Karel Jr.'s Return

We all know Karel Jr is an OC-1 legend, beast, surfing king, and highly competitive and still in his 20's

I guess the couple of questions I have are:

Have the rest of the paddlers caught up to him in surfing ability?
Has the fitness level of some of the other paddlers surpassed him?
Do other paddlers have a canoe advantage? Pueo, XM etc. I know the Zephyr is still a good surfer.

So in other words do the old rules still hold true.

For Molokai:

If Flat, Karel loses
If medium surf conditions, Karel wins
If big surf conditions, Karel dominates.

I don't know.

Submitted by Kona J on Tue, 02/02/2010 - 5:26am



Most east coast paddlers know that Jr. paddled the fastest Blackburn Challenge ever raced on an Oc1 in the 2007 event. The race course was circular and fairly flat conditions ,, 22 miles in length. Jr. stime was 2 hours 47 minutes and 10 seconds . All of us on the east coast know how phenonminal this time is , there was a short section of the course that year that had just a little bit of surf and thats where j Jr. really took off, it was pretty incredible actually. His time was impressive even for those racing on surfskis. Just goes to show you how fast he is when he`s in his downwind element !!!

I use a picture of him in that race as the cover photo of my blog;
www.easternoutrigger.blogspot.com

You can see that the boat he`s using is a Chinese built Fusion , to this day no one has gotten anywhere near his time on this course.


#1 Tue, 02/02/2010 - 5:50am


Nice topic - the future will tell. The one that is best prepared usually wins.

The recent Pinki's race was a good fitness test; the conditions were very unfavorable - everybody had to work hard all the way. Conditions were favoring the Hurricane a little bit, but not by much.

From the results you can see where Oahu paddlers are at this moment.

Karel's performance was quite impressive - he is a much better and much more competitive athlete than we may realize.


#2 Tue, 02/02/2010 - 6:03am


Speaking of the Pinky's race, how bout Stu Gaessner and Courtney Seto...still flyin after all these years.


#3 Tue, 02/02/2010 - 6:42am


you mean to say that in the Pinky's race it wasn't the boat that made the difference??

I am now confused ...


#4 Tue, 02/02/2010 - 5:19pm


mmmmmmmm. Spam.


#5 Tue, 02/02/2010 - 8:13pm


The boat always makes a difference, equipment matters for performance.

Ideally, you have customized equipment - that makes a big difference.

I have not seen anybody on grandma's bike in a triathlon yet.


#6 Tue, 02/02/2010 - 8:59pm


I forget his name but there was a guy that did the ironman here in Kona on a 1 speed beach cruiser about 15 years ago or so. I think he did it 2 days in a row or something crazy like that. Not recommending it just saying its been done.


#7 Tue, 02/02/2010 - 9:14pm


eck
Back in the day a group of us were riding Kailua/Sandy Beach/Town/ back over the Pali to Kailua. All racers on big buck bikes. Bottom of Makapuu we caught some guy on a rust bucket old Varsity wearing slippahs. We couldn't drop him. Never saw him again, never found out who he was.
Its the motor that counts.


#8 Wed, 02/03/2010 - 3:36am


Thank you, exactly


#9 Wed, 02/03/2010 - 6:20am


To answer a statement that equipment counts with a statement that the motor counts is a logical fallacy.
These are two different topics.

You do not go to competitive surfing with a board that does not have enough bouyancy to carry you properly, no matter how good a surfer you are.

Equipment has to be appropriate and ideally it is customized. Everything else affects performance.

I assume that Karel's equipment is customized and also optimized for down wind races. From an equipment perspective, I'd say the Hurricane was most favorable for this race among commonly used boats. It has the best flat water hull.

Thus, it looks as if it was a very impressive athletic performance by Karel and it is early January.

There are other paddlers that have impressed me as well, for a variety of reasons.


