When Ray invited me to write something for this site I felt honoured; at the same time I thought: "What can I contribute to a racing site titled "Tips from the Pros"? I'm "only" an expedition sea kayaker with two major island circumnavigations under my belt - and just an "occasional" racer...
What I do know a lot about is the pleasure of the unknown - and about the power of your mind.
Last year, I figured I'd jump into the lion's cage of kayak racing and give it a whirl. After all, back in the 1990s I did more than 1,500 parachute jumps out of some air planes, so taking a big first step is nothing new to me.
Though I had very little idea what to expect I've been an athlete most of my life and have a solid base of strength, power and endurance. I was more excited than intimidated. The key was that I wanted to race but never felt like I was going to be a full hearted racer. But the biggest part of any achievement is your mind - if you know you can do it, you will do it. Just go out and do it.
Before infecting myself with the surfski virus, I was merely participating in two long-distance sea kayak races. But this March I jumped on the ski, trained for about five hours in moderate conditions, flew to Puerto Rico and participated in my first World Cup Series race. I just did it. And I loved it. And I wanted to dive deeper into that world of narrow, tippy boats filled with ambitious, fit paddlers.
My next step into surfski racing was nothing less than Molokai 2008. Again I had three goals: I wanted to finish the race, not to capsize, and not to end up last. Though I did virtually all of my training in an epic V10 Sport ski, eventually I decided to cross the channel in an epic 18x to test the new rudder epic was designing for my next big trip around Australia.
I reached my goals, and I finished in a decent time - probably faster in the 18x than on the ski. Just a *fast time* was what was counting in a race. I lacked rough water experience on an open sit-on-top ski, but I have plenty of solo-rough water experience in a closed cockpit sea kayak. So being all alone in the Molokai Channel without an escort in the 18x I had no fear. In fact, I was in my element in the waves and wind. And, most importantly, I enjoyed pushing myself to the limits.
Focus on your goal and realize that you can do what others are sit around and just dream about. Like "Racing around Australia 2009". Just go out and do it. Don't talk about you'll "attempt" to do it. Then it might stay an attempt.
Thursday, August 12 and Friday, August 13
Lessons and clinics from the world's best paddlers.
Contact Ray Fusco for more details.
