U.S. OLYMPIC FESTIVAL LOS ANGELES 1991 : Terrell’s Trips Nowadays Are a Bit Smoother : Canoeing: Newport Beach canoeist doesn’t let a wet beginning spoil his gold-medal endings.

There was the time Jim Terrell and his sister, Sue, were competing in a marathon canoe race in Kentucky. The river was swollen by rain, so they decided to take a shortcut around an island.

It was a bad idea.

“The canoe hit a log and flipped, then we capsized and were swept into another tree,” Terrell said Saturday at Ballona Creek in Marina del Rey, where he won two gold medals in the canoe competition at the U.S. Olympic Festival. He holds the Festival record for medals with 25.

“We grabbed onto the tree, then hung on until we could climb out,” Terrell said. “The boat was trashed and there weren’t any other canoes or houses around or anything, because we were off the course. It took 20 minutes before anyone found us.”

Terrell, 26, was only 14 then. But as scary as the experience was, it didn’t deter him from years of training and becoming one of the best canoeists in the country.

Saturday, against a stiff wind, which Terrell thought would benefit the “big guys,” he won the 1,000-meter singles and, with partner Stewart Carr, the 1,000-meter doubles. This is Terrell’s ninth Festival, and his record of 25 medals--15 of them gold--is one that he is proud of, but also a little shy about.

“I know at this Festival I get a lot of attention because of the medals, but I feel kind of bad because there are other guys in this sport that are right up there, like the Spaulding brothers (Fred and Dave),” said Terrell, who lives in Newport Beach. “Fred beat me this year at Lake Placid at the World Championship team trials, and together they are the best in the country at doubles.”

Nobody was better Saturday. Neither the big guys nor the Spauldings could beat Terrell, who at 5 feet 10 and 160 pounds is small for canoeing.

In the 1,000-meter doubles, Terrell and Carr were in the race from the start, finishing at 4:22.97, .76 of a second ahead of Wyatt Jones and Devlin Murphy. The Spaulding brothers finished a distant third at 4:40.48.

The 1000-meter singles final was an even closer race between Terrell and Fred Spaulding, Terrell’s training partner at the Newport Beach Aquatics Club. Terrell trailed Spaulding by a boat length until the 200-meter mark, when he made his move. Terrell caught Spaulding with about 150 meters remaining, then inched ahead at the finish to win by 36/100ths of a second.

But coming from behind is not foreign to Terrell. After he graduated from Milford (Ohio) High in 1983, he worked six months a year as a furniture craftsman so he could train the other six months. He made the 1984 Olympic team but lost in the time trials to determine the U.S. participants and did not compete at the Games. “I marched and all that stuff, but it was a disappointment,” he said.

In 1986 and 1987, Terrell was at his peak, both on the international and national fronts. But suddenly, three weeks before the 1988 Olympic trials, everyone was beating him.

“I was so tired that it was all I could do to get my boat in the dock,” Terrell said. “And when I did, all I wanted to do to do was lay down and take a nap.”

One week before the trials, Terrell was told he had mononucleosis. He knew he didn’t have the strength to compete in singles, so he concentrated on doubles. He made the Olympic team and started feeling healthy in midsummer. He got a step closer at the 1988 Olympics, but his fourth-place finish in the semifinals knocked him out of the finals competition.

Since then, Terrell has been training full time, easy when you don’t have a sponsor. He does some craftsman work, designing and making the paddles he uses in competition. It’s a skill he would like to turn into a job after the 1992 Olympics.

“I was just offered a job making furniture by a firm in Costa Mesa, and it was really hard to turn down. After ‘92, it’s time to get a job. And then if there is time to still compete, that will be great.”