Paddling the Red Dragon

[LaPerouseBay]

Oh my, that is fun. 

I was in seat 1, HM seat 2, PB steering.

Hard to describe the feeling of paddling an inflatable in choppy conditions.

Very random bouncy shocks and shifts.  Super good cross training.

We were out for 3 loops, maybe 15 minutes, but I can feel it today. 

Plenty of laughter from behind.  Super fun. 

Never saw HM laugh so hard.  Crazy good mindless fun. 

Peanut gallery thought it was cool too.  Lot's of positive comments. 

I'll do it again in a heartbeat.  Video is mandatory. 

Those guys are tough as hell for doing that at 65 and 69.  Very impressive.

[surfcowboy]

The Kauai tourism board is going to be mad at you guys for taking my travel dollars to Maui. You guys are total fun hogs. I love it.

[SUPcheat]

My (ex) neighbor is going to stay at a hostel in Honolulu in December for two weeks to surf and celebrate his post 6 month healing from his year of back, neck and eye surgeries.  I will ask my bride if I can go with him and come back after 7 days.  Fingers crossed.

[yugi]

Who won?

[Area 10]

Yeah I've got a tandem inflatable and can relate very much to these experiences. I was laughing so much the first time out on it with a friend that I couldn't climb back on the board at one point. It's absolutely hilarious, and takes you back to the days of being a beginner again. One thing I've learnt from paddling with a few different people is how important it is - if you want to actually go anywhere - to paddle with someone with a similar cadence to you, and is a "team player", used to working with, rather than against, other people. Communication is key - you have to signal to each other to co-ordinate strokes, especially when getting going. No doubt this comes naturally to people who have paddled eg. OC6, or have rowed, but most SUPers haven't.

[Off-Shore]

Good to see you guys got out on the Dragon. It is a lot of fun paddling with either experienced paddling friends as when you get in sync you can really motor along. Just as fun with those that are non paddlers (my kids and their friends). Really different to solo paddling and, man do you laugh a lot! We should have some vids coming of the Red Dragon competition that was recently held in Hong Kong earlier this month. Great to see 3 or 4 of these racing side by side and all the smiles and laughter that go with paddling these together.

[headmount]

Added to the fact that the water surface was choppy slop, was our lack of ballerina skills.  We needed more pressure.  Standing felt like standing on a water bed.  Helmets would probably be wise.

PBill Shanghaied us as we had other, more reliable craft on our trucks.  But he had it, made a good sales talk and LPB and I decided to risk it.  LaPerouse did the best job of standing with excruciatingly long one legged, bent every which way yoga type poses but ended up the same as us two older Flying Wallendas.  Yeah I almost stopped breathing I was laughing so hard.

[SUPcheat]

Sounds like a water trampoline.

[TallDude]

I had a 16' ×32" tandem SUP years ago.  It was glassed with a stringer and weighed almost 50 lbs. When we were in chop, we'd paddle on opposing sides.  You could feel the board torque hard, but it stayed level. With the inflatable, you'd have very little torsional strength.

[burchas]

Funny, shortly after reading this thread, I'm strolling through the Metropolitan
museum and stumble upon this:

[PonoBill]

Hmmm. That might help me pick up my speed and technique if I saw those guys coming after me. Though I imagine they can hold 7-10 MPH pretty easily.

[yugi]

that's like how many guys on a 12" wide round bottomed hull?

[burchas]

Hmmm. That might help me pick up my speed and technique if I saw those guys coming after me. Though I imagine they can hold 7-10 MPH pretty easily.

Make sense   I was wandering the same thing after learning that
the dude who took that image (Michael C. Rockefeller) supposedly ended-up
on their dinner table.

[burchas]

that's like how many guys on a 12" wide round bottomed hull?

It probably helps that each and every one of them is under 100lbr,
Even still, I was somewhat floored by it.

and to make it interesting, their paddle doubles as spear, so it looks like
they were spear fishing out of this canoe as well.