PORT ANGELES — Competitive spirit will enliven Hollywood Beach this morning during the last day of the three-day 11th annual Port Angeles Kayak Symposium.
Kayakers will test their skills both in the sixth annual Coho Dodge and Dash Kayak Race and in the inaugural Port Angeles Rescue Skills Championship.
The race, sponsored by Olympic Raft and Kayak and the Olympic Peninsula Paddlers Club, offers eight competitor categories and will be on a course of 3.6 nautical miles.
It will start at 9 a.m. Participants must register at 8:30 a.m.
The rescue skills championships, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., is a new event for the annual symposium.
It will test paddlers’ ability to rescue themselves or another person from danger in a kayak.
“They’re basically on the clock to do four different paddling rescues with somebody else in the water needing to be rescued,” said Dave King of Olympic Raft and Kayak of Port Angeles, event host and founder of the symposium.
The points champion from all four events will receive a new Bluewater kayak pump, donated by Bluewater Kayak Works and installed by Rhonda Schwab of Kayakers Go Coastal.
The four rescues for the competition are:
■ Kayak self-rescue: Exit and re-enter, pump water out of the boat and race to the finish line.
■ Assisted rescue: A “victim” volunteer exits a kayak wearing a wetsuit or a drysuit. The competitor pumps water out of the boat and helps the mock victim back in.
■ The “Hand of God” rescue: The competitor assists a mock victim who is stuck in a kayak but upside-down in the water.
■ Towing: Connect to another kayaker and tow the mock victim to the shore.
The cost is $5 to enter the rescue skills competition.
Those just getting into the sport — or who are looking for a new kayak — can test-drive some 60 to 70 boats parked on Hollywood Beach off City Pier between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. today.
Life jackets and paddles will be provided.
Admission to the demo beach will be $5 or free with a Port Angeles Food Bank donation of nonperishable food.
Special clinics will be held throughout the day.
Classes ranging from beginning paddling clinics to advanced-level courses will cost between $5 and $35 per session.
The Red Lion Hotel’s Peninsula Room will host 17 sessions of classroom instruction and entertainment.
For more information, visit http://tinyurl.com/y3phqu9.
