SUP Sprint Racing

I beat Dave Kalama at the inaugural Big Winds SUP race in the Columbia River Gorge at Hood River. Finished about five minutes ahead of him–long enough to get off my board, walk up to the deck above the river and take pictures of Dave, Robby Naish, and Michi Schweiger crossing the finsih line. So I’m going to share my simple recipe for how to beat these guys:

1. Good board
2. Lots of practice
3. Short race
4. and most importantly, a ten minute lead.

Here’s a blow-by blow of this very fun event.

I heard about the Hood Sup Series on the last possible day–a press release posted on the Standup Zone (http://www.standupzone.com) said it was June 18th, and that Dave Kalama, Robby Naish, and Michi Schweiger would be there. The prospect of a race sounded great, and it just happened that I didn’t have anything too pressing to do that thursday night. It’s an eight-race series, which sounded even better. Hood River is 72 miles from my house–about an hour and 20 minute drive if traffic is good, but planning to arrive at 6:00 PM could be problematic, the freeway that heads up the gorge gets jammed with traffic at rush hour. So I left at 2:00 PM for a 6:30 race meeting, and arrived way too early. I got signed up, drove down to the Hook where the race was going to start, and just hung out. I should have brought a sail–any sail, and sailed my 12′2″ starboard, which is great fun.

I had plenty of time to look over all elements of the course, which is pretty short–about 2 miles. The prevailing summer wind in the gorge is against the current–west to east–which punches up nice standing swells for jumping with your windsurfer or kite. And the wind is frequently strong enough to blow a dumpster across the parking lot (which I witnessed years ago at Rooster Rock). The race started with a run along the inside of the hook, carrying a buoy on the port side, sheltered from the gale by the large berm of this artificial peninsula, then turned the corner into the face of what felt like at least a 20 knot wind.

The run to the next buoy was also against the wind though it might be buffered slightly by Wells Island just to the west if you took the proper angle, and from my windsurfing experience I knew there are some funny currents close to Wells that might help or hurt. Once the buoy near Wells was rounded it’s a straight downwind run to the event center slot. This is an odd place. Right off the end of the parking lot called the Event Center is a sandbar that kitesurfers use to launch. The sandbar goes well out into the river. Near shore there is a twenty foot gap in the bar that’s about six feet deep at the center. It’s rocky near the shore and shallow near the bar, so you have to go through this section with some caution and precision. It also angles somewhat to the current.

Once through the gap it’s a short spurt to the next buoy which you take on the starboard side, then a sprint crosswise and slightly against the wind to the bouy at the end of the inlet, around another buoy to starboard and a sprint more against the wind to the finish buoys.

I waited around on the hook for a while, then realized I had more than an hour to the race meeting, got bored and cruised up into Hood River. What a lively place Hood River is during the summer. Stuff going on everywhere. There was a skateboard clinic going on, crowds of great-looking active people wandering around. Like a ski town in winter, only in a lot less clothes. I got an ice cream at Mikes–one of those “gotta do it” places. Like eating breakfast at Bette’s in Hood River.

Didn’t really need an ice cream just before racing, but what the heck.

I wandered back to the hook and people started showing up. Soon there was a surprisingly large crowd. I had jersey number 46, and there were a lot more people that signed up after me.

You can see my Starboard Point to the left hand side of the launch area. Most folks were on standard boards, though the Naish crew had what looked like Glides. Looks like I brought a gun to a knife fight, but really, with my weight on it, the Point is no faster than the 12′2″ Starboard that I also brought. The advantage is that it’s a lot more stable and it has steering which is handy upwind and for rounding buoys, so I decided to use it. I also brought my S.I.C. F18, but elected not to use it, both because it would seem like overkill, and because I suspected it’s thick sides and long length would be hell in the crosswinds.

