Paddling (Cycle Paper)

This summer is going to be the worst summer ever. I won’t get to do what I love. Every summer I do something so intense and grueling that it makes me want to puke. It makes my body feels like it is going to explode into a million pieces and I love it. I love paddling for Kailua Canoe Club.
A paddling crew consists of six paddlers. You need a steersman, a stroker and four other paddlers. The steersman sits in the back of the boat and basically is the leader. She steers the boat and tells the crew to go faster or yells encouraging words to us. In my boat I am the stroker. Let me tell you a little about what a stroker does. The stroker plays a very important role in the boat because the stroker sets the pace. Every paddler behind me is suppose to mimic exactly what I do. So the stroker must have good form and good pace. The person who sits behind me, in seat two is that one who calls the changes. What she does is counts strokes and after twelve strokes she yells “Hut Ho!,” which means switch to the other side of the boat. Everyone simultaneously switches.
Not only am I going to miss my crew but also I will miss my coach. I had a special relationship with my coach. She was inspiring and gave me so much motivation. I will miss those motivating and inspiring speeches she gave before each race. And in a strange way I will also miss her telling us to paddle for 20 minutes straight during practice so we can work on our endurance, even though the race is only a mere 60 seconds.
Every Sunday there is a regatta at a different beach, whether it’s at Kailua Beach, Waimanalo, Keehi Lagoon, Waikiki, Nanakuli, or what not. Each beach is different so each week we train differently. Our training is based on how rough the water is, whether or not we are racing towards the beach or parallel with it and how long the race is going to be. All of these factors are weaved into our training for the upcoming Sunday.
One of the things I will never forget is how extremely competitive paddling is. There is no messing around when it comes to winning a race. Every boat out there is looking to win the coveted gold medal. Teams have come so close to winning it, but can lose by a mere .01 of a second. Each race counts as a whole for part of your club. Whichever club gets the most points (points are determined by what place you got in the race) wins the regatta. Winning the regatta is what it is all about.
The reason I do paddling is not because I get to meet lots of people and go the beach four times a week and work out. I paddle for that one moment of glory and joy I get when I finish a race. All summer, every Sunday starts out the same, waking up early in the morning to get to the beach where my race is. My race is first thing in the morning at about 8:30. I’m always feeling a little anxious before the race.
Every race my club does the same little ritual thing. The main head coach of the whole club gives and inspiring speech about how we need to paddle our hearts out and that every stroke counts and to do our best and bring in the gold. Then my coach gives my crew a little speech reminding us of how hard we worked this week and that we deserve the gold. At the end of every speech she says the same phrase to us, “First you must be one with your paddle, then one with the boat, and finally one with the ocean.” The words still ring in my head today. Whenever anyone mentions racing in a boat, I always think of what Coach said. After her little pep talk, the six of us hop in the boat and paddle out the starting line. This is when my heart starts beating a little faster than normal and I start telling my self to not freak out during the race and to stay focused.
Meanwhile the steersman is yelling encouraging things to us and telling us we are the fastest boat out there and we are going to win. The boat makes it up to our starting flag and we are in line with 20 other boats. All eyes are straight ahead intensely watching the motorboat out in the middle of the coarse. A man on the motorboat raises a yellow flag and my steersman yells “Paddles up!” We all quickly lift our paddles up and hold them over the water getting ready to take the first stroke. Then the yellow flag starts waving from left to right and left to right and back again. My heart is pounding so hard I can practically hear it. All the sudden a red flag flies into the air and green one quickly comes up after it. My steersman yells at us, “GO! GO! GO! PADDLE GIRLS PADDLE!!” We strike the water so hard, we slice it with every stroke. We finally feel the boat start to move and we are off. That one minute of racing feels like ten. I start zoning out. It is like everything is moving in slow motion. I feel the ocean water splashing on my face. I hear the other boats calling their changes and I try to focus on my own boats changes. I focus on how fast I’m going. I always feel like the boat isn’t moving; yet I know it is. I think about what coach said early in week about how I need to bite the water with my paddle and that I need to reach further. All of these thoughts are flying through my head.
Finally, I see the finish flag quickly approaching. I paddle even harder, my steersman is screaming at us to “PADDLE! PADDLE! PADDLE!” Her voice starts to crack as she yells at us to go faster. I start to get frustrated because I see the noses of the other boats creeping along the sides of mine. I’m giving my all yet the boat isn’t going faster, I am furious that my arms aren’t digging into the water more and that they won’t move faster. Finally, we reach the finish line and we all collapse. I feel so much joy in my body that I feel like crying. I smile all the way back to our tent as we paddle home to our club. Then the boat pulls up to the shore and we all hop out.
The whole club is screaming with joy and congratulating us. People form a tunnel with their arms and all six of us run through it while people hang leis on us and tell us how close the race was. We all take pictures together. Then my coach pulls me over to the side to congratulate me. She says I looked good out there and that I had good form. Then she tells me about the other boats and how they did. I feel great. My heart is still racing trying to recover from the physical part of the race but it can’t because of all the emotions I feel. A whole day full of mixed feelings finally comes to an end. I go home and wait for the Monday morning newspaper to see what place I got and which club won the regatta.