mattdrayer

Here's a fun highlight reel from a recent downwind session in Nahant Bay -- if we're linked up on Facebook you may have already seen it but thought I'd share here as well: Cheers, Matt

@Pintail I'm pretty sure it's not just perception -- we were down to four participants tonight for a course with a cracking downwind leg and great waves to ride -- the kind of stuff the group has been hoping for all season. Where was everyone? Some didn't show because they decided the conditions were too much for them, and of course that''s always the right decision. For others, it was mainly other commitments. Not so much that they were off mountain biking or kiteboarding or another activity. It's more along the lines of "I really want to be there, but I can't." It seems they have more important things to do (work, kids, etc.) than fool around in a gale with a boat and some friends for a couple hours

Our "Tuesday night" group has been talking about it again as well. Last week's race had five participants (four men and one woman), and that's been fairly typical for this season. My Boston Paddling Meetup Group experiment has been a bit disappointing -- lots of new events posted, 200+ new members have joined, several outfitters have joined, members are suggesting/organizing their own events, etc. However it hasn't driven as much growth as I'd hoped for the Tuesday night group. I know that Ed over at Kayak Learning Center is selling a lot of boats, but I'm not seeing those people joining the community. There are some good indicators, however -- 400 registrations for the 2017 Gorge Downwind Championships and the cap is being increased to 600 for 2018. I've also noticed an increase in race participation from RI/CT paddlers, much of it due to the effort of a couple guys located there who are really passionate about building the sport + community.

My takeaway re: posture is that I sit too upright, and I should be angled slightly forward -- not slouching or hunched, but leaning more forward. This does seem counter-intuitive because sitting up straight is what I've picked up from studying K1 paddlers. I have some video and will try to share it. After a bit more explanation of his approach, essentially the idea is that you want your paddle "out in front", shoulders loose, arms loose, reaching forward on the catch (with no forward-back torso movement) and "grabbing" the water. Foot -> leg -> hip -> torso -> draw blade back powerfully -> exit blade out/up to shoulder height -> reach forward with other arm -> repeat. For me, my upper body is too tense and I don't angle forward (-reach), my arms are too tense (-reach), I don't engage my legs or hips enough (-rotation/power) -- basically I need to do a whole lot of relaxing It does make sense, though, because I've been focusing so much on rotation this season -- sit up straight in the bucket, sink the blade and sweep it back, rotate around my spine, exit quickly -- I get tired just thinking about it When you watch Sean moving on the kayak erg, he almost looks like a swimmer doing the freestyle while sitting in a chair. So power. Such fluid.

Following up after Sunday's clinic w/ Sean Rice. The good news is that I have a lot to work on As with the session I attended with Sean in 2015, the material was informative and practical, and it's a whole lot of fun hanging out with a really great guy who also happens to be one of the best in the world at the sport. I highly recommend attending one of Sean's clinics the next time he's in town. So the topic of paddles obviously came up during the technical discussion. Sean sets his paddle to 212cm with a 60 degree feather. Sometimes he'll go longer, to 214cm. He said K1 paddlers will typically set their paddles shorter, with a 75 or 90 degree feather because they tend to paddle at a higher angle. In his approach to paddling a surfski, the idea is that you want to reach as far forward as you can on the catch -- to your feet or even a bit more. This explains my experience this year -- I changed the feather to R75 and had to shorten my paddle from 211 to 209. Doing so has improved my rotation, but lessened my forward reach on the catch...need to think about this more. As an additional data point, Sean's "cruising" cadence for a typical ~15-20k race is 52/104 strokes per minute (one side / both sides). I think I'm around 42/84 strokes per minute right now. So much to work on...

Also, just to follow up on last year's discussion re: feather angle. At the beginning of this season I tried out a Motionize unit for a couple sessions, because I wanted to see what it would say about my feather angle, and my stroke in general. I started with zero feather angle and incremented periodically until the analysis looked good (path through water, distance per stroke, etc.). I was amazed to see that an R75 feather angle was where I ended up. However, I've kept the paddle at R75 for training and racing all season and honestly have been very happy with the results. Oh, and I've also shortened the length from 211cm to 209cm and for downwind I've even shortened further to 208.5-208cm at times. I'm attending Sean Rice's "Advanced" clinic this Sunday and we'll be doing some erg-work + video analysis along with on-water analysis, so I'm interested to get his take as well.

