Posts Tagged ‘Surf Ski Racing’

Disappointments In Aust Surf Life Saving Titles

Friday, July 1st, 2011

Everyone experiences a disappointment in competition at some stage of the titles. If it is not due to poor execution of a skill from a basic ski jump start by falling off at the gun  start; making a mistake during the course around the bouys; to not knowing the rules and not qualifying. While watching the rounds of single and double skis with up to 400 or more different Paddlers every mistake possible is observable. Some more consistent than others for example falling of in the shore break before the finish line. Some still qualify and some who should don’t. Knowing the rules is also as important to help qualify as some paddlers have performed better than the rest only to miss out due to lack of rule knowledge. Their was a waist depth gutter before the finish line. Some sweep to the left of the finish line, looking from the beach. Double skis were in a qualifying position only outside the finish and needed to paddle or walk back up across the line.

The common errors which cost many teams were

  1. they tried to walk against the current
  2. they tried to paddle against the current – a better option although oncoming white waters kept tipping some off their skis.

The best and fastest option when you know the rules is paddle straight to the beach outside the finish. Then pick up your ski and run to the finish line. You do not have to be on the seaward side of the line but you do need to finish over the line from the sea. Simply walk the ski or board over the finish line towards the water then back over again. Takes one step each way.

It was a shame to see so many miss out due to not understanding or knowing this rule. Several years ago I missed a gold medal from not knowing this rule. You reckon that was’t  disappointing.  It would have given me back to back to back golds in my single ski race. Anyway that is another story.

Another common mistake made this year was double combinations not watching other race finishes because they would have seen it was much faster to get back on their ski after falling of in the shallow shore break and paddle to the finish line compared to walking beside the ski and pushing it across the line. One of the biggest upsets of the carnival was the disqualification of the Northcliffe ski team when their 1st paddler jumped on just before the gun and was pulled out of the final. They were last years winners.

Disappointments may occur due to officials making an incorrect call, your own club stuffing up entries or not being marked off for an event by team managers; you the athlete not checking your craft is race worthy. One double crew had to pull themselves out of the starting line due to a rudder problem.

Most of these above issues were and are controllable. The only non controllable issue is wicked mother nature and what she can put in your way or another craft taking you out of the race. Mother nature is the only preferred obstacle you need to overcome and control all the rest. Mother nature may be beaten and complied with by having a good race plan. Obviously have more events to reduce the odds against you in a big surf.

For more tips and techniques on surf ski racing, visit the Surf Ski Supremacy home page

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Surf Ski Paddling In Extreme Choppy Conditions

Monday, August 2nd, 2010

Surf Ski Skills Guide

On Saturday morning, I competed in a surf life saving endurance race, paddling my surf ski over a 12km course in the ocean. There was not much swell on the day, but the night before, a good stiff wind had blown up, leaving the ocean angry on race day, frothing, and boiling in extremely choppy conditions. The chop was running in all directions with minimal consistency, varied between 0.5 and 3 metres on the faces and with a 20 knot wind to boot, it made for a very difficult race.

I’ve had it so good recently that I’d forgotten just how challenging these types of conditions are. Often you just go into survival mode, doing nothing other than trying to keep your craft upright. Having fallen off before the first turning buoy myself, I got angry. I searched my memory banks and remembered all the techniques you have to follow to be effective in these conditions. I employed these tips to immediate effect.

At the end of the day and in retrospect, it was really great having the hit-out in such difficult conditions. Once you get past the survival point, choppy water is just so good for your surf ski strength conditioning. I woke up on Sunday really sore, with a deep and satisfying muscle soreness that I hadn’t experienced for a long time.

Having returned, I reviewed Surf Ski Supremacy and added a new chapter. The new chapter covers these types of extreme ocean conditions and the 5 things you can do to move from survival mode and into competitor mode.

