Mahalo Outrigga

And with the men's Molokai race this past weekend, the season for 6-man is officially over.

At Tam site for the Kula Anela race

It was an odd run this year. We lost a lot of Open folks - people with 2+ years of paddling experience - but had a lot of new and returning faces turn up for Novice. The race association canceled the Alcatraz race - always a highlight - while the Tahoe race - a favorite of mine but not well-attended - got scrapped by the host club.

In Kona for the Queen Liliuokalani race

With 4 of the 6 women I paddled with last year out for 2012, I had to regroup and acknowledge that ours would not be a very competitive season. Having joined the club when it was big and blustery and dominant, it was a wee bit hard to accept being unable to compete at the level I'd possibly taken for granted in the past. Okay, okay, so it was really hard. It sucked. And yes, there were a few emotionally frustrating outbursts I'd prefer to erase from my memory but hey, that's what passion is! I mean the oft-referenced, indelible intro to Wild World of Sports isn't the thrill of victory and the - meh, of defeat. It's the agony of defeat! The agony, people.

In Santa Barbara for the Rig Run

Alas, life is cyclical and no one stays at the top forever. I suppose there's some character-building gem to be extracted from all this. While it meant scrapping plans for big races like Catalina and Molokai it also meant finding other opportunities like racing in Kona and paddling in Tahoe. And seeing the novice crews turn out to dominate their races.

In Santa Cruz for a surprising podium finish.

Of course, all that agony talk and bravado aside, I could've had my hands full for the season just focusing on my own stroke and not worrying about being competitive. I lack a certain eye/hand coordination thing and even though I might secretly think that after four years of paddling I'm on my way to being the king shit I have been humbled by my repeated failure to keep consistent timing with the paddler in front of me.

Self explanatory. The categories across the bottom are Novice B, Novice A, 4 years, 10 years, lifetime.

So you know, there's some off-season work to be done here before I go ranting about anyone else's commitment to practice and domination. Or as Oogway said to Shifu in Kung Fu Panda: the panda will never fulfill his destiny, nor you yours until you let go of the illusion of control. I will control what I can control. I will control you, timing!

Mahalos to outrigger and the outrigger community and SFOCC for another season on the water.