paddling: ... 14 (or so) on the left...

... 14 (or so) on the right...

14 (or so) thoughts related to the Na Pali race:

1. morning on Hanalei Bay is glorious.
   
   I love morning anyway, and can't imagine a better way to start a canoe race.
   
   1a) It helped that it wasn't raining or cold.
   
   1b) It helped that I was with a great group of people.
   
   1c) And it helped that I'd had a big bowl of oatmeal and a couple cups of coffee.
   
   
   Our canoe, pre-race
   
   Our crew, pre-race
   (Rested(?) and ready!)
   
   Competing prep, pre-race
   (Sabine/Lisa : water vs coffee camps)
   
   
2. outrigger canoe races always start late.
   
   It's the "island time" syndrome I suppose. There are reasons. There are always reasons. The steerspersons' meeting finally took place around 7.40a, with the race scheduled to start at 8a.
   
   2a) in spite of this, the race actually started very close to 8a!
   
   
3. the start of this particular race is crazy and wonderful.
   
   The women started this year and it was a "beach start," meaning that the canoes were in the water at the beach, with the #1 and #6 paddlers standing in the water, holding the boat steady while 2-5 were seated and waiting.
   
   
   Sabine and Kaimana holding the canoe in place
   
   
   3a) multiply this by almost 40 canoes,
   
   
   Almost 40 canoes
   
   
   3b) with anchored sailboats and pleasure boats offshore and milling escort boats (1 per canoe) off to the sides. It's an amazing sight. Add an official boat with waving flags, yellow, red, GREEN! and then ....
   
   
   .... they're off!
   
   
4. when an escort boat is late, it should not motor in toward the beach any where close to the scheduled race start.
   
   Our escort boat was late and came up to the beach to pick up the men as 36 canoes of competitive women were poised to start. Bad move. He got yelled away by many different paddlers and eventually backed off until after the start, at which point he came back, we swam out to get on, and we chased after the canoes for the first change.
   
   
5. the first change in a change out race is crazy because the canoes are bunched up.
   
   There are crisscrossing wakes, multiple canoes to avoid, multiple escort boats to avoid, with everyone pushing rushing hurrying to get ahead.
   
   But we managed to find our canoe and get in position and in spite of nervousness, we were in the water and then clambering into the canoe and then I was paddling a race in Hawaii!
   
   5a) Here's to warm water and warm air and great team mates!
   
   
6. the Na Pali coast is gorgeous.
   
   
   The women, approaching for a change
   (early in the race)
   
   
   6a) you don't get to see much of it while paddling.
   
   
   Men during our first shift
   
   
   
7. dolphins are cool to see, no matter what (we saw some after our first leg in the boat, while the women were paddling for their second piece).
   
   
8. though it takes what seems like forever to get to Kalalau Valley when hiking, it's a quick jaunt down the coast by canoe, and there's a lot of coast beyond it.
   
   
   Men, second shift
   (not Kalalau Valley)
   
   
   
9. it's fun to catch and pass other canoes.
   
   
10. it's fun to hear your team mates cheering for you when you're paddling
    
    9a) and it's fun to cheer your team mates when you're in the escort boat
    
    9b) it's also fun to cheer another canoe crew, especially when you're battling neck and neck (we were even with one Hanalei crew for a good part of the middle section and at one point gave their paddlers a cheer which seemed to first take them aback in their escort boat and then inspire them to give us a cheer in return - very cool aloha)
    
    
11. when there's no water under the front of the canoe, you need to keep paddling as if there is, because everyone else behind you is keeping pace with your stroke rate and if you stop, they get confused.
    
    
    Men, paddling w/o water underneath
    (2nd leg)
    
    
12. it's good to hydrate (water, coconut milk) when you're not paddling
    
    12a) it's also good to eat (poi works well, unless it makes you want to throw up (usually a mainlander reaction), and then it works less well)
    
    12b) after an hour or so of paddling interspersed with sitting on the escort boat hydrating, you are going to need to pee
    
    12c) peeing is best done in the water, while waiting to get into the canoe or immediately after exiting the canoe, rather than when in the escort boat or the canoe (yells of "go!" do NOT mean it's ok to pee)
    
    
13. it's hard to remember to pee when you're waiting for a canoe, treading water with paddle held high as more than 400 pounds of canoe and paddlers come bombing down at you over the lumpy seas.
    
    13a) And then you have to paddle for 30 minutes still needing to pee.
    
