Topics

736

Downwind and Racing / Rogue River Race

« on: June 11, 2012, 08:01:41 PM »

Ted is the Prince of Darkness. Seems like a really nice guy, but Jessus he tried to kill us all. Just getting out to the sand spit to start the race was a serious effort, then we took off in a blazing crosswind and scratched for the bridge. Daniel Hughes and Zane Schweitzer took off like scalded dogs, with Cyril Burguiere, Matt Parker, Karen Wrenn and a number of other lunatics close behind. I did a fairly leisurely start since it was already looking like a very long race to me. I decided to angle farily high into the wind with a hope of catching some swells going towards the bridge and making up for the grind. It worked pretty well and I wound up close to Randy Barna and I think Kerri Stewart, though I'm so very lousy at names. Whatever.

We got past the bridge and the crosswind dies some, and everyone angled up the bank in some fairly strong current, that got stronger the further we went. I was dodging in and out trying to find eddies. Finally we got to this big bend in front of a small island and the river took a sharp left. We had to ferry across the current and it was simply brutal--a treadmill. Most folks wound up getting into shallows and had to hop off and push. Me too. In fact I walked up onto the sticky mud flat of the island and trudged to the corner carrying my Bark. Ugh. DQ for portaging? Who cares, just shoot me.

Back into the water and a long wide stretch of river with a lot of tactical choices. I was stroking hard and Randy slipped in behind to draft me. I should have let him pass. I could have used a break. I finally got too close to shore and whacked my fin. I actually saw the rock that I hit and braced for it, but the bump didn't come, so I relaxed, and then bam, faceplant. I think I was going so slow in the current that it screwed up the timing of the whack.

No harm, hopped up, did another brief portage and then back to slogging. We finally came around the last bend and I could see the guys in the lead coming back. the orange turnaround buoy was only about 200 yards ahead. Wow, we were doing fantastic. Must have been going MUCH faster than I thought to be that close. Then I realized I wasn't going anywhere. I could see Karen about 50 yards from the buoy, paddling very hard and moving perhaps one MPH in current and headwind. the last hundred yards felt like five miles. I finally rounded the buoy with nothing left. Randy rounded it just ahead of me, and Kerri just behind, but both of them pulled away fast. I was toast.

After about ten minutes of listless paddling, making good time in the current, I looked back and saw some folks gaining on me. Okay, pick it up buddy. So I started reaching, and breathing, and adding a little pull. Did a steady gain and started feeling better. Back under the bridge, finish line in sight--nothing left. I came in on a wing and prayer, but didn't get passed. No idea of my finishing position, and no curiosity about it either. Survived. Yea!

Back to the parking lot. wandered around in circles trying to get my body working again. Suddenly realized that my shoulders did not hurt at all!! Not even the tiniest bit. My abs cramped up when I tried to get my shirt off, my legs cramped when I took off my booties. My arms felt like they belonged to someone else, but NO joint pain. xTuf S. I love it. I just don't need a workout like that to prove that to myself.

Ted says he'll make a few changes next year. Perhaps that hollow look in my eyes told him I'd want to hear that. In retrospect it was a very fun paddle, and I'm nuts enough to do it again. But we're gonna have to wait a while for me to convince myself of that. Oh, Cryril won and I think Matt Parker was second. The rabitts burned themselves out a bit I guess. I think Dan was third and Zane was fourth. Karen was first woman.

737

Random / Toyz and geek stuff

« on: June 08, 2012, 10:24:38 PM »

I've been playing with a four-rotor helicopter thingie (a Balde MQX)--I was inspired by Dan Gavere's big boy version and decided to learn to fly this thing in the mini-me size before I drop a few thousand on the more serious hardware. Even though mine is teenie-weenie I decided I wanted video recording and POV, so I started looking for ways to do miniaturized video, expecting it to be expensive and hard. Instead it's cheap and easy. Real cheap and real easy, like less than a hundred bucks for both a POV video camera/transmitter/ receiver AND a miniature video recorder--and a few other goodies tossed in. That's pretty unbelievable



What you're seeing is a combination video camera and microphone with a built in transmitter. the range is about 50 yards depending on what's around. Picture quality isn't bad--480p and 15 fps. I've gutted the connectors and stuff to reduce weight. I power it from two sub-miniature lipo batteries. Now I just need to learn to fly while looking at a TV screen.

Right behind that is a video recorder. The little ribbon terminates in the ccd sensor and lens array, and the box holds a mini SD card (TF) and has the battery connector and a USB connection. weighs about 20 grams.

Gavere, by the way, is not just a super-fast paddler and whitewater wizard, he's also a closet geek. Besides all the slick aerial camera platform stuff he's building he gave me an idea for a SUP mod that I just had to jump on. Dan, by the time you get back in town there will probably be something VERY skinny but VERY stable to try out.

