Training for SUP Part 5 – Specific Base Development Phase

You’ll recall the structure of a periodized year plan from the most recent post in the Training for SUP series. The largest division in the training year is the macrocycle, which focuses on specific physiological and technical aspects of training for up to 12 to 16 weeks before the focus of training shifts to other components in another macrocycle.

If you are from a cold climate, what I call the Specific Base Development Phase is basically the macrocycle consisting of your fall training from your major competition of the year until you are more or less frozen off the water. If you are from a climate that allows you to paddle all year round, this is the phase that you should enter immediately after the most important competition of the year.

When I was competing in sprint canoe this phase began immediately after the World Championships or Olympics. Now that I am racing SUP, this year it’ll start immediately after the Battle of the Paddle.

Since you’ve just completed an entire year of training and racing when you finish your last race at the year’s major competition it is probably a good idea to start this phase of training with a two to three week period away from the water. I’ve even seen athletes take much longer periods off the water after the Olympic Games when they’ve just completed a four year training cycle, however for most SUP paddlers two to three weeks is probably adequate. This period should be “active rest”, meaning you aren’t sitting on the couch doing nothing but instead should be doing active, healthy things that you might not normally do in your training. You should be doing these activities at a lower intensity, or at the very least just doing them as hard as you feel like. In no terms should you be doing prescribed high intensity training of any sort. The primary focus of this mesocycle should be regeneration and rest – both physical and psychological – from the rigors of a full season of training and racing. This recovery period is important. It leaves you refreshed, refocused and ready to approach another year of training with the focus and intensity necessary to support high-level performance.

In my career I’ve done a variety of activities which differ from the norm in this phase. I’d done some cycling. I’ve gone hiking. I’ve gone for a canoe trip. I’ve played some team sport games. I’ve woken up in the morning and not felt like doing anything so I’ve just taken the day off. I’ve made sure to put no pressure on myself to train, had no specific training objectives and attempted no high intensity workouts. It’s simply a time to take it easy.

There are a couple of dilemmas I can see that a SUP paddler might face in this mesocycle. One of them is one that I face. What do you do if there are optimal conditions for downwind paddling or surfing when you are supposed to be taking time away from the water? The answer is I probably go and do a great downwind run, but I am going because I want to and am excited to paddle in conditions we don’t get every day where I live. That’s an important distinction from doing the paddle because I feel like I have to for training.

The other dilemma a SUP paddler might face is having a race in this mesocycle. There are so many SUP races it is entirely possible that there may be an event you want to do (or may be committed to) a week or two after your major event of the season. How should you deal with that issue? For me the answer is that I would probably just pass on any events in that period after my big race, however in some instances you may find an event just too compelling to pass on or have a commitment to an event that you can’t renege on. In that case I would recommend doing the race but doing minimal on water training in preparation for it. Yes, it might affect your performance in that race, but as far as long-term performance is concerned it is probably a good move. Remember, you can’t be your fastest in every race and you need to make some sacrifices in some races in order to be your best in the races you really care about most. Those races are going to be the big races in your next training cycle, not some smaller race at the end of the season.

Once you’ve completed a suitable period of active rest you’re ready to start to train again. You’ll need to remind yourself that you’re not continuing the same training that you were doing a few short weeks ago leading into your major competition of the year, but instead are doing foundational work for the next SUP season. The training objectives for this macrocycle should be:

• Development of a specific aerobic base (aerobic fitness developed on the water)
• Correction of technical flaws and refinement of paddling technique
• Introduction to dry-land fitness training with particular focus on dry-land aerobic work and development of basic strength

You should be structuring your program according to the principles of periodized training I discussed in Part 4 of this series of posts. Though the focus in this macrocycle should be on volume, you’ll want have the training load increase gradually from one week to the next within each mesocycle and from mesocycle to mesocycle within the 12 to 16 week macrocycle. If you’ve forgotten what these terms are or represent, I suggest you go back and read part 4 now.

You’ll also want to build in an easier week at the end of each mesocycle where training load is cut back slightly to allow for recovery and consolidation of training gains before pushing the load higher in the following mesocycle. You’ll also need to figure out how often you are planning to train each week. Clearly if you are training twice/day and doing 10 workouts or more per week your program will look a lot different that that of someone training once a day or just 4 to 5 times a week. I’ll try to provide guidelines that I think would be appropriate for each type of trainer in a bit.

Development of Specific Aerobic Base

This training occurs entirely on your board on the water. Workouts should be of the long slow distance variety with heart rate in the lower end of your training zone and well below your anaerobic threshold (point where you start to develop lactic acid in your muscles).

Just because you’re training at low intensity for longer periods of time doesn’t mean you have to have a steady menu of long, slow, continuous paddles in your training program. Some of my favorite workouts are very suitable for this training phase. Consider doing long intervals, fartlek training and long cooperative drafting paddles. You can also go downwind if conditions merit, however rather than paddling aggressively after bumps I’d probably slow things down a little to both stay within the prescribed training zone and really focus on reading the water and letting that waves do the work. Here are some examples of great on-water workouts that I like to do in this phase:

Interval Training

• 1 x 20’, 5’, 15’, 5’, 10’, 5’, 1’ R
• 5-6 x 10’, 1’ R
• 10-15 x 5’, 1’ R
• 7’, 5’, 3’, 5’, 7’, 5’, 3’, 5’, 7’, 1’ R
• 10’, 8’, 6’, 4’, 2’, 3’, 5’, 7’, 9’, 1’ R

You get the idea. Work to rest ratio is high, in the order of 5:1 to 10:1 or higher. Total work ranges from 40 minutes at the low end to over 60 at the high end. Feel free to build up to even longer workouts if you want to late in the macrocycle. Although heart rate should be at the low end of the training zone for these workouts, the shorter pieces can be at slightly higher intensity (although still below anaerobic threshold).

Fartlek

Fartlek training was developed by Swedish runners in the 1940s and the term basically means “speed play”. The workout has a prescribed amount of total work but no formal structure to achieve it and it is therefore up to the athlete to determine how to structure the work intervals. This type of work is particularly effective for cross country running or skiing where the terrain can help determine when an athlete chooses to work hardest (for example going hard up the hills), but is also fun and effective in paddling, particularly when there are varying conditions within a course that you are paddling. In this macrocycle work for fartlek training should total anywhere from 40 to 70 minutes.

Cooperative Drafting

If you have a training partner or partners rather than just doing steady paddles you can do cooperative drafting workouts. In these workouts try to go anywhere from 40 to 70 minutes in total and divide the leads evenly into two to five minute intervals. The pace should be harder than normal steady paddling and during your lead your heart rate should be higher than it is in most of the other workouts in this macrocycle. When you are drafting it can be a little lower than it normally would be in the other workouts in this phase. These are great workouts for developing board skills as well as fitness, but because much of the paddling is easier due to being on the draft I’d only recommend doing this type of training once per week.

Steady Paddles

Long steady paddling is important in this training phase, but as it can get monotonous I recommend doing the other workout structures much of the time. Steady paddles should be 60 to 90 minutes or more in length and I recommend trying to do them over a set distance (either one way or out and back) to make it easier to paddle with appropriate intensity. It is a lot easier for me to have somewhere to get to as a goal rather than just trying to paddle and watch the clock.

Correction of Technical Flaws/Refinement of Paddling Technique

While it is prudent to always be working on improving your paddling technique it is not always convenient to correct relatively large technical flaws in the competitive season. Making technical corrections often requires slowing right down and relearning certain parts of the stroke. There just isn’t time for this in the competitive season when physiologically you are required to do high intensity work. Furthermore, once new motions in technique have been learned it takes many hours of submaximal paddling to consolidate those changes. Attempts to make relatively large technical adjustments in the competitive season are doomed to failure as there is not adequate time to consolidate them before racing. If anything, a paddler who attempts these changes in the competitive phase is likely to just end up technically confused and unable to paddle effectively with either their old technique or the one they are trying to adjust to.

Because the Specific Base Development Phase is far away from important races and consists of lower intensity paddling it is the ideal time to make technical adjustments and refine technique.

I would hope that paddlers would have a good appreciation of what adjustments they’d like to make in this phase before they’ve even entered it. It’s very valuable to do video analysis of technique during the competitive phase so that you can assess your racing technique and determine what changes or refinements you should try to make in the next specific base development period. If you’ve done this you should be entering this macrocycle with a good idea of what you need to do with your technique. If you haven’t I strongly suggest getting some video done as early as possible in this phase (perhaps even before taking active rest) so that you have a technique baseline from which to work. Then it is just a question of determining what you want to adjust and what drills you need to perform to help make those adjustments.

Clearly you’ll need to balance your paddling between technical, drill heavy paddling and aerobic base paddling. If needed I’d suggest dedicating a couple of workouts a week, well spaced out, to making technique corrections. The rest of the time you can do your drills in the warm up or cool down of your aerobic base workout. If you don’t have major technical adjustments to make and are just refining technique then you can probably pass on dedicated technical paddles and just do drills in warm ups and cool downs.

Paddling with resistance can help with technique in this phase. Resistance paddling is also great for developing specific strength, though that is not a goal in this phase. Use the resistance provided by a bungee (or bungee with tennis balls threaded on it) wrapped around your board to help you feel connection better and to better identify the sequencing of muscle contractions within your stroke. Use it for 10 – 15 minutes then remove it (or remove a tennis ball) and then try to have the same stroke awareness and connection without it. Another easy method of adding some resistance is dragging your leash. I’ll discuss the use of resistance when paddling in detail in a future blog post.

Introduction to Dry-land Fitness Work

The truth of the matter is if you’ve been on an intelligent program throughout the competitive season you will have been doing some dry-land fitness work all along. However dry-land cardiovascular work in the competitive season generally consists of lower level, recovery type runs rather than the longer workouts dedicated to developing a general aerobic base that you do in the base development and preparatory phases. Similarly strength training in the competitive season usually focuses on maintenance of power and power endurance in short workouts 2 to 3 times a week, rather than the type of training that you want to do in the Specific Base Development Phase.

