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!

Midwest Standup Paddle Festival – 2013

I would have missed this event had I not agreed to run a clinic for Jimmy and Quickblade paddles and, as it turns out; it was a great decision to attend. It was a really fun event and a very enjoyable weekend. I’ve written up a report on the event for Distressed Mullet which you can find here: (click here), so I won’t bother to go over all the details of the weekend in this blog entry. Instead I’ll talk a bit more about the race itself.

Lake Mendota isn’t a huge lake by any means.  For someone who does most of his paddling on the Great Lakes it feels kind of confining.  For someone coming from the ocean it must feel like a swimming pool, but the fact is it isn’t really that small.  It’s probably 5 miles across one way and 7 the other.  It’s certainly sizeable enough to get some decent wind chop and attract lots of motorboats.  The result?  Lots of chop and bumps to either use, or wallow in, depending on your skill.

Race morning dawned with a 15 mph wind running up the course from the start line to the first turn.   This wind was churning up small wind waves about a foot to 18 inches tall that were certainly usable and made for a  little downwind component to the race.  The course itself was 6 miles long, consisting of 3 two mile laps of a sort of ‘M” shaped course.  There were three right shoulder turns and one left shoulder turn each lap and two straight away sections (one upwind and one downwind) just over one kilometer long. Approximately 50 racers were on the line for the 8:30 a.m. on water start.  The field was mostly racers from the Midwest with the notable addition of John Becker (racing 14’ over 50) and Brian Szymanski on one of his latest 12’6” Starboard prototypes.  Unfortunately Dan Gavere had to bail on the race a few days before and his absence was notable.

I got a good start and immediately caught a couple of waves which helped me have a good lead by the first turn which was approximately 300m downwind.  Turn two was another 300m upwind away and sort of level with the start/finish line and represented the bottom of the middle part of the ‘M”.   Turn 3 was back up wind and another 300m away and level with turn 1.  Then there was a long upwind leg a little over a kilometer long to turn 4.  After turn 4 it was back to the start/finish line and onto lap two.

While there were definite bumps to use downwind I found there was something to use going upwind as well.  I love paddling upwind when you find that little bulge in the surface of the water that is moving away from you just in front of your board.  It’s never enough to allow you to put your paddle down and rest but if you park your nose on it, it sure helps give you some speed and definitely makes paddling easier.  It sort of feels like you’re being pulled along on a conveyor belt.

On top of those bumps there were countless random motorboat wakes crisscrossing the course.  These can provide great rides when you find yourself in the right place at the right time.  I caught a few of these bumps in each of the first two laps, but it wasn’t until the last upwind leg on lap three that I hit the jackpot.  As soon as I got around turn 3 there I found a large, rolling boat wake about 2 ½ feet high just ahead of me and moving in the same direction I was.  I hammered into the wind and caught the first roller.  The pace on my GPS dropped dramatically from about 6:40/km to as low as 4:40/km for a short time.  It’s a great feeling when suddenly, out of nothing, you find something to ride that is fast and substantially more than anything you thought you were going to get.   I was able to ride these waves upwind for most of the last leg, probably about 800m of the probably 1200m long section.  I was almost able to get around turn 4 before anyone else had got around turn 3.  I think my finish time was 58:50 which is pretty good for a course that is supposed to be 6 miles (I suspect it was slightly under but I forgot to look at my GPS).

One of the cool details that Gary Stone and his crew thought of when putting the race together was a big digital clock like you see at running races mounted on the dock at the start/finish line so paddlers could not only see their times when they finished but also their lap times for each lap.   It’s something I definitely found useful in this race.

I’ve always respected those athletes that have the combination of drive and fitness to maintain a high level pace no matter whether they are pushed or not.  It’s hard to do, but it’s a sign of the internal drive needed to succeed at the highest level when an athlete can do it.  It’s something I’ve been working on all season and as I do a lot of paddling alone, my GPS has become a very tough training partner.  I use it constantly to try to keep my pace fast.   For some reason though, having the race clock on the dock provided even more motivation than my GPS provides.  I think it’s because I’m much more used to using the speed/pace information my GPS provides rather than the elapsed time.  In this race I got a good look at my split after lap 1 and made it a mission to try to run even splits.  By my calculations my second lap was only 14 seconds slower and my last lap, undoubtedly because of the big ride I got, was the fastest by about 10 seconds.  Given the focus I’ve made in training to maintaining pace I was very pleased with this.

Another big focus I’ve had in training so far this summer is course skills, namely turns.  Being a natural right side paddler and standing regular on the board my left shoulder turns are quite good.  My right shoulder turns however are a work in progress.  They weren’t great here but they were the best they’ve been in a race yet, and that is despite the chop and random bumps.  This is another indication that my training has been effective to date.