After a brief meeting the ladies and juniors took to the water and were off quickly in surprisingly good order. The Men’s group was starting five minutes later, so I got onto my board and got a good position in the lineup, on the inside of the group. On the horn I started paddling like heck, but a small group of lightweight younger guys (actually, I think everyone was younger) got a fine start and pulled away smartly. I redoubled my efforts, bounced off another determined paddler rounding the buoy, and headed for the hook in about tenth place. As soon as we rounded the end of the hook the wind blasted right into our faces. I crouched down and stroked hard, and was surprised to see most of the guys drop to their knees and continue paddling. I didn’t do that–two reason: 1. It’s called Stand Up paddling, and 2. I wasn’t sure I could get up again. So I pushed on, managing to pass a few people and using my rudder to get a good line to the buoy. When I finally rounded the buoy the leaders were about 50 yards ahead. They popped to their feet and started really moving. I was paddling hard but the long pull had taken a lot of wind out of me. There were some tiny following swells being created by the wind on the outside line, so I paddled out and tried to catch some even though their angle was wrong–they were angled towards the middle of the river. I recalled what Jeremy Riggs told me once about riding swells at an angle making you faster, so I tried it in these ankle-high swells and it worked! I was able to catch quite a few runners that let me catch my breath and helped me haul in the leaders. I passed four people quickly and had just three in front of me. As it happened, I was on a swell when I passed the guy in third, and he yelled “Holy s&@t, you’re leaving a wake! How are you doing that?”

I figured I’d explain later.

We passed quite a few of the women and juniors, but off in the distance I could see that there were some serious contenders that we were not going to catch in such a short race. When we reached the slot I was ten feet behind second and perhaps thirty feet behind first. We rounded the buoy and I started stroking hard in the crosswind. To my surprise the guys in first and second dropped to their knees again and started stroking hard. I thought they would surely be disqualified, but continued to press hard. I didn’t lose any ground, and when we rounded the buoy onto the final upwind leg I gained a few feet and started thinking I might be able to at least take second. I started to close, but the wind picked up, and my progress slowed a little. By the time we went through the finish line buoys the gap was back to ten and thirty feet respectively. I cooled down, paddling a little in the basin, and then decided I should get some pictures of the other finishers, since I was carrying my iPhone in a waterproof bag.

I got up to the deck above the finish line just as Dave Kalama approached the finish line. “How cool is this”, I thought, “Not only did I beat Dave to the beach, but I can get a photo documenting it.” Believe me, it’s not likely to happen again. At Maliko I’d need about an hour head start.

Dave K catches his breath after the finish line while Robbie Naish strokes to beat Michi Schweiger.

Dave Kalama, Robbie Naish and Michi Schweiger

Some of the ladies make their way to the finish

The after party at the Pourhouse was really fun. Lots of nice folks. I talked for quite a while with Dave and Michi as well as some of the other competitors and a delightful couple from Arizona who have a house in Hood River. They even offered me a bed for the night in case I celebrated a bit too much, but I did more talking and eating than drinking, so I was fine for the ride home.

In all, an excellent first effort for Big Winds. I thought the race was going to be too short to be fun, but actually it was very interesting. The upwind legs made it tough and the short length made all-out effort a practical strategy. I certainly didn’t have anything left in reserve. Their organization was excellent too, and the party was a hoot.

For those of you that might be put off by the knee paddling, it won’t be a problem in the future. I sent Big Winds an email suggesting that they either not permit knee paddling beyond five strokes (as most races do to let racers get back up after a fall) or let everyone know that it’s OK. I got an email back immediately from Steve Gates saying: “This was the first SUP race we’ve put on or been in and we never even thought about knee paddling. But we did have a discussion about it earlier today and agreed it will not be allowed in the men’s divisions in future races.” That’s a good approach. While there were plenty of capable women and junior paddlers that didn’t knee paddle, some of them would have had a very tough time in the strong winds.

I’ll be making as many of the remaining seven races as I can manage. If you’re anywhere in the area you should too.

For more info click HERE

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No SUPs at Chun’s

This was originally posted in the Forum section in Tips and Tecniques, but I think it deserves to be on the front page. I pasted in both the poster’s and my responses. He makes some great points that I think are important to consider, albeit in a Dennis Miller persona that may rub you the wrong way. 

Kliner:

 the upcoming winter season fast approaching, the buzz on the north shore is not how this winter will compare with last winter or how big the waves are going to be but if a SUP guy will get killed or worse, kill someone in the line up.  It seems alot of people are getting into SUPs; some with a surf background and many with little or no surf experience.  The water is crowded enough with the surf schools and surf contests hogging the best spots during the best time of year (go somewhere else to sell your t-shirts and sport drinks… sorry different rant for a different day) without some SUP kook paddling out to the lineup.   Too many of your SUP kooks (oops, I mean brethren) think if it looks like a surfboard and I ride it, I must be a surfer.  Wrong.  You’re a dude that is willing to shell out $1500-$2500 for a over-weight, over-priced, oxymoronic (come on, you got to admit “High Preformance SUP” is an oxymoron) symbol of the evil comercial surf industry (It was sad to see super waterman Dave Kalama doing a SUP instruction video aimed at middle America - that’s proof enough that the “MAN” is behind the whole SUP craze when Kalama sells out… expect Naish to sell out but not Kalama).  There was a reason why standup paddling died out in the past – evolution (and the ire of the lineup).

