The Monster has Arrived!

On March 2 I published a blog post about called “Hatching a Monster”, in which I described an on-line coaching project that I was working on with John Beausang of www.DistressedMullet.com. Well, after about 8 months of planning it’s here. We launched about two weeks ago and we’re off to a great start!

Why Paddle Monster?

Why Paddle Monster? Well, when we first discussing the idea it seemed that there wasn’t anything in existence that did quite what we wanted to do, so we knew if we created something we’d be one of a kind.

Both of us have marveled at the sense of community that exists in SUP. I noticed it at my first race, way back in January 2011 in Wrightsville Beach where I first met John. He’d already noticed it and had already created a website to foster it and cater to it. Since then we’ve both met so many awesome people in stand up paddling (and paddling in general), that we can honestly say we’ve never met anyone in paddling that we don’t like. People in paddling love hanging with each other and talking story with each other. Unsolicited, they share their knowledge and ideas with others freely and unconditionally. Experienced paddlers take newbies under their wings and then those newbies, when they’ve gained some experience, do the same thing with the next crop of rookies. It’s quite amazing and I’m not sure than any other sport is quite the same.

Have you ever noticed that when you see another paddler on the water that you’re drawn towards them? How you paddle over and have a look, see if you know them, and whether you do or not, you say hi? This doesn’t happen in every other sport. There’s something about those people who get drawn to the water in a sport like SUP. They’re people people. And they form a community.

We wanted to create something that would serve that community, help build it and give people in that community who are crazy about paddling but have never had any coaching a chance to learn, find information that will help them paddle better, and in the process have more fun.

A one-stop SUP resource

When I first started paddling SUP back in Fall 2010, I immediately went to the Internet to search for information on it. The lack of quality information was shocking. Fortunately I was pretty confident with a paddle already so I just applied what I knew from sprint canoe and found it worked pretty well.

Over the years more information has found it’s way onto the Internet and really amazing paddlers with tons of solid knowledge like Jimmy Terrell and Dave Kalama have put up some great information. There are other sites that provide good information and at the same time sell training programs. There are a couple of decent SUP forums. There’s definitely more information around than there was five years ago. But there’s still a lack of really good quality, solid information compared to what’s available in many other sports and none that caters to the community of SUP as a community. We decided to change that.

We decided to create a one-stop resource for all things SUP including training programs; instructional videos covering basic paddling principles, technique and drills to enhance technique; a variety of tips and information on training and racing in a blog; video analysis; and a monthly webinar featuring some of the most widely acclaimed experts in paddling sharing what they know. But we wanted to do this in such a way that people learned together, trained together and shared their experiences together. The result is Paddle Monster. A community based on-line coaching resource that is like a virtual classroom for all things SUP (and hopefully in the near future outrigger, surfski and prone as well).

We’re up and running!

We launched about two weeks ago, on May 11th. I’d like to invite you to check out the website if you haven’t already at www.paddlemonster.com. We’re stoked at the look and feel of it.

Much of it is a member only access so let me tell you a bit about it. There is a blog that already has lots of posts in it. If you’re reading this post you’re familiar with the blog posts I’ve been making here for the last few years. Members can expect the same attention to detail and commitment to thoroughly exploring topics related to all things training, technique, and racing in the Paddle Monster blog than you’ve grown used to seeing here.

In addition to the blog there is a video library with over 80 videos covering basic paddling concepts, technique and drills, and training, including 47 brand new videos we’ve produced that have never appeared anywhere but on our site. And we’re not finished. We’ve got scripts and storyboards for lots more that we’ll be adding from time to time. Picture it being just like a real library that adds to its collection over time.

But by far the most important part of the site is the forums. It’s where I post three levels of training programs every week and where the members interact with me to adjust the programs to best meet their own needs as they relate to things like availability to train, injuries, race schedules etc. To this point there have been 792 posts to the forum asking a variety of questions or from members sharing information. Of those, 229 (29% of all forum posts) have been from me, providing detailed answers to questions, providing suggestions on how to alter the training programs to best meet individual needs, or offering insight into training data that members have shared.

I think the thing that makes Paddle Monster unique and separates it from any other sit
e in paddle sports that offers on-line coaching of any kind, is the degree of interaction that people have with the coach. I’m interacting multiple times per day with well over 100 All-Access members, and the information I provide in every post is available to every member.

