Not So Bad

I’ve been feeling slow lately. On a typical Maliko run everyone kicks my butt. I’ve been paddling harder, doing what seems like better strokes, riding the swells better, and I’m still last to the beach. To make matters worse I don’t have a good idea of my times since I didn’t bring my Garmin 305 with me this year (forgot it) and I can’t stand buying duplicate stuff (a throwback to when I was young and very, very broke). So I’ve been getting by doing GPS tracks with my iPhone. Only problem is that it’s a bit flaky. I think the application quits when I get a phone call and doesn’t always restart.

Yesterday we had a pretty fine run. Lots of wind, not much ground swell, and the wind had been blowing all morning so the wind swells had lots of fetch and size. A pretty good group went, quite a few canoe paddlers, plus Bill Foote and a friend of his, Devin, Chan, Alan Cadiz on SUPs, Scott, Randy and a number of other OC-1 paddlers. I was determined to stop paddling my chicken route (go to the horizon and turn left) and turn a better time. I didn’t stay as tight as I could have, but I shaved off half a mile or so.

If you look at the track from my iPhone you can see exactly how the run progressed. Early in the run the swells were pretty good sized, but they weren’t the giant rollers we see in the middle of the run. I got a lot of good glides, but they were short. You can see I was holding a pretty good average speed–approaching ten miles per hour–but the rides were short though frequent. As we reached the Camp One area the swells got bigger and harder to catch. You can see I got some very long rides at high speed, but in between the long rides I was struggling to maintain speed. Just after Camp One I stopped to help Bill Foote who was having leg cramps. I thought at first he was having a heart attack. What a place that would be for a serious medical problem. No idea what I would do other than call for help. Bill went in at Kanaha and I continued.

After Kanaha I started getting long slower rides. The swells were separated and had long flats behind them. I could get into the tilted flats and ride a long time, finally sliding back to the swell behind it and usually catching that with the higher speed I was maintaining in the flats. These long, smooth rides lasted all the way to the harbor. At the harbor mouth I had to sit down and wait for a tug and barge to exit. Big buggah. Everyone had a fine run.

When I downloaded the GPS track I was surprised to see my time and average speed. Pretty darned respectable, nearly 15 minutes faster than my best run last year when I thought I was doing darned well. I suspect the reason I feel so slow is the people I’m paddling with. They are all getting a lot faster.

I still have room for improvement on my route. I suspect I’ll find an inner route faster because the swells are easier to catch. they are a bit slower since they are in shallower water, but the rides should be more frequent and longer. I also need to work on hooking up more of the runs, especially in the beginning of the run. I know exactly what Dave Kalama means when he says “sometimes you’ll just feel the rhythm get away from you, and you have to slow down and build back into the rhythm. Sometimes the water almost feels “sticky” and you can’t seem to get into even little swells. Other times you give a half-hearted paddle and get into a huge swell. Lots to learn in this grand game.