This article was the first draft I sent to Sea Kayaker Magazine. It has gone through enough rewrites that the current version has a whole different flavor - where as this original is what should help you find out what it takes to win the USCA National Sea Kayak Marathon Championship. You might surprise yourself and discover that it is within your ability. Here is how I did it and what it took.
First and easiest is the equipment. This is the stuff you buy or build that doesn't require the time commitment that training takes.
The kayak. You need to pick a kayak that is legal for the event. The maximum length is 18' (the rudder doesn't count). The minimum width is 10% (for an 18' boat that is 21.6"). There is also a 4" waterline requirement of 8.5% but I have not found a true Sea Kayak that did not meet that spec. The 8.5% rule was designed this year (2002) to keep out "cheater" boats which were often based on wildwater hulls. Your boat must have fore and aft watertight bulkheads with hatches on deck. Also new this year is a minimum weight requirement of 42 pounds. No more need for a $3000.00 graphite hull! These specs allow for a fun and fast kayak without having to paddle boats as tippy as surf skis.
The idea is to pick a boat as close to the specs as possible - but don't just go by the numbers. Boats with beautiful overhangs on the bow and stern are generally slow for their length as they have shorter waterline lengths. The longer your boat is in the water the higher its hull speed (to find your hull speed take the square root of the waterline length times 1.2 for knots).
Another clue of speed is the seat location. Many manufactures have the seat placement about 6" further aft than optimum. The reason for this is that it helps the boat track well without a rudder (great for first time paddlers) but if you paddle real hard you find yourself feeling "stuck" in the water. This is because the boat is trying to climb over its own bow wave early and you are stuck in "hull speed". If your boat is trimmed correctly you should be able to exceed "hull speed"!
Rudders are a must in my book. Marathon racing is a lot like bicycle racing in that drafting is usually very important. The difference is that in Kayaking you wave ride. It is very difficult to draft a bow wave without a rudder. Also wing paddles work best with a consistent stroke which is difficult to do if you are making correction strokes.
Your rudder controls are also important. To have a good rotation paddle stroke you push with one foot or the other. When you watch a top notch paddle you will notice their knees alternating going up and down as they rotate through their stroke. They are able to do this as they usually have foot bar steering like an Olympic boat or heel wells like a surf ski. Unfortunately most sea kayaks come with sliding pedals. But don't panic, companies such as Valhalla Products and Simon River Sports make steering kits you can glass into your hull. I have seen a few creative Sea Kayakers that glued in heel stops and kept their sliding pedals.
Wing Paddles. Everybody at the Nationals and all the West Coast races I've entered lately have them. Once you learn to use them correctly you will find them more stable than a standard blade. You will still find people claiming that wing paddles are unstable - and they are right if you use a wing like a standard blade. You must learn a new stroke. But once you learn that stroke you enter a new realm of paddling! Torso rotation is where over half your paddling power comes from and yet the majority of paddlers I run into are mostly just using their arms.
When you use a wing correctly you use a steeper stroke. Your stroke will start with the blade entering the water right next to the hull. Your up arm will cross in front of your face without dropping. As you rotate the paddle angle should remain constant and exit a couple feet off the side of the boat out from your hips. A wing paddle will not work properly if you pull it alongside the hull. You can pick up quite a few more pointers that will make using the wing easier if you attend a wing paddle stroke clinic. On the West Coast Brent Reitz (6 time National Champ) and sometimes Greg Barton (2 time Gold Medalist) hold excellent wing paddle classes. Brent has recently released his stroke clinic in video format (and DVD) for folks that live in other parts of the country.
The biggest mistake paddlers make when purchasing a wing is to get one too large. This is sometimes the fault of the retailer used to touring paddle sizes. I'm 5'9" and use a 208cm. I tend to use a slightly shorter paddle than the norm. The best surf ski paddler (not counting Greg) I know is 6' tall and uses a 215cm. My best advice is to get an adjustable model for your first wing. There are many on the market that offer 10cm of adjustment.