So do us all a favor and SUP responsibly.  Educate non-surfer SUP dudes.  Work on your core muscles like a fat man on an ab lounger.  Create a new economy and business model by making the “surf” culture accessible to every non-surfer and land locked american with a credit card.  Paddle, paddle, paddle… just don’t paddle into the lineup at Chun’s.  

Aloha

ps  if you’re asking yourself “Where’s Chun’s?”, definitely, definitely stay out of the lineup.  Any lineup.

PonoBill:

PonoBill said:

I think you’d be surprised how many SUP surfer’s agree with you, even given your ill-mannered approach. I know that I have no business in any serious lineup, or any crowded one. I drive past Ho’okipa every day on my way to surf, give it a longing look, and keep driving.

Part of the draw is that you don’t need to crowd the usual breaks–you can go further and surf places that no one bothers with. I’ve found places on the Oregon coast that are within sight of crowded breaks (or as crowded as that half-frozen water ever gets) that are not only empty, but fit my geezer skills a lot better. I expect this year in Maui that I’m going to find all kinds of new spots, because I now consider a five mile paddle to be a nice warm up.

All the same, don’t expect the good guys to take you seriously if all you do is rant.

Ill mannered approach?   Rant… yes but ill mannered… come one, dude… a little humor about a topic that I don’t expect the “good guys”  to take serious anyway…

As with other new water activities, self regulation and education will go along way… one just has to review the past history of other emerging water sports (e.g. jet skiis, windsurfing, kite boarding), the subsequent clash with existing, traditional water use activities, and the resulting regulation (depending on your water activity of choice – banning might be a more appropriate word) of water use activities at particular beaches… so if SUP dudes (& wahines) wish to continue to have access to all beaches and live in harmony with others, a good base of what is “pono” and what is not will go a long way for a sport that is experiencing exponential growth…

Aloha

ps  I do SUP myself but only with a bag over my head and in the dark so no one sees me…

PonoBill:

You’re damned good writer. Take that bag off and write some articles for Ke Nalu. Or leave it on and help us spread the word that SUPers need to be pono, or at least strive for it.

Starboard Dealer Meeting: General

Netarts Oregon, just after dark: I’m stumbling down a steep and slippery trail in pitch blackness, holding a pan of blackberry cobbler in one hand, trying decide what to do with it when I fall…

Netarts is a little town on the Oregon coast that sounds like it’s spelled backwards. Straten–hmmm, that sounds a lot better. Diane picked me up from the airport after a typically screwed return (canceled flights and all that modern air travel irritation) from Boston and the Cape Cod Challenge. We dropped off my bags from that trip, tossed a different set into the truck and headed for the Starboard Dealer convention.

I had traded emails about accommodations with Declan Sacre and his wife Tracy from Trident Sports–Starboard’s North American distributor. I told them I’d arrive a little late. Now I was wandering in the dark, looking for Tracy so she could tell us where we were staying. I finally staggered back to the campfire where Diane had remained while I searched, listening to Ekolu Kalama and several other Starboard guests playing guitars and singing. They sounded fantastic. The cobbler was still intact. My jet lag and recent lack of sleep has me somewhere in a time zone around Greenland. Tracy was there and she steered us to our accommodations. I’m seeing double. Off to bed.

Starboard Conference headquarters

Next morning–a good breakfast refreshed what’s left of my mind. We gathered in the living room of one of the houses Trident rented. While the first day of presentations mostly concerned sailboards (a topic I still have a lot of personal interest in) there was a lot of attention paid to general marketing trends, focused mainly on ways to revive the abysmal windsurfing marketing and the synergy between SUP and windsurfing. Starboard has access to a substantial body of market research both from trade organizations and it’s own surveying efforts.

Svein Rassmussen, Starboard’s CEO, holds forth on the windsurfing market

It’s clear that windsurfing did not follow the typical adoption curve of most active sports. After reaching a very strong peak it declined precipitously leveling off at a much lower participation rate than similar sports. They typical boom/leveling cycle for active sports goes through a very fast growth period when the sport is “cool” and everyone knows about it, then declines to a maintenance level at perhaps 60 percent of the peak. Windsurfing declined to something like 20 percent of the peak participation. Starboard maintains that was because all manufacturers focused solely on the performance end of the market, abandoning longboards and the simple fun of being on a board in light wind in favor of sinker shortboards and high-performance sails that required careful selection and tuning to meet conditions. They are looking to SUP to rectify that problem! More on that later.