Hi Josko -- timely! I just finished reading the first set of blog posts published by local paddler Shawn Burke at https://thescienceofpaddling.net/ -- the articles are quite technical, but Shawn does a good job with context and concepts. Topics such as drag, hull speed, paddle size, and more. I hope that Shawn continues to publish more articles. Matt

Over the winter I worked on an interview-style article with Epic Kayaks about crossing Massachusetts Bay -- it's now up on the site -- here's the link: http://www.epickayaks.com/article/article/capetocape Cheers, Matt

Hi Karen, It's a good idea to have your son try out as many boats as possible before buying something -- they really do come in all shapes and sizes. Along those lines you might consider taking a trip down to Billington Sea Kayak where they have a lot of boats to try out in a relatively calm/safe environment. Also, I always like to recommend Kayak Learning Center in Beverly -- they have a rental fleet and your son can try out several types of boats there -- they also offer lessons/camps for kids throughout the warmer months. I'm a surfski guy, and am considering an Epic V5 for my 10yo daughter, because it's a fairly simple design and drains quickly on its own. However I may pick up a tandem ski instead so I can introduce my son (8) to paddling as well. Cheers, Matt

Yes, but it has a higher probability of doing so than a bungee cord attached to my ankle.

You have to keep in mind that many surfski folks are coming from ICF/K1, lifesaving, and even SUP backgrounds -- PFDs are not necessarily an integral piece of gear to them the way they are to people who come to surfski from kayaking. For the most part I can understand their side of the argument when it comes to flatwater racing or even open ocean racing when conditions are benign, because most PFDs impede your stroke at least a little. That said, IMHO, simply being attached to a ski doesn't keep your head above water if you have been knocked unconscious when falling off of said ski, and I tend to fall off a lot, so I always wear my PFD. I also don't leash myself to the ski, and I don't leash my paddle to the ski, either -- not using leashes is something most surfski peeps think is insane, but in my experience the leashes are just entanglement hazards, and they get in the way of remounting.

Timely! http://tcsurfski.com/2016/09/29/tips-tricks-pros/ Also I highly recommend listening to the TC podcasts -- they are packed with great info for any paddler.

Where are you trying to go? Have you considered hiring a coach that will work with you on a custom program tailored to your goal(s) and hold you accountable for following it? Proponents of Deliberate Practice believe that yes, you should intentionally perform those 6 rolls (even better, do 60), but without a coach/expert providing feedback after each roll you won't reap the proper benefit of your deliberation. You will just get better at performing 6 (or 60) suboptimal rolls in a row...

Yes, I've considered this as well for a long time. Being a not-for-profit, I've often wondered what the ultimate end-state is for the AMC's efforts. The AMC's stated mission on the website is "Founded in 1876, the Appalachian Mountain Club promotes the protection, enjoyment, and understanding of the mountains, forests, waters, and trails of America’s Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions." The club is executing on their Vision 2020 plan, via five strategic initiatives: Expanding the Size, Breadth, and Strength of the AMC Community (read: increase membership) Getting Kids Outdoors (read: develop future members) Leading Regional Conservation Action (read: increase probability of future existence) Realizing the Larger Opportunity in Maine's 100-Mile Wilderness through AMC's Maine Woods Initiative (read: acquire property/assets) Advancing Excellence in Outdoor Recreation and Leadership Training (read: educate members on proper property/asset usage) In addition, the Join page describes the following benefits of membership: Access over 8,000 activities each year: paddling, biking, hiking, camping, skiing, climbing, and more Save BIG on lodging and goods: 20% off lodging, 10% off gear, 20% off books and maps. Plus more deals from AMC partners. Get inspired with AMC Outdoors: your members-only magazine... Feel satisfaction and pride: know your membership protects your favorite outdoor spaces. I find it interesting that 1) "paddling" is the first activity listed, and 2) per Robert's earlier point, no mention here of access to a huge community of like-minded people (100k members by 2020!). It's important to note that AMC performs an enormous amount of fundraising, which allows them to make progress toward all of these goals without increasing the cost-benefit ratio of actually BEING a member. One could argue that when a club gets to the point that fundraising is necessary to deliver benefits to members, it has crossed into unsustainable territory. This is a similar perspective to a certain type of political viewpoint on the role of government. So for the AMC, does it make sense to expand into sea kayaking? I don't think the AMC is interested in simply having a sea kayaking program for the sake of having a sea kayaking program. The AMC does own some coastal properties, and so there is an incentive to create a sea kayaking revenue stream at those locations. But I think the AMC is less concerned with developing a program for local sea kayakers to simply take trips to the Harbor Islands, or the Ipswich River, or Casco Bay. That aside, it does present an interesting opportunity for someone interested in developing a jewel of a sea kayaking program without having to raise funds on their own. One essentially has resources at their fingertips, and a huge base from which to build a community. But you do have to play by the AMC's rules if you're going to do it, because the club holds the purse strings.