#10 Wed, 02/03/2010 - 9:39am


It was a pretty impressive showing by Karel considering coming back from the whole year off, it was flat and it is early January as Eckhart mentioned. He can definitely hold his own in the flats for sure. I was also impressed with Luke holding off Karel coming in to the canal. And Manny too, from organizing the race to finishing second, that is gotta be hard and stressfull. May not be the best course for the paddlers, but great for watching top paddlers duke it out up close. Although i wish all the top paddlers are present so as to judge everybody's shape is at this stage in the season. Fun fun race...fun after-race stuffs...kudos for pinkys for supporting the paddlers.


#11 Wed, 02/03/2010 - 10:04am


eck
Obviously equipment has an effect, but several orders of magnitude less than the motor. As people say over and over, the top guys will be the top guys regardless of what they're paddling. And the cannon fodder will be the cannon fodder regardless of what they're paddling.


#12 Wed, 02/03/2010 - 3:51pm


sure Jib; it's different topics: you could ask how much faster or slower may a paddler get when he uses a customized/ optimized set up.

10 % improvement seems already a lot, you may get that if you were way off with what you had; usually it should be much less.

Lets say ideally 2 -3 %: over an hour that would make 72 - 96 seconds.

Or for the fun of it: if paddler A has a boat that works 2 % better than a stock boat for him and paddler B has a boat that he paddles 2 % worse than a stock boat, it would be a 4 % swing in performance, 144 seconds per hour, roughly 2 1/2 minutes.

And this would be independent of motor. :)


#13 Wed, 02/03/2010 - 7:09pm


. OC1 is all about canoe...no basic standards. If it has an ama its an outrigger. When top guys compete the canoe design benefits have to come into play. If all canoes were equal....yeah...its all about the motor ...as eckart has alluded to....it is nuances. If it is truely the motor...and you really want to know who the best paddler is...you need everyone on the same type canoe. Otherwise...it may be design or a really great paddler compensating for a lesser design ? Somewhere it would be good to figure out what races are all about...the paddler winning or the canoe design winning. Maybe it does not matter.
Anyhows....great to see Karel back in the fray...a great competitor on a great canoe. Imua Karel !


#14 Wed, 02/03/2010 - 8:18pm



Id sure like to see some of you superstar Hawaiian paddlers come out to the east coast and race sometime. Whats it going to take to get you people off that pretty rock of yours ?

Does anything other than paper money talk anymore ???

If you want to come out here and race sometime this coming Summer ,,, you will be able to get a boat.


#16 Thu, 02/04/2010 - 3:18am


Last time i checked on coming out to do your race it would have costed me $350+ on airfare, $60+ to rent a car, $120+ place to stay, race entry fee? food? and BEER??? total cost would have put me up around $700 ballpark and that was when I was flying from Cali. Add on another $350+ for flight from Hawaii. So yeah paper money is kinda a big thing to people who only do this for the love of racing. What else can you offer to offset the costs when its coming out of our pocket.


#17 Thu, 02/04/2010 - 12:07pm


Free housing and grinds at fuze's plus FOX on the tv 24/7.


#18 Thu, 02/04/2010 - 2:00pm


Does that come with Chines Jibofo, or is that passe now?

R


#19 Thu, 02/04/2010 - 2:10pm


How about some warm water and some good downwind waves????? And girls with a tan?


#20 Thu, 02/04/2010 - 3:21pm


So it's chinese grinds at the casa de Fuze.


#21 Thu, 02/04/2010 - 3:41pm


No, I think only freedom fries.


#22 Thu, 02/04/2010 - 3:55pm


Yeah but fries with chines of course.


#23 Thu, 02/04/2010 - 7:02pm


Warm Water... Downwind waves.... Girls with Tans ..... OK, If I lived where you people do , I`d probably stay home too ... That day when JR was out here was awesome though. 2:47:10 around Cape Ann .

That time sets the bar VERY high , and it may remain a course record for a long ,,, looooong time .

When JR is on...... in his element ,,, everyone else seems to go into reverse....... Chines or no chines.


#24 Fri, 02/05/2010 - 3:14am


Here`s another helpfull FYI..... that new surfski from Think ,, the " UNO " has those irritatingly fast chines on it too ,,,, same shape as the ones on the Outrigger Connection canoes.