The purpose of dry-land training in this macrocycle is to prepare for more intensive dry-land training in the next macrocycle. Cardiovascular workouts should mirror water workouts in terms of heart rate training zones. When I was training at the highest level I started with 30-minute runs three times/week and gradually upped the duration of each run over the course of the macrocycle. Certainly fartlek training and long intervals are suitable as well. The main objective of these runs isn’t just to develop general aerobic fitness, but rather to prepare muscles and connective tissue for the load they will need to endure when facing much greater workloads in the next macrocycle, the General Preparatory Phase.

Strength training in this phase should support a similar objective – to prepare the muscles and connective tissue for intense power development work in the coming months. Training should be basic strength, body building style weights focusing on all muscle groups and in the 3-4 sets, 15-repetition range. Mode of contraction should be moderate speed controlled repetitions. I don’t take excessive rest between sets like I might in max strength or max power work and I can usually finish 10 -12 exercises in 45 minutes to an hour.

Putting it all together

Knowing the type of training you should be doing in a particular macrocycle is one thing. Fitting it all together into some kind of coherent plan is another. Here are some guidelines that I use in fitting it all together:

• Training load should build from week to week within each mesocycle and from mesocycle to mesocycle within the macrocycle
• Training load should be reduced in the last week of a 4 week mesocycle or last half week in a 3 week mesocycle to allow for recovery and consolidation of gains made
• Balance is important. I don’t do hard intervals in back-to-back workouts or on back-to-back days. If I do a hard interval on Monday afternoon for example, I might do a technical paddle or easier steady paddle the next day before attempting another hard interval on Wednesday. Similarly if I am doing strength training 3x/week I’ll do it on Monday, Wednesday and Friday or Saturday. I’ll do the dry-land cardiovascular work on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.
• If I am training 2x/day I definitely take one day a week off and usually take a half day off mid week
• I try to get the total work time to the 90-minute range by the end of the cycle. When you are training in this zone for that duration there are changes that occur at the level of the muscle fiber which increase the muscle’s ability to utilize oxygen to produce energy that won’t occur to the same degree if training duration is much shorter
• I make a real effort to paddle with perfect technique all the time, particularly at the end of long workouts when it is tempting to just float back to the beach or dock. I find that if I am disciplined with this I better maintain effective technique and don’t develop bad habits. It’s also easier to affect positive changes to technique if you are only taking good strokes instead of letting your guard down and taking some bad ones at the end of the workout.
• I find time to stretch. Though flexibility has never been one of my strengths and I’ve still had a successful paddling career, I do my best to maintain what flexibility I have for obvious reasons. It is sometimes requires great discipline to spend an extra 15 minutes or so stretching after you’ve just finished a hard 90 minute paddle, but it is well worth it in the long run as a means to maintain flexibility and avoid injury.

Injuries

If you build up training load systematically the risk of injury in this phase is small. In fact the main objective of the dry-land components of this phase are to prepare the body for the following training phases in order to reduce the risk of injury in them. It is more likely you will have a nagging injury carried over from the competitive season than develop one in this phase . It is imperative that you use the first mesocycle (active rest) of this phase to aggressively address such injuries. You can get a real leg up on rehab during that rest cycle which means you can train more freely and effectively for the rest of the training phase.

Suggested Training Load for Novice, Intermediate and Advanced Trainers

These are just guidelines. Remember it is up to each individual to determine how often they want to train. Such a decision should take into account your goals and life factors like family, career, etc.

In general, I think that a novice trainer should be able to paddle at least 4x/week during this phase. They should be able to run a couple of times a week and do their strength training a couple of times per week a well. That’s 8 training sessions if done separately which suddenly seems like a lot. I frequently doubled up training sessions in this phase, for example I would go for a paddle and then do weights or a run, or I’d do a dry-land combination of weights and run.

Intermediate trainers should probably be able to fit in another paddle or two per week and another of either a run or strength training session. Again I’d recommend doubling up a dry-land training component a couple of times per week.

Advanced trainers should be paddling more – up to 7 to 10 times per week and should do 3 full runs and strength training sessions per week. This pretty much represents what I was doing when I was a full time training athlete. Dry-land components can be done before or after paddles in double training sessions in order to avoid doing 16 separate training sessions a week which would necessitate training 3x/day on certain days.

Testing

While I believe testing is an important part of monitoring training and should be included in a periodized year plan, the Specific Base Development Phase should be relatively “test light”. I would start with some testing at the beginning of this macrocycle and then would not start testing again until mid way through the cycle with a timed paddle every couple of weeks. I’d do a 5km course on calm water every 2 to 3 weeks and track time. Starting in the middle of this phase you should be able to get three of these time controls completed. 

In terms of dry-land fitness I would not test again in this cycle after the initial tests as general fitness isn’t the main focus. However testing at the beginning of the phase allows you to see what your general fitness level was like in the competitive phase.  The reason I'd wait till the beginning of the Specific Base Development Phase to get get this data is that I'd rather not test late in the Competitive Phase and risk injury or stiff muscles before the season's biggest, most important race.   I would test again at the beginning of next macrccycle (the General Preparatory Phase) and test regularly from that point on to track fitness development over the rest of the year.                                               

                                                                                *

Hopefully this series of blog posts on Training for SUP will help you develop your own peridiozed yearlong training plan, and this installment of the series will help you get your year plan off to a great start with a solid and effective Specific Base Development Phase of training. Good luck, train hard and have fun!

Easy Rider SUP Race and Surf Contest

As appears on Distressed Mullet (www.distressedmullet.com) -click here

Until this past weekend I had never been to Edmonton, Alberta. If you asked me last week what my impressions of Edmonton were I’d have mentioned hockey, cold winters and then would have struggled to come up with anything else.

In the 1980’s Edmonton was the epicenter of professional hockey as Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier were leading the Oilers to 4 Stanley Cups in 5 years. They won another post Gretzky in 1990. More recently they’ve struggled, despite consistently drafting the best young talent in the game. It doesn’t matter. Having grown up in the 1980s I still think of the Oilers as a powerhouse. I still think of hockey if you mention Edmonton.

As far as cold winters are concerned, just look at the statistics. Edmonton is way up north. Where I am from just outside of Toronto is positively tropical compared to Edmonton. The average temperature in January is a depressing minus 12 Celcius. The record is in the minus mid 40s. In this part of the country there are actually electrical outlets in parking lots for car block heaters. The idea is that you go into the mall and plug your car in so it will start when you come back out. It certainly isn’t the type of climate I associate with stand up paddling, and SUP doesn’t jump to mind when you mention the place. After my weekend at the 2013 Easy Rider SUP Race and Surf Contest all that has changed.

There is a strong and vibrant SUP community in Edmonton that’s been galvanized by the enthusiasm and stoke of Warren Currie (aka The Easy Rider). Warren owns The Easy Rider, an awesome store that started with snowboards and skateboards and now is big into SUP. He’s got a great river, the North Saskatchewan, to paddle on as well as a few small lakes nearby. He’s got a bunch of enthusiastic riders. He’s also got something that most places don’t have – surf on demand.

I guess I should have also said I knew about the West Edmonton Mall before actually going to Edmonton. Everyone in Canada has heard of it. As malls go it’s hard for me to tell whether it has more retail space than monster malls anywhere else. Suffice to say it is huge. It’s the stuff it has beyond shops and stores that makes it unique – try an indoor rollercoaster and amusement park, a hockey rink, a pirate ship and small aquarium with daily performances from seals and penguins, a hotel and, what makes it important to us – a massive indoor wave pool.

For the last number of years Warren and his crew have been going into the pool a couple of times a month and SUP surfing. They go in early in the morning before the mall opens and have the run of the place. They clearly go on a regular basis because some of these guys can really surf well. Having a facility like this means that when Warren hosts an Easy Rider SUP event he can offer more than just a race on the river. He can also host a surf contest.

I hadn’t planned on going to Edmonton and it was all kind of last minute. Jimmy Terrell called me up a week before and told me he and Dave Kalama were going to be doing a clinic there, do the race and the surf contest. He asked if I wanted to join them and offered to fly me out. I thought about it for a second. Hanging with Jimmy and Dave Kalama for the weekend? Surfing indoors in a giant wave pool? Sounded like bucket list material so I jumped at the offer.

I didn’t have time to ship out a board and West Jet, which I was flying, has a 3m limit on surf boards as baggage so I couldn’t even fly with a 12’6” board. Fortunately Warren was able to set me up with something for the race and, even though it wasn’t a Bark/Surftech board and was a 30” touring board and not a race board, everything was cool. I was stoked to go.

I got there in time to see the end of Jimmy and Dave’s clinic. I’ve run clinics with Jimmy before and we’ve trained with and raced against each other for years so I knew what to expect there, but I was really excited to hear what Dave had to say. I want to do a Kalama Kamp at some point. I’d learn a ton. The guy is a legend and I like his laid back, unassuming manner and ability to communicate his vast expanse of knowledge. I’m sure the people taking the clinic got a ton of useful information out of it, and it was cool to see people successfully applying things they’d learned in the Friday clinic in the race on Saturday.

The weather for the weekend was awesome – hot, humid and for the most part brilliantly sunny. The race was a downriver event just over 15 km in total and Warren had shuttles organized for both paddlers and boards. Proving that the SUP community there is vibrant were close to 100 participants, divided pretty much evenly between the elite race and a shorter, less competitive “tour”.

The river is cool. It’s big, wide and pretty fast moving. We finished the race in just over 1hr, 10min, which is the pace you’d expect from a fast downwinder. The river has scoured a pretty sizeable valley into the prairie so if you were taking time to look around it was actually pretty scenic. Unfortunately, given the board I was on and the quality of the field, I wasn’t doing much sightseeing while racing. Mike Darbyshire from Vancouver got out into an early lead and we had to chase him down. I did most of the work to do that with Jimmy perched on my draft. Once we caught up we drafted Mike for a good while before Jimmy took the lead. After Jimmy’s lead the three of us traded leads and then it all came down to a crucial point on the river where each of the three of us made a choice as to which line we were going to take to get the most benefit from the current. Jimmy applied his experience racing marathon canoes on rivers and sniffed out the best line and strongest current. I shouldn’t have doubted him and gone with him. Mike went to the far left and I thought the middle would be a great compromise as usually the middle of the river is the fastest. Jimmy came out of that section with at least a 50m lead with less than 2km to go.

