Precision Paddling

Park yourself at the Ventura Pier or at the mouth of the Ventura Harbor on Saturday and you’ll witness what could be described as an invasion of human-powered water bugs.

The waters will swarm with outrigger canoes--those long, skinny boats powered by six sets of arms paddling in unison--as the Hokuloa Outrigger Club hosts the Ventura Channel Challenge.

This is no idyllic little spin on calm, glassy waters. Some 56 boats from 20 California outrigger clubs are expected to compete in the race, a 19-mile route (16 1/2 for women) out to oil rig “Gilda” and back.

A throwback to ancient Polynesian times, these odd-looking canoes and their crews are quite a spectacle. If you want to see them in action, the women’s teams leave the harbor at 8 a.m. and head out to sea, returning for the finish at about 10:30 a.m. The men start from the harbor at 12:30 p.m., paddle past the pier a few minutes later, before angling out to sea and finishing back at the harbor around 2:30 p.m.

“The harbor is a fun place to see people come in. They’re really cranking it,” said Carolyn Pidduck, a member of Ventura’s Hokuloa club, who is helping to organize the race.

These 40-foot canoes hold six people, three paddling on each side. Every 15 or 20 strokes, the lead paddler yells out a command that sounds something like “hut hut ho” and they switch sides.

Timing and precision are everything. If it all comes together, they’re executing 55 to 70 strokes per minute and cruising at 5 to 6 mph. A pontoon on the left side keeps them from capsizing--usually.

As if that weren’t tough enough, it gets even trickier Saturday. The race is a nine-man relay, and every 20 to 30 minutes, three relief paddlers must climb into the canoe to replace three exhausted team members.

Amazingly, this quick maneuver takes place while the canoe is cutting through choppy ocean water. It calls for motorized escort boats to accompany each canoe, dropping rested crew members into the water and plucking out the spent ones.

It looks like a slapstick comedy of errors. On command, three paddlers simply fall over backward into the water, while the new trio simultaneously hoist themselves over the edge of the canoe. During this changing of the guard, the remaining three crew members frantically paddle on.

“It’s really quite comical,” Pidduck said. “We get big bruises on the inside of our thighs and you’d swear we’re all in abusive relationships.”

The Hokuloa Outrigger Club competes against 17 other Southern California clubs involved in the Kalifornia Outrigger Assn. Clubs alternate hosting the competitions, where they do distance races and sprints, as well as the relays.

“Ours is the toughest nine-man race on the West Coast because of our channel conditions,” Pidduck said, citing the wind and rougher seas.

Despite the races, the club isn’t focused totally on competition. Half the nearly 70 members don’t race and simply paddle for the fun of it on Sundays at 9 a.m. Nor are they all buffed athletes. Many of the members are women, and the club has begun a summer youth program that includes 14 kids.

They welcome new members who want to give the sport a whirl. Novices can paddle free the first month, and after that the cost is $10-$25 a month, depending on whether they compete.

The club, which formed in 1991, has four outrigger canoes and provides paddles and life vests. Members haul the 400-pound boats from the end of Spinnaker Drive, over the sand to Harbor Cove where they launch them--always with the bow facing the water, in keeping with Polynesian custom.

Not all the old customs remain. Originally the Polynesians skimmed across Pacific waters in outrigger canoes made of koa wood. Now fiberglass is the material of choice, and female paddlers are no longer taboo.

But much of the Polynesian culture is still ingrained in the sport, which is growing, according to the club’s coach Phil Gumbert, who has paddled for 16 years. Three new clubs popped up recently in Southern California.

Some join especially for the cultural aspects. “They have the aloha spirit,” Gumbert said. Some connect it to the ancient Chumash who paddled between the mainland and the Channel Islands. This year, in fact, some Hokuloa members paddled to Santa Cruz Island to camp out, he said. “They were following the path of the Chumash.”

BE THERE

The Ventura Channel Challenge, hosted by the Hokuloa Outrigger Club, is Saturday at the mouth of the Ventura Harbor. The women’s race begins at 8 a.m. and the men’s race at 12:30 p.m. To volunteer an escort boat, call (805) 653-1432. For club or race information, call (805) 642-0269.