The last bit of trick equipment I use is a "Speedmate". This is a lot like a bicycle computer for a boat. It gives you your current speed, maximum speed, average speed, distance and time. As you work on your stroke you can instantly see what is faster. I use mine during races and sometime a slightly lower speed means I am working the wrong side of a wave when drafting. I've used mine to see if I could find more speed using those "trick" waxes (I didn't but many paddlers swear by the stuff).
What kayak did I choose for the Nationals? It was a tough call. I had a very fast Dagger Hybrid based on a Meridian deck and a Wildwater hull & a SRS Dart Expedition. The Dart is based on a "Slender" which was sort of a K-1 trainer. Either boat would have been more than fast enough but I was not sure they would pass tech inspection. The Prion Eske is what most paddlers back East tend to use and is a very nice boat in Kevlar. A lot of the other boats I looked at would have been fine (and also expensive). I'm pretty picky about what I like so I ended up choosing a "Pax 18" wooden kit boat from Chesepeke Light Craft at about a third the cost.
The nice thing about building your own (aside from saving a ton of money) is you get to set it up your way. I moved the first bulkhead aft three inches which allowed me to slim the bow entry down to a fine point. When I mounted the deck I started from the stern instead of the bow. This moved the cockpit forward about 2". I left out the "skeg" and instead mounted a carbon kick up Valhalla surf ski rudder. I put a high Olympic style seat mounted forward. You get a much stronger stroke with a high seat, however you lose some stability. Because I'm used to surf skis, stability was not an issue. Due to the high seat I cut off the thigh braces which were in the way of rotating (my shins kept hitting when I pushed). I also mounted a SRS foot board assembly with tiller steering. It took about 80 hours to build and was a very complete kit. I have had a lot of fun on the ocean with this boat but unless you have paddled a surf ski or Olympic K-1 I reccommend you keep the stock seat.
Training;
There is no magic formula that works the same for everyone. Many coaches do not realize this and have all of their athletes doing the exact same training. We all have different percentages of slow and fast twitch muscles. I know very good paddlers that just go out and paddle 15 - 20 hours a week. I know others that just do intervals. Most of us fall somewhere in between these two methods.
An interval is a more intense short piece of workout followed by a set recovery time and repeated, usually in sets of five to seven times. The two types of intervals I do most are 500 meter sprints and 20 second bursts. The way I do the bursts is during a morning workout with my walkman. Every time a new song comes on I give 100% for 20 seconds. I don't do any weight training and this exercise probably makes up for it a bit.
For some reason I have never been able to do more than 10 hours a week of hard training without catching a cold. For the 2001 Nationals I didn't think (at 47) I had what it took to win the Marathon so I geared my training for the Sprint events. In my mind the sprint events require more concentration, techinique and the ability to put off intense pain for just 2 minutes. It turned out the training I did was pretty good after all (but could have been better had I added a couple hours a week for distance).
I paddle year round as it is but around October prior to the Nationals I met Andrew Hoyer. Andrew had just finished his tour of duty with the Navy (where he was a member of the USN Pentathalon Team) and was interested in Olympic Sprint events but had never paddled a ICF sprint boat. The 2 of us started to paddle together and by winter we had a routine of meeting Monday, Wednesday and Friday in the early morning for 5X500 sprints. It was brutal! We would do about a 10 minute warm up paddle followed by the sprints. We would do each 500 meter sprint full out and paddle easy back and do it again. It was really tough and we worked over each other pretty good. The warm down paddling after that fifth sprint was a real treat! There was never a day when one of us won every time. There were many days I didn't feel like doing it but when you make a commitment to paddle - ya gotta be there.
Well that covers 3 hours a week of my workout. I would usually paddle 3 more days. Two of those days would be spent doing a 10k at race speed (trying to beat the clock on my speedmate). The 6th day would be spent either at a race or paddling whatever I felt like. It might be easy or a hard two hours on the ocean. It was my choice and I liked to keep it fun.