I went nuts to try to catch up and am stoked that I really closed the gap but in the end Jimmy finished 7 seconds ahead with Mike a couple of seconds behind me. Doesn’t really matter. I had a blast. It was fun to paddle on a winding river in that current. It was fun to race against some new guys. It was fun to turn a corner on the river and see the almost 50 paddlers doing the tour on the water just ahead of us and then pass through them. It was even fun paddling and racing on a different board. Silvia Mecucci, all the way from Italy, won the women’s race and came off the water with a big smile on her face as well.

At the finish line there was really cool camaraderie as the early finishers all helped the later finishers get their boards up the steep river bank and loaded back into the shuttle vans. I loved the whole vibe. We hopped in the shuttle bus and went back to the park at the midway point where we met in the morning for registration for a great barbeque; the awards and a ridiculously large amount of real quality draw prizes.

Day one ended at a local bar beside the Easy Rider shop with some good food and the screening of a couple of really cool SUP movies. As SUPing days go this had been a really good one. The cool thing was there was another cool day in store.

We had to get an early start on Sunday for the surf contest. The mall opens at 10:00 a.m. By 10:15 the wave pool would be full of kids bobbing around in the surf like Cheerios in a cereal bowl. We got in a 6:00 a.m. and quickly set up the boards and got the contest started. We needed to be done by 9:30.

The competition was divided into a Pro heat featuring Dave and Dave (Kalama and Boehne), Mike Darbyshire and Warren (because it was his event!), a bunch of men’s heats, a couple of women’s heats and a kids’ heat. Basically 4 to a heat and 8 minutes for each heat to do their thing. Waves in the pool are generated in sets of 4 every 45 seconds or so, with each wave in the set getting bigger. I’d say the big waves were about waist high.

I’m happy to say I made the second round and caught every wave I went for. Beyond that let’s just say I have some work to do to catch up to the Daves. It was really cool seeing Dave Boehne nose riding and Dave Kalama doing fin-first take offs, making his board do full 360s and taking off with his paddle upside down. I guess the maintenance staff there didn’t have a stepladder available for him to play with. Obviously everyone had a blast and once again Warren had cool awards for the winners and more great draw prizes which went till everyone had won something.

I can’t say enough about the enthusiasm Warren brings to the sport. I guess I should also credit his wife Angela who was there every step of the way helping out and spent the morning of her wedding anniversary handing out and collecting wet numbered rash guards to the surfers in each heat. What they are creating in Edmonton really is outstanding, and certainly for me it’s given me a whole new appreciation for the place. It’s a Canadian SUP mecca and I can’t wait to go back!

If you love unique SUP experiences and sharing stoke with others than this is an event you’ll want to get to sometime. The race was fun and challenging. The surfing indoors was surreal. I can only imagine what it must be like to surf there in the winter and then step outside into arctic conditions. It must be crazy. Warren and his crew of volunteers take care of all the little things that make a competition fun and memorable. And Edmonton in the summer is actually beautiful. The Easy Rider SUP Race and Surf Contest is definitely something I’m going to be heading back to, hopefully with a bunch of friends in tow.

Canada Cup of SUP, August 17, 2013

This was a great event hosted by Surf Ontario and 404 which drew about 60 competitors in only it’s second year.  Significantly, it drew Danny Ching, who made the trip to support the event, run a clinic and promote his 404 brand.   The event was run entirely off the sandy beach at Frenchman’s Bay in Pickering. 

Last year’s inaugural event was a big success and consisted of a buoy race that everyone, from novice to elite participated in together.  This year, race organizers Mike Sandusky and Doug Tutty, put together a two-stage event with a short 5km open water distance race and then a BOP style buoy race.  There was about an hour in between the finish of the distance race and the start of the BOP style race and in that time they ran rec and kids races on the buoyed course.
 
The weather turned out to be awesome - perfect sunny and warm conditions with a light onshore wind out of the southeast.  The wind wasn’t enough to kick up any sizeable waves for either race, but there were small bumps to use to gain speed in the downwind sections.

The distance race started at 9:00 a.m. with a beach start.  Paddlers had to go about 300m to a buoy off shore before doing a 90-degree right shoulder turn and heading west.  Then it was just a simple matter of following the shore just over 2 km to the turn around an anchored motorboat and then heading back.  You weren’t required to go around the buoy on the way in and could just head towards the beach and the finish line a short run up the sand.
 
Let me make it very clear that anytime I have a change to race against Danny Ching I get excited.  Actually it’s more than that, I feel privileged.  There aren’t many sports where you can line up on the start beside the very best athletes in the world unless you are one of them yourself.  This is one of the things that make SUP racing so awesome.   Furthermore, in this part of the world though we occasionally get the odd high-level SUP paddler here to race, none have been at the level of Danny. When you consider that there are only a handful of paddlers in the world at his level it really is a privilege when he shows up at your local event to race.

The start for the distance race was good for me.  I don’t think Danny made an effort to kill it on his start, and I understand that he probably entered this race cautious about the shoulder injury that caused him to drop out of the M2O race at the end of July.  We got around the turn buoy together and headed west steadily pulling away from the group behind us.  There was a light tailwind with tiny bumps to use for a little extra speed, but basically it was just steady paddling.  We had a nice conversation on the way to the turn, around the turn and for most of the way back.  Danny even dropped back and rode my wash for a good portion of the return leg. 

I knew he’d inevitably make a move and when he made it, it was emphatic.  He has a high-end gear that I have rarely seen from people I’ve paddled with in SUP, and I had to work to get his draft without letting him get away from me.  Once I was on, it wasn’t too hard to stay there, but I made a tactical mistake as we approached the finish.  Since we weren’t required to round the buoy and head straight into shore we could slowly angle into shore.  Danny slowly headed into shallower and shallower water.  I actually started to hit bottom with my paddle, which didn’t surprise me, as I know I sink the blade a little deeper than most paddlers.  So I decided to come off his draft to the right and angle out a bit to get deeper water.  I hammered and caught up a little but any move I was making to pass him quickly stalled and we basically maintained our separation.  The problem was I was now further from the finish on the beach because I had angled out.  I had to cut back in behind him and angle more sharply to the finish area on the beach.  By the time I’d hopped off my board and ran across the finish line he had beaten me by 7 seconds.
 
Danny and I laughed about the mistake I’d made and he said as he angled closer and closer to shore he kept waiting for me to go right into shore, jump off my board and try to pass him running on the beach.  I’ll remember that and consider trying it next time, but for me I was quite satisfied with the result as it was.  I know Danny didn’t exactly empty the tank in that race.  I’m certain he was paddling cautious and being careful not to over stress his shoulder.  However I’m also convinced that at some point in the race he realized his shoulder wasn’t so bad and he could take it up to high gear.  I’m just stoked that I was able to travel with him in that gear better than a year ago.

The guys coming in behind Danny and me were really competitive and it shows that there are a lot of good paddlers in this area.  Rich Phelan had a great race to come 3rd, Brent Schmidt from Ottawa was 4th and Chris Stringer 5th.  Chrissy Wessman was the top girl.

Immediately after the race I started working on a bottle of Recoverite and sat back to enjoy the kids race.  It was really cool to see the kids of so many of the racers competing.  Both Chris Stringer’s and Andy Skeoch’s kids paddled really well.  Looks like there will be lots of good company out on the water to paddle with well into my 60s!

The BOP style race was up next.  About 300m out to the first buoy, a left shoulder turn to a buoy another 400m or so away and a right shoulder turn around that.  Then straight out into the lake about 300m or so, a right shoulder turn and then a long downwind paddle into the beach for a run around a small chicane and then back out to a buoy on the right.  A left shoulder turn around that and then back to buoy one to repeat the loop.  Two full laps in total then a run up the beach to cross the finish line.

We started knee deep in the water, and for this start I was beside Danny.  I’m pretty certain he didn’t hold back at all on this start.  It honestly caught me off guard how quick he was.  Not just getting on his board and getting his first stroke in but also his sprint speed.  He had a couple of board lengths on me immediately and by the time I really hit my stride he had three full lengths of open water.  I pulled a couple of those back before we hit the first turn, but he took a little distance back on the turn.  After that it was pretty much a case of me more or less matching his speed between buoys and then losing a board length or so every turn.  My left shoulder turns aren’t bad and I don’t give up a ton of distance, but my right shoulder turns are very weak compared to his.  It was actually a real treat to paddle behind him and get to watch his foot and paddle work on each turn.  So incredibly precise and effective.  No tension or extra effort to maintain balance.  Just completely fluid and relaxed movements that get his board around a buoy in not much more than a second.  For me it probably takes double that on a left shoulder turn and at least triple that on a right shoulder turn.  I’m better at these turns than I have ever been but it is clear after a race like this that there is a lot of work left to do.

Danny came into the beach 23 seconds ahead of me and Rich, who hung right on the back of my board for all but the last straight away to the beach came 3rd, ten seconds behind me.  Rich’s result was great and I think he was pretty stoked with his two races.  He’s consistently put together great races at all the local events this year and I’ve paddled with him a lot and seen his skill in big water as well as flats.  Hopefully he’ll start doing some bigger travelling races next year.  He’ll do quite well.

The results for this race were posted really quickly.  Mike and his volunteer team did a really good job of keeping track of all the times over each of the races.  They’re posted - click here.
 The entire event was awesome.  Some tasteful awards rather than tacky trophies or medals and lots of product given away that everyone was stoked to get.   Some post race refreshments right on the beach and everything tidied up by 2:00 p.m. so people had time to do other stuff with the rest of their day.

I’m pretty pleased with my effort here.  I didn’t feel any lingering effects from the two 12 miles races I did last weekend at the Lobster Cup in Maine, and I seem to have good travelling speed.  It was a treat to race Danny.  I’ve said all along at the age of 50  I don’t expect to win against the top guys like Danny, Connor Baxter and Kai Lenny.  They’re awesome.  But I’d love to close the gap to a point where it sort of redefines what anyone ever imagined a 50 year old is capable of.  I’ve still got lots of work to do but appear to be making some significant steps in that direction.