In the end my buddy from Michigan and sometimes training partner, Tony Paul, was second and Darien Hildreth from Florida was third.  We all enjoyed sitting around the finish line on our boards with our feet in the water watching all the other racers finish.I’ve commented in the Distressed Mullet article on the atmosphere and stoke at the event and it was fun to hangout the rest of the day and soak all that in.  There was a nice (and sizeable) lunch provided and some pretty cool trophies with the paddler on them looking incredibly similar to a C1 paddler.

Thanks to Gary Stone and his crew at Paddleboard Specialists, and all their volunteers, for putting on a great event.  I enjoyed this event immensely and the race was definitely worthwhile preparation for some of the big races still to come this year.

Eastern Canadian SUP Championships 2013 Recap

Well, once again it was the downwinder that wasn’t, but conditions were better than last year and it was a hard, well-contested race.

After a week of stellar southwest downwind conditions allowing for some great, clean and fast runs from Oakville to Port Credit, followed by another week of amazing northeast winds resulting in ocean quality downwind runs from Port Credit to Oakville, the wind decided to die a few days before the race which was held on Saturday, July 6, 2013.  Despite some hopeful forecasts, race day dawned with a light southwest wind which provided little relief from temperatures in the low 30s Celsius with high humidity, and little in that way of useful bumps.  You know it must have been hot on the water when John Beausang steps off his board at the finish and says, “Time to go back to Carolina for some cool weather”.  While the small bumps created by the wind made paddling much more enjoyable than last year’s headwind, they were pretty soft and mushy and although they helped you go a little faster they were never the type that allow you to rest for a few strokes.  The result was a long, hard race in some oppressive heat.

Derek Schrotter of Paddle Sport Performance, puts on a really good event and thinks of all the little details.  Despite that he hasn’t found a way to control the weather yet.  It seemed cruelly ironic that less than 24 hours after the end of the race I was back out on the course on Sunday in the best southwest downwind conditions we’ve seen here this year.

While conditions can play a big part in the success of a race, they alone don’t determine it.  Derek is the type of guy who takes thorough care of logistics and runs a really well organized event.  That’s one huge factor in making a race successful.  Another is the quality of the field the race attracts.  This year we were lucky to have Dan Gavere racing, as well as the top Midwest paddler, Tony Paul of Michigan.  With the continuing improvement of local paddlers and the debut at this level of Jesse Kahonwakenra Rice of Kahnawake, Quebec, the men’s field was quite strong.  On the women’s side, the field was strong as well with local girls like Ariel Amaral paddling faster this year than ever and Lina Augaitis of Vancouver back to defend her title.

The race started later in the morning at 1130 a.m. in hopes that the wind might build a bit with the later start.  As we left Oakville Harbour and turned towards Toronto, it became clear pretty quickly that the wind wasn’t going to give us a great push and it was going to be a long race.  It was extremely hot and the air very humid.  Within minutes I was dripping with sweat and within ten I was taking my first sip of water.   One hour and 33 minutes and about 15 ½ km later it was over and I was happy to get on land and start chugging a big bottle of Recoverite.

I managed to win the race, paddling most of the way alone, by about 4 minutes over Dan who edged out Brent Schmidt from Ottawa on his draft.  Brent was followed maybe a minute later by Jesse and then Tony maybe a minute after that to round out the top five.  On the women’s side, Lina demolished the field and knocked an incredible 20 minutes off her time from last year.  While some of that marked improvement can be chalked up to more favorable conditions, most of it is simply due to her being a lot faster this year.  She’s definitely the fastest woman I’ve raced against this year other than Annabel Anderson who is just at an entirely different level, and it would have been cool to see her do a race like this one against Annabel to see exactly where she stands.  I know Lina is off this week to Hawaii to do a few races, including Molokai to Oahu.  I’m not sure what her skills are like in that kind of big, open ocean water, but in relatively flat water I think she’ll surprise some of the top women on the circuit.

Overall I’m fairly pleased with my race as it indicates that training has been effective and on track.  One of the things I’ve been working on is going out really hard like you need to do at a race like the BOP, albeit here without having to paddle out through surf.  My GPS says I traveled between 5:15 to 5:35/km for the first 1500m before settling into a pace around 6:00/km.  These are paces I’m pretty pleased with and are faster than I could have maintained last year or earlier this year at the Carolina Cup.   I’m also pleased that although it was a hard quality effort I was comfortable enough through the entire race that I never felt in danger of dying or not being able to finish strong.

What was the highlight of the weekend?  Well, it wasn’t actually the race but having John Beausang and Greg Lew from Carolina come up and stay at my place, along with my former club and Olympic teammate Jack Chubaty.  I’ve mentioned before how amazing people have been to me in more than 35 years of crisscrossing the globe for one type of paddling or another.  Rarely have I had a chance to return the goodwill extended to me as it appears that paddlers just don’t seem to have any reason to come here very often.  When they do I enjoy having an opportunity to extend some of the hospitality that I experienced in my travels.  We had a ton of fun and a great time post race having food and a few beers with the local SUP crew here. 

Thanks again to Derek for yet another great event!  Derek does most of what he does alone and still always manages to put on a great race.  I’m already looking forward to next year’s event.