    
    Men, waiting for the canoe
    (about to start 4th leg*,
    there may or may not be peeing taking place**)
    
    *we did 5 30 minute legs and the women did 6
    ** see #12 above
    
    
    
14. when changing out, it's polite to first take the incoming paddler's paddle
    
    
    Men, taking the incoming paddlers paddles
    (women climbing aboard for their 3rd leg)
    
    

    14a) and it's also polite to take your paddle with you when you exit the canoe
    
    
    
15. paddling #1 takes my breath away
    
    
    Me in #1, without breath
    (men's last (5th) leg)
    
    
    
16. when there's a swell, it can be nervous-making to go close to the reef/beach!
    
    
    Trying to reach the no-change buoy
    (me in 1, gasping for breath on leg #5,
    but at least we're not too close to shore)
    
    
17. there's a mix of of relief and regret when you don't make it to the "no change" buoy 2 miles from the finish and have to swap out with the women one more time.
    
    
18. the mixed feelings continue when you watch the women negotiate the roughest 2 miles of the entire race and negotiate it well.
    
    
    Women, riding up over a swell
    (and doing it well)
    
    
    
19. there's nothing but happiness and relief when the women pass the finish line (even if you aren't sure where it is)...
    
    
    No airhorn*, no indication of where, exactly, the finish line is!
    (but they crossed it!)
    
    *I heard later that the official boat had
    run out of air for the horn. Local style!
    
    
    ... and cruise into the small harbor...
    
    
    Women, cruising into the harbor
    (not evident: how big the swells were nor
    how close to closing out the channel looked)
    
    
    and you follow and climb off the escort boat at the end of the race.
    
    
    Pau! And tired, post-race
    
    
    
20. luau after paddling is "da best!"
    
    20a) add beer, good beer, and it's even better than that!
    
    
21. one beer goes to your head when you spend 6 hours alternately on a boat in the hot sun and in a canoe paddling hard in the hot sun.
    
    21a) the dizziness might last until almost Princeville while you ride back in the van
    
    
22. you gotta do your best to ignore rude people, especially rude locals (there are always a few jerks among a lot of wonderful folks, even during an event like this).
    
    
23. there's nothing like paddling in Hawaii.
    
    
    

photo thursday: ... give me a boat...

... that can carry.... 6?

Somewhere along the Na Pali coast
(change #4 for the men)

This is one of my favorite photos of the 8/14 Na Pali Challenge race (taken by Molly Altman, thanks Molly!).

This is a change-out, about to happen. We've jumped in off the escort boat into the water in reverse seat order (#6 in first, then #5....) and are now waiting in the water with paddles up so Sabine can see us and line up appropriately.

I'm fairly sure this is change #4 for the men, which would mean it's change #7 for the whole team, but this is just a theory based on the fact that I'm lined up immediately behind Matt who'll be in #1.

I started in #2, then switched to 1 and then to 3 before going back to 2. This isn't change #1, so it's gotta be #4. We did one more change after this, during which I paddled in #1.

What I love about this picture is that it's unusual. Rather than a typical "canoe in the waves" photo, it's unexpected and somewhat goofy, with those paddle blades waving in the air. And it's a picture of all 12 of the paddlers (though Rob is hidden behind me... his paddle is visible at least). I'm wearing the white hat.

paddling: Na Pali.... cause these are the good old days....

(note: this is primarily about pre-race time)

Talking Story at Kaiola CC beach
(waiting for our canoe - Friday, 8/13)

As I stood waiting for my bus in the cold gray shadow of the West Seattle Bridge on Monday morning at 5am, I thought about the contrast with where I'd been just a week ago: sitting on Mom's deck as the sky lightened and the ocean came into view, the occasional honu (turtle) popping its head up out of the water.

And just a couple of days before that (Saturday), I was up before 5a in our condo at Princeville, cooking oatmeal and drinking coffee before heading down to the beach at Hanalei Bay for the start of the canoe race. I was nervous, excited, and ready to paddle!

The day before (Friday), we'd spent the day mostly waiting. Hawaiian style. Island time.

We were supposed to have our borrowed canoe available to practice in at 9a on Friday morning, but it turned out it wouldn't be in Hanalei until that afternoon, so after waiting an hour or so, we borrowed another canoe from one of the clubs hosting the race (Namolokama). Not an ideal situation (we would have preferred to test out the canoe we were actually racing in), but you gotta go with the flow sometimes.

There were extenuating circumstances (there are always extenuating circumstances), including a massive funeral that morning in Hanalei that happened to be for a 40-something woman who'd been one of the Hanalei coaches. I think that threw everything else canoe- and uncanoe-related into disarray. The race also seemed a little disorganized, with our escort boat not reserved as expected (Sabine had to run around on Thursday sorting that out). "I'm livin' on easy...."