Thanks to the Surf Ontario and the volunteers for their effort, and in particular thanks to Danny for making the trip.  Danny is a fantastic ambassador for this sport.  At virtually every race we’ve both been at I’ve seen him out on the water playing on his board, showing kids tricks and having fun after the race.  He takes time to talk to everyone and share his stoke for the sport with them.  It makes a difference.  People leave these events not only excited that they’ve seen perhaps the best guy in the world do his thing, but thrilled because he took the time to talk to them and maybe give them a few tips.  This small gesture on his part makes these people way more excited about the sport.   As a result, I don’t think there is anyone who has met Danny who isn’t happy to see him have success in the biggest races.

If you’re from Ontario you need to put this event on your calendar for next year.  If you are from somewhere further away, consider making the trip to Toronto for this event.  There is a vibrant SUP community here that will promise you a fun and competitive event.

Lobster SUP Cup 2013

Check out my report on the Lobster SUP Cup weekend on Distressed Mullet(click here)

I’ll restrict my recap here to details about each of the two races rather than about the event in general as you can check that out on the Mullet. I’ll simply say this was one of the most fun weekends I’ve had in SUP in one of the most beautiful locations to paddle on the continent.

The Lobster SUP Cup was supposed to be a downwind weekend, unfortunately Mother Nature had other ideas and both days presented conditions with different challenges, not least those mental ones associated with grinding out a result in a long race without much help in the way of wind or bumps.

Day 1 was almost 19 km on my GPS, taking us from Rockport Harbor into Penobscot Bay, into Camden’s Inner Harbor and then back out into the bay and on to Lincolnville Beach. Winds were blowing 15 mph out of the west with gusts stronger than that. That meant we had a strong tailwind and small bumps coming out of Rockport and then had a left side wind all the way to Camden. Entering Camden Harbor was a strong headwind. Leaving Camden we had a tailwind again and then the rest of the way to Lincolnville was a sort of side tailwind from the left.

The race start was unique – a water start with the countdown coming from someone playing bagpipes. When the piper stopped, there was a 30 second pause, then an air horn signaling go. There were about 40 boards lined up on the start including men and women on boards of all classes. I expected the fastest competitors to be race organizer Thor Emory on a 404 Arrow, former Olympic canoeist Rod McLean on a Bark Dominator, and eastern Canada’s top SUP female, Jessica Rando on a 14’ Starboard All-Star.

I got off the start very cleanly and hammered. I figured if I went as hard as I could go to the turn into the bay it would at the very least represent an excellent simulation of the effort I’ll need to the first buoy at the BOP, less of course the beach start and paddling through the break. It was really cool that about half way out of the harbor I found myself racing a massive motor yacht which was on my left. Knowing it was eventually going to pass me when it neared the harbor entrance, and that I needed to turn left at that point I decided to drop back, drop in behind it and try to hitch a ride for a bit. I was blown away to see it flying a massive Canadian flag off the stern. I hopped on for a brief ride, but would really like to have been able to ride longer. I mean, wouldn’t it be sort of appropriate to hitch an extended ride off my countrymen? Canadians always stick together when abroad. There were small wind generated bumps to use, particularly as we neared the opening into the bay.

At the opening I turned to the left and now had a strong wind blowing directly from the left. The shoreline here wasn’t exactly smooth so it was difficult to follow the shore really closely. As such I spent a lot of time paddling on the right in this leg. Being a right-sided C1 paddler this is not a problem and I tried to really paddle hard in this stretch, hoping to create a large lead to use as a cushion for the second half of the race. Nearing Curtis Island and the entrance into Camden Harbor there were some fast moving swells but it was hard to take advantage of them because as we turned to the left the enter the harbor the strong side wind was becoming a headwind. Furthermore even though the tide was coming in, local conditions created a situation where we were going into a fairly strong tidal current through this stretch. Despite the wind and the current this was a fun section of the race because of all the moored boats we had to weave through. Each paddler had a lot of flexibility as to which path to take through to the turn in the inner harbor.

At the turn buoy in the inner harbor I made a mistake. I turned 180 degrees around the buoy and headed back out the channel I’d entered from. The official boat signaled me with an air horn to come back and go around the buoy again and head out the channel on the other side. There is a lesson here. Listen CAREFULLY to all of the details in the pre race briefing. I know that I occasionally miss details because I am thinking more about the start than about absorbing details. Being in this headspace worked extremely well for me in sprint canoe where every race was basically the same and all you needed to do prerace was sort of focus in on your race plan and your commitment to paddle through a whole lot of pain. In long SUP races, particularly in unfamiliar waters, I’m finding you can’t get away with that approach. You’ve got to pay attention, have a clear head and absorb all the little details so you can be comfortable with where you are on the course at all times and not make mistakes.

After going around the turn buoy again and coming out the right channel towards the outer harbor I found it nice to feel the push of a tailwind at my back again. Exiting the harbor things got even better when I was able to catch some motorboat wake and get a sizeable ride. I continued to follow the same line out into the bay and ended up a considerable distance from shore before I turned the nose of my board to follow the shore up to Lincolnville. It made sense to me get that far off shore. The tide was supposed to be coming into the bay and I’d get more of a push from it further from shore. Unfortunately I wasn’t very happy out there. Within just a couple of minutes I realized the side wind was too strong to make normal paddling possible. Even moving forward on my board didn’t really help. On top of that, the pace my GPS was giving me sucked. I ended up angling sharply towards shore till I found a line where the wind was significantly less. Suddenly I was much happier. There were some more residual bumps from the previous day’s south wind and the wind even felt more tail than side this close to shore. Glancing at my GPS I could see that my pace was back within an acceptable range and was even dropping below 5:50/km regularly.

I’ve commented before on the value of racing with a GPS for pace information. It’s helped me enormously at the last two Carolina Cups and it was turning out to be no different at the Lobster Cup. I think it is actually a necessity in races in tidal water for anyone who is serious about their results. The feedback you get from it regarding your choice of line is essential.

The rest of the paddle to Lincolnville was pretty uneventful and I hit the sand beach with a comfortable margin to spare over Thor who came second. Unlike most races where there isn’t anything to worry about the next day, the first thing I did was get some ice on my elbow. I’ve got some tendonitis (lateral side, left elbow) that is very manageable if I’m smart about it. Within only a couple of minutes of finishing I had a plastic bag full of ice from the water cooler on my elbow. The next thing was some food. A couple of orange slices, a banana and an energy bar, all supplied by the race organizers, and then I mixed a big jug of Recoverite. I think it is good practice to address these things as soon as possible after ANY race, but when you’re doing another 13-mile race the next day it is imperative.

We stashed our boards in Thor’s shop which is across the street from the finish line, then headed to McLaughlin’s Lobster Shack for the post race grinds and the awards. McLaughlin’s was awesome. Very laid back and their portions were extremely generous. I ended up eating 3 ½ lobsters plus all the sides that came with the dinner. Definitely more than I would normally scarf down right after a race, but I couldn’t resist, having not eaten lobster in years.

We had a pretty low-key evening and I got to bed early. Thor was planning on starting the race a little late to see if we could take advantage of a predicted shift in the wind that would provide light downwind conditions so we didn’t have to get started too early, but all the sun and the long drive to Maine had taken as much out of me as the race and I found myself really sleepy and ready for bed before 10 p.m.

Day two broke with similar conditions to day one. Despite our best hopes the wind was the same. We got to Thor’s shop in Lincolnville and then drove up to Belfast to drop our cars and then get shuttled back. By 11:45 Thor was giving the pre-race briefing and by noon we were off.

The start this time was a beach start and much like the day before the first kilometer was downwind to get out of the little bay at Lincolnville. Then we turned left and followed the shore up the coast towards Belfast. For a while the conditions were very light wind with small trailing bumps, but around 8 km and where the coast started to bend to the left towards Belfast the wind shifted to a headwind. The final 10 km or so into Belfast harbor was a grind. There were a few places were you were faced with the choice of going straight and doing a shorter distance but with more wind, or hugging the shore and going further but with less headwind. Each time I opted for shortest distance and more wind. I’m not sure it was the best decision but I had a comfortable lead so I figured I could gamble on it. To be honest the day two paddle was pretty uneventful. It was just one of those efforts where you have to grind it our and keep going – a bit of a mental game. I cruised across the finish line in Belfast in just over 2:07. Not bad for nearly 20 km in those conditions. I sat down on my board, finished whatever water was left in my hydration pack and waited for second place to cross. I was stoked to see it was Rod McLain. We both raced in LA in 1984, me in C1 and Rod in C2. It was fun to be two old farts from ’84 ending up one-two in 2013. Jess Rando won the women’s race for the second day in a row, and taking a page out of Annabel Anderson’s book her combined time for both days placed her third overall beating most of the guys.

The Lobster Cup was an incredibly fun weekend. Maine is beautiful and the waters there are great for paddling. The race was challenging even though the conditions were fairly benign. I could see it being an amazing event with strong downwind conditions, and it could also be an extremely challenging and much less fun race if the conditions got ugly. Definitely a challenge for any racer. Thor has a lot of ideas for making this event even better next year and I honestly believe it can grow to be to the late summer what the Carolina Cup is to late April. Whatever Thor has planned for next year, I am already looking forward to going back! Hopefully many of you will join us there next year as well.

2013 Junior and Under-23 World Sprint Canoe Championships

This past weekend the International Canoe Federation (ICF) held their first combined Junior and Under-23 World Championships for Sprint Canoe-Kayak in Welland, Ontario. With this event just down the road on our local course I had an opportunity to take in a lot of it. It was quite liberating to have no official capacity and enjoy the event solely as a spectator. Here are some of the impressions I’m left with.

Well done, Welland!

