Photos by Kirill Umrikhin (@kirillumrikhin)

Brother and sister Jack and Emily Bark have been at the Catalina Classic Paddleboard Race finish at the Manhattan Beach Pier every year since they were born. Their dad, Joe, competed in the race for 38 consecutive years, beginning in 1983. He won the 32-mile race, from Two Harbors on Catalina Island, in 1988 and 1989. 

Joe Bark is welcomed by son Jack after finishing the 2011 Catalina Classic. Photo by Ken Pagliaro

Joe Barks, a former Redondo Beach firefighter, also builds most of the paddleboards raced in the Catalina Classic.

Jack Bark bears down on his first Catalin Classic win, and a news Classic record. Photos by Kirill Umrikhin (@kirillumrikhin)

Jack, a Los Angeles County Firefighter living in Torrance, began competing in the Classic 13 years ago. He placed second in the stock division (boards 12 feet or shorter) in 2015 and 2016, losing both years to Australian Lachie Lansdown. The Australian broke the stock record in 2016, and broke it again this past Sunday with a time of 5:35:00.

In 2017, Jack Bark finished second in the unlimited class, behind five-time Classic winner Max First, of Manhattan Beach.

This year Bark trained to beat First, and the rest of the most formidable field in the race’s history, including 2021 and 2023 winner Scott Clausen, of Seal Beach.

Sunday’s field was also the largest in the race’s history, with 129 paddlers from both coasts, Hawaii, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Ireland.

“For the last six years, I didn’t think I could beat Max, so I was pretty much ‘coming off the couch’ and doing okay,’” Bark said. He turned 30 this year.

“I figured if I ever wanted to win, I had to put myself out there. I looked at the record and saw what it would take,” he said.

Unlike her brother, Emily Bark, did not entertain expectations of winning this year’s Catalina Classic. Her best finish in the Classic was third last year, 30 minutes, or approximately two miles behind first place finisher Liz Hunter, whose four consecutive Classic wins earned her the nickname “Queen of the Channel.” That year, Emily was 15 minutes behind second place finisher DJ Wilson, who won the Classic in 2015, and 2018, and had seven second place finishes in her 15 Classics. 

“I was just hoping for second this year because Liz is so fast,” Emily said.

In June, Emily finished third in the 15-mile South Bay Paddle, which follows a triangle course from the Hermosa Beach Pier, south to the Palos Verdes Beach Club, four miles out to sea to the R-10 buoy, and back to the Hermosa Pier. 

Hunter won and Los Angeles County lifeguard Tiana Pugliese finished second.

Jack Bark’s training for this year’s Classic began in April. He went for five- to 10-mile paddles out of King Harbor with training partner Dave Thomas at 4:30 a.m. on days he had to report to his Los Angeles Fire Department station in Paramount at 6:30 a.m. On his days off, he and Thomas paddled 15 miles, from King Harbor to the R-10 Buoy to the Manhattan Pier and back to the Harbor.

The paddle from the R-10 to the Manhattan Pier helped set their bearings for the Classic, because paddlers in the Classic must round the R-10 after crossing the channel before heading to the Manhattan Pier. Bark estimated he and Thomas, a Los Angeles County Lifeguard, logged over 500 miles during their five months of training.

Just weeks before the race, Jack and Emily shaped themselves new boards in their dad’s Torrance factory, disregarding conventional wisdom not to change equipment close to a race. 

Emily reels in Liz Hunter in final mile of the Catalina Classic. Photo by Kirill Umrikhin (@kirillumrikhin)

Race day

Paddlers assembled on the beach in the dark on the west side of Two Harbors’ green, wood pier shortly before the 6 a.m. start for pre race rituals. They jogged, stretched, joshed and wished one another good luck. Jack’s and Emily’s pre race ritual included joining hands in a calming prayer.

None said it, but the paddlers were hopeful that the light wind passing through the Isthmus signaled calm waters in the channel.

Jack’s boat captain and mentor was Zuma Lifeguard Captain Ryan Addison. Addison won the Classic in 2004 in a near record time of 5:09.40. The record was 5:02:12, set in 1999 by lifeguard Tim Gair, now one of five current and former Los Angeles County Lifeguards who make up the Catalina Classic Committee.

“Ryan told me trust my training,” Jack said in an interview after the race.

Paddleboarding is one of the few sports in which the elite competitors sprint at the start, in hopes of establishing a psychological advantage. 

Jack sprinted at the start.

“I felt good off the line,” he said.

At the five mile mark he had a 300 yard, or about a two minute lead over First, which is not far in a 32-mile race that has never ended in under 5 hours. 

