La Palma resident Kim Bushong with PWCOFFSHORE takes first place at the 2010 LB2CAT Offshore National Championship Race.
By Loreen Berlin
La Palma resident Kim Bushong, with Personal Water Craft Off Shore Racing (PWCOFFSHORE), is the winner of the 2010 Long Beach to Catalina and Back (LB2CAT) Offshore National Championship Race.
Bushong, who said he is generally in the middle of the top 10 PWC competitors, thought that this time he might be in the top three but had no idea he'd end up placing first. "It was shocking," Bushong said of his win, in a personal interview for the La Palma Community Newspaper. "I'm just a steady eddy – and two of my good friends, Mark Gerner and Pat Roque, were in front of me in the second half of the race, but their PWC's broke down," he said. "My boat wasn't highly modified, so I was able to come through on the race; I'm very consistent, have a high pain threshold, and have a lot of endurance."
Bushong has been riding PWC in the ocean since 1998. "Riding fast in the ocean is more difficult – it's a totally different story than other waters," he said. "It's always been a Southern California person who has won the LB2CAT since it began in 1994, because they know how to ride the ocean," Bushong said.
Bushong is no stranger to the ocean or to the ride to Catalina, as he said he enjoys the ride and used to make the trip many times on his own before he entered the race. "I must have ridden that 150 times before I entered the contest," he said.
Then, in 2002, all of that changed when he read about the race in the PWC Magazine. There were 50 riders that year. "I had the slowest machine and came in fourth place," Bushong said. "This is the best I've done; I've placed 4th a couple times and 6th place twice along with 7th and 8th place also," he said. This time, in 2010, there were 42 PWC riders; that number is down from the late 80s, and in 1994 where there were more than 100 people participating in the race. "It was big then, but now it's holding steady," he said, noting that the economy has affected the race.
"In recent years a new 'sportsman' class has been offered at a reduced entry fee, to encourage first-time racers," Bushong said. "I encourage anyone interested in the sport to come down and give it a try; you don't necessarily have to be fast, and it's a whole lot of fun, and a first-timer finished 3rd place-overall this year."
One of the race's sponsors PWCOFFSHORE.com , who is also Bushong's personal sponsor, is a place where riders can find lots of information about the race along with safety tips, which Bushong said, "It's his expert opinion that should be mandatory for all who are thinking of making the trip to Catalina and back." The offshore sport is much larger internationally, where 400 people can be expected to race in Europe Bushong said, but LB2CAT remains one of the most famous and prestigious races in the world. Bushong plans to compete in the LB2CAT race again next year and will also compete in the Dana Point to Oceanside and Back Race, but his focus is now on Paddling in the Long Beach Harbor by Naples where he is one of the 20-members of the "Space Dragons" dragonboat team. "It's a team sport that I've been doing for the past three years and I'm going to the World Dragonboat Championships shortly in Hungary for the USA Master's Team, and a few weeks later I'll be competing in Shanghai, representing a Long Beach composite team," he said. Bushong said that the Dragonboat and outrigger paddling has helped to strengthen him for the PWC Race. More of his background is that in the 80s he competed as a Triathlon Athlete in the first Iron Man Triathlon in Kona , Hawaii , and also led that race in 1982 back when it was on ABC's Wide World of Sports. "It's a tough sport - the Triathlon" - but obviously good training for the PWC race. For information about PWC, visit PWCOFFSHORE.com Loreen Berlin can be reached at loreenberlin@verizon.net.
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