Welland is a small town situated midway between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, not far from the Niagara River. It’s the largest town on the Welland Canal that joins the two lakes for shipping. Sometime in the early 1970’s the government spent a ton of money making the canal straighter and bypassing Welland’s town center. This left the community with about 12 km of unused waterway. One section was filled in, and that represents the south end of what is now the new Welland International Flatwater Center.

We’ve used the course for years and it’s been slowly upgraded and hosted a National Championships, however despite its calm, deep and clean water it couldn’t be said that it met international standards until this year. A $10 million upgrade has seen all the latest ICF requirements for a championship venue added, including start gates, wave breakers between the return and racing lanes, finish tower, viewing stands, athletes center with training facilities including a paddling flume, and start towers at 200m, 500m and 1000m. It is world class in every regard.

Having the facility is one thing, but having the expertise to run a major championship is another entirely. Welland pulled it off. They called the event Canoe Niagara and assembled the best staff of experts and volunteers imaginable, including former National Team member Richard Dalton who oversaw the operation from a technical perspective. The result was a wonderfully successful championship, lauded by both the ICF officials and the athletes and coaches from around the world. By all accounts, Welland nailed it. Of particular note was the quality of the volunteer team assembled. Everyone I encountered was knowledgeable and had a smile on their face. I’ve heard that some of the visiting coaches said that the volunteers in Welland were even friendlier than those in Dartmouth, NS during the 2009 ICF World Championships. That’s really saying something. I mean how do you find friendlier Canadians than Nova Scotians, particularly when it concerns paddling?

Well done, Welland! You did an amazing job and the result is that the world is already looking forward to coming back. In the meantime, you’ve created what is the best imaginable training center for our sport. Thank you!

The performance of the athletes I helped coach

Jeremy Stott is a talented 17-year-old canoe paddler who raced in the Junior Men’s C2 1000m with Evan Bezemer from Mississauga. He’s also the son of Kevin Stott, who I raced C2 with as a junior and travelled the world with as a member of the National Team in the 1980s and for dragon boat in the 1990s and early 2000s.

Jeremy is a big talent. He’s been fortunate to work with a number of very good coaches including Scott and Adam Oldershaw and Kyle Jeffrey and he’s taken something from all of us. His technique has developed over the last year to the point where it is excellent. He’s developed his fitness a lot as well, although as you’d expect for a junior paddler it’s all still a work in progress. I’m hoping he’s dreaming of the Olympics one day, and despite the fact that there is a ton of work left to do he is well on his way.

Jeremy and Evan finished 7th in the final. They had a solid race and I like the fact that they went for it early, travelling through most of the first half in contention for 3rd before fading slightly in the third 250m. They certainly left everything on the course and won’t be wondering if there were things they could have done better or differently in their race.

The reality of junior racing at the international level is that there are athletes at all stages of physical development on the water. Both Jeremy and Evan, though remarkably fit for their age, haven’t matured physically to the degree that some of the paddlers they were racing have. While Jeremy and Evan were racing with teenage bodies, some of the crews like the Hungarians and the Russians were racing with much closer to adult bodies. It makes a difference.

Jeremy seemed pretty pleased with their performance, which pleases me. They did all they could and through the heat and final had two of the best races they’ve ever had. What more can you ask for? I’m glad they have the maturity to recognize personal best performances for what they are and be satisfied with them. At the same time, I’m hoping that the experience has left him wanting more. I remember when I came 7th at my first Junior Worlds in 1979 feeling like I’d raced my best but having this gnawing sense that it wasn’t good enough. I wanted to be at the front of the race. It was an important moment in my career as from that moment forward I knew I had to step everything up. That played a big part in fueling my development over the next 5 years and led to two golds at the Junior Worlds in 1981 and ultimately the Olympics in 1984.

Taylor Potts and Maria Halavrezos have had a great year and just getting to the U-23 Worlds meant they had to displace a two-time world champion in C2. It has been loads fun working with them. Their work ethic and readiness to learn has been exceptional. They’ve improved dramatically in a technical sense and that has seen their race performances improve markedly.

In Welland they did a personal best time in the Women’s U-23 C2 500m final and had, in their own words, an amazing first 300m in which they challenged the Hungarians for the lead. They probably paid the price a little for that in the last 200m, and although they didn’t die, they couldn’t stay with the Hungarians who slowly pulled away to win handily. Taylor and Maria ended up bronze medalists behind the Russians who pulled ahead of them in the last 50m to win silver.

Like Jeremy and Evan, Taylor and Maria had a best ever performance and I am thrilled to see them come home with medals. Hopefully the taste they’ve had of the podium here is going to motivate them to do the work required to get there again in the future. It won’t be easy as the women’s canoe events are becoming increasingly competitive.

Hungarian dominance

It’s amazing that a small country of 10 million people can consistently outperform so many larger nations in this sport. I’m not sure if canoe-kayak is the national sport of Hungary, but it ought to be. Their performances at world championships and Olympic games year after year have been remarkable. This championship was no different and made it very clear that there is a new generation of Hungarian superstars in the making, ready to launch onto the Olympic stage in 2016. They finished with an incredible 8 gold, 4 silver and 5 bronze, and it wasn’t just the fact that they won eight races that was amazing, but their total dominance in many of those victories that was most impressive.

Off the top of my head, performances in Junior Men’s C2 1000m, Junior Men’s K2 1000m, Junior Men’s K4 1000m and U-23 Women’s C2 500m were commanding performances with open water margins of victory. I’d like to stress as well that they weren’t winning these races because they were significantly bigger and stronger than the field. On the contrary, these athletes were lean and fit and won with excellent paddling rather than strength and size. The distance these crews were travelling every stroke was unbelievable compared to even the other crews on the podium. Their technical ability was awesome. Whoever is coaching these crews in Hungary is developing athletes that will be awfully hard to beat as seniors because the superior technical foundation that they have will carry them a long way in the future.

The resurgence of Canadian women’s kayak

When I was doing the TV commentary in London last summer I got in a bit of trouble with some people back home for suggesting that the women’s kayak program wasn’t good enough. We hadn’t qualified any crews from the 2011 worlds and weren’t able to qualify any in second chance qualifications during the spring of 2012. We ended up with Emilie Fournel racing K1 200m and 500m in London after she qualified late in the game through what amounted to the back door. At the time I chose my words very carefully and I stand by them today. For a country with a rich tradition in women’s kayak, the results of 2011 and 2012 can hardly be considered satisfactory. I didn’t attempt to speculate where the problem with the women’s discipline lay, I just stated the obvious. Despite the best efforts of the athletes racing, the results weren’t good enough.

I’m happy and excited to say that in 2013 it appears that a new generation of women kayakers is ready to reassert Canada as one of the top nations in the world. The Canadian women kayakers led the way in Welland. Michelle Russell double medalled with a stunning wire-to-wire show of dominance in the U-23 Women’s K1 200m, followed a few hours later with a bronze in the K1 500m. Maddie Schmidt won a bronze in the Junior Women’s K1 200m and finished 6th in the K1 500m. In K2 events, the junior women finished 7th and the U-23 women finished 9th. When you consider that there is a group of comparably fast Canadian girls that didn’t qualify as they sit right between the juniors and the U-23s in terms of age, suddenly the Canadian women’s kayak program looks pretty good moving forward. To be sure, there is an incredible amount of work to do heading towards 2015 and qualification for 2016 in Rio. But at least it appears there is new life and energy in the program that can push the senior girls and give us the capacity to build crews that can contend at the senior level in the future. Well done to these athletes and their coaches!

Some awesome canoe races

As a canoe paddler I have to comment on the canoe events in particular. I think the three most impressive performances to me were in the Junior Men’s C1 1000m, Junior Men’s C2 1000m, and U-23 C1 200m. The level of paddling and the winning times were both exceptional.

In the Junior C1 1000m, Sergei Yemelyanov of Kazakhstan was awesome, crushing the field and going 3:55 in a light side tailwind. The fact that he did it at 50 strokes/minute was truly impressive. He moved his boat an incredible distance every stroke.

In the Junior C2 1000m, the Hungarian crew of Jonaton Hajdu and Kristof Khaut won comfortably and paddled beautifully. This was just over an hour after Khaut won silver behind Yemelyanov in C1 1000m. Hajdu would go on the next day to win gold in the Junior C1 200m.

In the U-23 C1 200m, Andrey Kraytor of Russia turned in a commanding performance, winning by almost a second over Jason McCoombs of Canada. When you consider that the bronze medalist, Alfonso Benavides of Spain was 4th last year in London, the performances of both Kraytor and Jason look even better. I’m thrilled for Jason who raced in London last year and did very well for a 19-year-old Olympic rookie, however missed the final. This result should be a big boost for him moving forward, and he has a chance to race again very soon – at the World Championships in Duisburg, Germany in a few weeks.

Women’s canoe!

Even before the competition started you could tell this was going to be a big week for women’s canoe as the ICF participated in a “Summit” on women’s canoe hosted by Canoe-Kayak Canada.

For those that don’t follow canoeing closely, women do not race canoe at the Olympics. Both men and women race kayak, but only men race canoe. In fact, only since 2009 have women been racing at the world championships, and then only in two events compared to nine for the men.

Canada has seen women racing domestically the longest of any nation, with events for women at our national championships since the early 90s. More recently ICF member nations from around the world have started to embrace women’s canoe and some very good paddlers are being developed in other countries. The problem is that since women’s canoe events are not Olympic, most nations (including Canada), do not fund women canoe athletes nor devote much in the way of coaching resources to their women’s canoe programs. As such, development in women’s canoe events in not occurring at the rate it could be.

One might ask, “Why not just add women’s canoe events to the Olympics?” The answer is that it isn’t that simple. The International Olympic Committee has made it very clear that while they want gender equity in all Olympic sports, they will not permit Olympic sports to either add events or increase their quota of athletes. This means that to add women’s canoe something currently in the Olympic canoe-kayak program must be dropped, and it is difficult for a variety of reasons to find consensus among ICF member nations on how to approach that. In my opinion it is essential that the ICF come up with a plan soon for 2020 on how to address the issues of gender equity and women’s canoe, or the entire sport’s Olympic future may be at risk.

