Downwind Training - Hong Kong Style
[Editor: A group of keen Hong Kong paddlers recently
spent a day with Oscar Chalupsky, who flew into Hong Kong
to lead a downwind paddling coaching clinic. This is the story]
On Friday, February 2, I flew in from the Epic factory in China to Hong Kong to lead a clinic organised by the local Epic agent Rene Appel.
It's worth noting that there is solid rivalry - rugby, beer consumption and ski paddling - between the ex-pats residing in both Dubai and Hong Kong. Having spent a few days with the Hong Kong crew, it's obvious that the top dogs in HK are keen to prove a point at the 2007 Molokai to Oahu crossing in May. Last year three paddlers from Hong Kong entered and finished the 55km race from Molokai to Oahu. This year they're eager to improve their times by as much as an hour. (Hong Kong paddlers might have as many five paddlers doing the Epic Molokai race.)
When I left the factory in China it was minus a few degrees at night and the high temperatures of the day reached about 5 degrees - a real shock to the system for a lad from Durban. Consequently I was happy to step off the plane and not feel a need to race inside. Better yet, I was pleased to see that the boys from HK had organised a Chinese Junk - a sizeable ship in fact - to take us out into the rough water off the island of Hong Kong.
We met at 9.00 am at the oldest club in Hong Kong, the Victoria Recreational Club (VRC to the locals). We loaded seven skis onto the extremely un-junky Junk and headed out. On the trip out to our starting point for the downwind run - a placed called the Nine Pins - I sipped hot chocolate and spoke about the key to focus on during the session. As we neared the Nine Pins, the seas were getting bigger. The swell was roughly 10 feet and the wind gusting up to 20 Knots - virtually perfect conditions for catching runs - and big enough so that the skipper of the Junk had to cut across the swell as it was too big to go directly into it. It looked and felt like a mini Molokai channel.
Two hours later we'd arrived at the Nine Pins and stopped at the protected waters behind the islands to organize our skis and jump into the chilly HK waters. The sun was shining and the temp was about 19 to 22 degrees; the water was about 15 to 16 degrees. After a brief get together and photo session it was off down wind to Tai Tam Bay about 14km away.
The session started with me giving the HK crew a 1 minute head start on a 5 minute effort. They surprised me by how much they had improved from my trip last year and I had to go flat out to catch them. After that short stretch, I did individual sessions with each paddler -- shouting at them when and where to go; how to get the best out of the wind and the waves and more. They all took major strain but seemed to learn a lot.
After the individual session I caught some runs next to them to show them even more intensely how missing one run can lose you 50 to 100 meters against someone who knows when to accelerate and when to back off. After about 14km, five of the seven paddlers jumped back on the Junk for a bumpy ride home. Rene and I opted to paddle the remaining 12km back to VRC. Luckily, we were able to ride the fat wave of the Junk the whole way home - a big relief as I am not as fit as I should be.
This has to be one of the most unique ways of doing a downwind. These guys do the downwind runs just about every weekend. Having seen the wind and the waves I can see why they are excited to put on the Hong Kong World cup in November 2007. They saw how well the race in Dubai Shamaal was run this November and they want to stage an even classier event with as much (or more) prize money, just as much excitement and far rougher seas. I think this race is going to be a must in the future. The course will have about two-thirds down wind and when you hit the flat waters there are likely to still be bumps. [Editor: The idea of a race in HK is very much a work in progress.]
I thank all the HK guys for their great hospitality and also giving the opportunity to see a great downwind run.
Oscar
Comment from Andy Orr:
We had a great session with Oscar. I’ve paddled with him before but this was the first time in the waves and I really saw up close why he is what he is. The guy is just so powerful and phenomenal at reading the surf and predicting the next wave. These days, I reckon I’m fairly decent in the surf, but Oscar is on another planet. The guy was taking off about 3 strokes before I did in anticipation of a runs that I had no idea were there. It’s like he has a sixth sense. His immense power enables him to get on even the tiniest bump. At one point, we were paddling side by side and I was trying to get on the same runs as him. I was really putting it in but still only managed to get on about half of the runs he did. In the space of 3-4 small runs (for me) he was pulling 20 meters ahead.