When paddlers need fresh water bottles, their escort boats will drop them ahead of the paddler, 100 to 200 yards. 

Jack said he felt confident because he didn’t see any other paddlers’ boats catching up to him.

But Addison didn’t want his paddler to get complacent with his early lead.

“Don’t sit back. Go for it,” Addison yelled at him from the 23-foot skiff owned and driven by Brandon Gherardi, another LA County Lifeguard.

Bark was clocking nine and a half minute miles, or 6 to 7 miles per hour across the channel.

“I knew it was a record pace, but I didn’t know if I could sustain it,” Bark said.

By the time he reached the R10 Buoy, 24 miles into the race, he had increased his lead to nearly a mile. Then he felt the wind over his right shoulder, blowing straight to the Manhattan pier. 

“In all the years I’ve done the race, I’ve never felt the wind from the south,” Bark said. “It was just strong enough to build little bumps.”

Five of Jack’s fastest mile splits were during the eight miles from the R10 to the finish, when normally paddlers start to fade.

Bark reached the pier in 4:54:45, nearly eight minutes ahead of Gair’s 25-year-old record. 

Bark drummed the deck of his board with both fists as he glided past the finish buoy. Then he rose to his feet on his 19.5-inch-wide board, and raised both arms in triumph as the lifeguard rescue boat, Baywatch Redondo, fired a sun-sparkled arch over his head from its foredeck water cannon.

Jack said he had imagined standing on his board after winning a race, but never done it before.

Max First, winner of five Catalina Classics. Photo by Kirill Umrikhin (@kirillumrikhin)

He waited for a smiling First to finish in a time of 5:06:40, which would have won the race in just about any other year. Then came Tristan Sullaway, a La Jolla lifeguard, in only his second channel crossing, followed by Clausen.

But for Jack, the 2024 Classic was not over. His sister Emily, and younger brother Sam were still paddling. (Sam, paddling stock in his first Classic, would finish mid pack in 6:37.)

Emily trained throughout the summer off of Torrance Beach with lifeguards Sydney Brouwer and Anneliese Solberg, and 16-year-old Lanakila Outrigger Club paddler Finley Murphy, all racing the Classic for the first time.

“I like to start fast. It was a little washy leaving the harbor and I had trouble finding my rhythm. But then it glassed off. Finley and I paddled together for the first 16 miles, chatting the whole way,” Emily said. 

Bark lost sight of Hunter at the start, when the paddlers passed through the moored boats. She assumed Hunter was so far ahead she was out of sight. 

But as Emily started to pull away from Murphy at mile 16, she saw Hunter to the north, coming up from behind.

“At mile 18 Liz and I were neck and neck. At the R10, Liz had built a 200 yard gap. I stopped trying to catch her. Everything hurt. I was just thinking about finishing,” Emily said.

Her goal of a second place finish, and Hunter’s title of “Queen of the Channel” appeared secure. 

Joe Bark was escorting his daughter in his 20-foot skiff, “Black Coffee,” a Blackfin hull he had rescued from the dump and added a wheelhouse to. Over the radio he heard his fishing friends were catching bluefin off the lighthouse and made a mental note to fish for them the next day.

“Then my radio started blowing up with congratulations. Jack had broken the record,” Joe said in an interview following the race.

He yelled the news to his daughter and watched her spirits lift.

“Until then, I didn’t think Emily had a chance. But she’s like Jack. She’s really good on the bumps. I started yelling, ‘10 yards every bump. 50 bumps and you’ll catch Liz,’” Joe said.

“My dad, and my best friend Claire Amico were cheering from the boat. When I heard Jack won, I knew I’d be bummed if I didn’t give it all I had.” About half way past the Hermosa Pier, I finally started to gain on Liz,” Emily said. Halfway past the Hermosa Pier is .8 miles from the Manhattan Beach Pier.

Fourtime Catalina Classic winners Liz “Queen of the Channel” Hunter. Photo by Kirill Umrikhin (@kirillumrikhin)

After 32 miles, Emily Bark pulled even with Liz Hunter just five seconds from the red Dorito finish buoy that reads South Bay Boardriders Club. SBBC sponsors a paddleboard race series during the summer.

Were it not for the introduction of chips last year, this year’s women’s race would have been called a dead heat.

The chips showed Emily Bark finishing 1.35 seconds ahead of Liz Hunter, with respective times of 6:12:13.86, and 6:12:15.21.

Like First, Hunter finished smiling and gave her rival a long hug.

“I was honored just to be in the water with Liz,” Bark said.

Jack Bark watched the finish from the beach.

“Breaking the record was a huge deal. Seeing Emily come from behind was bigger,” Jack said. ER