Surfski Knowledge Base

Daryl Remmler

As always, the build-up to the Steelcase Dragon Run is a challenge. With the race being run in the later part of November, it's not easy to stay keen on training, especially when the weather here at home turns nasty. Regardless, with the help of a few hearty souls, I stayed on the water a few days a week through the Fall, and even got in a few 20 km paddles, so the Dragon Run distance would be manageable.

I arrived in Hong Kong a few days prior to the race, and the race management team was quite stressed. It seems one of the boat suppliers was caught napping, and their container of race boats was arriving the following Tuesday, three days after the race! Everyone pitched in to come up with the necessary boats for the more than 100 international paddlers that traveled to Hong Kong for the event.

I have always paddled the Evo at the Dragon Run, as the conditions can be quite a handful for me, and frankly, I don't have the experience to relax on a 10 km open ocean leg, that takes you several km off shore. With the boat shortage present, I passed my Evo onto one of the paddlers that had arrived from Japan, and unwrapped the very new Eze, for it's maiden race adventure. At 17 feet, by 20 inches, the Eze is not meant to win races. It's supposed to be fun, and I had a blast!

The conditions were relatively light this year, with a fantastic wind driven wave coming over your left shoulder on the run to Nine Pins, and then switching to over the right shoulder on the long leg to the Kissing Whales. It's very important to watch your line in the Dragon Run, and it has happened more than once where a few paddlers have paddled to the wrong Island, or the wrong point. I was well aware of this, and you had to really work the waves on an angle to keep your line. If you ran straight with them, you would end up quite quickly having to paddle yourself out of a deep hole! The Eze was very comfortable, and quick to jump on every bump. The very stable platform meant I never missed a stroke, and was able to keep the boat speed up almost all the time. In short, I had a great race, and was quite surprised at how competitive I was in our little sports car.

After the race, a few people jumped in the Eze to take it for a spin. It was pretty much universal that everyone thought the boat was very fun, and surprisingly fast. As one fellow said, “it's like paddling a suped up Mini Cooper, and what's wrong with that!”
Now looking ahead to 2012, I really encourage everyone to take a look at paddling the Steelcase Dragon Run next November. It is a fantastic course, with a first class organization running the show. Hong Kong is an amazing world city, and if you have not had a chance to see it, I can't think of a better excuse to go.
Paddle your best,

Daryl