We build canoes.

Periodawhat

November 18, 2011

BEEP BEEP BEEP As I separate dreams from reality. It’s still dark, why did my alarm go off? Shoot, it’s winter. Do I really need to paddle this morning? Maybe I’m coming down with a sore throat. Is that rain I hear? Must be a thunderstorm. I’ll sleep for just 15 more minutes and then feel better. Uuuggghhhh…. My bed is so warm. I hate paddling.

For most people in the Northern Hemisphere, winter means holiday music, fireplaces, and hot chocolate. For us it means paddling OC-1 in the dark. In the cold. In the rain. It means coming home late at night or leaving early in the morning. It means not seeing our family. Taking time off of work. Spending lots of money.

Paddling is a huge commitment. We all do it for different reasons. Whether it’s for racing, to stay in shape, to be on the ocean, to feel connected to our ancestors, to meditate, or all of them combined. We’ll never be able to agree on why we paddle. But we can all agree on the importance of making sure that every workout counts. That all of the sacrifice is worth it.

There are a few ways to train. Most common for recreational athletes would be a flat and linear method. Meaning that training density (volume/intensity) is relatively consistent throughout the year. Maybe for a couple of weeks before a big race it’ll come up, but for the most part we’re doing the same thing year round. What happens with this method is that the body will quickly adapt to the training and then plateau. So the only improvements we see are mechanical or knowledge (race experience, surfing ability) related.

Another method that a lot of elite athletes do is also linear, but the training density slowly increases to keep the body from adapting and plateauing. However, what invariably happens is that the athlete will increase the training load until they literally fall off the cliff. They will go from overreaching to overtraining. The body will reach its physical limit and without being able to recover and adapt, it will break down.

The most effective way to train is to combine these two systems. It’s called Progressive Overload. Training will increase in a linear fashion until the athlete goes to the edge of their physical abilities, and then they will stop and recover. Everytime you stop, the edge of the cliff gets extended. Your body supercompensates. The most common way of instilling this in to your training program is to separate each month into a four week cycle. Each four week cycle consists of three weeks of building and then one week of rest. Then the next cycle starts with a slightly higher training load than the previous. In this fashion you keep increasing the load, you avoid plateauing, but you also avoid overtraining. The hard part is finding the sweet spot. Finding the edge of the cliff. Go too far and you overtrain, go to little and you plateau.

The other key training tool is Periodization. It’s an intimidating word for an extremely simple concept. It’s a term for splitting your year into periods, or phases. The reasoning being that the body adapts to different intensities in different ways. Our body has three main energy generators. If you make a movement right now (throwing your computer out the window for example), the energy used for that motion is stored in your muscles in the form of Adenosine Triphosphate. You only have a couple of seconds worth of stored energy before you need to start converting glycogen into the energy required for motion. If you were to throw your computer out the window and then sprint after it, you would be metabolizing carbohydrate without the use of oxygen. Which is a quick and powerful way to produce energy, but the by-product is lactic acid. There is recent evidence that suggests that lactic acid produces Human Growth Hormone, but, we're concerned more with the fact that lactic acid causes rapid fatigue in the muscles. It’s that burning sensation you get at the end of a regatta. As paddlers, our primary source of energy is going to be aerobic. It means that we’re metabolizing glycogen for energy but able to take in enough oxygen to neutralize the lactic acid. It is where the energy would come from after you chased down the computer, realized it was broken, and then had to run to the Apple Store to buy a new one. Anything over a couple minutes will be aerobic.

Each energy system reacts differently to training. Anaerobic fitness comes quickly, but goes just as quickly. Aerobic fitness is slow to come, but slow to go. Which is where the term base training comes from. Base training means that we are working on expanding our aerobic potential. It’s the low intensity training that expands our lung and heart capacity, our metabolic pathways, our circulatory system, and even the mitochondria in each cell. All of these physical changes occur very slowly. Whereas high intensity anaerobic training adaptations happen much quicker, especially if someone has a well developed base. What this means, and what Periodization does, is that high intensity training will be focused at the end of the year. Right before the race that you want to achieve peak performance in. The hard part, for paddlers, is to put in the time at low intensities.

A lot of the physical adaptations from training will happen at both high and low intensities. But, the main reason to focus on keeping the intensity low for most of the year is that your body can’t handle high intensity and high volume. So, you get more benefit with a higher training volume and a low intensity.

With all of that in mind, setting up a training schedule according to the precepts of Periodization and Progressive Overload is easy. The next blog post will be on the specifics of Periodization and on how to set up the schedule.

So that next time your sitting in the dark in your car, with your windshield wipers on, your heater blasting, your coffee cradled in your hands, debating on whether you should rig your canoe. You’ll have an answer. And hopefully you’ll have a little more inspiration to get on the water.