About 3 weeks before the Nationals Andrew and I were paddling up the coast on a 2 hour trip. At about the halfway point Andrew did a pretty hard brace on his surf ski and pulled something in his arm. I was in the Chesepeke I built (with the high seat). The wind was coming up hard. The gentle four foot swells started to have breaking whitecaps and Andrew got knocked off of his ski quite a few times. It was rough enough that I couldn't do too much except shout encouragement. I did have my pump with me so I didn't feel at risk. We made it back to Morro Bay in 3 hours. Andrew would not be able to use his arm for a while so the rest of my training was against the clock.
The 2001 Nationals:
For 2001 the USCA Nationals were held on Lake Lanier, Georgia - The same site as the last summer Olympics held in United States. The event is 6 days long. Tuesday is reserved for adult sprints, Wednesday is for Orienteering, Thursday is for youth sprints and the remaining three days are for the premier events - the Marathons.
I had arrived a couple days ahead of time to get a feel for the area. It was so much greener than the west coast! The finger lakes are a lot of fun to paddle through. I never seemed to know what would be around the next bend. There was lots of pretty vegetation, little summer cabins with their own docks and even what looked like big Plantation style homes. It was easy to get lost and in fact I did once for three hours. I also checked out the Lake Lanier Canoe & Kayak Clubhouse. What a very nice facility.
Tuesday - I was entered in three events. Downriver sprint in the morning and both Sea Kayak and Open Sea Kayak in the Afternoon. I had plenty of butterflies going the night before and was not enjoying the wait for the start of the first event. The start of the Downriver class was pretty explosive, about 20 seconds into it I looked down at my speedo and saw I was doing almost 13mph! This is way too fast for me and sure enough 20 seconds later I was down to 8mph. I really had nothing left as I had gone out too hard at the start. At the finish both Ryan Stephens and myself crossed at what appeared to be the same time. It took a while to recover and then I started feeling better. It took the officials quite awhile reviewing the video finish but they finally declared Ryan (last years downriver sprint champ) the winner by 22/100's of one second!
Almost 2 hours later I was ready for the Sea Kayak sprint event with no butterflies! The start was quick but as soon as I had the boat up to speed I went into the correct smooth stroke holding a good pace. I watched as a couple of the Prions got about 50 feet out front but by the halfway point they started to fade. I was all alone at the finish and won by 11 seconds! I had 10 minutes to get ready for the Open Sea Kayak sprint. I was over heated and my whole body was turning red. One of the competitors, Rich Hodgkins saw how bad off I was and suggested jumping in the Lake. I tried that and sure enough water cooling is more effective than air cooling!
At the start line for the open event I didn't think I had recovered enough and the start was a slow one for me but I just grinded away trying to be as clean with my stroke as I could. Sure enough it paid off and I won that event. Fortunately I had a real slick boat for this class as it was Keith Keillors (Valhalla Surf Skis) first proto type sit inside racing sea kayak - Thanks Keith!
Wednesday - I was entered in the Sea Kayak orienteering event but dropped out to join in with the California Outrigger sprint trials. The orienteering event does not favor the fastest it just favors the smartest. You must transcribe a map at the start and navigate to hidden check points. The better you are at using a compass and understanding terms like "deviation", "True North" and "Magnetic North" the better you will do. Many of us go fast types blow right by the hidden check points and have to double back. The Sea Kayak class was won by Bobby Gailbraith with a time of 4 hours and 5 minutes. In the meantime the last minute California team got smoked when we rounded the wrong buoy. The Florida guys won with New Hampshire a close second.