The second day was devoted to Stand Up Paddlesurfing and wavesailing using SUP boards. It’s clear that Starboard is investing heavily in SUP and considers it the next major active watersport. Their manufacturing plans bear that out. For 2008 they planned to build 2750 SUP boards and actually will deliver over 3000. That’s more than double their 2007 production. For 2009 they plan to build 6800 boards–again, more than double, and for 2010 they expect to build 14000. That’s three years of 100 percent growth from a single manufacturer. That’s an important trend given that Starboard is perhaps the most sophisticated SUP manufacturer in terms of understanding international distribution and demand.

A SUP Board with a centerboard! The SUPer is super versatile

I’ll talk about the crossover they expect between SUP and Windsurfing in another article, but this new board, or perhaps more like this modification of their best selling board, is the prime example. I think we all forget sometimes how versatile a SUP board can be. You can surf it, race it, paddle flatwater, sail it, camp with it, fish from it, run whitewater rapids, wake surf it, and take the kids and dog for a ride. There really isn’t anything like it in any sport I know of, and that factor alone should account for a great growth in SUP popularity–if it gets properly communicated. The showcase for the sport is the performance end–people surfing big waves–but the characteristics that can give this sport huge growth and maximize it’s sustained level after that growth is the mundane use: poling around on a river, fishing in a mountain lake, surfing little knee-high shorebreak that no prone surfer cares about. We’re going to make a special effort to continue coverage of those aspects in Ke Nalu.

Svein demonstrates the special no-leak centerboard gasket

A little about this SUPer board. It’s a 12′6 with a very sophisticated full centerboard. The channel under the centerboard has a special L-shaped design so water can’t push up thought it and add drag to the board. The centerboard can be easily removed or it can be left in place with just the control knob removed to ensure it doesn’t get in the way. With the centerboard down the board goes upwind wonderfully under sail. Kick it back a little and you have more stability and drive for reaches, and you can kick it up completely for downwind.

The centerboard is a full foil and is very flexible

The centerboard also adds stability for teaching students to balance a SUP board. With the centerboard down the 12′6″ has much more initial stability. I didn’t like the feel once the board is tipped–the centerboard makes recovery slow, but I’m very used to the way a 12′6″ feels, so it probably bothered me more than it would a newb. Starboard foresees this board being used extensively in training facilities, both to teach windsurfing and SUP–or BOTH!

Complete sail kit–all in one compact carry bag

Starboard also has several complete sail packages for it’s boards from Severne Sails. I assume Severne is a subsidiary of Starboard. These packages are brilliant bits of marketing–a complete kit of everything you need to stick a sail on a board: Mast, booms, sail, extension and base, all in one handy carrying case. They have a line intended for SUP sailing that would stand up to the rigors of wavesailing. They start at about $699 complete. But for most uses I would actually bypass that and get the sail kit they have created for their beginner windsurf boards. It’s also complete, and it’s not designed for serious wave use, but it uses ultralight kite cloth for the sail, a very light boom and mast, and costs $399 to $499. Perfect for playing around on a lake or river, and probably even some lightweight wavesailing. I loved the light weight, easy rigging and fine sailing characteristics. With a few inserts on the nose of a SUPer board you could bungee this to your board and head out, confident that if the wind came up you could go wherever you wanted and continue to play. The price point makes it a casual purchase. Unless you bought well-used equipment you couldn’t duplicate this setup for less than $1200.

We’ll cover the rest of Starboard new lineup, and their plan for continuous refinement in the next article.

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Happyfeet

I went to the Oregon Coast this weekend to do some surfing with my friend Paul and his son Tyler. Stayed in my beach house in Manzanita. First of all, let me get the most important aspect out of the way–Paul got thrown out of the Sand Dune Tavern. [Read more]

Happyfeet

I went to the Oregon Coast this weekend to do some surfing with my friend Paul and his son Tyler. Stayed in my beach house in Manzanita. First of all, let me get the most important aspect out of the way–Paul got thrown out of the Sand Dune Tavern in Manzanita. Unbelievable. I’ve been drunk [...]