Pictures of all the BLRPR paddlers 2018-04-28 | WWALS Watershed Coalition (WWALS) is Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

You’ve seen who won the eleven awards. Now here are the rest of the paddlers in the 6th Annual BIG Little River Paddle Race, from more counties, states, and watersheds than ever before. Also more Solo Female Kayaks than Solo Male Kayaks, and several whole families of paddlers.

Finish

Statistics: 2018 BIG Little River Paddle Race

43 Boats
37 kayaks
6 canoes

49 Paddlers
29 male
20 female

7 Categories
18 Solo Female Kayak
16 Solo Male Kayak
4 Tandem MM Canoe
4 Tandem MM Kayak
3 Solo Male Canoe
2 Tandem MF Canoe
2 Tandem MF Kayak

11 Awards

10 Watersheds
13 Withlacoochee
11 Little
9 Alapaha
5 Flint
4 Okapilco
2 Hillsborough
2 Ocmulgee
1 Skidaway
1 St. Johns
1 Suwannee

2 Sides
38 inside
11 outside

15 Counties
16 Tift
12 Lowndes
5 Colquitt
3 Mitchell
2 Jones
2 Pinellas
1 Berrien
1 Brooks
1 Chatham
1 Clinch
1 Cook
1 Crisp
1 Dougherty
1 Peach
1 Putnam

22 Cities
10 Tifton
9 Valdosta
4 Moultrie
3 Camilla
2 Chula
2 Gray
2 Hahira
2 St. Petersburg
2 Ty Ty
1 Albany
1 Arabi
1 Barney
1 Brookfield
1 Crescent City
1 DuPont
1 Fort Valley
1 Lenox
1 Norman Park
1 Omega
1 Quitman
1 Savannah
1 Troupville

2 States
46 GA
3 FL

Finish

You may wonder how can the number of paddlers be 49 when previously we said more than 50 paddled? We have registration forms for several people who paid but did not paddle. Plus several people bid on the silent auction who did not paddle.

As usual there were more kayaks than canoes.

Male paddlers outnumbered female paddlers, but there were more Solo Female Kayaks than Solo Male Kayaks.

Finish

How can there be 11 Awards with only 7 Categories? Because BLRPR also gives awards for oldest and youngest paddlers, and for the one from farthest away. The oldest paddler this time was also one of the winners for Tandem MM Canoe.

Finish

Plus two people got a Fallers Award from the WWALS Outings Chair. The same two also won the Tandem MM Kayak category.

Over

Most of the paddlers were from within WWALS watersheds, in more or less the order you might expect, with the Withlacoochee River the most represented.

Finish

I was somewhat surprised by how many paddlers were from the Alapaha River watershed, some from Tifton, andsome from farther upstream.

Finish

Also the Suwannee River was only represented by one person who lives near Suwannacoochee Creek. We separated out Okapilco River for Colquitt County paddlers, because that’s what Colquitt County calls it. Our neighbor the Flint River had more people than Okapilco River, and people came from some watersheds far away.

Finish

Tift, Lowndes, and Colquitt Counties had the most paddlers, all from within WWALS watersheds. Surprisingly, Mitchell and Jones Counties, Georgia, and Pinellas County, Florida, came in next from other watersheds, beating our own Berrien, Brooks, Cook, Crisp, and Clinch Counties.

Finish

Valdosta ties Tifton if we don’t separate Troupville. It’s quite a mix beyond those two. Moultrie was well-represented.

Finish

Last year we had nobody from Florida. This year three Floridians paddled, and one of them won First Prize. The other two won the award for Travelled Farthest.

Hands up

All the paddlers

This table lists the times of all the paddlers, and where they came from, with links to pictures of them paddling. Many thanks to Dianne Walters of FORB for the times. If I have spelled anybody’s name wrong, that would be my fault, so contact me (jsq).