This is gonna be fun. There's going to be a lot of screaming.

738

Downwind and Racing / The Chilly But Smokin Spring and Summer Gorge Report

« on: May 18, 2012, 10:53:16 AM »

Chime in folks as you do runs.

Had a bitch of a run Wednesday with Karen Wrenn, Dan Gavere, Lee Murray and Gregg Delion. Went from Stevenson to Home Valley, which is usually a nice go, but I unwisely tried my Bark 14 Dominator. As soon as I pulled into some swell I started looking for a way to abort and go get my old Glide 14, which was on the truck. The Bark rounds up when it catches a swell and every bump is a sharp whack and wobble. It was nearly uncontrollable and it was killing my bad knee. So I ducked in to the eddy line and settled down for a long semi-flatwater paddle with minimal help from the wind, against the current. Nice workout, but a lot of work.

Thursday I went from Viento to the Event Center with Gregg. Dan Gavere left his 14' Coast Runner on my truck (he wants to sell it, and he's using the "take the puppy home and see if the kids like it" technique. Bastard. It will probably work.

What a difference. Not fast, and it does a funny, slam the brakes on move when the nose touches in a big glide (I'm not talking about when the nose punches the wave in front, but rather when it simply touches down as it catches the wave), but generally smooth and fun. Conditions were good, lots of big bumps everywhere. After about 1/3 of the run my knee started acting up and I fell a few times from standing too much on my good leg. So I went to the eddy to recover. Only took a few minutes. Then back to the middle for some good bumps.

Gregg was going good on his Glide 14. I think I've made him nervous about doing Malikos but he'd be fine. This is his third serious downwinder and he's already pretty fast and gets into a lot of bumps. He has it bad. Ear-to-ear grins.

I started practicing reading the water in the Jeremy Riggs fashion, and it was marvelous. Completely screws up my stroke, I probably look like I just found out which way to hold the paddle, but I was constantly powered up, tiny, small, medium and large. I have to concentrate so hard that I can't watch where I'm going, but it will get better I'm sure.

Some really fun bumps downstream of Wells Island on the sandbar. Marvelous speed and long rides, then the usual crossed up mess when the current and wind splits and rejoins around the island, then a fairly flat hard paddle back to the truck at Nichols. I did the last mile at flat out race pace and Gregg was right behind. He's going to be a tough competitor.

Water temp is all the way up to 50F. Pretty soon it might hit Celsius.

739

Random / Hard to Watch

« on: May 08, 2012, 06:16:18 PM »

No, it's not a 30 Rock episode. The vintage car racing club I belong to -- SOVREN -- raises money for Seattle Children's Hospital. They do a pretty good job of it. A video like this makes the effort worthwhile. I think this year if anyone complains about the race fees they should just plunk them down and make them watch this. I teared up in about 30 seconds:

Stronger | Seattle Childrens Hospital

740

SUP General / SUP and Fitness

« on: April 20, 2012, 10:06:41 AM »

Some recent answers to questions by soon-to-be addict Fishman made me wonder what the rest of you think are the "holes" left in your fitness with your SUP addiction. It seems odd to me that proneboarders consider SUP to be "easier" and yet I often hear comments about SUP paddling being a sport populated by gym rats. Seems like they'd do a better job of connecting the dots than that.

I consider SUP to be a critical part of my fitness efforts, and perhaps sufficiently all-around useful that I don't need to do anything else, but I wonder if I'm wrong about that. Will we all wind up with shoulder humps and skinny legs like longtime longboarders have?

Is there some other ENJOYABLE activity that would serve to balance out the activity--to get some neglected muscle groups engaged?  I'm not likely to spend a huge amount of time doing something mindless with weights and machines.

With a metabolism that chugs along like a sloth, I need a high level of activity to be able to eat any food at all. I think I need something strenuous to fill in the gaps.

741

Sessions / Spooked at Lanes

« on: April 14, 2012, 11:03:59 AM »

Had a nice session at Lanes this morning. Had to cut it short, I really DO need to clean the garage. Dave K, Bill Foote, Chris P and a lone shortboarder in very glassy but quickly closing shoulder to head peaks. Fun BUT. I can't go to Lanes without thinking about getting stuffed into one of the reef pukas and getting my leash caught. I really didn't like that. I get that tight scalp feeling when I think about it, and I think about it every time I look down through that glass-clear water and see a hundred Pono-sized overhung holes to get stuffed into.