Despite that fact that women’s canoe is currently in Olympic limbo, the performances in Welland were outstanding and have taken these events to an entirely new level. Particularly impressive to me were the Junior Women’s C1 200m which was won by Daryna Kastsuchenka of Belarus. Her performance was outstanding and her technical proficiency the best I have seen from any woman in the world to this point. Right behind her was Angie Avegno of Ecuador. To me this is significant because Ecuador is what I’d call a developing nation in our sport. The fact that they have a medalist already in women’s canoe is fantastic as it shows that these developing nations can quickly make an impact in women’s events. Hopefully more developing nations will follow with fast women canoe paddlers.

In the U-23 Women’s C1 200m, Canada’s perennial world champion Laurence Vincent-Lapointe was given all she could handle by Irina Andreeva of Russia. From the perspective of the growth of the sport, this is great news as Laurence has been able to win pretty easily the last few years.

Of course I have already commented on the Hungarian crew which won the U-23 Women’s C2 500m. Their technical ability was as impressive as that of the Belarus girl’s in the Junior C1. As women from around the world take their performances to increasingly higher levels it becomes harder and harder to deny these athletes a place at the Olympic games. I think the women canoe athletes opened some eyes in Welland, and coupled with the growing interest from around the world in women’s canoe that was demonstrated at the Women’s Canoe Summit, I am hopeful that the ICF will do the right thing and come up with a plan now for including women in the Olympics for 2020.

It was a great four days of racing and, as always, a privilege to see athletes of this level perform live. It reaffirms to me what a beautiful sport, and what an extremely difficult sport, canoe-kayak is. It was awesome for Canadian canoeing to have these championships in our own backyard. All the kids from our club were there to watch and the impact on them cannot be overestimated. Here’s hoping we don’t have to wait long for the next international event at Welland.

The Case for Board Spec Restrictions and against Restricting a Paddler’s Technique

As appears on Distressed Mullet (click here):

I’ve stayed clear of the whole discussion on whether or not there should be restrictions on SUP board specifications to this point.  I still figure I’m new to this sport and I am well aware that I have huge gaps in both knowledge and experience when it comes to many aspects of it (sadly they are the fun ones – downwinding, surfing,etc.). While I am quite comfortable talking about basic technique in flat water which can then be applied to various conditions on the ocean, you aren’t going to see me competing with either Dave Kalama or Jeremy Riggs doing clinics related to ocean stuff any time soon.   When it comes to board design I’m still learning as well.  I have ideas on what might be reasonable in terms of design restrictions, but have been quite content to let others with a richer background in SUP debate it and have just listened instead.   That changed yesterday when I read an article on SUPracer.com by Steve West.

Steve is no doubt and intelligent guy and has a ton of experience on the ocean. Certainly far more than me. He’s even written a book about SUP.  I think we agree on the need to keep SUP as standup paddleboard and not standup canoe or something else.  Interestingly that is what motivated Jimmy Terrell to write his piece about restrictions to board specifications as well.  However Steve and I also have a huge difference of opinion, and I feel so strongly about it I decided it was time to get off the sidelines and “stand up” and be counted on this issue.

For most of you there is one question at issue.  Should there be restrictions to board design specs or not?  Steve, however, raises another issue in the same discussion – should there be restrictions to paddling technique as well in order to keep the SUP we know from changing.  He thinks there should be and I couldn’t disagree more.
 
Lets deal with the issues one at a time.  I agree with those that think there should be some type of restrictions to board design specs.
   
I come from a sprint canoe background.  There have been restrictions to boat specs since long before I started to paddle.   C1, C2, K1, K2, K4 all have restrictions with regards to length, weight, and concave surfaces below the water line.  There used to be width restrictions as well until around 2000 when they were dropped.  Boat manufacturers were making the boats increasingly narrow below the waterline and then achieving the minimum width well above the waterline.  The result was strange looking boats with “horns” sticking up at the widest point just to meet the width restrictions.  The boats looked ridiculous, were difficult to store and transport, and the rule had no effect on the practical width at the waterline.  The International Canoe Federation looked at the situation and correctly decided to get rid of any minimum width restrictions.

Knowing that the equipment being used in a race was all essentially the same meant that I knew I wasn’t going to lose a race because of equipment.  Nobody would.  Even with the width restriction removed the equipment in a race is sufficiently the same to ensure that nobody is going to lose a race because of their boat.  That is a good thing.  It also means that the boats will continue to look similar to the way they do now well into the future.  Thus the nature of sport will basically remain the same.  Canoe-kayak will look similar 20 years from now to the way it does now.  It will evolve to be sure, but the spirit of the sport will remain the same.  This is something that those supporting restrictions to board specs are aiming for – to keep the spirit of the sport intact as it evolves.

Board spec restrictions are also trying to do something else.  Namely keep the sport accessible to new participants.  Currently first time paddlers can take out race boards and still paddle with some sense of stability.  Granted there are some custom race boards that they would find difficult to stay on, but by and large they can use a decent board capably very quickly upon entering the sport.  This means the sport is user friendly and attractive to new participants.  This is one of the reasons the sport is growing so fast.  If boards were allowed to evolve without limits, that would change.  Such a change would be to everyone’s detriment – board and paddle manufacturers, race organizers, and participants.  Even the top-level elite racers would feel the pain, losing their sponsorships as growth in the sport declined.  We all have a vested interest in keeping this sport accessible and attractive to new participants.  We should all be watching the rec races at the events we go to with interest and supporting and encouraging those participants.

But what of fairness?  There are those that are claiming that they are put at a disadvantage because the sport currently favors lighter paddlers.They’d like nothing more that to remove ALL restrictions, particularly those around board length. I disagree with this approach for a few reasons.

To start with, we should be concerned about the majority, not the few heavier paddlers who are upset because lighter, fitter athletes are beating them.  Most paddlers entering the sport are well suited to the board options available.  Having to pay more for longer, more complex and more difficult to store boards is not something that is going to make the sport more attractive to them.

Heavy, incredibly fit athletes in our sport are rare.  I’d suggest to the 250 lbs., chiseled from granite running back who is upset that he is at a disadvantage competing against Connor Baxter on a 14 foot board that he is in the wrong sport or at the very least should adjust his goals and expectations.  By the same logic I’d say the same thing to Connor if he were complaining about not being able to play professional football.  Some sports are better suited to athletes with certain body types.  That’s just fact.  Furthermore, the reality is we already have a board class for individuals like this in our sport.  It’s called unlimited.  Big guys are free to race on these boards already.  However there is no logical reason that we should change the sport, to the detriment of the entry-level paddler, in order to make everyone race unlimited against them.  It just makes no sense.

For the 250 lbs. weekend warrior athlete who isn’t the paragon of fitness, I’d suggest that before trying to legislate everyone else onto different boards to “level the playing field” they first look in the mirror, get out the body fat calipers and make a commitment to change their physique, improving their health in the process.  After all, that is one of the most basic reasons we should all be doing SUP in the first place – it’s an incredibly fun and enjoyable way to get fit and stay in shape.  If they do that, they’ll see an improvement in their performance.  Then, if they’re still not satisfied, they can buy unlimited boards and compete against the 250 lbs. running back.

When I read the arguments against board restrictions of any kind on various forums, I can’t help but conclude that the strongest proponents of eliminating board specs are doing so for selfish and personal reasons.  It is a stretch to suggest they are altruistic and have the best interests of the majority of entry level participants in mind.  I’ll repeat it here.  All of us involved in this sport should be putting the experience of those entry level people near the top of our list of priorities as they are the ones that are fueling the growth of our sport, buying boards and paddles and keeping those that sponsor the elite racers in business.

Board specification restrictions can effectively limit evolution of board design to prevent boards from reaching the point where they are no longer recognizable as paddleboards and are something more akin to racing canoes instead.  Board spec restrictions are easy to apply and enforce.  Before races boards can be inspected – measured and weighed, just like racing canoes and kayaks are.  If the board passes inspection it is legal and can be raced.  If not, the competitor would have to track down another board.  

So what should the board specs be?  The answer is I don’t honestly know.  I kind of like the way it is now with 14’ and unlimited.  I could get rid of 12’6” but get the issue of air travel so don’t know what to suggest there.  I do believe that women should race on the same boards as men.  It seems silly to arbitrarily say they need to race on shorter boards.  In canoe-kayak we certainly don’t make women race in shorter boats.   I think a length restriction is obvious.  A reasonable minimum width would be useful, and when I say reasonable I mean I’d still allow it to go fairly narrow.  A minimum weight would be a useful spec, as well as some type of maximum amount of recess in the tray where the paddler stands.

I’ll let everyone debate the numbers, and leave them with this thought while they do: board spec restrictions are inevitable.  Currently our sport has grown way more quickly on the water than off, but when the off water growth catches up there will be spec limitations.  With SUP taking off in more and more countries it’s inevitable there will be a movement to form some type of International SUP Federation.   Someone will start a campaign to get SUP into the Olympics, or at least have a legitimate world championship recognized by everyone.  Racing rules will need to be drafted and board specs will be one of the first things to be addressed.  It may take another decade but it’s coming, so get ready. 

With regards to restricting paddling technique, check out what Steve West says:
        
                        Ultimately, there should be definitions which limit certain bio-mechanical
                        actions (techniques / styles) employed during execution of the forward stroke –
                        relating to stance in particular.

                        “Where a rider is positioned such that they cannot and do not switch paddling
                        sides and are reliant upon steering strokes and power strokes employed on one side
                        only, combined with a plunge-stroke, exaggerated high-knee, split-stance and radical
                        lowering of the centre of gravity or any combination of these factors, this shall be
                        deemed not to be in keeping with the spirit of the sport.”

His premise is if we tell SUP paddlers that they can’t paddle like a C1 paddler then the boards won’t evolve to become C1s.  I agree that might work, but what a backwards and ineffective way to address the evolution of boards. 

There are two simple restrictions that should concern paddling technique in SUP.  The paddler should be required to stand up and should be required to use a single blade paddle.  Beyond that, paddlers should be pretty free to experiment with technique.  Why?  Because enforcing any rules you come up with about how someone can or can’t paddle is incredibly difficult to the point of impossible.  In fact it is absurd to think you could effectively police technique the way Steve suggests above.