Dianne Walters of FORB at the Timeclock

2018 BIG Little River Paddle Race Results
Place	Time	Name	Category	Award	Watershed	WWALS Watersheds	City	County	State
1.	30:15	Lloyd Reeves	1 M Kayak	Overall Winner	St. Johns	outside	Crescent City	Putnam	FL
2.	39:06	Dan Phillips	1 M Kayak	Solo Male Kayak	Little	inside	Hahira	Lowndes	GA
3.	39:43	Phil Hubbard	1 M Kayak		Withlacoochee	inside	Valdosta	Lowndes	GA
4.	41:16	Bret Miller	1 M Kayak		Little	inside	Barney	Brooks	GA
5.	41:33	Wayne Hale & Terry Donahue	2 MM Canoe	Tandem MM Canoe	Ocmulgee	outside	Gray	Jones	GA
		Wayne Hale		Oldest age 69
6.	41:55	Russell McBride	1 M Kayak		Withlacoochee	inside	Quitman	Berrien	GA
7.	42:37	Gregory Antonoplos & son Paul	2 MM Kayak	Tandem MM Kayak	Withlacoochee	inside	Valdosta	Lowndes	GA
		Gregory Antonoplos & son Paul		Fallers Award
8.	45:51	Wes Hubbard	1 M Kayak		Alapaha	inside	Valdosta	Lowndes	GA
9.	46:47	Jason & David Riley	2 MM Canoe		Okapilco	inside	Moultrie	Colquitt	GA
10.	48:40	Ray Cummings	1 M Canoe	Solo Male Canoe	Flint	outside	Fort Valley	Peach	GA
11.	50:17	Billy Dale Hayes	1 M Kayak		Little	inside	Lenox	Cook	GA
12.	54:59	John S. Quarterman	1 M Kayak		Withlacoochee	inside	Hahira	Lowndes	GA
13.	56:28	Tracey Vellidis	1 F Kayak	Solo Female Kayak	Withlacoochee	inside	Tifton	Tift	GA
14.	58:51	David & Rickard Pollock	2 MM Kayak		Alapaha	inside	Tifton	Tift	GA
15.	59:23	Sydney Doss	1 F Kayak		Little	inside	Tifton	Tift	GA
16.	1:02:47	Annette Banks	1 F Kayak		Little	inside	Norman Park	Colquitt	GA
17.	1:03:12	Victoria & Paul Horst	2 MF Kayak		Little	inside	Tifton	Tift	GA
18.	1:30:28	Francine Pitts Rossman	1 F Kayak		Okapilco	inside	Moultrie	Colquitt	GA
19.	1:04:47	Kelly Beavers	1 F Kayak		Alapaha	inside	Chula	Tift	GA
20.	1:05:24	K.C. Beavers	1 M Kayak		Alapaha	inside	Chula	Tift	GA
21.	1:05:59	George Vellidis	1 M Kayak		Withlacoochee	inside	Tifton	Tift	GA
22.	1:17:44	Winfred E. Dowdy Jr.	1 M Kayak		Withlacoochee	inside	Valdosta	Lowndes	GA
23.	1:18:40	Morgan Richards	1 F Kayak		Little	inside	Ty Ty	Tift	GA
24.	1:19:29	April Richards	1 F Kayak		Little	inside	Ty Ty	Tift	GA
25.	1:19:32	Irene Clark	1 F Kayak		Little	inside	Omega	Tift	GA
26.	1:19:34	Margaret Richards	1 F Kayak		Flint	outside	Albany	Dougherty	GA
27.	1:19:54	Brenda Doss	1 F Kayak		Little	inside	Tifton	Tift	GA
28.	1:21:15	Michasia Dowdy	1 F Kayak		Withlacoochee	inside	Troupville	Lowndes	GA
29.	1:21:50	Glen Harris	1 M Kayak		Withlacoochee	inside	Tifton	Tift	GA
30.	1:23:44	Sam Cornwell	1 M Canoe		Flint	outside	Camilla	Mitchell	GA
31.	1:23:50	Brandon Carter	1 M Kayak		Withlacoochee	inside	Valdosta	Lowndes	GA
32.	1:24:00	Amelia Cornwell	1 F Kayak		Flint	outside	Camilla	Mitchell	GA
33.	1:26:11	Cindy Greene	1 F Kayak		Alapaha	inside	Arabi	Crisp	GA
34.	1:27:19	Megan Green	1 F Kayak		Skidaway	outside	Savannah	Chatham	GA
35.	1:27:28	Angie McDaniel	1 F Kayak		Withlacoochee	inside	Brookfield	Tift	GA
36.	1:27:43	Pam Cornwell	1 F Kayak		Flint	outside	Camilla	Mitchell	GA
37.	1:28:37	Kurt & Donna Knuth	2 MF Canoe	Tandem MF Canoe	Hillsborough	outside	St. Petersburg	Pinellas	FL
		Kurt & Donna Knuth		Traveled Farthest
38.	1:30:22	Etta Lee	1 F Kayak		Suwannee	inside	DuPont	Clinch	GA
39.	1:35:08	Paul Tolar	1 M Canoe		Okapilco	inside	Moultrie	Colquitt	GA
40.	1:36:30	Eliza McKenzie	1 F Kayak		Alapaha	inside	Valdosta	Lowndes	GA
41.	1:36:48	Bobby McKenzie	1 M Kayak		Alapaha	inside	Valdosta	Lowndes	GA
42.	1:36:50	Zavier McKenzie	1 M Kayak	Youngest Age 4	Alapaha	inside	Valdosta	Lowndes	GA
43.	1:36:59	Bret Wagenhorst	1 M Kayak		Withlacoochee	inside	Tifton	Tift	GA

The McKenzie family had a good time.

Finish

And BLRPR Organizer and WWALS Board Member Bret Wagenhorst followed, being the sweep, to make sure nobody was left on the water.

Finish

See you next year, Saturday, April 27, 2019, for BIG Little River Paddle Race 2019!

-jsq, John S. Quarterman, Suwannee RIVERKEEPER®

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