between Palmetto State Park and the Highway 90A bridge, the San Marcos River is often infested with log jams. Extreme caution is exercised in watching for water moccasins while portaging log jams, especially at night.

More Dams on the Guadalupe
Downstream from the Highway 90A bridge, the San Marcos River converges with the Guadalupe River. The most dangerous obstacles encountered during the race are dams, the two largest of which are located on the Guadalupe River. Caution is required when reentering the river below these dams as currents are extremely treacherous.

Crossing the Bays
One of the most nerve-wracking parts of the race is encountered at the mouth of the Guadalupe River going into Guadalupe Bay. Particularly with lower water levels in the river, as will be the condition this year, alligators in this area are particularly troublesome, practically blocking the shallow estuary. Stories are told of paddling through by polling off on the creatures. Once reaching Guadalupe Bay and San Antonio Bay, entrants should be prepared for bay conditions which vary from smooth as glass to rough water with 3- to 5-foot waves. There are approximately eight miles of bay from the mouth of the river to the flagpole at Seadrift.

Finishing
Winners will begin to arrive Sunday afternoon or evening, and finishers continue to come in over the next few days. Friends and family are on hand to help them out of their canoes and up onto land. Many just want to fall down and sleep, but some want first to eat real food. There’s always a professional massage booth on hand, and most take advantage of it to get the kinks worked out of exhausted muscles

For 43 years these incredible athletes reach the end of their journey at the seawall in my tiny village of Seadrift, Texas. Cheers of encouragement and welcome ring out as they make their way to the finish line. They do it just to see if they can, and while a few say "Never again!" many return year after year. All they receive is a ticket to the banquet and, along with their time, a patch, that says they finished. It's an elite group, and Seadrift is proud to welcome them every year the second weekend in June.