Sign up for next year's Everglades Challenge

The 2009 Everglades Challenge is over,a nd once again the team of Lumpy and Bumpy in a Tornado, a 20-foot Olympic class catamaran, blew away the rest of the field finishing in 48 hours and 39 minutes.

This year, the WaterTribe had seven different classes in the 300-mile canoe/kayak/sailboat race from St. Petersburg to Key Largo: Class 1, Expedition Kayaks and Canoes; Class 2, Racing Kayaks and Canoes; Class 3, Sailing Kayaks and Canoes; Class 4, Small Sailboats (mono hulls); Class 5, Small Sailboats (Catamarans and Trimarans); Class 6, Exhibition Class for Small Boats with Electric Auxiliary; Class 6OC, Exhibition Class for Hawaiian Outrigger Canoes.

This year, 34 teams entered the race, ten of which, including The Insomniacs, did not finish. The lack of wind made it difficult for many of the larger sailing craft to finish.

Other winners included River Slayer and ArdieO in the Class 1, Double Male Category. They finished in 3 days, 11 hours and 55 minutes. Roo and Tinker won Class 4 by finishing in 3 days, 18 hours and 40 minutes. The fastest single paddler was Salty Frgo who covered the course in finished in 4 days 10 hours and 3 minutes.

registration is now open for next year's challenge. It takes about a year to plan for one of these adventure races. To learn more, check out an article that Steve Isaac, a.k.a., The Chief, wrote in 2002, after the inaugural WaterTribe Challenge.