#25 Fri, 02/05/2010 - 3:21am


You could prolly set the course record if you dropped that fuze for a pueo, Fuzington.


#26 Fri, 02/05/2010 - 9:27am


Nah Jim that would destroy his homoerotic crush on Jr.


#27 Fri, 02/05/2010 - 10:14am


I will try to get this back on track, since I know you guys could talk about the greased pole at the Blackburn Challenge for days.

In Flat Water, I have the following as favorites:

Danny Ching
Kai Bartlett
Jimmy Austin
Mike Judd
Pat Dolan
Any Tahitian Paddler who might be visiting
Greg Long-Aust.

In Medium Conditions, the field is huge

Karel Jr.
Danny Ching
Kai Bartlett
Manny K.
Pat Dolan

In Big Conditions:

Karel
Kai

Please help me fill in the favorites.


#28 Fri, 02/05/2010 - 10:21am


Don't know 'bout the solo, but I'm looking for jc9 and Goto to totally kill it in the relay! MPI rules!!


#29 Fri, 02/05/2010 - 12:18pm


flat: winner: Pat ( provided he starts to win )
medium: winner: Karel
big: winner: Karel


#30 Fri, 02/05/2010 - 12:32pm


Additional Categories

In-your-face: Kai has taken it twice so far....so until otherwise proven.
Choppy Crap: Karel


#31 Fri, 02/05/2010 - 1:14pm


no offense to mike and jimmy boy or kai or danny for that matter but Dolan is unreal fast right now, he gets put in top three in any and all conditions out there.


#32 Fri, 02/05/2010 - 2:09pm


Right not today, Pat has been killing every OC1 race and Manny is right there too. Kai has never officially beat Karel. But if Karel starts training its hard for anyone to beat him even if his boat is older or not a pueo. This years solo will be a good one I am sure. Oh and the Pinkies race had some bums, on the laps in. Sorry fuzerider, would love to race your race but simply it cold and flat up there. I think you rather just come to Hawaii.

ALOHA!


#33 Fri, 02/05/2010 - 11:05pm


Tyson is on point - results speak for themselves. 7 times on a one man since June 2008, 5 of which were races. 4 of which he won, plus a close second in Aussie Nationals. I put Pat in top 2 for all conditions.


#34 Sat, 02/06/2010 - 8:22am


Yes,,, I have to agree with Ryan, If it`s Flat Kai or Pat will be One , two,,, Jr. will fall asleep at the wheel in those conditions .... Jimmy Austin has been awesome ,, certainly one of the fastest pilots out there.

Hawaiian extreme tv ,, should host a face off between the OCP mafia .


#35 Sat, 02/06/2010 - 9:01am


Karel won the OC 1 today, ~ 5 minutes behind Zsolt, surfski. Time 1:35

Distance ~ 11+ miles, mild swell, 2 - 3 feet ?, triangle course, mild wind.


#36 Sat, 02/06/2010 - 3:20pm


Is Pat going to enter the Solo? I thought he and Ryan should be in the European K1 races by then.
Be good to see him race now that he obviously has form.
I hope their quest for Olympic gold hasnt run aground, I met them both down here in Oz and their good blokes despite their funny accents.


#37 Sat, 02/06/2010 - 3:28pm


Jr looked like he was coasting in the last couple races. With today's win he's got everybody guessing. Ohhhh the drama...


#38 Sat, 02/06/2010 - 4:15pm


Kevin, Nope hasnt gone aground were still training in only kayaks. Pat does jump into a few races for fun. Funny acent huh? I thought you guys were the ones with that hahaha


#39 Sat, 02/06/2010 - 5:08pm


Well at least we are better looking Kev .....i think?

Talk about good looking, how's the poll going on your Blog Ryan, between you and Pat? ...hehehe

Rambo


#40 Sat, 02/06/2010 - 6:41pm


Please register or login to post a comment.

Page loaded in 0.282 seconds.