Just like the Polynesians of old, Outrigger Iron Champs annual canoe races will be held on Saturday, June 22 at Mariners Point on Mission Bay.
Kai Elua Club out of Mission Bay will be hosting this outrigger long-distance race, where no crew changes are made with participants paddling the entire race. It is typically one of the largest races of the outrigger season running May-June sanctioned by the Southern California Racing Association, which is the governing body for the sport of outrigger racing in Southern California, Nevada, and Arizona.
Attendance is high at the day-long event, which includes kids racing, short/long course racing, vendors, food, and a beer awards ceremony, as well as a novice team dance competition. The local event sponsor is Burgeon Beer.
Noelle Murphy, Outrigger Iron Champs race director who has spearheaded the annual event for years, spoke of the race’s uniqueness and significance. “It’s six people in skinny Polynesian canoes with little things on the side for balance,” Murphy said adding Kai Elua, formed in 1978 with about 100 members, is one of four different San Diego outrigger clubs.
“During the long-distance iron season, six paddlers go out on the open ocean for 10 to 12 miles,” she said. “What’s cool about it is it keeps people of all ages active – and it’s on the water.”
Murphy said kids and novice racers go first in the morning followed by various other groups including women’s, men’s, and co-ed categories. She added racing festivities are complemented by a beer garden that opens at noon.
“We have awards presented on stage and we will have a ukulele group performing in the morning,” she said. “After the races in the afternoon, the novice paddlers have an initiation, a rite of passage, where they put together a little musical number together that they perform on stage. This year, the event is being renamed the Margot Darby Memorial Dance Competition, in honor of a strong paddler who died young.”
Dale Edwards, a local paddler who will be participating in the Outrigger Iron Champs as well as photographing it, noted the skill in piloting an outrigger lies in paddlers “mimicking the stroking of the person in front of them trying to stay with the same synchronized paddling motion.”
He added outriggers are the modern representation of the traditional Polynesian form of water transport in the Pacific Ocean where people island-hopped to explore and colonize new territories.
Of what it’s like to paddle, Edwards said: “The camaraderie is neat, everybody does their part. Each of the seats in the boat all have different functions, with the first person setting a nice smooth cadence, with everybody going to follow behind them.”
He added there are no rudders on 45-foot-long outrigger boats.
Now age 57, Edwards said the sport appeals to all ages adding he will be competing with, and against, people substantially younger. “I was hooked the first time I went,” said Edwards adding, “It’s challenging, you get a great workout, and your fitness is improved greatly by doing it. It’s also very family-oriented with people waiting on the beach. And, Southern California Racing Association races are zero waste, with 85% or more of everything used being recycled.”
OUTRIGGER IRON CHAMPS
When: Saturday, June 22, from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Where: Mariner’s Point Park, Mission Bay.
Info: outriggerironchamps.com.
PHOTO BY DALE EDWARDS