742

Downwind and Racing / Balance

« on: April 11, 2012, 01:08:34 AM »

I had an epiphany today, a startling one though the realization has been growing. I know my balance this year hasn't been as good as it previously was, I've been saying it's because of the knee I had surgery on, but I really didn't know why--I thought it was just stiffness. But watching Bill's video from Sunday, and playing the last ten or so runs back in my head I realized that I'm standing on one leg. I'm favoring my knee so much that there's no weight on my left foot.

I knew that my left leg has stayed weak, but I haven't really noticed anything in how I use the leg. I don't limp unless I've been sitting too long. but if I try to do a single legged dip I can barely hold my weight on my left leg.

Watching the video I realized how tipped my board is from pressure on the right rail. I fall to the right side--always. And when I fall it's from a severely unbalance position where I'm leaning unrecoverable-y off to the right. I couldn't understand why, until I realized that I'm literally balanced on one foot and my board is almost always tipped to the right.

Today I played around in some sloppy little waves for a couple of hours with my F16. I focused on keeping my weight distributed evenly on both feet. It was a pretty challenging conditions for balancing. I didn't fall once. Rod Parmenter was with me on the Bullet and he has the balance of a cat. The Bullet is tougher to stay on than the F16, but still, Rod fell a dozen times and I didn't.

So why am I telling you this? Because everyone's body adapts to injury, weakness, and other challenges and masks what is really going on. The compensation is so good that you might think your limitations are coming from some other mechanism. I thought I was just getting creakier. It nice to know that some PT and some focused work might improve my performance dramatically. Worth paying attention to.

Got the clue from Bill Boyum's vid. Thanks, bud.

743

SUP General / Pinterest eBook

« on: March 19, 2012, 11:58:08 PM »

I wrote an eBook on Pinterest that a few of you might be interested in. It's another of the eBooks aimed at Ke Nalu dealers, but you might find it of interest. If nothing else it's short.  Pinterest is one of those social marketing tools that looks pretty lame at first, but it's really a very powerful way to direct easy-to-create content to facebook and twitter (simultaneously) and drive prospects to your website.

Oops, here's the link: http://www.kenalu.com/pinterest-for-stand-up-paddling-marketers/

Yeah, you've got to register. Whaddaya expect, I AM a marketer after all.

744

SUP General / It was a dark and stormy night...

« on: March 09, 2012, 08:46:08 AM »

What a wild one. Wild morning too. Last night was constant lightning when you could see it through the rain. I'm not sure there was enough air in our backyard to breathe. The lightning was intense, all around us, and generally silent. Must have been high altitude. Impossibly bright. I was looking straight up above Haleakala when a particularly big flash went off. I still have a red spot in my vision and that was two hours ago.

Now that the sun is up the surf is big, very rough, and the wind is blowing from five different directions. I don't think I'd care to paddle to Molokai today. Those racers are going to have a day to remember. Hope everyone stays safe.

for myself, I'm going to go put some socks and long pants on, maybe even underwear!!! Make some cocoa and try to decide where a fireplace might fit in Ponohouse. It's fricken' cold! All the way down to 65. Cheee.

745

Downwind and Racing / Big Unlimited 6-man race starts tomorrow??

« on: March 07, 2012, 09:58:32 PM »

Maui is flooded with paddle talent today. Saw Danny Ching and the 404 team while I was showering at the Kahalui Harbor Canoe Hale this morning. Looked over some of the boats--six man canoes with shrouds and skirts for the open ocean. I could pick up one end of them with one hand!!! 120 pounds or so. Yikes.

So when does the race start? Anyone know. I can't seem to find any info on it.

746

Sessions / Spooky Kanaha

« on: March 05, 2012, 04:32:58 PM »

What a difference a day makes. This morning the waves were so big the entire North Shore was covered with salt haze, the clouds were low and angry, and it was raining off and on. But no wind. so I went to Kanaha--Ho'okipa was pretty much closed out--one surfer out. When I got to Kanaha the parking lot was almost empty and surfers were returning to their rigs. Not a good sign.

But being dumb, I paddled out, and it wasn't bad. The sets were good sized, but pretty clean. Lots of closeouts. But some good ones too. "Why are all these people quitting", thinks I, "it's nice!"  I went through the channel on the Portuguese Triangle side, and plunked down to watch a few waves roll through--well outside of the lineup. While I was sitting there watching I looked outside in time to see a monster wave bearing down on me--came out of nowhere. Fell right on top of me two seconds after I saw it.

Ah, says I as I bounced along the bottom, this is why people were leaving.

