Molokai to Oahu Paddleboard Race has a Bend, Oregon Connection

Jack Gillen sent us this photo and the note, (Here's) "The owner of rainbow sandals, my wife and some dude from Bend, Oregon." Of course, that "dude" is Gerry Lopez of Bend, Oregon. From left to right are Jay Longley (Sparky), the ever-gorgeous Terry Gillen and Gerry Lopez at the:

13th Annual
RAINBOW SANDALS - MOLOKAI to OAHU PADDLEBOARD RACE
Presented By Honolua.

Jack Gillen entered the race. Here's a photo of him paddling during his 8+ hour race. He was the only solo stand up paddler on a fixed-fin stand up paddleboard.

To get his stand up paddle board to the race venue on Molokai, Jack and his friend Ekolu Kalama paddled the boards from Maui to Molokai three days before the race. Then. . . they raced!

Because of the side-winds during the race, Jack had to paddle on one side the entire course. The other solo competitors were on SUP paddleboards with rudder fins. Rudder fins allow the paddler to paddle on both sides while steering with the rudder rather than using only the paddle stroke to steer. Jack feels that a fixed fin stand up board is pure and true to the sport of stand up. So he chose a fixed fin in homage to Stand up paddling's surfing roots.

Jack came in last in the solo category for his efforts and told Randall that he spent 80% of the race thinking how he would never do the race again.

Several days later, Jack was back training for next year. We love this guy!
Here's how the race shook out. Jamie Mitchell claimed the 8th consecutive Rainbow Sandals Molokai to Oahu Paddlebaord. Hawaii's Kanesa Duncan Claims the Women's race.
 Ekolu Kalama Takes Standup Honors . . . READ MORE at Rainbow Sandals;

Read more about Jack Gillen (Terry's husband)

www.StandUpPaddleFlatwater.com

Stand Up Paddle Boarding is a Great Core Workout and Balance Trainer

Stand up paddle boarding is not only a great core workout, paddleboarding can be a whole body workout. (And not just because you left your Big Board Schlepper at home.)

Bend, Oregon stand up paddlers have used their boards to stretch, strengthen and even keep up with their aerobic workout. Doing these exercises on your paddleboard brings balance into the movement, increasing the benefits of your effort. Exercise on your paddle board and your same workout can give you better results. (And when you build up a sweat, jump in!)

Here are a few fun ideas to workout on your SUP board.

Strength Training on your Stand Up Paddle Board:
Jen, demonstrates a perfect push-up on her stand up board. Take some of the standard strength moves out of the gym and onto your paddle board. You'll be surprised at how much more concentration the exercise requires. Here are some of our favorites: Push-ups, Squats, Lunges.

Stretching and Yoga on your Stand Up Paddle Board:
Judy Shasek demonstrates her yoga pose on Hosmer Lake, near Bend, Oregon, one of the many places to paddle in Central Oregon. Yoga is particularly challenging on a paddle board. The most simple pose takes on new difficulty when you're doing it on the water. It's a great way to freshen your approach to your yoga practice.Aerobic Workout on Your Stand Up Paddle Board:
Flat water paddle boarding is an opportunity to play with your paddle speed, and if you go hard enough, you'll be able to get your heart rate to Zone One, the basic level for endurance aerobic training. For many of us more mature paddlers, that can be a pulse rate base number somewhere between 110 to 125. If you're not used to checking your pulse (a hassle to do while paddling), wear a heart monitor until you are familiar with how it feels to be in Zone One while paddling. Here's a photo of Jack Gillen, owner of Wave Chi demonstrating his powerful aerobic paddling technique. Randall of Stand Up Paddle Flatwater has taken Jack's fitness advice into practice and has had great results keeping his aerobic fitness without running or doing other types of typical aerobic exercise.
NOTE:
You'll want a stable board for your stand up paddleboard exercise practice, such as a Laird, Amundson Aquaglide, or one of the other stable flat water friendly boards we sell. Be sure to check out our site. Talk to Randall at 541-389-4547 and he'll sell you the board that's best for you.

www.StandUpPaddleFlatwater.com
Thank you for buying your SUP gear from us, we appreciate your support.

Jack Gillen's New Video Trailer for Wave Chi Hawaiian Clubs

Jack Gillen, owner of www.WaveChi.com, is a teacher, thinker, athlete and entrepreneur living in Kona, Hawaii. He helped us get our local Bend, Oregon crowd stoked on stand up paddle boarding a couple of years ago. We love Jack and are always fascinated by the places his curious intellect takes him. His latest enthusiasm is a training method combining ancient Indian Clubs (from the same country that brought us Yoga) and Hawaiian surf based movements in exercises that benefit stand up paddling and most any other sport where your arms and shoulders are getting worked.

Jack sells Wave Chi Hawaiian Surf Clubs you can order from him at canoe@hawaii.rr.com.

