The Edicts Of the Clan of 12: 2016 Valhalla Offshore Invitational Protocols

On the evening of May 26, 2016, a group of 12 Invitees of the Valhalla Offshore Invitational (hereafter refered to as the VOI) met at Pleasure House Brewery on the North Shore of Virginia Beach. After a brief presentation of the vision for the VOI, this group (who will go down in history as the “Inaugural 12” ) entered a 'lively” discourse on the fundamental rules of the VOI...

Inaugural 12:

Bobby Alverio

Mark Bawcom

Kevin Baum

Chip Boggs

Isa Cohen

Chuck Conley

John Contos

Steve Eudy

Vernon Harrison

Gina Hossen

Bill House

Peter Morgan

           ...the results of this discourse are as follows:

                                     2016 Valhalla Offshore Invitational Protocols

Scope:

The VOI is a individual time trial event for paddle or hand paddled craft. Each participant logs an un-interrupted run of a minimum of three miles on open salt water in Virginia Beach near shore waters. The run must fall within the event window and will then be uploaded to the VOI group Face Book page for consideration. The winner in each division will be the participant who logs a verified highest average speed on their run.

Participation:

An eligible invitee is any individual that is a member of the VOI Face Book group page. If an interested individual has not been “invited” to this page but would like to be, they need only request addition to the group and upon approval by the page manager, they are then eligible to participate and post a run. Eligible invitees are not “active participants” in the VOI until they post an actual run. Eligible invitees have no culpability to the VOI and are welcome to follow the event and attend any gatherings wether they chose to become an active participant or not.

The VOI Face Book Page:

The VOI Group page is exclusively managed by Valkyrie Downwind whose purpose is solely to disseminate information on, record results of, and provide stoke for the VOI. It IS NOT a paddle meet up page, or instructional and safety resource. These types of pages are a great idea, and the hope is that motivated participants will take it upon themselves to develop all of the above; however, the VOI page is an after-the-fact page. It exists to manage the overall event and post the runs after they happen.

Note: if you create a meet up, event, or group page, please do not use or refer to either the VOI or Valkyrie Downwind in the title to avoid any confusion as to the location of the the main information/content dissemination location.

**Please stand bye for a subsequent blog post that will address safety and responsibility coming out shortly.**

Eligible Waters:

The eligible waters for the VOI (see photos) are the North Atlantic Ocean and Southern Chesapeake Bay from a Southern boundary of 36º 40' 00 N to a northern boundary of 37º 24' 00 N. All inshore waterways, sounds, and rivers are OFF LIMITS for a legal run (see photos). These “off limits” waters may be used for set up of a run but if a submitted GPS track shows passage through the “off limit” waters during the recorded run, it will be invalid. Note: while there is a definitive line that bars the inshore waters to the west and along the North Shore, there is no Eastern boundary in the Atlantic ocean. No submissions from Portugal will be valid. Virginia Beach water only!! Any method of passage for paddler and craft to the start point of a run is valid: auto, boat, airplane etc.

Lower Chess. and Northern ocean limits.

Ocean limits South of Sandbridge.

*It is expected that all USCG and local law will be followed in any passage through the above outlined waters!**

Divisions:

All divisions are unisex and craft length is unregulated.

~ Surf Ski (single or double)

~ Outrigger Canoe (single or double)

~ Prone Paddle Board

~ Stand Up Paddle Board

Window:

May 30 – October 31 2016.

During this window, invitees may submit as many eligible runs as they would like in any or all of the above divisions.

Guidelines for Submission:

To be considered for eligibility, a GPS track and the average speed of a run must be posted to the VOI group page, as well as uploaded to the “files” tab on the page with the submitter's name and date of the run in the title. Runs must be submitted WITH IN 36 HOURS OF RECORDING.

The run will then be considered for legitimacy. In order to be legitimate the run must:

1. be recorded on an up loadable device/app that allows the reviewer to see the track on a map (exp: MovesCount, Garmin, Strava, MapMyRun etc.),

2. show the average speed for the run in question,

3. show no interruption in the recording devices function during the run (e.g. a pause to catch your breath), and

4. cover AT LEAST THREE CONSECUTIVE miles in distance on eligible event waters.