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Surf Ski Training Essentials: Getting Race-Ready the Right Way

Monday, May 17th, 2010

How can you break down training, practice, and rest into a surf ski training week schedule that allows conveniently wraps around your lifestyle, but can also effectively get you ready for an upcoming race? Let’s analyze what you need to do: training can be further broken down into paddling training and body training, done in more intensity than practice sessions, practice is simply practice, but those sessions need to be longer than the training sessions, and of course, rest and recovery. If you want to use a complete seven day week, here’s how you can make them all come together.

Alternate a hard week and an easy week for six weeks before the competition. The hard week’s details are as follows:

Day 1: You can simply rest if you’ve just been in serious training or practice the day before. Normally you should train: do some running, visit the gym, or swim. If you really want to paddle, do no more than 30 minutes to an hour of stroke correction.

Day 2: Some flat water training. About one to one and a half hours of flat water paddling to get your body gradually into the mood. Don’t try paddling in big wind to avoid damaging your wrists for the rest of the week’s long paddles.

Day 3: This is a required rest and recovery day for the coming four days. This week is scheduled to include a four day cycle of training and practice to help accustom your body to similar conditions during a race.

Day 4: More flat water training. Again, one to one and half hours of flat water paddling, though you can paddle downwind this time. Try breaking down your session into two minute 500 meter sprints interspersed with eight minute slow cruises to rest your body without getting slack. During each sprint, focus on different aspects of your stroke like full shoulder turns, breathing, full arm extensions, and so on.

Day 5: More of the same, only faster. Do much of the same thing as you did the previous day, only a level higher and faster. And focus on your weak spots during each sprint.

Day 6 and 7: Practice sessions. Do two and a half hours of practice during both days. Try to imitate the environment and overall conditions you’ll be under in the race, then practice. The next day, practice downwind.

Day 6 and 7 are normally the weekends, but it should be the two days you don’t have any work to do, as they entail more time than the training schedules.

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A Typical Week for Surf Ski Training

Monday, May 10th, 2010

Surf Ski Training

Whether you’re surf skiing for fun or for serious sport—like competition level sport—you still need to do some training to get anywhere. Surf skis aren’t the easiest things in the world to handle, so some surf ski training regimes would do you some good. Here’s a typical surf ski training week you can pattern your own schedule to:

Monday: Rest. Yes, Rest. Especially if you’ve raced on the weekends or have had similarly physically tasking practice sessions.

Tuesday: One to one and a half hours of paddling. Use skis on flat water. Here’s how you can break down your one and a half hours: 20 minute warm ups first, then two minute sprints of 500 meters separated by slow cruises of eight minutes in between. The sprints you can do from a standing start. You can even do this with a group of individuals with different skill levels. Simply regroup after the two minute sprints and slow cruise together for the entire eight minutes. During the sprint, don’t try to concentrate on all or many aspects of the stroke at the same time. Try focusing on individual aspects in different sprints, like full arm extensions on sprint 1, then breathing in sprint 2, and so on.

Wednesday: Aerobic leg exercises. You can run, visit the gym, it’s your choice. Doing aerobic leg exercises builds respiratory capacity and resilience, and it shapes up leg muscle groups. It’s also a good preparation for any sort of distance event.

Thursday: You can choose to do the sprint sessions, or visit clubs for high intensity exercises that help overall paddling performance.

Friday: More rest. This is the ‘in-between’ rest period for the week. If you missed some sessions or exercises, you can do those.

Saturday: Practice. Duplicate the conditions you’ll be under in the race you’ll be entering, and do long distance, slow trips in those conditions for two and a half hours. If you’re not entering in any event, try to do the two and a half hour exercise in conditions similar to the environment where you surf ski. This is to familiarize yourself to the conditions and environment where you’ll be racing or skiing. If you continually practice for long hours in a completely different environment, you won’t be able to apply much of what you practiced on the actual surf skiing area you’ll be going to. It’s true that in the future you will need to be flexible enough to deal with any environment, but take things one step at a time. Like in the sprint sessions: one aspect of the stroke at a time.

Sunday: Repeat the Saturday session. It is important to actually make the full two and a half hours just like the day before—remember, practice makes perfect. It isn’t a cliché for nothing.

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