Take a look at Jack's video


www.StandUpPaddleFlatwater.com
Thank you for buying your SUP gear from us, we appreciate your support.

Jack Gillen Shares the Stoke

Standup paddle season in Bend starts with a party. And Ed and Judy Shasek shared the aloha with the first party of the season at their home on the Deschutes River. We were lucky enough to get another visit from Jack Gillen, owner of Wave Chi Hawaii. Jack visited Bend last year and inspired our then-new paddling group with his stories of inter-island crossings. Jack recently returned and gave us an excuse to kick off our party season.

Jack talked to our local Bend, Oregon, Standup Paddle group about his physical conditioning and awarness business, Wave Chi Hawaii. It was a great time. Judy made her famous Florida-Style Pulled Pork and the rest of us added our potluck favorites.

Captain Sawdust shared his new handmade wood Stand up Paddles. Jack included a new physical fitness option for paddlers (or anybody using their arms and shoulders - all of us!) in his presentation. He demoed a few moves with Indian Clubs that are specific to paddling. You can contact Jack Gillen to order a pair of Indian Clubs. He's working on a video to share his Indian Club exercises.

Jack Gillen was recently featured with a 10 page article in Surf and Sail Standup Journal. If you live Bend, Oregon, stop by and see Randall to pick up a copy.

www.StandUpPaddleFlatwater.com

Stand up Paddle Board Size: 3 Things to Know

This photo of Jack Gillen only shows part of his quiver and he rides them all! The luxury of a standup paddle board quiver assures that you always have the perfect board for the site and conditions of the day and for who you are. Men, women, kids and seniors, everyone buying a standup paddle board has different needs. Make sure the first board you get suits your expected needs, here's three things you need to know.

1. Size for your weight.
Study the dimensions of the boards you're considering and make sure you don't go too small. The general rule is that once you're up to paddling speed you don't want the tail to drag. Stepping slightly forward will smooth-out the water release at the tail but if the board is too small your nose will dig in. Watch other paddlers of similar weight, note the tail turbulence and trim of their board when underway. Ask for the dimensions or at least the length of their boards and size yourself accordingly. Board makers generally agree on certain dimensions. For example, 11' boards that are around 29" wide and 4 1/4" thick, or 12' boards that are 30" wide and 4 1/2" thick. The flotation is a combination of the length, width and thickness of the board. If you can't test a board or are inexperienced, listen to the advice and experience of others.

The division between light and heavyweight in windsurfing is 170# and I think it's a good reference weight for standup paddle board flotation. Heavyweights should have the biggest boards around 12'. Paddlers right at 170# do well on 11' boards and very-lightweights can go as short as 10'.

2. Size for your water conditions.

There are three basic water conditions: flatwater, roughwater, and surf. Flatwater is the ideal condition to check for tail turbulence and trim. You can see your wake and actually hear turbulence. You will even be able to trim a board that is too small but don't get cocky and think this will work for you in all conditions. The size and weight recommendations above work well in flatwater.

Roughwater will not be forgiving. The board seems much less stable and the nose will dig into the chop. The board that seemed fine in flatwater will seem too small. Get a bigger board for roughwater, approximately six inches to one foot longer. For all of our paddle adventures around our home in Bend, Oregon we are often on longer boards for stability so that rarely fall in the cold water.

Surfing has contrasting demands. You want speed and stability for paddling-out and catching waves, which favors bigger boards. Once you are riding a wave you want maneuverability and high performance, which favors smaller boards. Beginners in the surf should stick to the same board they use in roughwater. It will catch the waves easier and you won't fall so often. Better surfers will prefer smaller boards. They've learned the nack and timing for paddling out and catching waves so the performance when riding the wave is primary. 11' and 12' boards work fine in the surf for occasional surfers. High performance surfers are using 9'6" to 10'6" standup paddleboards. Stand up paddle boards we love in the surf are all the Paddle Surf Hawaii boards and the Hobie 10'6".

3. Size for your convenience.
There are many other things you do with your board other that riding it. You carry it to the water. You hoist it up on top of your head to load it on your vehicle. You store it someplace.

It's no good to set your heart on a certain 12' beauty if you cannot physically handle it, especially when the wind blows! Try picking it up and carrying it, hoist it over your head. If you have trouble, look for a board with a hand slot or buy our handle kit to attach a carrying handle. Smaller boards like the Amundson 11'3" and Hobie 11'2" are lighter weight with thinner rails and are easier to handle when out of the water, making these boards especially popular with women stand up paddle boarders. It's worth sacrificing some paddle glide by choosing a smaller board if it means that you can carry and load it. Also, check where you have to store it. If it needs to fit into the locking personal storage in your vacation condo, you better test this before you purchase. Having a smaller board in the locker is better than having a big board stolen from the carport rafters!  Easy carrying, loading and storing is part of the love affair with your first board.

