Master Blaster
Former OC1 Champion Karel Tresnak, Jr.
We had two notable outrigger paddling events this past weekend. First, the one that made it into the newspapers: the world championship for solo one-person canoes (we call them OC1s, as opposed to an OC2 that has two paddlers, and the big OC6 boats with six paddlers). This is a grueling 32-mile race from Molokai to Oahu, crossing the notorious Kaiwi Channel, often one of the roughest stretches of open ocean in the world. The very top paddlers can do it in under four hours. Danny Ching was the overall and men’s winner this year, but it was a squeaker. After 32 miles of nip-and-tuck racing, Ching’s winning margin was 32 seconds. That’s close for distance work. Ching is also the first non-Hawaii paddler to ever win the OC1 crown. The women’s winner was no surprise. Lauren Bartlett won her 7th world championship and fourth in a row. While most of the paddlers were in their 20s and 30s, there were some younger and at least one in his 60s.
Not feeling quite so energetic, my own team staged a “Master Blaster”. We only do this once a year and you will understand when I explain the rules. Racing OC6 canoes, your crew gathers one six-pack apiece and musters on the beach. Each crew member drinks one beer, then you rig the boat (attach the outriggers to the canoe). You then drink another and launch the canoe. Clambering aboard, you paddle as fast as you can to the first mark (maybe a quarter mile). Then you down another brew. You paddle back to another mark close to the beach, where we drank the fourth can. You hustle your boat to the beach, where you unrig the canoe and drink the fifth beer and the winning crew is determined. Most of us, being “master” paddlers, are canny and sly. We cheat. You drain much of the beer over the side when the other crews aren’t looking. Of course, all the crews know this and are doing it, too. The sixth beer, by the way, is in case you get thirsty during the pot-luck feast that follows on the beach. Good fun.
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Returning briefly to my usual international trade beat, I’m sure you are seeing all the stories about how the ash cloud from the Iceland volcano is disrupting travel and therefore business. Airlines are hurting, business meetings are canceled, hotels and restaurants feel it when their customers can’t arrive, and even Formula 1 teams had a tough time getting parts out of Europe for their race in Shanghai this weekend (not to mention getting back afterward). I was intrigued, though, by a story from the Indian edition of the Wall Street Journal. India’s exports of jewelry and gems have been disrupted since flights weren’t able to get into Belgian or U.K. airports, the European jewelry centers. This must be an industry that has pushed just-in-time delivery to an extreme, if they are running out of stock so quickly. The same article noted that India has plenty of gold in its vaults, so delivery of gold to India from Europe is not so crucial.
