Long Distance
Aug. 23rd, 2009 09:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kateelliottThe state of Hawaii's official team sport is outrigger canoe paddling. Although there are OC-1 and OC-2 canoes (small canoes seating, respectively, 1 or 2 people) and a whole set of races for people who do that, and although there are also some OC-3 and OC-4 (the latter good for surfing), the team stuff is done in the OC-6.
Regatta season (March - July, with races held on consecutive weeks from late May to late July) are sprints of 1/4, 1/2, one, and on & a half miles. Which distance you race depends on what category you're racing in. There are Youth categories, divided by age and gender; there are Masters categories, likewise, and there is Open which is generally meant to be your strongest teams. There are also a few "mixed" races (3 men, three women); otherwise, you're either in a female or male team, (depending on what you qualify for!).
After regatta season is over comes Long Distance, which culminates in the unofficial World Championship of long distance outrigger paddling, the Molokai to Oahu 41 mile race (there's a women's race one weekend and a men's race two weeks later).
Before that come a variety of long distance races, including the Na Pali Challenge along the North Shore of Kauai (considered to be perhaps the most beautiful vista in the state of Hawaii, although I can only report as I have never seen it); the Duke/Dad's Center race (consecutive weekends); the Queen Liliuokalani Race in Kona, Big Island, which is often done "iron" which means 18 miles no changes; some 32 mile race along the south and west facing shore of Oahu; and then Molokai Hoe itself.
In long distance because of the distances involved, you go out with 9 or 10 paddlers, 6 in the boat and 4 in the escort boat). At intervals, the paddlers in the escort boat jump into the ocean and then the canoe is steered over by them and, without stopping, some paddlers from the canoe jump out and the replacement paddlers get into the moving canoe. The resting paddlers get into the escort boat, and so it goes.
This You Tube video of a women's crew doing the Molokai shows them doing changes, if you watch it for long enough (there's a good example at 1:30 - 1:55.) (I've highlighted this video before, so some of you may have seen it already.)
I've paddled two regatta seasons now so far. I've also paddled some "short" long distance races (about 6 miles, done with a single crew the entire way). But I've never done proper long distance with changes.
Until today.
Today: Dad Center Race, for women's crews (a week after the Duke Kahanamoku race which is the same course, for men's crews).
You've seen this course, when I highlighted this fabulous video. That's the course we ran today, from Kailua Beach Park south along the coast and around Makapuu Point (headland) and then up the other side to Waikiki (Kaimana Beach, to be exact). 25 miles.
And let me just say that the water conditions today were, in the local parlance, gnarly. We had 4 - 5 foot wave heights, plus the trade winds, plus when you go around Makapuu you are getting swells from three directions, transitional currents, and wave backwash off the sheer headland cliffs (which go straight down quite a ways underwater as well).
It was awesome. Crazy exciting, as well as exhausting.
Regatta season (March - July, with races held on consecutive weeks from late May to late July) are sprints of 1/4, 1/2, one, and on & a half miles. Which distance you race depends on what category you're racing in. There are Youth categories, divided by age and gender; there are Masters categories, likewise, and there is Open which is generally meant to be your strongest teams. There are also a few "mixed" races (3 men, three women); otherwise, you're either in a female or male team, (depending on what you qualify for!).
After regatta season is over comes Long Distance, which culminates in the unofficial World Championship of long distance outrigger paddling, the Molokai to Oahu 41 mile race (there's a women's race one weekend and a men's race two weeks later).
Before that come a variety of long distance races, including the Na Pali Challenge along the North Shore of Kauai (considered to be perhaps the most beautiful vista in the state of Hawaii, although I can only report as I have never seen it); the Duke/Dad's Center race (consecutive weekends); the Queen Liliuokalani Race in Kona, Big Island, which is often done "iron" which means 18 miles no changes; some 32 mile race along the south and west facing shore of Oahu; and then Molokai Hoe itself.
In long distance because of the distances involved, you go out with 9 or 10 paddlers, 6 in the boat and 4 in the escort boat). At intervals, the paddlers in the escort boat jump into the ocean and then the canoe is steered over by them and, without stopping, some paddlers from the canoe jump out and the replacement paddlers get into the moving canoe. The resting paddlers get into the escort boat, and so it goes.
This You Tube video of a women's crew doing the Molokai shows them doing changes, if you watch it for long enough (there's a good example at 1:30 - 1:55.) (I've highlighted this video before, so some of you may have seen it already.)
I've paddled two regatta seasons now so far. I've also paddled some "short" long distance races (about 6 miles, done with a single crew the entire way). But I've never done proper long distance with changes.
Until today.
Today: Dad Center Race, for women's crews (a week after the Duke Kahanamoku race which is the same course, for men's crews).
You've seen this course, when I highlighted this fabulous video. That's the course we ran today, from Kailua Beach Park south along the coast and around Makapuu Point (headland) and then up the other side to Waikiki (Kaimana Beach, to be exact). 25 miles.
And let me just say that the water conditions today were, in the local parlance, gnarly. We had 4 - 5 foot wave heights, plus the trade winds, plus when you go around Makapuu you are getting swells from three directions, transitional currents, and wave backwash off the sheer headland cliffs (which go straight down quite a ways underwater as well).
It was awesome. Crazy exciting, as well as exhausting.