EJ’s Training Log continues in Uganda on the Nile

Goal: I wrote training logs from 1988-1996 and no real log since. As the World Championships approach, I figure it will do me good to have one, and hope you enjoy reading it too. I am starting with a short summary of paddling to date this year.

January 1-January 20th:

I have paddled an average of 6 days per week, mostly at the Brave Wave and the hole, with some on the top waves too. Nick and I have been lifting weights semi-consistently. I am getting stronger for sure, able to do more dips and chin ups then before.

Technique:
I am strong with my Helix, Pan-Am, getting stronger with Clean Air-blunts. My McNasty on the Brave Wave isn’t as good as before, but I haven’t been throwing it often. My Blunt/nasty combo isn’t getting a lot of practice either.
Stephen has me working on the Flashback and that is starting to feel good. The Brave Wave isn’t the ideal spot for it but it sure does help to practice it there.
My weakest area is the right air screw and right entry move. I need to get that down quick!
Generally speaking I can do any move at any time under pressure, but my ability to stick on the wave needs to get attention now. When you have no line and you have plenty of time to do your rides, it is easy to let yourself flush when it takes practice to stay on the wave!

February 6th, 2007

Over the past two weeks we have had a combo of Brave Wave and the hole. Jay Kincaid arrived last week and has been part of the training group. With Jason Craig, Dane, Emily, Ruth, Stephen, Nick, Jay, and I all training, we decided to break into two groups. My selfish training motives had me break it into Senior Men, and the rest. This way Jay, Stephen, Nick, and I could train together. Clay is still out from his knee surgery.

Today was a 3,000 cfs hole session. We did a variety game where you get three rides at 10 seconds, 20 seconds, 30 seconds, and 45 seconds and the goal is to get as many points as you can (by doing as many high scoring moves as possible). Jay and Nick beat me in the 10, and the 20 second rides today, but I won the 45 second one. Today Jay paddled the 4 fun and really liked that boat in the hole.

Our last session was at the Brave Wave and we did high scoring rides, with no time limit. I hit over 100 points on one ride but was low on the other two.

Last night was a weight session with Jay and Nick. Jay can do the heavy weights, benching 225 12 times with ease on his third set. My heavy weight on that is only 185 and only 10 times on my third set. We did dips, chin ups, bench, curls, overhead presses, abs,and rows. A few days ago we did circuit weights and I overdid it, throwing up after my third set of rows. The way we do the circuit weights pushes the limits of your pain threshold but is great for a fast, hard workout. The main reason for the weights is too cold of weather for a lot of extra paddling, or even two per day sessions. The weights allow us to be ready when the volume increases dramatically, like in a few weeks when I leave for Uganda to train for worlds and film the new 2007 Promo video.

Africa:

The past three days have been hard traveling days. On Sunday we drove up to DC a 12 hour drive in the landcruiser, and then took an overnight flight on Monday night to London. I managed to sleep on that flight. We spent 12 hours in the airport on Monday and then took an overnight flight to Uganda, which was a hour longer than the London Flight. I didn’t sleep on that flight due to the timing being way off for sleeping and being restless. We arrived at 8:30 Am in Entebbe, Uganda and got a shuttle to the river which is 3 hours from the airport. We all arrived tired but very excited to hit the river. After unpacking into our 4 person banda we hit the river as fast as we could, with Dane leading the way.

Day 1: We paddled tired but the warm up got us from being stiff any more. The “club” wave was in and was awesome! It is not as big as Buseater and is reversed from the Bus in that it has the shoulder on river surfers left instead of right, but is perfect for working on just about everything! We got to surf with just Emily, Dane, Nick, and I and tired ourselves out nicely! I wasn’t “working” on anything in particular, but just going through the lower impact moves. The first few days after arriving in a place like the Nile, it is easy to over do it and get sore, or hurt.
Things that are going well so far:
Clean blunts
Pan Ams
Helix and flip turns
Things that need work:
Back moves
Keeping air screws straight.

The others did a night session, I did not. I will get past three days before I push myself too hard. It takes two days to get your body sore to know just where you are not in shape.

Ate squash soup and pasta for dinner. Slept from 9 pm-5 am and tried to sleep to 6 but I couldn’t

Day 2: March 1, 2007
We wanted to go out at 6:30 but the water level wasn’t good until 9:30am, so we ate breakfast and waited for that.

AM: Workout #1: Technique- learn Flash Back better, and make sure Clean blunts are good.
I finally got my flash back down good.
Need to wind body up more and keep it that way for the set up and then stomp and lift the feet.
Clean blunts are still leaning way back but it works well for the clean pan ams!

I tried a rodeo ride and couldn’t do moves without a good set-up. This is what the World Championships will be all about. People who surf big waves, don’t usually realize just how long they spend setting up moves. I think one more day until I will spend 50% of the time on moves and 50% of the time working on rodeo rides, or picking moves that go together.

PM: Nile Special and Club wave

The Nile Special is awesome, even when you have to tow on! It is big, green, steep, and fast! My rides weren’t special but very fun. The Club wave gave me the biggest air I have had since we arrived. Mostly I was doing lefty pan ams. I didn’t get any helixes on Nile special.

Friday, March 02, 2007,
AM: We got up early today (6am) and paddled from 7-9. I started off being stiff and not throwing hard but got loosened up after 30 minutes. I decided to work on Flash backs both ways first. I was able to do counting flashbacks about 3 out of 5 times both ways. The real issue is that setting up moves is still taking WAY too long. We played PIG after and that was really fun. We did three moves and they were typically good ones. The score was Dane Pig, Nick Pi, and me a P. We were tired and it was breakfast time, so we quit the game.