Thursday - I took in some of the youth events and went out to do one easy loop on the newly marked Marathon course. I met up with my cousin, Tom Walton and had a great dinner with him and the New Hampshire crowd. Some of their stories had me laughing so hard my sides hurt. I tried to go to bed early but all I could think about was the marathon tomorrow. The Marathon events are a lot more popular with medals all the way down to 10 place plus a huge perpetual trophy that the winner gets their name engraved on. Sort of like the Americas Cup. I went over my strategy 100 times in my head, wave ride in the pack and use my sprint at the end. I did not believe I had enough of a aerobic base to have a chance any other way.
Friday - I'm a complete wreck. I've wasted my sleeping time thinking about a race like a teenager. I've already won what I wanted but now I want this too. I try real hard to get food down but my stomach doesn't seem to want anything. I mix up my magic fluids (Gator Aid, Dr. Pepper and water). At the paddlers meet they go over the course. It is two laps on a 10k course (only 20k total!). Starting at the finish line of the Olympic tower you head north on the lake to the first large finger on the right. Continue up the finger until you come to a series of buoys set up to prevent crowding on the turn around. Head back the way you came past the Olympic tower and continue south to the first island. Round the island to your left and return. Now do it again!
Finally it is time to get on the water for our start. There is a cross wind on my left. For some reason most everybody seems to be lining up on the right. Well, I know the wind will be blowing towards that side so even though it looks like the straightest route they will have to paddle farther because they will need to keep steering away from the shore. I agonize over this because my plan is to be in the pack. I decide to go it alone initially and see what the wind does to the pack.
The start goes fine and within 5 minutes all of the butterflies are gone. I notice the pack getting pushed towards the shore and I'm in a nice spot. By the time I get to the first turn I have finally drifted over to were I should be and I'm a good 50 yards ahead of the pack - but is that where I really want to be? I figure I'll just keep paddling at a moderate pace and see where I am at the turn around. At the turn around I've gained another 25 yards or so. I notice that the front pack still has last years winner (Ron Kaiser) out front with five or so strong paddlers drafting. This is the wrong place for me, as any bicycle racer will tell you working alone is a mistake unless it is the end of a race.
So like an idiot I keep hammering away. Past the stands I get a report from Cousin Tom that that pack is one minute behind as I head for the island. Rounding the island I see Ron still towing the pack. Why isn't the pace line working together like a bicycle race? If they each worked hard for one minute at a time they would easily catch me. I know I can't hold them off much longer but then I get a huge break. I see a group of mens C-2 getting ready to start their event. These guys are fast in their 28 pound double canoes. I give it everything I have and hit the line about five seconds after the gun. I'm able to catch up and finally at the half way point I'm drafting for my first breather. The canoe guys are very serious. Any time one of them wants in on the pace line I make a spot for them and don't interfere. The front pack of canoes is dropping the second pack but the canoes guys are happy to let me work with them. As a group we take turns pulling. At the Northern turnaround I find myself almost 4 minutes ahead of the Sea Kayak pack.
On the Southern stretch we hit a head wind and the canoes really slow down. Once again I'm paddling alone in front but this time I here the occasional "Huts" of the canoers drafting me. I really start to fade as I round the island. I have less than a mile to go. The canoe guys drop me to start their second lap. I see Ron all by himself starting to approach the island for his final turn. All I can do is paddle at hull speed as I have no sprint left at all. Ron is not able to make up the whole four minute lead and I end up winning by a bit over a minute!
The following is a list of the marathon medal winners in the Sea Kayak Class with their home state & times:
#1 Lloyd Reeves CA 1:59:18
#2 Ron Kaiser PA 2:01:31
#3 Steve Peterson IN 2:03:55
#4 Gary Ballina PA 2:04:28
#5 Jim Goochee PA 2:04:29
#6 Tim Frantz PA 2:05:52
#7 Elizabeth O'Connor NY 2:08:09 *Winner of Womens division
#8 Jim Waguespack LA 2:09:31
#9 Jerry Patton PA 2:11:51
#10 Betsy Ballario IL 2:11:55
For more info on the USCA go to their web site @:
or call: 315-423-9075
You may contact Lloyd Reeves @: lloyd@fastkayak.com