Stance for Standup Paddling

There are two commom stance positions for standup paddling, facing the nose with a foot near each rail and the fore-aft position with one foot toward the nose and one toward the tail. Each stance has a different function.

The front-facing position is most stable to stabilize side-to-side tippiness of the board. Before you get the board moving through the water or when its moving slow it's most tippy and having the feet out on the rails controls this type of instability. This stance is also symmetrical for standup paddling on each side and allows a good reach forward with the paddle. This achieves early powering of the stroke. This stand up paddle stance is very efficient for long distance, stability and straight tracking of the board.

The photo of Jerry Bess in the top photo shows this position.

The fore-aft paddling position is for when the board has gained more speed on the water or if you want to control the stand up board in a nose down or tail down oriention. Once the board is moving faster, side-to-side instability isn't an issue. The rushing water lifts and stabilizes the board. The concern now is either keeping the nose up so it doesn't dig-in, or sinking the tail for a turn. With one foot forward and one foot back you can make major weight shifts to control the level of the board. Stand up paddling isn't as efficient in this position. It's hard to change sides and theres a tendancy to continue the stroke too far toward the tail, thus turning the board. An important tip for the fore-aft stance is: Bend at the knees and ankles not the waist. Keep the weight of your butt over the board. Don't stick your butt out!

In the second photo notice Jerry has caught a wind swell and switched to the fore-aft stance to keep the nose from digging-in. He also dipped the paddle in the water for stability.

Photos courtesy of Jack Gillen and standuppaddlebend.com

Jack Gillen Shares His Stoke - Open Ocean SUP

I searched the beaches and surf shops for several days in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii for a standup paddling experience. Finally, I had a chance meeting with Jack Gillen at Honokahou, HI and my dream came true. I introduced myself and said I'd been searching for a way to try SUP. "Do you mind if I try it." "Sure" Jack said, "take it out for awhile in the bay." Thanks Jack for my first SUP experience!

Little did I know that a year later Jack would be at my home and telling stories to our local SUP group. We had a potluck dinner and get-together to honor Jack's visit.

Jack is an excellent story teller and has an explosive enthusiasm for SUP. He personally owns 32 SUP boards, scattered throughout the Islands, and a whole quiver of paddles. His SUP crusade has taken him on some amazing voyages where he's met many interesting people in the SUP world. We also discovered that Jack has many interesting and creative ideas, most of which involve getting other people out to experience the super-fun aspects of the sport and reap the benefits of physical conditioning. He uses himself as an example, "if a normal guy like me can do this so can you" says Jack, "you don't have to be a waterman like Laird Hamilton."

For many standup paddlers, the most fun is the open water down-winder with swells. Sure, the breaking waves are a climax of fun but limited. Limited because accessible surf breaks are rare, dependent on conditions, crowded and (in Kona) breaking on dangerous rocky shores. "The open ocean has no crowds and no rocks"says Jack. He likes catching swell after swell and the meditative part of getting in the zone on a long paddle. Other rewards Jack mentions are physical conditioning and the occasional religious experience!

To prove his "average person can do this" point, Jack decided to SUP every major channel crossing in the Hawaiian Islands. The story of each crossing kept us glued to our seats and gave me one conclusion. Jack is no average person! Can you imagine a 24 hour paddle trip, meaning you paddle all night? Sure, it was a full moon, but the moon set and he was dropping-in on huge swells in pitch dark for hours. On another crossing the wind shifted and blew him to leeward of the island destination. Luckily, once in the lee, the wind was sheltered enough to make up-wind headway to an exhausted landing. Jack has also competed in the Maui to Molokai and Molokai to Oahu races, encouraging us to race in our local events. He always ends a story with a safety precaution, don't try this on your own. Use caution with physical preparation, an experienced guide and a rescue boat. For training Jack advocates a blend of Tai chi, calisthenics and his own concoction of health/nutrition regimes. Not to mention, paddle, paddle, paddle.

So, Jack, we're all coming over to the Islands to do this with you! What could be better than to indulge in paddling, physical conditioning and open ocean adventure!

standuppaddlebend.com Contact Jack: canoe@hawaii.rr.com 808-756-7073

PHOTO 1: Jack took this photo of me paddling in front of the Honokahou State Park, Kona.
PHOTO 2: Jack sharing the stoke with the Bend, OR paddle group. Thanks Jack!

Jack Gillen and Tod Woldridge Connect for Island SUP

Jack Gillen from Kona, HI visited our SUP Flatwater group last month and gave a great talk sharing his stories about island to island SUP. Tod Woldridge (a member of our Bend, Oregon SUP group) connected with Jack for a great afternoon of paddling and surfing at Honokahou Harbor. Note the bend in Jack's bamboo paddle shaft!