This year's regatta at the Gamboa Rainforest Resort
by Eric Jackson
Herman Bern's Gamboa Rainforest Resort hasn't drawn a lot of
locals because the hotel is expensive. However, the hotel is expensive because,
along with its surroundings, it's fabulous. Moreover, the hotel isn't all
there is to the resort, and that was amply demonstrated at this year's version
of the Gamboa Regatta, held for the first time at Mr. Bern's resort.
For many years Panama's cayuco season has kept a lot of high
school kids and a few adults busy for many weeks of practice and conditioning
for two events, the Gamboa Regatta and the more famous Ocean-to-Ocean Race.
The regatta was always a sprint event and a warm-up for the three-leg race
from Cristobal to Diablo, and was held near the ship channel at Gamboa Beach.
This year the Club de Remo de Balboa has added a third event, which opened
the season at the Amador Causeway.
Meanwhile, the traditional spot for the season opener has become
less viable. A high-speed freight railroad is under construction across the
public access to Gamboa Beach, which hasn't been maintained as a public recreational
facility for quite some time. The old spot isn't what it used to be, and setting
aside all nostalgia, what it used to be wasn't all that great. Parking was
close to the beach, which was good for loading and unloading cayucos and lent
a tailgate party atmosphere to the event, and also made it hard to escape
the auto fumes or the obnoxious loud music. The place was cleaned before and
after each regatta, but the whole area had too much litter to begin with.
There wasn't much shade. The cayuco crews' task was complicated by the occasional
ship's wake.
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At the Gamboa Resort, it's not a long walk but there's sufficient
distance between the parking and the shoreline where the boats wait and the
spectators watch. This year the athletes — rather than the youngsters
who party and blast rap music from the sound systems in the cars that their
parents bought them — set the cultural tone for the community gathering.
Restrictions on coolers, leaving the concessions to the resort, were the source
of a few complaints but also eliminated a few of the classic gripes about
the old locale. There is no trash at the Gamboa Rainforest Resort. There was
plenty of shade in the gazebo and in the tents that the resort set up from
which the races could be viewed. The resort set up the starting raft and lane
markers and finish line buoy. The course, on the Chagres River near the back
end of the old Gamboa golf course, had subtle river currents but many fewer
boats went off course than in past regattas when wakes were a problem.
This year 23 boats raced in four categories, and the number
of spectators seems as if it were down slightly from the norms that used to
prevail at the Gamboa Beach. If the event becomes an annual institution at
the Gamboa Rainforest Resort, the crowds will probably grow because the resort
offers so many advantages.
At the end of the day, the young men's final went to Rapid
Transit (Chris Huerbsch, Bobby Huerbsch, Ruben Prieto and Zach Starling) in
2:20.75, with second place to Carioca (Tomás Pinzón, Fernando
López, Carlos Donado and Rene Vargas) in 2:27.91. Carioca edged Rapid
Transit in the semifinal race, but it wasn't all that close when Transit turned
the tables in the final.
The young women's side of the competition saw Command Performance
(Alejandra Jaramillo, Jennifer Boyd, Laura Baker and Christina Crump) blow
out Front Runner (Rosaura Trejo, Liaia Peregrina, Manuela Sakata and Olga
Perea) by nearly 15 seconds, 2:55.69 to 3:09.17.
The mixed category was also something of a blowout, with Jungle
Crews (Katie Huerbsch, Brian Huerbsch, Pedro Icaza and JC Tirado) crossing
the line in 2:38.87, compared to Scenic Route (Dustin Cooper, Mark O'Mesta,
Andrew Le Brun and Laura Emerick) in 2:53.17.
There were four boats in the open category's final, where adults
and boats with more than four paddlers can compete. The cops in Expresso Comando,
which won last year's open category in the Ocean-to-Ocean race, didn't make
it to the finals at this year's regatta. No doubt it's the subject of some
concern down at the station in Diablo. In the end Deception (Jay Gibson, Llori
Gibson, Jacob Pohl, Gabe Prieto, 2:38.30) bested NIC (Thomas Morris, William
Palm, Christine Ford, Claudio Regonati, 2:49.21), Slave Galley (Javier Landers,
Roberto Sales, José Cubillas, Juan Morinio, Marcos Solis, Franklin
Russo, Cesar Achurra, Alejandro Domingo, 2:58.01) and Lone Star (Roberto Bruno,
Keith Ortíz, Jared Bistrong, Irving Bennett, 3:19.54) for the open
class honors.
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