The top two finishers in the 34th Texas Water Safari experienced the highest level of competition since the 1992 race. The "Bugge (Boogie) Team" composed of John Bugge, Mike Shively, Rich Long, Mike Shea and Jeff Verryp raced gunnel to gunnel from the start to the finish against the three year reigning champion "Mynar Team" of Joe, Brian, Freddie Mynar and John Dunn. Eventually, the Bugge Team pulled ahead, finishing 49 minutes in the lead, resulting in one of the closest edged victories in Safari history. John Bugge pulled this team together after being impressed with the "California Boys" team from last year's race. Though they wrecked their boat on several occasions in 1995 and eventually had to withdraw, the California Boys showed great speed and stamina. This year, under the tutelage of Bugge in the stern and the guidance of Shively in the bow, they had the horsepower and twenty years of experience to get down the course quickly and successfully.

This year's course was not one in which records could be set. Though the hills and prairie land received a healthy dose of rain the day before the Safari, it was only enough to raise the San Marcos river a few significant inches. It did nothing for the Guadalupe, which remained less than an inch in some of the wider areas. Some nightmare stretches included the distance between Gonzales and Hochheim, the longest portion without contact, which had approximately 15 unexpected gravel bars and rock shelves that abruptly stopped boats. Another stretch worthy of torture chamber fame was from Victoria City Park to the DuPont Plant near Bloomington. This section has always been a deep, easy cake walk, but the low water revealed sand bars, gravel bars and hundreds of logs strewn about like tank traps on the beach at Normandy. This resulted in uncountable ankle deep portages, boat banging and short paddling stretches, sometimes only a hundred yards between logs. Of course, the wind and waves during the final stretch, in the bay, were of maelstrom proportions. Paddlers took huge waves over the bow and gunnels, while the headwind pushed against every paddle stroke.

Another example of fun and games during the Texas Water Safari: Brian Vooleitch and Kelly Covington saw an episode of Texas Parks and Wildlife on PBS that featured the Texas Water Safari. Like many novices with a taste for adventure, they had no paddling experience, but had the right attitude and decided the Safari would be a really neat accomplishment under their belt. They acquired a boat and an appropriate amount of gear, paid the entry fee and took off at the bullhorn blast on Saturday morning. All went as predicted with the problems associated with the realization that they weren't in Kansas any longer, but then came the monster attack, which unnerved the entire boat for a few minutes.

It wasn't exactly a monster, more like an alligator gar. During the third night Kelly was sitting in the back of the boat minding his own business when all of a sudden a five foot long, one hundred fifty pound alligator gar leaped out of the water and headed straight for his headlamp. The gar ripped the headlamp and bandanna off Kelly's head, then landed flopping violently in the boat, obviously disappointed in itself for having made a poor decision. Brian, sitting in the front of the boat, responded as any hero would. He spun around and grabbed the gar, thinking it was an alligator attacking one of his partners. For a brief moment he and the gar futily wrestled each other in an attempt establish predatory dominance. Both failed miserably with the result being a submerged boat and an upset alligator gar. Now, Kelly, in the back of the boat couldn't see anything, having been knocked silly by the initial jolt against his noggin. All he could see was large figures fighting, growling, cussing and distressing his world. Due to pre-race warnings about alligators he thought the crew was under attack by a monstrous bloodthirsty alligator, so as soon as he hit the water he was looking for the quickest way to get out of the river. Since he didn't have the time to spend millions of years evolving and growing wings, he had to find another way to save his skin.

Jeremy Bailey was paddling alongside the team just as this incident occurred. Within seconds Kelly was trying to climb into Jeremy's flimsy, fragile and very unstable solo boat. Similar to the alligator gar's presence in the first boat, there was no place reserved for Kelly in the little solo boat, leaving Jeremy, Kelly and all his gear in the water with the rest of the melee. By then, Brian made everyone aware that this had been an attack by a disoriented alligator gar in search of daylight and not by a psychotic killer alligator.

Robin Nilsestuen had been awake for twenty four hours as the Team Captain for her husband's four man team, when she pulled over to have a well deserved breakfast at the Landmark Inn in Cuero. At the next table she happened take notice of Elvis wolfing down his traditional peanut butter and 'nanner waffles. At first she tried not to stare, but then felt that she deserved the company of royalty, after the grueling night she'd spent on the banks of the Guadalupe. So, she scooted over, unannounced and bellied up to his table and had breakfast with Elvis. Not a lot of people can boast of such an honor. Seems The King had a gig about to begin at the drive in restaurant next door to the Landmark after breakfast.

All told, 57 teams entered the 1996 Texas Water Safari, 53 teams started and 27 teams pulled up to Seadrift before the 100 hour time limit at one o'clock, Wednesday afternoon. The healthy turnout is a testament to the growing popularity of the world's toughest boat race, especially with the low water and rough conditions presented this year. Throughout the next couple of weeks, I'll continue to present highlights from this years race in the Tuesday and Thursday editions of the Record.