It is getting near time for two things: 1. Doing things fast, and 2 filming for the promo video.

PM: We tried going out at 2:00pm today when the water was rising to see what that would be like. The Club wave was good from 2pm-3:00pm and not as good from 3-4:00 but then got good at 4;30 and beyond (big). Nile special got good about 4:00.

Stephen was taking photos at first, so I tried to go big on a few rides but didn’t get anything spectacular. The wave wasn’t a good level for really going big. I then tried to get a routine started.

Routine #1 Beginning
Flashback left
Flashback right
Clean pan Am left
Helix left
My thought process so far is that the flashbacks (clean backstabs initiated off of a spin, which scores as a clean backstab) is quick, doesn’t need to be set up at the very top and fairly low risk. When I mess them up, I usually just go too flat. Clean pan am left- I am doing them well and landing in a backsurf and should be retentive (I need to test them when the wave is really flushy.) Helix Left seems to be a good move for me, as well as helix right.

I tried the routine three times, or more and never got it. I couldn’t even get past the flashbacks. It was a simple case of internal focus instead of external focus. I tried to go fast and each time I simply messed up the moves. My volley pace on the big wave is too slow right now and I pushed past it to where I couldn’t do anything. I need to set my focus on the way in the wave, and will likely be more focused on the people on shore, make sure they are watching, and then show off for at least two moves, and then reset focus on them again in two move spurts.

March 3, 2007

Today is my birthday! I got a card from Kristine that Emily gave me in the morning, very cool! Kristine is my favorite person in the whole world. We at breakfast as soon as it came out at 9am, and got a shuttle to Kalagala falls to run the Day 2 section of the White Nile. This section isn’t very hard if you walk Kalagala, which we did. It is just a rock fest of a drop with a clear line about 3 feet wide. Last year we all ran it at much higher water when the hole was the big deal. No hole at this level. We will run it before we leave, for sure, but our motivations right now are getting on good waves and surfing. We paddled down to the “hair of the dog” rapid to surf a wave called “mutts nuts”. It is an awesome wave, steep, tall, and mostly green. It is also a lot of exercise, and will tire anyone out quickly. We lasted two hours on it non-stop before being ready to call it quits.

We all got some good moves on it, with Nick and Dane doing the best. The photos and video show bigger moves on that wave than club wave or nile special, but our camera angle wasn’t the best. I also pulled into the eddy only to be stared down by a King Cobra that was swimming in the eddy, head up and in full flaired out position. We all got to see it, except for Emily who refused to come into the eddy until it went away.

Training: This was mostly a play session. I went hard but am glad we weren’t competing today. My helix was terrible, I kept leaning back. I need to practice a full face on the deck posture. On small waves you can’t lean back and do a helix, on big waves is just doesn’t work well but possible, why I do it right on small waves, but not big ones is something I have to figure out. I found out that I lean back on my pan ams and blunts on a big wave, instead of forward like on small waves. The effect is that my body is higher but my boat is lower (equal and opposite reaction) and slows the move down. I need to practice snappy body forward Pan ams, clean pan ams, blunts, and helixes.

My airscrew was good on Garberator this past summer, but is back to the old Pan Ammy type of cockeyed ones again. I need to practice the correct body position for screwing straight and landing straight. Perhaps the righties will help with that.
Watch EJ’s Advanced Playboating: Air Screw and study body posture
Where to throw arms
Where to throw head
Where to throw feet
Came home and rested, captured video, photos, and began to organize clips for promo video.
Dinner was a pig roast, yummy!

March 4, 2007
Three workouts today! I am getting stronger and ready to blow myself out today, rest some tomorrow, and then my body should know who is boss and respond properly to the rest of the trip.

AM: 7-9: Club Wave- go for most points
EJ: 160 was my best score- every move went well:
Both flashbacks, helixes, clean blunts, back pan ams, and one clean pan am
We all just did 45 second rides, timing ourselves.

12:00-2:00pm World Championships #1
Prelims scores:
Ride 1: 15 points (entry move, stuck and then flushed)
Ride 2: 56 points (flushed early- did clean blunts and helix, and back pan am, no flashbacks)
Ride 3: 108 points (good ride- helix, both clean blunts, Pan Am, Flash Back, Back Pan Am)
EJ total prelims score (best two of three): 164
Nick total: (94+66= 160)
Dane total: (38+46=84)
Semi-Finals Scores:
Ride 1: 38 (poor execution of moves, plus early flush)
Ride 2: 66 (poor execution of moves)
Nick: 15 and 66- tie breaker by paper,scissors, rock (I won with scissors, weird)
Dane: 56
Finals Scores:
EJ
78 (wanted to throw down the winning ride on this but struggled on the moves)
66 (don’t remember)
103 (went out to win the event and did, sweet!)
Nick
66
76
94 (good ride)
Dane:
25
58
46
Workout #3: Nile special, big club wave
This was a short session- I was too tired and the line was long. No good moves.

March 5, 2007

Short session- Rest Day
Nick and I went out to learn to do straight Air Screws, I worked on helix, flip turns, and mcnasty, and a single right air screw.
I learned that my body position for my airscrews is screwing up alright! I need to throw more down and not throw my hand up.

Lean forward on helix
– got to go, catch up later…