Lamperez having a blast with Tour du Teche

Published 10:00 am Monday, April 8, 2019

For G. Tave Lamperez, nothing beats time spent on the water.

The St. Martinville native now lives on the Bayou Teche in New Iberia, with a rack of canoes and a dock allowing him access to paddle any time he feels like it — and the weather complies, of course.

He is one of the people behind the Tour du Teche, working with Ray Pellerin to help organize the race and make it a staple for paddlers across the country. He’s had plenty of experience with that as a former vice-president of the United States Canoe Association.

In fact, he spent part of the weekend paddling at the Top of the Teche in Arnaudville, then at Cypremort Point, taking part in the inaugural Shark Bayou Blast, a 10.5-mile paddle.

Lamperez was excited about some of the new paddling opportunities in the Teche Area.

So how did the Shark Bayou Blast event come about?

It’s a joint effort between LaTRAIL and the TECHE Project, which puts on Tour du Teche. LaTRAIL had wanted to put on more paddling events. They have done triathlons, road races, but not a lot of paddling. For Tour du Teche, well, we don’t want to put on all of the races. So it was a good fit. I’m excited about it.

There were two events this weekend, the Top of the Teche race from Leonville to Arnaudville, and the Shark Bayou Blast. What’s next?

On April 27, we have the Lower Atchafalaya River Sprint in Patterson. For that one, we’ll have $5,000 in prize money on the line. Then, on April 28, there is the Bayou Vermilion Water Paddle, which is part of the Triple Crown series. That will run along the Vermilion River from Lafayette to Abbeville.

What are the other two Triple Crown races?

There is the Ouachita River 49er, which is a 49-mile race from West Monroe to Riverton. It was held on March 23. Then there is the Bayou Vermilion Paddle, then the Tour du Teche 135 in October. If you win all three, then your name is engraved on the plaque in Berwick.

The Tour du Teche has seen some changes, hasn’t it?

Yes. We tried the Tour du Teche 410, which ran from Bossier City all the way to Berwick. But we only had five or six paddlers sign up for it, so we dropped that part. The 135 runs from Port Barre to Berwick, but if you aren’t feeling up to that there are shorter races. It’s much less of a commitment than the 410. Most of our races we try to set up so you can paddle one day, then have another day to recover before you have to go to work on Monday.