The technical details of the above validation of runs will be a learning process. There are many different types of devices and soft wear that will provide the required information. It is paramount that the uploaded files be easily judged for viability by ALL PARTICIPANTS. For Example: If a submitted track is six miles long and the submitter wishes to submit a section of three CONSECUTIVE miles within the full track, they must use their chosen software and any description (including the math) to make it easily verifiable.

Note: the intent of the VOI is the capitalization of tide, swell, and wind on the open sea; any evidence of the use of ship or boat wake will cause the run to be invalidated. Usage of a rigged sail is also cause for invalidation.

Emergent Issues:

As the VOI develops through the “open season” any changes or additions to the above protocols will be considered by the Inaugural 12 and promulgated promptly on the VOI group page.

Speed Vs. Drama

I suspect that I might be guilty of perpetuating a false notion that the fastest downwind runs only come from huge “Victory at Sea” conditions. While big grey seas and steep drops do make dramatic footage (I again beseech the viewer not to try to read any real narrative or source of instruction other then mood into my videos), the truth is that there are a myriad of factors that influence the overall speed of a run and running wave size is just one. Big steep waves make for big drops, and big drops make for high top speeds BUT a series of fast drops does not necessarily make for a fast average.

Take the two attached videos as an example. “4 Days in September” was shot over a period of two weeks of consistent 25-35 mph NE winds last September. It was filmed over four runs on what I call the “Lessner Funnel Run.” Starting from about three miles offshore to the NE of Cape Henry, this run begins in some of the deepest water of the lower Chesapeake Bay and runs SW straight into the Lessner inlet. On a good NE (or even better) ENE blow, open ocean swell runs uninfluenced by bottom contour directly into the shoals outside Lessner inlet. A paddler that can break out under the cape to the North and line up the running wind swell can ride ocean rollers from 45'+ deep waters through to where they stand up on the shoals. If timed on the flood, a paddler will then be sucked right through Lessner inlet by a strong current. Sounds fast right? It is, and scary, and FUN!! The run also makes compelling video. BUT the pretty, gentle run in the second video is one of the fastest downwinds I have ever managed. A good 1.5 mph average faster, it was filmed on one run in 16 mph West wind and max ebb current going in exactly the opposite direction, that is, straight out to sea, from shallow to deep water and in my heaviest boat. In my personal experience, the biggest hazard of what I call the “Can Run” is the fact that I have found myself so engrossed in the boat speed I was maintaining OVER a 3' incoming ground swell that it wasn’t until I spotted the snorkel of a nuclear submarine that realized I had gone well past the "Green Can" that marks the beginning of the offshore environment, and I was going to have a loooonnng upwind/current paddle back to terra-firma.

Driving boat and board on open water is a very nuanced endeavor. My crew knows that I could ramble on forever about the reasons why one run or one craft is faster then another on any given day. I am hardly good enough at it to offer more then a reflections on my own personal journey.

All this is to say that It would be remiss of me to allow anybody out there to come away from watching one of these films with the impression that putting together a good run requires the fortitude of a crazed hellman when in fact what it really takes is informed analysis, a precision application of power and the stoked enthusiasm of that grommet with the 5'4” thruster getting up before dawn to try to teach himself to surf in chilly but empty Hatteras first groin waves.

The energy is out there, but it takes allot of vision to see it then ...GET...ON...IT!

Sharing the trip Part 2: the OODA loop and the Valkyrja: running the boat before the choosers of the slain

Ride of the Valkyrs (1909) John Charles Dollman

Departing Thought....Departing “Life”

It is only partially tongue in-cheek when I refer to our boathouse as the “Temple of the Downwind.” While I have a passion for a good hull form or the perfect planing foil, as well as the necessary fortitude and enthusiasm to learn how to drive them at least close to the potential their creators have imparted, I am equally fascinated with the physiological science or (PFM)* of what happens to an individual who has slid into the hallucinatory “bump drunk” state that Dave Parmenter describes  “ground looping” during good downwind sessions. In his book “The Rise of Superman” David Kotler describes how fully engrossed athletes and artists experience a condition known a Transient-Hypo-Frontality. Through observation and analysis of top form extreme athletes, researchers have found that under certain conditions, our bodies' electrical and chemical systems cause our minds to enter a deep flow state. In this state, the brain's frontal lobes become distinctly under active.

