THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

YOUNG MAN AND THE SEA WATERY TEST FOR TOUGH ATHLETES
SPORTS: SEVENTEEN ORANGE COUNTY PADDLE BOARDERS ARE AMONG THE 70 IN THE CATALINA CLASSIC.

Sunday, August 24, 1997

Byline:
Credit: GARY ROBBINS: THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

The Abyss. Big Blue. The Whirlpool.

San Pedro Channel has many nicknames, and this morning Dan Kaiahua of Huntington Beach will learn why from the deck of his paddle board. There's a good chance he'll get caught in blinding fog. Or blown off course by unrelenting winds and currents. Or tossed by moving mounds of water 6 feet tall. Kaiahua is one of 17 Orange County athletes entered in today's Catalina Classic, a paddle-board race that features what can be one of the tougher courses in sports, the 32-mile stretch of ocean from Santa Catalina Island to the Manhattan Beach Pier.

The course crosses a watery wilderness where wrinkles in the weather can cause the wind to blow hard out of the north at the same time ocean currents are moving fast out of the south. It creates havoc for mariners trying to cross safely a trench that's 2,500 feet deep in spots. The rusting remnants of ill-fated freighters and yachts litter the channel floor.

"If I finish the race, I will have proven to myself that I can do something that's truly challenging," said Kaiahua, a 33-year-old lifeguard with piston-like arms. "It's personal."

A record 70 competitors _ including three women _ will take up the same challenge at 6 a.m. today, when the 22nd running of the Catalina Classic begins at Catalina's Isthmus Pier.

It could turn out to be a miserable experience for many. And it's unlikely that anyone will break the course record of 5 hours, 20 minutes.

At dawn, the waters off Catalina are likely to be covered with fog that will make it hard for paddle boarders and their escort boats to navigate, the National Weather Service has predicted. There also will be 3-foot waves out of the southwest. Later in the day, say forecasters, the winds will blow out of the west at 15-20 knots, creating sloppy seas and 6-foot waves.

The sun will eventually pierce the fog, hopefully in time for competitors to see freighters in the shipping lane that cuts through a course that is 11 miles wider than the English Channel. But the sun also will quickly cause dehydration in any athlete who does not drink enough fresh water.

In other words, today's conditions could be as bad as they were last year, when only half of the 64 competitors were able to finish the race and an escort boat was nearly swamped.

It's also possible that forecasters will turn out to be wrong and that Big Blue will be as flat and smooth as a pane of glass _ conditions that would greatly please Fountain Valley businessman Kip Kennedy.

Kennedy, 46, badly injured his right shoulder during last year's race while paddling through 6-foot seas, forcing him to quit after 22 miles of travel. He also came close to being run over by a Japanese cargo ship carrying Honda automobiles.

"I was wearing a waterproof Walkman and I initially didn't hear the ship's horn," said Kennedy. "Then I looked through the glare of the sunlight and saw it. I was like a deer caught in the headlights. My mind yelled, `retreat,' and I did. I still ended up coming close enough to the ship to surf its wake."

Making a hasty retreat isn't easy, especially in choppy seas. Competitors ride either a stock paddle board, which must be 12 feet long and weigh at least 20 pounds, or the more streamlined unlimited board, which is typically 16 feet long and weighs about 25 pounds. Both types are too big to make quick U-turns.

Competitors paddle while lying prone or kneeling on the deck. Paddle boards are made of Styrofoam and glass epoxy. Top athletes can propel themselves about 6 mph in decent conditions. But they must do so for hours, which takes a heavy physical toll.

The race can be even tougher on the psyche, competitors say. There are times when haze hangs low over the ocean and athletes can't see the island or the mainland. A sense of isolation and loneliness set in.

"I keep moving by asking myself questions like, `Can I paddle harder?' I challenge myself," said Mike Harnish, 34, a truck driver from Costa Mesa who has been training by paddling from Newport Beach to Catalina at night, when there's no sun to sap his strength and determinaton.

"The key is to never give yourself the option of quitting."

Motivation also can be found by relishing the cruel beauty of Big Blue.

"Entering the channel is like taking off into space," said Scott Conway, 23, a mechanic from Dana Point who will compete in the race for the fifth time.

"You enter an abyss. But the lights of the mainland are like distant stars. And you paddle into pods of dolphins that come within a few feet of your board. It's wilderness out there, a place that's almost untouched. It's humbling to be alone, in the middle of it. But it's spiritual, too. I love it." Register science writer Gary Robbins can be reached at (714) 953-7970. E-mail: grobbins@link.freedom.com (CHART_LIST) O.C. COMPETITORS

Orange County competitors in today's Catalina Classic Paddleboard Race: Stock division: T.K. Brimer, 48, Huntington Beach

Todd Butler, 26, Dana Point

Evan Cassaday, 25, San Clemente

Thorsten Hegberg, 28, Huntington Beach

Dan Kaiahua, 33, Huntington Beach

Scott Lincoln, 38, Newport Beach

Brian Rayner, 26, Balboa Island

Michael Rogers, 47, Costa Mesa Unlimited division: Scott Conway, 23, Dana Point

Jeff Erickson, 41, Newport Beach

Mike Harnish, 34, Costa Mesa

Kip Kennedy, 46, Fountain Valley

Michael Litter, 25, Sunset Beach

Jack Lundquist, 52, Huntington Beach

Rex Lundquist, 59, Huntington Beach

Rob Pelkey, 29, Capistrano Beach

Tom Vance, 32, Corona del Mar