I finally surfaced in time to enjoy big brother, then got my board and paddled a bit further out. The big waves came out of nowhere. Grey sky, blending to grey water with grey mist and a shroud of rain to disguise everything. I caught a nice big wave way outside, rode it all the way to the lagoon. This is more like it. Paddled back to my outer, outer lineup perch, watched Chris P, come through the channel and out to the spot I had occupied earlier. A minute later a monster almost took me out where I sat. I spotted it just in time to paddle like a maniac and get over it. Chris disappeared behind a giant humping shoulder. I'm sure he was OK, but I bet it wasn't fun.

I noticed tow surfers out in Tidy Bowls--never a good sign.

I moved down a bit and caught a couple more good ones. The time between sets was long, so the center would fill back up, and then the next real set would come and they'd all be gone for awhile. On the plus side, it never got crowded.

I paddled back out to my outer, outer, outer spot and sat a few minutes. Just as I stood back up I saw another monster come out of the mist. I paddled like crazy to catch it since there was no way to get over it. Really glad I switched to a Molokai recently--it got me into the shoulder. I turned right, stayed high on the wave, and blazed down the face. I was feeling pretty good about everything until it became clear  that I wasn't going to get past the section ahead, which did NOT look good. No possibility of riding this foam ball, so I did a chicken cutback and ran right into a falling shoulder. BAM. Yardsale.

I don't think I've ever hit the water so hard. Once I could tell which way was up I looked for my paddle and found it pretty quickly (I NEVER let go of my paddle). got up, caught a nice mid-sized wave to the edge of the lagoon, and got the heck out of there.

747

SUP General / How to Remove a wetsuit

« on: March 02, 2012, 09:30:37 AM »

I was being cute, posted this to the question about what wetsuit to wear in Dana Point, but on reflection I think it deserves it's own post

748

Random / For Dealers -- Web Marketing for Stand Up Paddling eBook

« on: March 01, 2012, 11:52:37 AM »

I wrote this for SUP and paddlesports dealers, but if you're having trouble sleeping... After editing it 20 times it puts me to sleep instantly. It still needs proofing, but there's nothing horrible.

http://www.kenalu.com/free-ebook-web-marketing-stand-up-paddling/

749

SUP General / Mugged by a whale

« on: February 22, 2012, 06:38:06 PM »

So Mr. HM and I had a totally nuts Maliko run today. knukin' wind and monster swells. Great combo. At one point I was looking down at Bill in the bottom of the swell and it was like looking down from the roof of a two story building at someone in the parking lot.

We came in at the oil tanks just short of the harbor since HM had an appointment. As I started in across the reef I almost got tagged by a VERY large wave but somehow made my way to the shoulder and stayed there while Niagara Falls fell in the water next to me. Pure luck, I just held on and prayed.

So I made it to the lagoon, and there was a momma whale and baby. Momma was inside towards me with the baby just outside her. She was doing a big fin wave and slap so close I could feel it in my lungs. Okay, enough of that, I turned to go around her AND SHE SWAM IN FRONT OF ME. Seriously, put on a burst of speed and cut me off, rolled on her side and started slapping. I turned sideaways to see what she would do, and she just stayed there, waving and slapping. So I tried to go around her more upwind, and she moved to block me again. By now I'm feeling a little nervous.

So I turned 180 downwind to go around her tail, and she swam in a big 180 and blocked me again. A kitesurfer pulled up, stalled his kite and said "looks like she doesn't want you to go, she's herding you". By now he's probably having a beer with his buddies and laughing about the SUP dude whose eyes were as big as saucers. I wasn't really enjoying the encounter since I could see it ending with a thin skim of carbon fiber bits and protoplasm on the water. Fortunately a good sized swell came, I paddled like crazy for it and surfed past her, with literally a foot or so between my board and her hump. But I was up on the swell so nothing touched. I got to shore and was kind of freaked out telling it all to Boyam, but he was more impressed with my catching a wave to the beach than anything else. I was pretty shaken. I don't think she really meant me harm, but it was VERY weird, and she was VERY big.

I got some decent footage on my GoPro but unfortunately it quit before the reef, and it's mostly fogged. Like all UFO stories, of in this case ISO (identified swimming object) stories.

750

Gear Talk / eBook on Choosing a Paddle

« on: February 22, 2012, 10:23:29 AM »

I finally finished this thing. It's been a long haul. I got so I couldn't stand to look at it, but it came out well. Of course it slants towards Ke Nalu paddles, but not egregiously I think. It covers a general way to decide your preferred cadence and specific ways to test the preference, how to demo paddles, choose a flex, choose a handle. There's a ton of geeky stuff for folks that have trouble sleeping, as well as best technique for deciding shaft length and how to alter shaft length to deal with arm and shoulder pain. In short it's kind of all the stuff we've been talking about here in one wad--it's 14 pages as I recall, I'm back to not being able to look at it.

http://www.kenalu.com/choosing-a-paddle/