Paddling with Dave

So if you wanted to get some paddle coaching for SUP, who would be your absolute, top of the line pick as coach? No question in my mind that my choice would be Dave Kalama, and Dave DOES do one-on-one coaching when he has the time. I figured if I’m going to spend time and money on racing Stand Up Paddle boards that I needed some serious coaching, so I engaged with Dave for a couple of days of training. It’s been pretty remarkable.

Some of you might not be familiar with Dave Kalama. Here’s a little background;

Dave is credited with the co-development of tow-in surfing, along with Laird Hamilton, Darrick Doerner, and Buzzy Kerbox. They pioneered tow-in surfing and later stand up surfing at Peahi (Jaws).

Kalama and close friend Laird Hamilton essentially reinvented and invigorated stand-up paddling. In October 2006, Dave Kalama and Laird Hamilton, biked and paddled the entire Hawaiian Island chain—more than 450 miles—in a week. The feat was featured on Don King’s film A Beautiful Son in support of those afflicted with autism. He appeared in the opening sequence of the James Bond film Die Another Day.

Dave is a descendant from a long line of noteworthy Hawaiian watermen; his grandfather brought outrigger canoe paddling to the mainland U.S., and his father Ilima Kalama was the 1962 world-champion surfer and a lifelong outrigger canoe paddler.

He’s fast as hell, can paddle forever (he once did six Maliko runs in a day just to train) and looks like he’s effortlessly stroking the water while he disappears on the horizon. I’ve never heard anyone say a bad thing about him and literally every surfer I know considers him the ultimate waterman.

He’s a fine teacher–he’s got a real knack for taking complex physical actions apart and showing you how to do each bit. He trained Slater Trout in paddle technique and general physical conditioning. Slater went on to take an upset second place in the Elite category of the 2009 Battle of the Paddle and contended strongly for first.

I guess he’s qualified to give me a few pointers.

The good news is that I have been putting the board in the water the right way–the fin does indeed go down. The bad news is that’s about it for the parts I’ve been doing right. The basic stroke Dave taught me is so counter-intuitive, subtle and complicated that I am absolutely certain that you will be totally confused by the time you finish this article.

Let me give you these words of encouragement–the end result of a few hours of coaching with Dave and a couple of days of practice in between session is that a four mile paddle today going as fast as I can for the entire distance left me feeling no fatigue whatever. I’m not going any faster yet–I’m a long, long way from mastering the stroke–but I’ve already gained a tremendous amount of efficiency

Start by watching this video (shot by Randy Strome of the Standup Zone) through a couple of times. The first stroke he’s doing is the Hawaiian stroke, which is a lot more like what I was doing (though Dave is far more fluid). The second stroke is Tahitian, which is the stroke he taught me.

Notice how much power and effort he’s putting into the Hawaiian stroke. The paddle is pulled hard all the way to his feet, then he wings out his upper hand just enough to clear the blade from the water, twists the upper hand to feather the blade and clear the water, then swings the blade back forward, raising his upper arm back into position.

Now watch the video from about 1:40 where he start doing the Tahitian stroke. In the end of this stroke he doesn’t wing his upper arm at all, rather he pulls the blade up and out of the water like drawing a sword. He breaks the wrist of his lower hand inward and relaxes most of the lower arm, using only minimal effort to push the paddle upwards. The upper hand holds the handle more like a knob than a T handle, with the thumb pointed to the side somewhat to start with. This enables the upper hand to twist the blade to a feathered position without putting a strain on the wrist.

As the blade leaves the water the shoulder, arm and upper torso swing forward in a sort of gentle punch, enabling momentum to stretch the muscles forward and give a longer reach for the catch. The upper arm which has been extended now moves a few inches inward towards the head and the torso rotates to stack the shoulders. At the catch the muscles start to spring back almost by themselves, and a firm torso and shoulder rotation applies power. The upper hand pushes forward and slightly down to aid in the power and position the shaft vertically. Almost as soon as power is applied you relax, and start the withdrawal sequence. The upper arm motion is a fluid rotation, with the hand describing a flattened oval–like an almond. Efficiency is gained by paying attention to when each muscle set can be relaxed. You can literally SEE the relaxation in Dave’s body, at the same time that the board is positively flying across the water.

Dave explained the efficiency this way: Properly done, the catch and first bit of pull is 70 percent of the power in any stroke. The energy applied after the catch can aid speed, but only a little bit, and it comes at a large cost. You get both your hands and your torso out of position for the next stroke, and you have to get them back where they belong before you can start again–that takes energy. The Hawaiian technique is fast, but it takes a supremely conditioned athlete to make it work and compensate for the inefficiency.

The Tahitian stroke is constantly lifting the nose of the craft, and it’s designed to build momentum. Your hands, torso and shoulders return to position automatically, on a circular, continuous path, and only travel a short distance. To build speed you increase the cadence, and it’s a lot easier to do that because the stroke recovery is so much shorter.

The hard part of all this is that every little aspect of the stroke is important, and the subtleties are endless. “Soften your lower hand–you need to relax. You’re lifting your upper hand too high. Reach. No, really reach. You need to stack your shoulders more. Your upper hand has to be closer to your head to get the shaft vertical. You’re pushing your upper hand too late. More torso rotation. Reach.” Good thing this guy is patient.

The format was that Dave taught me the basics for about two hours, then I spent the rest of the day practicing and basically screwing it all up. Then we met for another couple of hours and he got me back on the right path and showed me some of the more subtle stuff I was missing. More practice. Then a hour for a tuneup.

I’m now doing a reasonable facsimile of the Tahitian stroke. I know what I’m doing wrong, and how to fix it. There’s about ten things to be thinking about at any one time, and I know what all ten are, but I only get about six right at once. Of course all this has to get into muscle memory, and then I’m going to need another tweak or two.

Dave does this quick but comprehensive and effective program of one-on-one paddle coaching for $1000 and he has other programs that are more intensive and complete, and he also does one-on-one surf coaching. That’s comparable to pro coaching in other sports and it’s enormously effective. It’s a lot like having Babe Ruth teach you to bat. He’s not always available–he keeps a pretty busy schedule. But if you’re going to be on Maui it’s a really worthwhile thing to try add to your vacation and you’ll leave a greatly improved SUP paddler.

You can contact Dave through this form, which will be automatically emailed to him:

Hmmm, we’re having a technical challenge with the form. If you want to contact Dave before I get this fixed drop me an email at bill at kenalu dot come and I’ll forward.