Tippy Canoes and Kayaks, Too : Boating: Newport Aquatics Center paddlers head to Lake Placid hoping to qualify for world championships.

Driven by what he calls a touch of insanity, Mark Zollitch strapped five Olympic-style, flat-water kayaks to his truck’s camper shell last weekend and started the long drive from Newport Beach to Lake Placid, N.Y.

Zollitch, Jim Terrell and a handful of other Olympic-style canoeists and kayakers who train at the Newport Aquatics Center, are on their way to Lake Placid in hopes of qualifying June 7-8 for this summer’s World Canoeing Championships in Poland.

“It (flat-water kayaking) takes extreme dedication,” Zollitch said. “You have to always be positive and believe in yourself, with a touch of insanity. . . . There’s virtually no money in this sport. It’s not professional. It’s not collegiate and it’s not well-known. Even if I win a gold medal, I’m not going to be famous. I’m not going to earn a lot of money from it. I do it because I love it.”

He and Terrell have early morning training sessions on Newport Bay, Monday through Friday, and two more every Saturday. They also run and lift weights on weekday afternoons.

Because of a rigorous training schedule, Terrell recently dropped the classes he was taking at Orange Coast College. Last year, that training schedule forced him to quit his paying job at the Aquatics Center.

Terrell, 25, is one of America’s top Olympic-style, flat-water canoeists. He has been competing since the age of 15.

“When I first started (high school) wrestling, I was pretty good at it,” Terrell said. “But as the other kids got more and more experienced and they were wrestling in the summer time, I was paddling. So, I was only wrestling in the wrestling season and the other kids were getting more experienced. When I realized I wasn’t doing as well as I could have if I had put more time into it, I quit.”

Olympic-style canoeing and kayaking pits single paddlers or teams of two, three or four against each other on straight courses like those used for crew races. Races are 500 meters or 1,000 meters long.

The canoes and kayaks they use are not the same kind used by nature-lovers to enjoy rivers and lakes.

“The canoes that we use are really tippy,” Terrell said. “It’s one of the hardest sports to learn how to do. It takes a lot of time just to master how to keep the boat upright. And once you learn that, it takes another couple years to learn how to steer.”

Terrell learned the sport well enough to place ninth overall in the 1986 world championships, fourth in the semifinals of the 1987 world championships and fourth in the semifinals at the ’88 Olympics.

Terrell, who weighs about 160 pounds and reportedly bench presses 275 to 300 pounds, said that a good paddler should be as strong as possible for his weight, in good shape and be self-motivated.

Zollitch, 22, also has found it difficult to hold a permanent job with his kayak training schedule. He has managed to stay enrolled at Orange Coast College, however, and has maintained a 4.0 grade-point average studying exercise physiology.

“It’s damn hard to fit it all in,” Zollitch said.

Zollitch said that Olympic-style kayak also takes time to learn how to handle. “Even if you have power, the boat isn’t going to move well if you don’t have good technique,” Zollitch said. “My technique is far from perfect.”

Zollitch won two gold medals in last summer’s Pan Am games but has never been to the world championships.

“It’ll be tough (making the 1990 world team),” he said. “The top three guys on the (American) team are capable of winning a medal.”

Greg Burton, who also trains at the Aquatics Center, is one of the top three kayakers in the U.S. Burton won two gold medals in the 1988 Summer Olympics, paddling against kayakers from other countries who are rewarded with fame and with endorsements and sponsorship money.

That allows other countries to assemble a much bigger talent pool for canoeing and kayaking than the U.S.

But Zollitch said that the few rewards offered to American paddlers may account for a more dedicated group of athletes and recent international success in kayaking.

“If we’re crazy enough to do it, that motivation has to come from within,” Zollitch said.

Terrell said the level of intensity needed for the competitive season can’t be maintained all year, and if a paddler begins practicing too hard too early in the year, he will most likely be overtrained and not able to perform at his best when competition begins.

Zollitch said that he increased his workouts too early this year. “It’s very difficult to pace yourself,” he said.

In 1988, Terrell got mononucleosis just before the Olympic trials. He made the Olympic team anyway but relapses throughout the year kept him from performing at his best.

The experience frustrated him enough that he took last year off from competition and took on a full-time job for a while, organizing a junior paddling program at the Aquatics Center.

He also decided that after the 1992 Olympics, he would semi-retire from canoeing. “I’ll at least make sure canoeing’s not my priority in life.”

Zollitch said that he has no plans to ever retire even if that means that he will never be able to maintain a permanent job. “It’s what makes me happy,” Zollitch said. “Being happy is more important to me than being rich.”

Other canoeists making the trip from Newport Bay to Lake Placid for the trials are Dave and Fred Spaulding and Joe Harper. Other men going to the trials as kayakers from Newport Beach are Mark Hamilton and Mike Harbold. A group of women kayakers who train at the Aquatics Center--Alexandra Bernhardt, Kate Hendrickson, Megan Duffy, Lindsay Martin, Kirsten Conklin and Cathy Marino--also will be going to Lake Placid.

Those who qualify June 7-8 will go to France for the Paris International Regatta, June 16-17, and West Germany for the Duisburg International Flatwater Regatta, June 23-24, before going to the World Canoeing Championships in Poznon, Poland, Aug. 22-26.