The men went out for the first paddle in the borrowed canoe, coming out of the river and running up onto the sandy bottom off the beach before really getting going. There was a small swell with a couple of folks out surfing, but not really much serious surf. Hanalei Bay is a north shore bay, so it primarily breaks in the winter.

Dolphins surfaced ahead of us as we paddled out toward the wind line. There were whitecaps ahead too, and we quickly cruised into the chop and the wind.

DougM took us out into it and along the coast for 18 minutes, heading west toward the point near which we'd be making our first change. The wind was strong but at our backs, and we tried to get used to the lumpy conditions. Starting to feel the Hawaiian waters was a big part of this test run. We'd be paddling with the wind, surfing down the swells as we cruised along the coast line on Saturday.

(During the race itself, this first part would be the leg the women would paddle. They were starting the race and we'd be in the chase boat, ready to switch with them after 30 minutes.)

After 18 minutes we turned back, and Matt (in 1) and I (2) promptly got a lap full of Hawaiian ocean. Welcome to Kauai!

This concerned me a bit - we'd come quite a distance and if we were getting regular dollops of water, it would be hard work to make any headway. Realistically, we should have had a spray skirt on, but we didn't. Behind us Garrett and Rob discussed bailing. I tried to focus on paddling, but was disconcerted by the bumpy water. Ama!? Incoming!! It definitely wasn't like paddling on Lake Washington.

We realized that it was going to take some time to paddle back into the shelter of Hanalei Bay where the women were waiting on the beach for their turn. There wasn't anything to do but to dig in and claw our way back.

After that first wave we didn't get much else in the boat up front, and we slowly fought into the wind, making foot-by-foot progress (I noted this against the beaches we were moving past). I started to relax just a little, feeling that we were going to manage to get there without a huli. Behind me Garrett and/or Rob bailed now and then. Later I learned they were getting regular water in over the gunnel, even though the canoe had high sides (which Garrett said made all the difference in those conditions).

We gained ground toward the bay, pushing up and over wind swells, and last slipped into the wind shadow and calmer seas again. We cruised on toward the pier and onto the sand and after a total of 48 minutes (18 down, 30 back) we delivered the canoe to the women waiting on the beach.

It wasn't a particularly satisfying paddle for me. I'd found myself very conscious of the lumpy water and the wind, too nervous to concentrate on my job (providing power to move the canoe forward and to give DougM the ability to steer). Others seemed to have enjoyed it though, so I think I was in the minority. The water was warm and I loved that as well as the saltiness of it, but the conditions definitely got into my head.

The wahine, starting their practice run
(Hanalei Bay, Friday, 8/13)

The women paddled for 30 or 40 minutes while we hung out, and then we returned the canoe and made plans for the afternoon: lunch, shopping, a brief rest, then rigging our borrowed canoe at 4pm. Those were the plans. In reality, we waited over an hour for a mediocre meal at Tropical Taco, then had just enough time to shop for a group dinner (I bought some Ahi at the fish store to grill at Sabine/LeAnn's), drop the groceries off, and get back to the beach to rig.

We went by the bay to deliver stuff to the escort boat for the race the next day (DougM and DougN paddled the stuff out to the boat in a 4-man surfing canoe), and then on to the Kaiola Canoe Club beach where we waited some more for the canoe. Time to talk story, enjoy the warm air and the tradewinds, and be grateful we weren't waiting anywhere else in the world. If you've got to cool your heels, there's no place like the country in Hawaii!

The canoe finally arrived some time after 4pm, at which point we unrigged and rerigged the ama, slipped on the spray skirts (nice new ones), and finally got ready to paddle over to the beach in front of Pavilions on Hanalei Bay. That's where the women would be starting at 8am the next morning. Jocelyn (Buttercup) joined the men (minus DougN) on this "delivery" paddle, and though it was getting dark (it was after 6p by the time we were in the boat) DougM took us through a couple of upwind/downwind legs to see how the canoe felt. This time I was in 1 and the paddle felt better to me than our initial paddle. Having the spray skirt helped my mental state, and this time we didn't ever get out into the wind line.

A shower later, we went to Sabine/LeAnn's to grill and eat (tons of food) and talk (briefly), before heading to our various condos/houses to sleep. I think we got to bed around 9.30p. I didn't sleep well, what with the anticipation and excitement.

I'll write more about the race itself, but here's a picture to whet your appetites:

Hanalei Bay, prerace
(doing last minute stuff, like waxing the
canoe bottom for traction, Saturday, 8/14)

paddling: ... hanalei, hanalei moon...

