After the Brake Check lap around the Arcata Plaza on Saturday, May 24, 48 kinetic sculptures and their teams — from canine to bovine, warriors to hippies, spooky to sparkling — set off on the more than 50-mile, three-day quest for glory that is the annual Kinetic Grand Championship.
The rollicking ride detoured past Dead Man’s Drop in the Ma-le’l Dunes this year. Jennifer Thelander, outreach and engagement director for the Kinetic Universe, explains the land has recently been repatriated to the Wiyot Tribe. “We have to begin trail grooming for that spot way before the race,” she says, and there wasn’t enough lead time to get permission and prepare for the drop this year. However, organizers are putting a proposal together for the tribe and, she says, “We believe it will be back next year.”
Sunday started with a splash as the sculptures went into amphibian mode, taking a lap in Humboldt Bay before making for Loleta. Judges awarded no Golden Flipper — amazingly nobody capsized at the launch. Following Ferndale’s Memorial Day celebration Monday, the raucous, ragged band crossed the Eel River to sprint the final leg, with team Fly t Less coming in first with a time of nine hours and 25 minutes to win the Grand Champion title.
Overall, says Thelander, “It went amazingly,” with enough early volunteers to cap signups, rather than a scramble for more hands. This year’s roster included a team of Trash Rats, volunteers who handled sorting and recycling waste along the route.
Relive the human-powered pageantry with photographer Alexander Anderson’s Glorious images here.
This article appears in Glory Over Land and Sea.