What definition are you going to use for “split-stance”?  Six inches?  One foot?  Two feet?  Suppose you go with 24”.  How are you going to be able to tell that the guy with a 20” split stance is actually 20” and not over 24” when he is out on the water paddling?  Suppose you just say that everyone must use a parallel stance.  What do you do when paddlers start moving their feet around in the ocean on waves?  Their surf stance is a split-stance.  Do you therefore ban both?

A lot of paddlers have discovered how to paddle indefinitely on one side if it suits them, using the very stroke that Steve, in his passage quoted above, says should be banned.  So what do you do?  Tell them they MUST switch sides every 10 strokes?  15 strokes?  20 strokes?  What happens if a guy does 21 strokes once in a race?  Is he disqualified?  Who is counting the strokes?  Who is to say the person counting can in fact count?  What happens in a strong side wind in which virtually everyone has to paddle for an extended period on one side just to go straight?  Do you enforce a 20 stroke rule anyway even if it means people can’t keep their boards straight?  Or do you make an allowance for the wind and say “in a 20 mph or greater side wind the 20 stroke rule does not apply”?  Who is to say how strong the wind really is?  How does the athlete know when they’re breaking the rule or not? 

It is quite ludicrous to try to place such restrictions on technique in order to accomplish something that board restrictions can easily and effectively address.  Imagine the controversy surrounding drafting and multiply it by 1000 and you have what such technique restrictions would get you. 

The reality is a paddler’s technique is an expression of their skill and ability to adapt to both the idiosyncrasies of their board and the nature of the conditions they are paddling in.  The first time people saw Connor Baxter choke down on his paddle it probably blew everyone’s minds.  Now it is recognized as a bit of genius that allows the paddler to find the appropriate gear for the conditions, is widely accepted, and used by thousands of paddlers.  Would Steve have suggested a rule that said you had to have your hand on the top of the paddle, thus preventing this brilliant evolution in technique?   I rest my case.

We are participating in this amazing, incredibly fun and ridiculously addictive sport.  Thankfully it is growing like crazy and hopefully that growth continues well into the future.  We all win, no mater what niche we occupy, when the sport grows.  Like any growing and evolving thing our sport is going to change over time.  If we want to keep it similar to what we have now we’ll have to make some rules that control the evolution.  I think I’ve made a good case for creating a reasonable set of specifications that define various board classes.  I just don’t know exactly what those specs should be and am interested in both watching where it goes and participating in the conversation.   As for paddling technique it is clear – our sport is STAND UP paddling, so participants must be required to stand and use a single blade paddle.  Beyond that, I’m looking forward to seeing where our sports top athletes can take this sport technically given the freedom to do so.

Some Useful Technique Drills for SUP

People don’t paddle well by accident. Good, efficient technique is the result of repetition of meticulously executed body movements over thousands of hours. Whether you are just learning to paddle or trying to improve established technique, one of the most useful things you can do is perform intelligently designed technical drills which focus on various components of the stroke.

When I was competing internationally in sprint canoe I did drills regularly. Over the last few summers I have had the privilege of watching Mark Oldershaw, 2012 Olympic Bronze medalist in C1 1000m, train daily. Despite already having excellent technique, he does drills almost every single day in his warm up. Experienced paddlers with excellent technique still do drills to try to develop even greater stroke efficiency or at the very least consolidate their technique so that it maintains when they get tired in races.

You can come up with drills to address almost anything in the SUP stroke, although there are certain parts of the stroke that lend themselves better to drills than others. The catch and the exit both lend themselves very well to simple drills and can be improved enormously and relatively quickly using a few simple drills in particular. These are the ones I’ll share here and provide video of as well, including this clip on Improving Technique with Drills (click here)


     The Catch

     Having done a fair amount of video analysis in clinics, one thing has become very obvious to me
      –  most people need work on their catch. At a recent clinic I did with Jimmy Terrell and Jamie
     Mitchell in North Carolina, it wasn’t just the participants that had shortcomings in their catch
     exposed on video. Jimmy, Jamie and I all saw things in our own catch that we didn’t like. If
     some of the best paddlers around can identify things in their stroke that can be improved by
     doing drills then imagine what drills might be able to do for everybody else.

     The biggest problems that seem to arise in the catch are:

• Air catching – pulling the paddle back from the point of maximum reach before it contacts the water
• Missing connection – pulling the paddle back without first having gathered water behind a fully buried and secured blade

     Remember the number one premise of paddling is that you pull yourself by the paddle. If you
     can’t effectively secure your blade you won’t pull yourself very far each stroke. Furthermore,
     other problems often arise in the pull phase of the stroke as a result of a poorly executed catch so
     it is extremely important to get it right.

     Here are some drills to help you improve and consolidate your catch:

1. Entry Drill
   
   The paddle should be moving forward at the entry so that the blade tip is actually spearing forward into the water. One of the most common reasons paddlers fail to do this is that they over reach in the set up.
   
   The set up is a stage you quickly pass through at the end of the recovery as you are preparing to catch. (For a fuller description see the SUP page on my web site). Rotation in this stage of the stroke should be comfortable and relaxed. Do not try to overreach in the set up.
   
   In this drill you should start with comfortable, relaxed forward rotation of your paddling side shoulder and hip in the set up (A-frame) position. Your blade should be anywhere from 6 inches to one foot off the surface of the water.
   
   In order to ensure that your paddle blade is moving forward into the water as you contact the water you need to extend from the set up position by rotating forward with your paddling side hip and shoulder as you drop your paddle blade to the water. Thinking about your top shoulder rotating back as you drop can facilitate the shoulder rotation. Your legs should move also, with the paddling side leg bending slightly at the knee while your inside leg (leg away from the paddle) should straighten slightly. The tip of your paddle blade should move forward as your blade drops to the water and the blade should sort of spear into the water. You should watch carefully to see if that is in fact the case when you perform the drill.
   
   Once you have the tip entering the water you should stop and come back to the set up position. Imagine yourself “rewinding” into the set up by moving exactly opposite to what you did to contact the water rather than taking the rest of the stroke to return to the set up position. Repeat this process 10 to 20 times before stopping, resting and refocusing. You’ll find it useful to do some normal paddling between sets of the drill, where you don’t over think technique and just focus on flowing movements. You’ll more quickly incorporate the refinement in the element of technique you’ve been working on into your normal stroke while at the same time be better prepared to get the most out of the next set of the drill that you perform.
   
   Check out the video for the Entry Drill (click here)
   
   Doing this drill regularly should help you get a cleaner, more effective entry with less air catching, and this is essential for properly securing the blade in the water.
   
   
2. “Gathering” Drill
   
   If you can think of a better name for this drill please let me know as I’m not really happy with this one, but I love the drill itself. It is extremely effective for helping you bury the blade as early as possible in your stroke, which in turn is essential for a well connected/secured blade at the catch.
   
   In this drill start with the paddle tip where you were putting it in the Entry Drill. Try to get the blade buried in the same spot but be careful to do this by dropping your paddling side shoulder rather than by hinging or bending at the waist. Don’t try to pull a stroke. Just get the blade buried as close as possible to the point where the blade tip contacted the water and then remove the blade and repeat the process.
   
   Because you are working at ‘placing’ the blade into the water you aren’t really going to feel any connection yet. We’ll save that for the next drill. The idea here is to discover what you need to do in terms of rotation from both shoulders and your hips to get to the position where your blade can be buried as close to it’s point of entry as possible.
   
   Most people, when they are paddling, have far too much blade travel towards their body from the point of the tip entering the water to the point where the blade is fully buried. This compromises their ability to gather water behind their blade, which in turn compromises their ability to find connection to work their paddle blade against. Repeating sets of 10 to 20 repetitions of this drill will help teach you to get your blade buried quickly and close to the point of entry.
   
   Check out the video for the Gathering Drill (click here)
    
3. Catch Drill
   
   The catch drill is where you now get a chance to feel load against your paddle! Start with the blade fully buried where you had it in the Gathering Drill. What you want to do now is engage the largest, most heavily muscled joint in the body in a dynamic fashion to simulate what you’ll be doing when catching the water during your paddling stroke.
   
   If you haven’t already guessed it, the hips are the joint we’re talking about in this case. What you want to do is maintain paddle angle by maintaining your upper body (shoulder rotation). You’re going to create load against your buried blade by torqueing your paddling side hip back to initiate connection. You’re going to have to have some good downward pressure on the paddle with your top hand to stabilize the paddle while your hips torque, but you want to make sure you aren’t punching your top hand or top shoulder forward. I’ll repeat it. You want to be saving your positive paddle angle as long as possible so you want to maintain your shoulder rotation while torqueing your hips. If you de-rotated your shoulders while doing this drill you’d quickly see that you were losing paddle angle.
   
   So here’s how the drill works:
   
      -  Start with your blade buried where it was in the Gathering Drill
   
      -  Save paddle angle and shoulder rotation while torqueing your paddling side hips back. This
         will create connection of the paddle blade against the water which you’ll feel in the fingers
         of your bottom hand, up your straightened paddling side arm and into your paddling side
         lat.
   
      -  You should also feel downward pressure of the your top hand directed down the paddle
          shaft. This stabilizes the paddle blade in the water so that your hips can create full
          connection.
   
      -  Once your paddling side hip has fired and your hips are now opened towards the paddling
          side you should stop. This will result in the blade travelling no more than 12 to 18 inches
          maximum.
   
      -  This is the tricky part that most people have difficulty with – rewind the blade through the
         water until it’s back to where you started the drill from. Imagine watching video of yourself
         executing this drill. Once you’ve run it forward, hit pause and then rewind and watch your
         body execute the motion in exact reverse. Obviously to do this you are going to have to
         rewind your body through the exact movement path, in reverse, that you’ve executed so far.
         Why do this? Interestingly, your body learns movement patterns in both directions. By
         ‘rewinding’ you get double the learning of what you’re trying to achieve here.
   