(actually, there was a moon over Hanalei while we were there, but... I never get picha!)

What I did get pictures of (mostly by stealing from team mates' Facebook photos) is our team:

Before the race

(rested and excited)

and

38 miles and 5 1/2 hours afterwards

(tired and excited)

(and maybe a little bit pleased with ourselves)

What race? Why, the Na Pali Challenge 2010. The race I've been thinking about for months, training for, anticipating. We finally did it. And it was good!

The race starts on Saturday morning in beautiful Hanalei Bay, and then cruises down the Na Pali coastline, around the southwest end of the island, and on to Kekaha Beach Park. 38 miles in all.

The women started first, with a beach start, where #1 (Kaimana) and #6 (Sabine) held the canoe in place while the other paddlers sat already in their seats. When the flag went up for the start, 1 and 6 hopped in, and 36 canoes all took off for the far point (west of the bay). What a sight! There is nothing like a boatload of canoes taking off all at once across a Hawaiian bay!

We men swam out to our escort boat and climbed aboard so that we could follow the women and be ready for the first change. Each team swaps all 6 paddlers every 30 minutes. Until you get within 2 miles of the finish, and if you aren't at a 30 minute switch point, the team in the canoe finishes up. (We tried hard to get there but the women ended up getting back into the canoe for the last 2 miles plus about 2 minutes... that's how close to the buoy we were!)

The first change is a bit crazy because all the canoes are still fairly close together and there's a lot of jockeying for place among the escort boats. You're not supposed to throw a lot of wake because that can mess up other canoes, but you do need to pull in front of your canoe so the 6 paddlers can hop out (in reverse order of seats, so 6, 5, 4...).

We did this, and crawled up into the canoe for our first leg. Wow! Butterflies. Nerves! I was paddling in a race in Hawaii!

The weather was mild, the wind light, with almost no swell. At least until the very end. And at that point the women were back in the canoe.

The short story here is that we had a blast, and finished 24th out of 36 canoes. In about 5 hours 30 minutes I think. And the winner finished in 4:40. But it wasn't about winning. It was the experience. And what experiences!

I'll write more later, but wanted to get an initial post up.

I haven't had a chance to do much with my photos yet, but here's one I took that is one of my favorites (so far). This is our wahine (women) paddling the last 2 miles of the race. This 2 miles was by far the most difficult, with big rolling swells coming in at them from the right (starboard bow in boating terms, but nobody every uses boating terms when talking about outrigger canoes for some reason). You can see them coming up over the crest of a roller. The #1 (Kaimana) is catching nothing but air with her paddle. And then the nose of the canoe comes down with a crash and sprays 1 and 2 with a bit of water! I've got another in this sequence that shows Sabine in 6 with almost none of her paddle in the water because the tail of the canoe is lifted so high up. That would be when the nose is getting buried.

Up and over a bump (swell)

(on the way to the finish)

paddling: ...it's been a long, long, long time...

note: edited to add photos that capture some of the experience.

(since I posted anything specifically about paddling)

At the moment (8/2) there are 2 aspects of paddling occupying my mind:

1. last Saturday's "simulation" of our Na Pali race, complete with entire crew and escort boat (but minus the tropical weather!)
   
2. the Na Pali challenge is in less than 2 weeks (8/14)!

So Saturday. It was, in case anyone has forgotten, the last day in July, and we spent 6 hours on Lake Washington, either paddling or waiting to paddle, covering a total of 40+ miles, and getting mighty cold while doing so. July. 30. 1st. And we were huddling in fleece and blankets and knit hats on the escort boat under gray skies and windy, choppy conditions.

Trying to keep warm on the escort boat

We were warmer in the canoe than in the boat (obviously, because in the canoe we were working hard), but we were also warmer in the water than in the boat (because the water was warmer than the freakin' wind, especially if you were soaking wet).

So, the conditions weren't ideal in terms of mimicking Kauai, temperature-wise. The other thing we can't replicate here is the water conditions. We have nothing approximating the open water of Hawaii, except possibly the Gorge at times, and we (SOCC) don't often get down there to paddle. I've only been once, and that experience wasn't the most confidence-building.

Na Pali is a unique race in that there are 2 complete crews for each canoe, one of 6 women, and one of 6 men. The women start and then swap out after 30 minutes. And every 30 minutes thereafter the full crew swaps out. So 6 women out, 6 men in, 6 men out, 6 women in.... repeat. For 38 miles.

