Lightning causes cancellation of Lake Ontario paddleboard race
A 51.5-kilometre standup paddleboard race across Lake Ontario was cancelled Sunday morning, leaving local racers disappointed but understanding of the reason why.
The Niagara2Toronto Lake Ontario Crossing was scheduled to run August 17 or 18, depending on the weekend forecast.
Taking part in the race, which was to end at Toronto's Cherry Beach after starting in Port Dalhousie, was Welland’s Maddi Leblanc, along with her Barrie-based partner Ariel Amaral, and Port Colborne’s Brad Petrus and Marty Parr.
Organizers set the race for August 18 but that day a post on the Lake Ontario Crossing Paddleboard Race Facebook page said the race was off.
“Cancelled. Respect the Great Lakes. Short story is that we knew the radar was going to clear up at 7:30, but we also would be playing slalom with the lightning all day. Kudos to all paddlers who made it to the start line trained and committed. Every one of them would have paddled through mud to cross today, but when the risk is electrical, you've gotta be safe,” the post read.
Sunday morning saw heavy rain and lightning across Niagara and storms forecast throughout the day.
Leblanc said she was disappointed with the cancellation but added she couldn’t get upset over things she can’t control.
“You train so hard for races like this, but you have to know going into this race that not going can be an outcome.”
She said the choice to cancel the race was the safe and right one to make.
“We just couldn't control or predict very well what the weather was going to do.”
Though the race was cancelled, she and Amaral were able to raise some funds for the Lake Ontario Waterkeeper Organization.
Petrus said he and Parr had a feeling either a long postponement or a cancellation was likely.
“Radar wasn’t showing great conditions and the race organizers made a safe call, which is all we can ask for.”
He said it was a disappointment not to complete the race.
“But we intend to complete the lake crossing as it was mapped before the summer is out. We trained to cross the lake, so we still intend to do it,” said Petrus.