So if you haven’t already, drop by www.paddlemonster.com and take a look. The Monster has arrived! Sign up for the free level if you haven’t already. You’ll get a weekly newsletter that tells you what we’re up to and will keep you in the loop. If you’re really serious about your paddling, and have found the blog posts offered here helpful, then join at the All-Access level. There’s much more offered there and you’ll be hiring me as your coach.

The Monster and Sea 24, Toronto Style

I’m almost recovered from last weekend’s 24 hours of the Monster and Sea 24 paddle to raise money for families battling cancer.  It was an incredible experience, but was it ever hard.

I was in Florida when I saw the Facebook post Jessica Rando made, looking for paddlers interested in getting together to do the “24” in Toronto.  I won’t say that I jumped at the chance but the idea of paddling regular shifts around the clock appealed to me at a time when I was obsessed with chasing distance for the 100/100 Paddle Challenge.  So I thought, why not?  It’s for a great cause, will fill a training need and, with the right group of people, will be a lot of fun.  I contacted Jess and was part of the team!

Our Toronto team for the “24”was awesome.  First let me say a few words about Jessica Rando, our captain.  Jess is an amazing paddler that too few people know about.  This is largely because she’s also a really good coach and is generally busy running training camps or coaching when she could be at races like the Carolina Cup or Key West.  As a result, not a lot of people have gotten the opportunity to meet her.  I’m pretty convinced that at a race like Key West she’d do really, really well and am hoping she arranges date of the training camp she runs so that she can race it next year.  Carolina Cup is more of a challenge for her, as the date seems to conflict every year with her Florida camp for northern-based paddlers, but she’d do well in that race too I think.

Jess put everything together for us for this event.  All we had to do was promote the fundraising page and show up to paddle.  She pulled together a fantastic team, with diverse backgrounds, experience and personalities, and everyone got along fantastically well.  I shouldn’t be surprised really, because everyone I’ve ever met in SUP is fantastic and would have made good teammates.  But our group for this was especially great and really supportive of each other through the wee hours of the morning on what turned out to be a pretty cold night. 

Jess’s first recruit was her husband Del DaSilva, and Jess and Del, living only a block from the river offered up their house as the staging area for the event.  They totally opened up their home to five other paddlers and all their wet, stinky paddling clothes and made sure their kitchen was stocked with food (with a fantastic level of support in the form of soups, pasta, corn bread, cookies etc. from the local SUP community).

Joining Jess and Del were myself, Anthony Bruzzese, Tracey Finley, Steve McKenzie and Julie Postill-Connolly.

I’ve paddled with Anthony for a couple of seasons and regularly over this past fall and winter, and he’s became one of my more frequent training partners.  And Tracey made her way out to my end of the city a lot over the winter to join us on the water for chilly winter workouts.  I hadn’t paddled with Steve and Julie as much, but they’re awesome and incredibly into it.  Having this kind of positive energy in the group was essential, because although this wasn’t a race, it was still a huge challenge.

I knew that Anthony was going to be my partner on the water.  Jess had decided to break us into three groups, each doing one hour shifts.  Anthony and I would be a pair, Jess and Del a pair, and Julie, Tracey and Steve would paddle together.  So about a week before I spoke to Anthony about the strategy I thought we should employ on our shifts.  I suggested a conservative approach, as I didn’t want to kill myself with some pretty big races coming up towards the end of April.  I wanted to make sure I didn’t get too tired doing this event and end up compromising some quality in the preparation running into the Carolina Cup. 

As it turns out, we ended up doing a fairly aggressive pace as we both took a few days easy leading into the 24.   After the first one-hour shift from 8:00 to 9:00 a.m. on Saturday morning, I knew I could average 8.5 km per shift at least into the night, if not for the whole thing.   For Anthony and me it became a challenge in consistency, trying to paddle well at a fairly aggressive pace each shift for exactly 60 minutes, and targeting 8.5 km each time.  We actually got through 8 of 9 shifts hitting that pace exactly, before I hit the wall with about 10 minutes left in shift eight.  I was on track to hit 75 km in 9 shifts but backed off a little in the last shift from 7:00 to 8:00 on Sunday a.m. and finished at 74 km.

