Paddling Hard, Paddling Fast

Yesterday I did the Maui Canoe and Kayak Club race in the Stand Up Paddle Board division from Napiili Bay to Canoe Beach. Favorable wind and small bumps at first, followed by wind in our faces and swells from all directions for the last two miles. Ugh, what a grind. Finished third overall and second in the unlimited class, which was cool, but this isn’t a race report, this is about a paddling revelation.

I’ve been working hard on the Tahitian stroke that Dave Kalama taught me. Had a tune up session along with Jeremey Riggs a few days ago. Some of the challenges I’ve been having are:

• Reverting to my old “whatevertheheckitscalled” stroke when I get a little tired
• not engaging my shoulders and trunk
• applying power to the stroke for too long
• not reaching far enough.

What I discovered yesterday was that near total exhaustion makes me clean up my act. And my act was faster. Here’s what happened

About a mile from the finish I was kind of flailing. A OC-1 that had been slowly gaining on me went by. As they passed I decided to try a different stroke. I switched to the upper arm punching stroke that todd Bradley espouses. I got in about twenty strokes and my arms went to jelly. So I went back to the Tahitian stroke but decided to get more shoulder and torso twist into it–I simply didn’t have any arms left. With no arm strength remaining I couldn’t pull the paddle back very far, it was pretty much ALL shoulders and torso.

Since I was only using my shoulders and torso I needed to twist them further forward so I could get a full pull. I extended my reach and stacked my shoulders. Bam, Bam–short little strokes reaching way out, all done with the big muscles I had remaining. It was relatively effortless, and to my great surprise I gained on the canoe. I pulled in behind to draft, and continued on. In the draft the swells that were coming towards my board were flattened, I was able to maintain my cadence with less power in the pull, and my left shoulder, that was aching before I even got into the water, started loosening up and relaxing.

With a half mile to go I was pretty much used up everywhere. I looked behind me and saw the next SUP competitor was a pretty good distance back. I slowed, losing the draft, but keeping my stroke as pure as I could make it. The last hundred yards really sucked, but I made it.

So here’s my takeaway. Doing the Tahitian stroke right is very efficient. Yeah, you probably already knew that, but now I know that in my guts. The most important thing (after you get all the other most important things assimilated) is getting your shoulders and torso to do the work. In order to do that, you need to stack your shoulders, which gets your paddle vertical, and reach like mad.

If you have strength in your arms you’ll be tempted to extend the stroke. I’m going to work really hard to discipline myself not to do that, even if it feels slower. I know now that it isn’t. If I had been doing the stroke as well at the beginning as I was at the end, I might have had a chance against the front two guys. At the very least I would have had a lot more reserve when I hit the last mile.