That is, the very part of the brain that maintains our sense of time and self shuts down or becomes Hypo Active, allowing the parts of our creative and instinctual mind that are normally overwhelmed by conscious everyday “life” to take over. It is interesting to note that the loss of self is, in essence, what has for ages been the underlying fear of human death. However, in this case, many who experience Hypo Frontality come to crave its onset. The best learn to “game it,” to understand just what conditions or actions bring flow on, and thus use it effectively. So maybe it is not a loss at all, maybe it is an ascension to a higher form of consciousness.

I suspect it may in fact be a vision of what it is to be an animal, to exist only in the moment: the sure footed cat on the bannister, a trio of pelicans skimming above the waves, or a tiny swallow navigating across continents to one particular tree. Surfers find it. Those that persevere through the relentless humbling struggle that learning to surf entails begin to tap it more and more consistently. The intensity and fleeting reality of riding breaking waves has served to make the obsession of surfers a subject of mainstream popular iconography. Down wind paddling is a bit less ephemeral. It is a struggle of tempo and site picture, timing and balance. Rather then the instantaneous focus of a tube ride or finn release airdrop in surfing, down winding provides an ascension into the light that often comes in the form of a driving hypnotic crescendo of exertion and intensity.

The Valkyrie are the arc angels of norse mythology. The twelve winged handmaidens of the god Oden descended on horse back into the trials of man in order to take those that were in the place somewhere between life and death....When the NE wind rises up above 30mph and the running swell pushing in to the bay from open ocean looks and feels like great beasts rising up out of the canyons, when I turn my boat alone somewhere out around the demarcation line, it can feel like a dozen white stallions are riding down on my back.

Grounding the Loop....The Hypnotic Effect of a “Splinter of Force in an Ocean of Power*”

Those that have engaged in advanced tactical training are familiar with the OODA loop. In the post war heyday of airborne dogfighting, trainers realized that the most successful aces had mastered four distinct phases of deadly engagement: 1) Observe: see your opponent first, thus gaining the most time to -- 2) Orient: put yourself in the most advantageous position, then – 3) Decide: on the most appropriate – 4) Action to take. Pilots and gunfighters that could do this the best, moving through each phase with the most precision and speed, were consistently victorious. I do not contend that down winding shares the intensity of life or death struggle (at least not in the sense of bodily violence), but for the downwinder to be successful, they must learn to analyze, identify, and engage a vast number of cues from nature: visual, aural, and sensual. Often, with a large degree of physical stress and maybe just a hint of fear adding biology's potent chemical cocktail to the game, the “loop” forms gradually. At first, the driver struggles to push the boat into the rhythm of the sea, but over time he or she will begin to see the patterns in the ocean, to connect hull speed, angle of attack, and tempo with the water underneath, letting the boat run with “leviathan.” The ground loop is formed; sometimes fleeting and sometimes going on for an age, it can feel like the craft and driver have been lifted as one by some great beast into another place.

In my mind I know that some precise equation of waterline and wave length, adrenalin, and Beta Waves can explain all this. But my heart just won't let me believe that the beautiful boats and boards that take me to these places are not mythic in some way. On the grey ocean, when the wind blows spindrift against my back and green water drops away under the bow, then, in the howl of the wind, I can hear the horns of the maidens, and the wings of that great herring gull reeling past in the periphery are just a little too large to be just a bird....

* “Pure Fucking Magic” coined by: B.G. and the Gypsy

* “It’s being a tiny splinter of force in all that tremendous power and finding the means to navigate it successfully.” From: Crossing the "Channel of Bones" whilst following the Epic Surf Ski Team

 Some of my favorite films of full on flow hackers driving boats and boards:

South African longboat pilot Sharon Armstrong has quietly put out a few smoking videos of paddling through HUGE, complex seas around Durban. Running her boat down wind over what looks to be at least two other ground swells sharon is a master of instinct and observation, boat and driver as one needle of force threading its way through a ocean of power.

This video of Josh Riccio crossing from Maui to Molokai in great conditions opened my mind to how elegant stand up paddle can be. I always thought the flat water stuff just looked so painful but when its really driving the amount of movement and body english that working the board takes is really cool to watch and even more fun to do.

Some people learn to hack flow and then some just live in an almost constant state of creative style. Leah Dawson is a professional woman free surfer (which I venture to guess is about as lucrative as being a surf ski free rider) but everything she does exudes tremendous style. My favorit surfer to watch, Videos of her surfing always feature her laughing out loud at least once along with some of the most elegant body language imaginable.