While this pace was a little off race pace, it became progressively difficult from shift to shift and the whole thing became more and more of a challenge.  To the point where, now that it is over, I can say it was one of the harder things I’ve done in paddling.  So how does paddling just below race pace on flat water for an hour every three hours compare to Chattajack? Or Molokai? Or Blackburn?

There are a number of things that the 24 throws at you that makes it a challenge:

• Distance:  Okay, so it’s not non-stop, but it’s still 74 km in a 24-hour period.  I have never done that type of volume in racing or training before.  To do that distance, I had to travel at a pretty aggressive pace.  It certainly wasn’t a cruise.  It was a solid training session, repeated 9 times, and starting every 3 hours.
• Rest:  When I train twice/day I generally have 6 to 8 hours rest between sessions.  Three hours is incomplete recovery, even if the pace isn’t all out.
• Repetition:  Doing two, three or even four shifts was easy.  It wasn’t until the fifth shift started from 8:00 to 9:00 p.m. that it started to get hard.  After that it was a challenge.  I’d come off the water, walk my board up the street to Jess’ house, drop it in her front yard and then start changing into warm, dry clothes.  After tossing the wet clothes in the dryer, there was about 30 to 40 minutes to relax, get something to eat and drink, and try to stay somewhat loose.  Then it was time to start suiting up again.  The walk back down the road with the board, in the dark and cold, was just long enough to allow me to mentally prepare to get on the board and immediately fall back into my pace.  But each time I got back on the board in the overnight shift I first had to soak the deck pad of my board in the water and then try to rub all of the ice off of it.None of these things on their own should wear on you mentally, but when combined and repeated over and over there is an undeniable effect that starts to wear on you, each time more than the time before.
• Lack of sleep:  It’s one thing to paddle hard.  It’s another thing to do it round the clock.  I found the deeper we got into it the more difficult it was just because of lack of sleep.  I began to feel a lot like I do when I’m driving to or from Florida non-stop by myself.  Mentally this felt a lot like being at the wheel of a car for 22 hours straight.  I’d like to think that this was a much healthier and less mentally challenging endeavor, and there was some consolation in the fact that I wasn’t going to end up against the guard rail if I fell asleep paddling.  But the fact that this was physically demanding and done without any sleep, made each successive shift more difficult.
•  Weather:  Over the course of this winter I’ve discovered that paddling in the cold often feels more fatiguing than in the summer.  I’m not sure if it has something to do with dense, viscous, near freezing water or whether it’s just psychological and has more to do with the need to suit up in all kinds of gear and tread carefully on your icy board so you don’t slip off.  Add to it the fact that in this case we were paddling at night, in a river running with a substantial current, and it makes it even tougher.  It’s just that little bit harder to relax when you have to really pay attention to where you’re going and how you’re moving on your board.  Put it this way, I’m sure this would have been easier to attempt in Toronto in June.

In the end, I’d have to say this was harder than I’ve ever found Chattajack, even though in Chattajack I’m paddling non-stop for 5 hours.  I didn’t draft for one stroke of 24,which undoubtedly made it harder.  And then, of course, all the things I’ve mentioned above made this a really difficult challenge. 

I would have to say that as a way to accumulate volume it was great training.  The fact that I was able to do that volume with a high level of quality made it even more effective as a training activity.   So it’s nice when you’re doing something worthwhile for other people and having fun with the people you’re doing it with, and getting such a great training benefit from it as well. 

In the end our group raised over $8000 for local families who have a family member battling cancer, and had a ton of fun doing it.  The 24 is a great idea, and it’s pretty cool to be part of an event that is going on in so many other cities at the same time.  I do question the wisdom of holding it so early in the year.  I understand that it is less likely to conflict with summer races if it’s held early, however as it turns out we got lucky with the weather which allowed us to complete it.  Northern climates don’t really lend themselves to this type of activity in March, at least not with any degree of reliability.  If the river had still been frozen we wouldn’t have been able to complete the event, as the lake was too wavy to safely paddle at night.  Furthermore, as I write this one-week later there is snow on the ground and an overnight temperature of – 10 C before wind chill.  Staging this event in May would make a lot more sense.

This was a fun event and I’m glad I did it.  Sign me up for next year!