The Tom Blake Board Across the Bay Race & Festival
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Washburn Area Chamber of Commerce 100 W. Bayfield St., Washburn, Wisconsin 54891
COURTESY PATRICK KOHLIN
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Surfing innovator and world-class swimmer Tom Blake grew up in Washburn and has inspired a summer festival that will feature a variety of paddleboard, kayak and canoe races.
The Tom Blake Board Across the Bay Race & Festival is a new event in Washburn that honors the world-class swimmer and surfing innovator who grew up in the Chequamegon Bay community.
The festival runs July 27-29 at Thompson’s West End Park and will feature races, instructional clinics, equipment demonstrations, surf-related films, prize drawings and a Hawaiian-themed dinner with a presentation about Tom Blake.
The festival’s proceeds will be used to pay for a bronze statue of Tom Blake in front of a classic longboard. The statue will welcome visitors to Washburn, and there will be information about historic and modern-day watersports on Lake Superior. Organizers hope to make the festival an annual event.
Tom Blake invented the hollow surfboard in 1926 and is credited with adding the stabilizing “fin” at the bottom of the board. He also built the first waterproof camera housing used for surf photography and worked as a stunt double in many movies, according to the California Surf Museum. Tom, who died in 1994 at age 92, is buried in Washburn.
The festival will have races for stand-up paddleboards, prone paddleboards, surf ski and sea kayaks across Chequamegon Bay on on 17-mile or 8.5-mile courses., with various men’s and women’s divisions.
There also are outrigger canoe races, with solo, tandem, four-person and six-person divisions. A 1-mile race will be open to racers younger than 16; racers need to be at least 16 to take part in the 17- and 8.5-mile races.
The races will start at Thompson’s West End Park, which was one of Tom Blake’s favorite spots, according to event director Rik Pauli.