(Note: I'm sorry if I'm becoming annoying with this conversation, but I seem to be quite passionate about this topic -- who knew?!!) So here is a good example of a club -- the AMC in this case -- not providing a valuable-enough community benefit to satisfy an existing member when compared to the cost being incurred, and so the member decided to leave the club. Josko, are you still a member of AMC for other reasons? I am a member of AMC (have been for a long time) and did a handful of paddling trips with AMC Boston Paddlers ~5 years ago, but stopped for similar reasons. I do attend trips/programs with AMC Boston Climbers, however, so overall my membership still provides benefits for me outside of kayaking. However I've been considering dropping my AMC membership over the past couple of years in favor of the American Alpine Club, which provides more specific benefits for my particular interests, for approximately the same cost as an annual AMC membership. What I also find interesting is Josko's comment that additional funding may have been available to improve this benefit, but it was apparently not taken advantage of. Why not? I would have expected that a "donation" to the program from AMC HQ would have been jumped on immediately - I mean, what club/program wouldn't want to take advantage of additional funds to provide more/better benefits to club members for the same costs? We're basically talking about free money, right? Is this where the issue of "leadership" comes into the picture?

So this is where things get interesting, imho, and is along the lines of the point I was trying to make earlier. Let's say NSPN offers these two great benefits (community #1 and education #2) to members, and total for the year these benefits cost the club $100 and operational overhead is $10. There are 10 members, and so the cost of membership is $11 to cover $10/member benefits plus $1/member operational overhead. If an 11th member joins the total cost of community+education benefits rises to $110 and operations now costs $11, still at $11/membership. All 11 members are completely satisfied with these awesome benefits, and the club could probably go on and on forever this way. So there basically is no incentive to increase interest in sea kayaking outside of the club in this case. In fact, to Josko's initial point, there may even be a disincentive to add members, in order to ensure optimal access to these benefits for current members (read: no waitlists!) If someone outside the club happens to get interested in sea kayaking on their own, they may discover NSPN and decide to become a member, thus receiving the club's benefits. Is this an issue? I dunno, it actually doesn't seem like it to me. If the club's fiscally sound / financially sustainable, and able to deliver great benefits at a price all of the members are willing to accept, then everyone's happy. Why mess with a good thing?

Sure, I just thought it might be useful to inject a more concrete example into the mix to test the argument. "NSPN" could have been written as "AMC" as well, in which case I personally think there's a lot of headscratching when it comes to offering sea kayaking benefits to club members. After all, it's the Appalachian Mountain Club, so why move into the sea kayaking space at all?

I actually consider the fact that there are other people to meet via the club one of its benefits, if not its greatest benefit

Each member joins a club for their own reasons, but most fundamental is the desire to attain one or more benefits that might not be otherwise available to that member in an individual context, whether due to the individual's financial status or another factor. Thus, a club's mission is to provide benefits via an optimized cost ratio for its members. So, 'Why increase interest?' is the $64K question. Is the club experiencing a decrease in revenue? Have costs increased? Either of these situations impacts the club's ability to fund benefits for its club members. A club faced with a benefit-funding gap has several strategies to consider: 1) decrease the quantity of benefits, 2) decrease the quality of benefits, 3) increase the cost of membership, 4) increase total memberships, 5) fundraising. If the benefit-funding gap is not addressed in some way, the club will begin to experience a death-spiral of declining membership due to dissatisfaction with the quantity and/or quality of benefits being provided to club members. But maybe everything is just fine with the club's finances, and members are completely happy with the benefits they are receiving. In this scenario there's no reason to increase interest from the club's perspective, because club members have everything they want for the price they're willing to pay. But this is an idealistic scenario, because everyone has an opinion. Some people want more/better benefits, some people (maybe the same people) want existing benefits to cost less, and some people are good with the status quo. So the club is forced to revisit benefits and costs at every fiscal cycle, and select from the solutions mentioned above (plus others I'm sure). At one of those cycles the club may determine that "increase total memberships" is the best strategy. That's when "increase interest" would be considered as a tactic to "increase total memberships", and things unfold from there. Does NSPN need to increase interest in sea kayaking? Matt

Companies are already finding ways to get people to buy multiple SUP boards (surfing, racing, yoga, expedition, flatwater, inflatable!) along with various paddles, leashes, PFDs, you name it. Already seeing it, too, with surfskis and that activity has hardly gotten off the beach. Epic offers 10 skis alone, and several people I know have a V8 for rough water, a V10 for normal conditions or ocean racing, and a V12 or even a V14 for calm conditions or flatwater racing. I'm also starting to see doubles racing picking up, so that's another boat in the quiver, as well. I've always said show me a hobby where you can't drop at least $1000 on a setup (more like $3-5k these days) and I'll show you a business opportunity. Matt