     -   Repeat this drill for 10 to 20 repetitions before resting and refocusing
   
   Here are a few troubleshooting tips for this drill:
   
     -  Try to keep the blade as quiet as possible while doing this drill. If the blade is noisy, with
         water splashing and swirling around your blade then your blade is not fully buried. Fully
         buried blades are quiet and better connected.
   
     -  As you are torqueing back with your paddling side hip, your inside or opposite hip will
        move forward. This movement is going to change the positions of your legs. Your paddling
        side leg is going to straighten as you do this and your inside leg is going to bend more. Look
        for your inside knee to actually bend and drive forward a little towards the nose of your
        board. This is a sign that you’re doing this drill correctly.
   
     -  Make sure you maintain blade angle by not punching your top shoulder forward. Also make
        sure you keep your top arm at the same angle throughout the drill. The strongest and most
        effective angle is about 10 degrees. If you are changing that angle throughout the drill you’ll
        be setting yourself up to lose paddle angle and also overload your triceps, which are
        comparatively small muscles and will tire very quickly when you actually start paddling.
   
   Check out the video for the Catch Drill (click here)
   
   Now you are ready to actually start paddling and moving the board forward for the next couple of technique exercises.
   
   
4. Catch Paddling
   
   For this exercise it is important that you are able to do drills 1 through 3 properly. What you’re going to do now is actually paddle, however your stroke is going to be exaggerated so that it really doesn’t look anything like your normal stroke.
   
   The idea of this exercise is to move the board well by using the catch effectively. What I like to do is use a reference point on the board to tell me where I should be finishing the stroke. I pick a point well in advance of where I normally exit. On my board I can use the “BARK” logo. I try to finish my stroke and complete my exit before the K on the right and B on the left. If your board doesn’t have something you can use as a reference point simply placing a small piece of electrical tape on the deck of the board near the rail will work well. It should be about 2 ½ feet in front of where you stand.
   
   When I am doing this drill I try to generate as much impulse moving the board forward as possible by simply 1) securing the blade in front of me, 2) stabilizing the blade with good top arm pressure directed down the shaft of the paddle, and 3) forcefully rotating my paddling side hips back against the loaded blade as we did in the catch drill. Once I’ve done that I think about exiting the blade from the water. I make no effort to perform the back half of my stroke correctly. I just want the blade out of the water by the time it reaches my reference point. This results in the stroke being no more that 12 to 18 inches long, but if you do it properly it is surprising how much speed you can get by just using the catch.
   
   As you are actually paddling now and moving the board forward you’ll need to check that you are saving your paddle angle. Pay particular attention to whether or not you are punching forward with your top shoulder or changing the angle of your top arm at the elbow through your stroke. As explained in the troubleshooting section for the Catch Drill, you should keep your top shoulder from punching and maintain a constant top arm angle of about 10 degrees.
   
   Check out the video for Catch Paddling/Applying the Catch Drill (click here)
   
   Do this drill for a minute, rest a minute or two and then repeat on each side.
   
   
   
   The Pull
   
   
5. Loading Drill
   
   Now that you’ve done drills 1 through 4 you’ve pretty much exhausted what you can do drill wise for your catch. You’re ready to start thinking about what comes after the catch.
   
   Once your blade is secured in the water and you have dynamically engaged your hips into the pull, you’ll want to add more of your body weight to the paddle through the pull phase. It is important that you do this with a positive blade angle and continue to feel water held against your blade. If you are losing your angle too quickly and losing the feeling of the paddle tugging on the fingers of your paddling side hand then you are losing connection with the water and reducing the distance you’ll be able to pull the board past the paddle in your stroke.
   
   Start by trying to execute the catch properly but don’t try to exaggerate it at all as you’ve done in any of the drills so far. You want to be exaggerating the load in the middle of the stroke here and it is really only a good idea to exaggerate one thing at a time in drills.
   
   Once you’ve got your blade buried and secured in the water and have rotated your paddling side hip back in your catch, you’ll need to think about sinking your paddle blade even deeper into the water. You should end up burying about 6 inches or more of shaft above the blade in this drill, and you’ll want to think about burying it by getting more of your body weight out of the board and over the paddle. I like to think of myself as ‘climbing on top of the paddle’ in this drill, and if you do it right you should feel the board lighten and rise in the water as it continues to accelerate after the catch. I’ll repeat that last part because it is important: you should feel the board lighten and rise in the water as it continues to accelerate after the catch.
   
   Don’t worry about the exit in this drill. If you pull the blade through too far or are a little late beginning your exit it doesn’t matter. Remember you are trying to exaggerate the load of weight on the blade during the pull and the fact that it is an exaggeration may make the rest of the stroke feel a little off. Don’t worry, just go with it. You can worry about working on your exit later.
   
   Try to save your paddle angle by continuing to direct pressure from your top hand down the paddle shaft rather than punching it forward. You’re actually not trying to push the paddle deeper into the water with your top hand. That is coming from your body weight and by dropping your paddling side shoulder. But that downward top hand pressure is important to stabilize the blade and allow you to maximize connection. As you continue to pull your board closer to the planted paddle it will appear as though you’ve pulled the paddle closer to your body. As you do this you want to make sure you are slowly losing your paddle angle and eventually it will be nearly vertical. At this point you can think about beginning to unload the body weight you’ve been putting on the blade, but don’t try to unload it all at once. While maintaining top hand pressure just gradually reduce the body weight on the paddle and bring it back into the board, letting the blade rise a little shallower in the water. You’ll need to feel as smooth and fluid a loading and unloading of body weight onto the paddle through the entire stroke as possible.
   
   One of the things I find useful in this drill is to think of my entire paddling side hanging over the water with my top shoulder stacked above it. The blade must be vertical throughout this drill when viewed from directly in front or behind. Another is to bend my legs more as I am continuing to increase the load on the paddle. I feel like my whole body is getting a little lower on the board. When I begin to unload my body weight from the blade my legs begin to straighten and I feel like I am standing a little higher on the board.
   
   Check out the video for the Loading Drill/Middle of the Stroke (click here)
   
   Do this for one minute and then take a couple of minutes rest before doing it again. Repeat it three or four times each side and then move on to something else.
   
   
   
   The Exit
   
   
6. Exit Drill
   
   The exit represents about 10 percent or less of what is moving your board through the water so it’s important to get the other parts of your stroke dialed in first. Paddlers who can use the exit to drive their board forward definitely have an advantage over those who don’t, but the really significant advantage they have is over paddlers who actually drag their paddle and actually slow the board down.
   
   In this drill, since you are exaggerating the exit, you need to sort of forget about getting a long stroke in front. Just get the blade in the water with a casual reach and get it buried. Torque your paddling side hip naturally (without exaggerating it) against the loaded paddle so your hips are open to the paddling side and get a little body weight on the paddle, but nothing exaggerated. As your blade approaches vertical you need to think about doing a few things;
   
   1) Turing your paddling side hip back forward (ie towards the paddle)
   2) Straightening your legs a little as you unload body weight from the blade.
   3) Maintaining your top hand pressure down the shaft of the paddle
   4) Not dragging your paddle but not exiting early either. Make sure your hip movement initiates the exit and don’t exit before bringing your paddling side hip forward
   
   Exaggerate both of the movement of the hips and the legs and make sure the blade is still in the water when you initiate their movement. What you should feel is that you are almost pushing yourself by the paddle at the back of the stroke and you should see the board accelerate at the exit and carry more speed between strokes.
   
   Check out the video for the Exit Drill (click here)
   
   Do this drill for one minute and then rest for a minute or two before repeating.
   
   
   
   The Recovery
   
   
7. Tippy Toe Drill
   
   This is a drill I do to help put my body into position to get effective body weight on the blade at the catch. It is done during the recovery phase of the stroke.
   
   To do this drill you’ll need to build on what you did in the exit drill. In the exit you’ve unloaded body weight from the blade, rotated your paddling side hip forward towards the paddle and straightened your legs as you exited. You’ll want to flow from that right into getting forward with your body weight in one smooth, fluid motion in the recovery. You should imagine trying to actually get forward right from your feet. To do this you need to feel the weight on your heels decreasing and more of your body weight transferring to your toes as you move through the recovery towards the next set up and catch.
   
   If you do this drill right you’ll feel that just at the moment it feels like you are about to lose your balance and fall forward on the board, your blade will contact the water at the catch, find support and you’ll recover your balance.
   
   Do this drill for one minute of paddling and then rest for a minute or two before repeating.
   
   
   A Few Notes About Drills
   
   Performing select drills regularly is essential if you are going to maintain and develop effective technique. I did a ton of them in my sprint canoe days and continue to do some type of drill for at least a short period of time every day on my board. The top canoe athletes I see training everyday are doing drills regularly. They make a difference.
   
   Drills are exaggerations. It should not feel like normal paddling when you do your drills. Remember you are working on one element of your stroke. Forget the rest of the stroke and maximize the learning you can do with regards to the element you are working on. The biggest mistake I see kids in canoeing do when doing drills is, quite simply, not doing the drill! They are afraid to exaggerate motions in drills because if feels weird. I’ll drive by in the motorboat and won’t be able to tell what they are working on. It should be obvious to anyone watching what the focus of your drill is. That is how exaggerated they need to be to be effective. Do your drills in flat water. It is next to impossible to learn good technique in big water.
   
   Do your drills and learn your technique in the flats. Then go out in the big water and learn how to apply your solid technique in waves. It is easy to make appropriate adjustments to good technique in waves. It is nearly impossible to learn good technique there.
   
   Be patient and methodical. Don’t worry about going fast when doing your drills.
   
   Don’t over do them. Understand that there is a window in each training session to do this type of work. It varies from one person to another but in general I wouldn’t do them for more than 30 minutes total. When you start to feel that you aren’t getting the control you want over your execution of the drill it is time to stop. I’d also suggest doing drills for no more than one minute at a time before taking a break. Doing some normal, easy paddling between each repetition of a drill is a good idea. Use that time to relax and refocus so that the next repetition can have maximal effectiveness.
   
   Check out the video about achieving maximal results (click here)
   
   Feel free to ask me any questions about these drills and feel free to make up your own drills that work for you.
   
   Have fun!