This means, among other things, that the escort boat is more fully loaded than usual. Most changeout races use a total of 9 paddlers, so there are only ever 3 waiting (there are races that use 10 or 12 paddlers). It also means that it's a lot of fun to have the opportunity to cheer on your women's crew while you're rehydrating and refueling in the escort boat. Except at the end of July in Seattle. When your lips are turning blue and you're wondering why you didn't bring long underwear.

In spite of these limitations, we had a great paddle. The women started (as they will on Kauai) and the men met them in the escort boat. We did the first change somewhere between Magnuson Park and the 520 bridge.

The routine is for the escort boat to run up ahead of the canoe, and the men jump into the water by seat number (6,5,4,3,2,1), with their paddles, line up treading water, and wait while the canoe approaches. The canoe stops (unlike typical changeout races where you're only swapping a couple of paddlers at a time), the men grab the gunnel and hand paddles up to the women who have unzipped their sprayskirts. The women stow the paddles, then jump out on the right as the men climb in on the left. As soon as possible after getting in, you zip up and start paddling to give the canoe some headway.

We were rotating seats, so I sat in seat 1 for the first piece, and I discovered that when the sprayskirt is on, I don't have enough leg room to put my off leg under my seat. That meant that I was paddling with both legs forward, not an ideal position, but I made it work.

I tried to set an aggressive pace, and the canoe felt like it was moving well in spite of a good headwind and some decent chop. I think we were all ready to get in and get moving, after being on the escort boat and then in the water.

I'm in seat 1, in hat and long sleeves
(and definitely not overdressed)

We powered south past Madison Park and reversed the swap with the women... I don't even remember where.... north of I90 for certain. (I remember this because by the time we were going under I90, we were passing Sabine her steering blade which she'd managed to lose. Lesson 1 from the simulation: always keep a spare steering blade in the canoe! It's bad enough to lose a regular paddle, but the steering paddle is key to the well being of the entire canoe. In this case Lisa passed her paddle back to Sabine until we were able to circle back around and pick her's up and pass it back to her. We'll have a spare on the canoe in Kauai.)

Then further south, swapping out again... somewhere before Seward Park where the wind seemed to be backing off so it was warmer and less wet. Continuing south, with the women taking over again near the south end of Mercer Island. Once they turned the corner, the wind was at our backs and was an advantage. (The wind should mostly be at our backs on Kauai.) The men got back into the canoe in the east channel and we paddled north.

The men were paddling when we reached Juanita Bay on the northeast side of the lake, and there were some pretty good swells we managed to surf, but then we had to turn west and take the wind/waves on our ama side, and things got a bit more interesting.

I could feel myself tensing up a bit. I was in Seat 2 at that point, and my body remembered the Gorge 2009 and I had to work hard at sticking with my good technique and proper approach. A couple of things that make unsteady conditions easier to take with this crew: DougM is an awesome steersman, Garrett is really "ama aware" and is good at slapping it back down when necessary, and we've been paddling as a group (more or less) for many months now, so are comfortable together and trust each other. Doug often says that the boat feels good and stable, which is a great thing because in bumpy conditions the important thing is to keep up our speed, keep paddling so we keep moving. It's that forward momentum that gives the steersperson the ability to correct.

It's also a bit counterinstinctual for me. When things feel uncertain, I tend to pause when in fact I need to focus on keeping the stroke regular and strong -- I've gotten much better at doing this over the year, and feeling like everyone else is reliable means that it's easier for me to focus on what I'm doing (paddling) rather than on what the canoe is doing (threatening to flip over).

We managed to do the west section without problems and then turned south toward Sand Point, where we did a change and the women got back in for their last piece. They paddled south past the boat ramp at Magnuson, and then the men swapped back in and we paddled back through Montlake Cut and into Lake Union, doing a final 40 minute piece to make a full 3 hours of paddling (for us).

I think we did 5 pieces each crew, with a couple of those being significantly longer than 30 minutes (the women's first piece while waiting for us in the boat, and our last piece heading home).

The final stats:
men -

• 3 hours
  
• 21.5 miles
• avg speed - 7.2 mph

women -

• 3 hours
  
• 18.48 miles
• avg speed - 6.3 mph

And a visual, for those who like to look at things:

Note: The track looks a bit funky because this represents only when the men were in the boat, so the section that makes it look like we paddled right across Mercer Island is because we got out of the canoe at the southwest end of the lake, and the women paddled 1/2 way up the east side of Mercer Island.

We're all excited about the race, now that we've actually done a similar distance as a group and practiced the changes with an escort boat, etc.