Paddle Articles

Good luck everyone who is racing this weekend in honor of Queen Lili`uokalani. Knowing that you are all about to embark on such a special and fun race, I wanted to dust off and share my first time racing in Hawaii, and hope that you all have the same magical experience I did. Then be sure to bring that amazing back home to California with you, so we can continue to pay respect to our paddling heritage and share with other Cali Paddlers how amazing an impact our sport can have.

Pretty cool when you travel 8 hours, (12 if you embrace wrong turns as opportunities to explore our state), arrive in foreign waters, and make friends with several hundred strangers who are all related to you through the community of paddling. Even cooler when you have a chance to relive it in a recap. Our trip to the Bay Area and the Kula Anela (Angel Island) Race was our chance to check out the teams and paddlers who paddle with NCOCA (Northern California Outrigger Canoe Association). We are still reliving the fun!

Here is a brief recap of some of my favorite pains over the years that I hope you can all empathize with. Not every race or long practice hurts. But some do. Some paddles are 6 hours on the water. Or non-stop intervals until its dark and you can't see. Some are fighting a headwind, jumping out of a chase boat 10 times or pushing yourself way more than you ever have as you are inspired by your teammates. Loading heavy boats, boards, and gear. Some of the paddles are sneaky-oooph....as in, "wow, I didn't think I would be this sore". Some, you know you are in for a long 24 hours of pain. Allow me this therapeutic walk-through.

When I first describe change racing to people, the reaction is almost always something along the lines of “that sounds really scary” and "you are really hard core."  And you know what? Yeah, it kind of is scary – but only if you allow yourself to think about it.  The 'Fear Factor' of change racing, to me, makes it exceptionally exciting and fun.  However, there are moments both in practice and in races where every paddler has asked themselves, what the hell am I doing?

Isle Surf and SUP was born and bred in our home town of San Diego. So of course they would be a great resource for favorite places to paddle board in Americas Finest City.

(If you liked, "an oc6 paddler on race day", consider this the humorous follow up)  - So, maybe the title is a little misleading, though the beer garden or after-party for some could make it true. But sometimes after a long day at the beach, in the canoe, and journey to the far-off place called ‘the race site’, we can feel pretty beat up, scarred, chaffed, dehydrated and haggard. A little hungover if you will. So allow me to share some of those post-race whinings and whimperings many of you are possibly feeling in between checking all the FB photos, race results, and looking up what D.O.M.S. means.

Kai Ko'o Paddles (Steve Barnes & James Gonzales)

Cali Paddler's Greggy, went on site with Steve Barnes and James Gonzalez of Kai Ko'o Paddles, a San Diego based Outrgger Canoe and SUP paddle maker. Greggy dove in to what makes them tick, and they let us know what it means to be a Cali Paddler to them.

I grew up near Mission Bay, in San Diego, CA. I spent many days of my youth near the ocean, in the ocean or on the ocean. Lot’s of sand found it’s way between my toes, into my ears and onto the floor of the car. We used to go to the beach and bay regularly to swim, bodyboard, make sand castles and later cruise the boardwalk as a teenager. My Dad took my brother and I fishing on Mission Bay numerous times.