PULLING TOGETHER : Catalina Ski Race Demands Endurance--and Teamwork

Although most people might consider water skiing to be simply about fun and sun, the 100 water skiers who will compete in Sunday’s Catalina Ski Race know it is about pain and gain.

Ask Chuck Stearns.

Stearns, who has won the 62-mile race and its silver trophy an unprecedented 11 times, knows what it is like to have legs throb, burn and then go numb with 10 miles left in the race.

He knows what it is like to have arms stretched, fatigued and feeling as if they are about to fall off.

He knows what it is like to have his weary mind attacked by thoughts of great white sharks.

Yes, Chuck Stearns knows.

The 41st Catalina Ski Race, which begins Sunday at 8 a.m., is considered the world’s toughest water ski race. It runs nonstop from Long Beach Harbor to Catalina Island and back--beginning and ending near the Queen Mary--and attracts some of the world’s best water skiers. To win, one must average about 60 m.p.h. for the entire trip.

“It’s hard for me to explain what it feels like,” Stearns said. “It has like a shearing effect on your body, like ripping a piece of paper. It’s not exactly comfortable.”

Stearns laughs. He can afford to do that now because he is not participating in the race this year. He is 51 and conserving his energy for next year’s race. If he wins it, he will have done so in five decades.

In explaining what it feels like to ski 62 miles in less than an hour, Stearns, an engineer, uses a formula involving vectors + water friction + acceleration + force. But the formula isn’t difficult to understand. Simply put: 62 miles = ouch.

“You can literally feel the energy sapping from your body, which is why you have to pace yourself,” he said. “You have to stay just below your limit and then, on occasion, go over it. It becomes painful to continue, but once you get past that threshold of pain, you can put out enough to win.”

Stearns knows what it takes, having won the event 11 times, the first time when he was 16, and set records four times. The current record is 54 minutes 56 seconds, set by Mason Thompson, a two-time winner. Other than Stearns, no one has won the event more than three times.

“After 55 minutes, you are completely exhausted, like if you had run a marathon,” Stearns said. “What makes this race even more difficult is that the water is always changing, going from bad to worse and from worse to simply bad.”

Part of the reason for that is the Catalina Cruiser. The huge ferry often ends the race early for many a competitor by creating a wake that can’t be avoided at high speeds.

There are also other worries--sharks, for example.

Because no skier has ever been attacked by a shark, however, flying fish pose a more realistic problem. They are more plentiful than sharks in those waters and can damage one’s tow rope, not to mention one’s face, at 60 m.p.h.

Another worry is the possibility of getting lost. While most teams have only three members--a skier, a driver and an observer to communicate between skier and driver--the bigger teams also have a navigator. But not even that is a guarantee.

The boat driver, however, is the one who has to worry most about direction. The skier has to hang on, wherever the boat goes.

“There is,” says Stearns, “no time to rest.”