Every year my friends do the Buffalo Bayou Regatta, every year I happen to be busy, and every year they brag about how much fun they had and I get totally jealous and promise myself that I'll do the next one. This was the year that I finally made time to race the Regatta and I'm so glad I did. Thank you, Yelp and the Buffalo Bayou Partnership, for the complimentary entries!
We raced in the mixed recreational canoe division and things were CRAZY at the start. You're not allowed to put your boat in the bayou until the horn sounds, so we tied our canoe to a tree on a super steep, muddy bank and slid it down as quickly as we could. We were immediately thrown into a chaotic mass of canoes, but we managed to work our way out of the crowd and start paddling. A few seconds later, we hit another canoe that was having trouble staying straight, flipped over, and plunged into the dirty bayou water with our seventy pound canoe on top of us. Not the greatest feeling, and it took us some time to get the water out and flip the canoe back over, but we laughed about it the whole day.
During the fifteen mile paddle down the bayou, it's easy to forget that you're in Houston until you pass under familiar streets and restaurants like Brenner's on the Bayou. We had a blast even once it started raining. There were slow paddlers, competitive paddlers, and paddlers in costumes, but almost everyone had one thing in common: they were grinning from ear to ear.
There was a live band at the finish, free food and St. Arnold's beer, and shuttles to get back to the start. The prizes (three deep per division) were awesome and unique. Our dip in the bayou cost us about ten minutes so we ended up placing fifth, but next year we'll be out to win.
Tip: It's a good idea to have a second car at the finish with dry clothes inside so you can stay and enjoy the festivities in comfort. read more