Ka'apahu Video

November 07, 2011

I know this isn't Friday and we promised to update the blog every other week, but... this is a special occasion. Makana Denton (Team Kamanu rider extraordinaire and Kamanu Composites canoe Finisher/Repairman/Sprayer extraextraordinaire) has put together a short clip of the Ka'apahu. The footage is from a practice run they did with some GoPros and the end footage is from an Iphone at the Pa'a 'Eono Hoe (that the Ka'apahu won). And, the canoe also happens to still be for sale. The price has been reduced to $18,000 (comes with 'iako, hull, and ama), and can still be custom painted. You can read more about it here: kamanucomposites.com/2011/kaapahu.

New Commercial

November 04, 2011

Here's our newest commercial. Thanks to Devin Graham for filming the solo and putting this together for us. Hopefully next time there's a bit more surf.

It will appear on the three episode outrigger canoeing series that will be on Shaka Shakedown on K5 and hopefully one day on Ocean Paddler Tv.

Shipment Status

October 21, 2011

For all of our California, Washington, Canada, and Japan customers-- Here are some much needed updates. Our container should arrive at Newport Aquatic Center next week. Danny Ching will be unloading the canoes and then contacting all of the California customers to arrange for pick-up.

The Seattle and Canada canoes will be getting picked up by KAS Transport on the last week of October. Canoes will be driven up to Alan Goto in Seattle by the end of the month.

Our five Japanese Pueos are all under production, and will hopefully begin shipping out on JAL in early November. Because of the way the air-freighting works, they likely will fly up in pairs as they are completed. Kenny Keneko will receive and distribute them as necessary.

A huge Mahalo to Newport Aquatic Center and all of the staff there for their support of our annual containers.

Tere Maita'i

October 07, 2011

One day changed everything for the outrigger canoe in Hawai’i. On October 17^th, 1976 the Tahitian built canoe, Tere Mata’i, followed by three other Tahitian crews, blazed across a glassy Kaiwi channel to dominate the Moloka’i Hoe. The Hawaiian and Tahitian outrigger canoes went down drastically different paths in the 19^th and 20^th centuries; and it was not until the 1976 Moloka’i that the varying canoes and styles of paddling came into direct competition with each other. The victor of the competition was clear, and it forced Hawai’i to figure out an identity for the Hawaiian Outrigger Canoe.

The Tahitian domination brought Hawai’i into the modern age of outrigger canoeing as a sport and those who participated in Hawai’i were forced to look deeply into the meaning and preservation of that sport. The controversial spark of 1976 was the Tere Mata’i. Not only was it completely revolutionary in design, it was equally revolutionary in construction. It was built with laminated strips of balsa wood, which allow the builder to move out of the matrix defined by the Koa log. In pre-contact Polynesia, the individuality of each log made every canoe unique. When massive Redwood logs would drift from North America and land on the shores of Kaua’i and Ni’ihau, Hawaiians would use those logs to make huge voyaging canoes. These Redwoods of pre-contact Hawai’i opened up possibilities for the Hawaiians in just the same way that composite and laminate canoes open up possibilities now. The Tahitians moved on from the matrix of the log with wood laminate construction without qualms as part of the evolution of the canoe.

The success of the Tere Mata’i in 1976 divided the paddling community. The HCRA adopted a strict set of strict regulations based on measurements of fifty hybrid fishing canoes in Hawai’i in order to ensure that the Hawaiian Canoe did not move out of the matrix defined by the log; effectively ending the evolution of the canoe.

The Tahitian canoe has continued to evolve freely with very few restrictions, while its Hawaiian counterpart has only had halting progress within the regulated limitations. There are currently only two sanctioned competitive models of canoe in Hawai’i. Nowadays OHCRA sanctioned canoe races are extremely fair. When someone wins, the design of their canoe will rarely be considered a factor in the win. This has brought the focus completely on the people in the canoe rather than the canoe itself.

In removing the uniqueness of each individual canoe, we are losing sight of what makes paddling more than just a sport. It's not a test of fitness. We don't race merely to see who the best paddlers are. We paddle to perpetuate the canoe and the history of Polynesia.

The Moloka’i Hoe is undoubtedly the greatest and most influential outrigger canoe race in the world. Other races are longer, harder, and more competitive, but the Hoe is the granddaddy of them all. It also happens to be governed by the only remaining association in the world that won’t let go of the archaic restrictions on design.

“Kamanu,” in our name, references the Manu on a six-man canoe. It is a unique design feature only found on Hawaiian canoes. It leads the canoe, encompasses the canoe, and is a constant reminder to us that whatever path the company takes, we will always be rooted in the tradition of Hawaiian canoe paddling. It doesn’t mean that we have to restrict ourselves to what has been deemed “traditional,” but it means that we should never forget where we come from

In the same fashion. Let's never forget the path that the canoe has taken, but lets perpetuate the life of the outrigger canoe by letting it evolve.

Goodluck to all of the competitors in the Moloka'i Hoe this weekend. Be safe, take care of the ocean, and respect your canoe. It has traveled over 2,000 years to arrive at its present state. Let’s hope that it continues to evolve over the next 2,000 years.