I can't really put my finger on a specific driver, but I can remember a cool dot-com-era marketing campaign for the Nissan Xterra: ...and reading about epic sea kayaking journeys on flash-in-the-pan extreme sports websites like "Quokka", reading the Tsunami Rangers' books about adventures on the West Coast, etc. Heck, I've kept a digital copy of a 2004 Outside article about the Blackburn Challenge in my Dropbox account for years because I love it Was there a driver pushing me toward sea kayaking? Most likely, yes, but nothing I can think of other than the overall "extreme" marketing machine. (Yeah, I definitely took that bait, and it still tastes good today, too) Actually, now that I think about it, Sesame Street may honestly have had something to do with it -- I still vividly remember this little vignette (TYVM, YouTube!): Matt

Very interesting point to consider, @josko. I feel like there must be some sort of equilibrium-based game theory to reference here When I think about it from my ultra-small-world vantage point, I want more people to paddle generally, because I want more people to paddle surfskis, because I want more people to race surfskis, because I want to continue racing surfskis. In addition, because I am lazy and want to avoid a long commute in order to race, I specifically want the Tuesday Night North Shore Series to continue for as long as I am able to participate. At present I feel the probability of the series enduring for longer than my ability to participate is low enough that I am willing to spend time+energy to improve the odds. From a sheer competition perspective, however, I should want exactly the opposite. I should want as few people involved in racing as possible to maximize my chances of winning -- ideally myself and only one other person who is less fit than me, but still willing to show up at every race that I attend. Even better, that person could become less and less fit over the course of the season, so I could spend less time+energy in order to win. I think the big question is "me" versus "we". From the competitive "me" perspective, it's great to win the race, find a great campsite, essentially be the first to accomplish a goal. But from the collaborative "we" perspective, new benefits come into the picture. MITA wouldn't exist without "we", Tuesday Night races wouldn't exist without "we", NSPN wouldn't exist without "we", and so on. In addition, for an organization like NSPN, where membership is a key driver of sustainability, I would think a key part of every year's plan is to grow the number of members, at least to the point at which sustainability has been reached and all members are satisfied with the benefits they are receiving. Beyond that point you could argue a not-for-profit has no reason to expand further. I read some great articles over the weekend about windsurfing, which is frequently-cited as one of those "has-been" activities that people did years ago but no one does today (saw someone flying on an RS:X @ Nahant on Saturday, btw...but only one...). Very similar discussions to what's being said here, but many were ca. 2005-2008. I also found the following articles on youth participation in sports interesting: http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2015/08/10/In-Depth/Lead.aspx http://www.forbes.com/sites/blakewilliams3012/2016/06/15/youth-sports-participation-continues-to-decline-and-congress-may-have-a-solution/#683857c677c8

Hi Katherine -- by club do you mean NSPN? I guess I have not -- I figured that since the information is publicly-available, and that the Meetup event descriptions simply point back to the original location, that I'm doing nothing more than what Google is already doing but targeting a more specific audience. If there's a formal review/approval process that needs go through that can certainly happen. What would be better, imho, is if someone from NSPN could officially represent the club on the Meetup group and post the events, answer questions, etc. Three local shops/guides have already joined to post/manage their events, and I'm waiting to hear back from several more. I'm already finding that building momentum for the Meetup group itself is taking up most of the time I have for the project.

The results for yesterday's L2L surfski class are broken down by age group. This is obviously constrained to people who not only specifically paddle surfskis, but also compete with them. Still, the numbers look like: Under 40 (12), 40-49 (12), 50-59 (23), 60+ (6). The good news is that 3/5 of the Top 5 were Under 40, and 4/10 of the Top 10. As far as getting new/more people involved, it's really a funnel of interest > discovery > trial > conversion > development. The way I see it, there are plenty of people interested in paddling, but they need to discover opportunities to learn more about padling. Once they've discovered an opportunity, a prospective kayaker can actually try it out. Maybe it's a pool session, maybe it's a demo day, etc. Assuming the trial goes well, our awesome organizations and outfitters in the area jump into the flow and help to convert them (ie, get a boat!) and develop their abilities. After reflecting on the above, I've come to my own conclusion that discovery in the Boston area is our biggest problem. Google can help, sure, but after reviewing a bunch of websites and looking at a dozen event calendars and forums and all, opportunities are highly fragmented, sites all work differently, etc. So I'm focusing my efforts on developing a place to aggregate all of that info. Events from clubs, guides, races, festivals, etc. I'm using an existing Meetup.com group that already has 500+ Boston-area paddlers ("interested"). Meetup is nice because there's a very low commitment cost for members (free, minimal info to provide, etc.) and the event scheduling and notification mechanism is fairly decent. Assuming I see some results (+membership, +participation) I'll keep going on this track. Matt

Results are up for this year's L2L event: https://paddleguru.com/races/LighthousetoLighthouseRace2016 If you were at the event post a quick comment letting us know how you did!