Archive: Around Town

On August 29 about a dozen Ithacans will paddle a 45 foot long, 400 pound Hawai'ian outrigger canoe 39 miles from the top of Cayuga Lake to Stewart Park on its southern end.  The boat seats six, so the paddlers will execute periodic traditional Hawaiian 'water changes.'

"A boat will come ahead, drop six paddlers into the water," says Cayuga Outrigger Canoe Club treasurer Cynthia Brock.  "Six will jump out and six will jump in and we'll keep going."

After the boat arrives around 3pm a lu'au will begin featuring Hawai'ian music and paddling videos.  The club and the Kiwanis Club of Ithaca-Cayuga is sponsoring the event at which Kalua pig, lomi lomi, and poi will be served.  The lu'au is to raise awareness of the club and outrigger paddling, and to raise funds to purchase a second canoe as well as to develop area youth paddling programs.


The club was formed a year ago after president and founder P.J. Rusello obtained the boat from New York Outrigger, a Manhattan paddling club in Manhattan.  They gave Rusello the boat for the cost of shipping it from Long island to Ithaca.  Rusello says this was a great boon, because the boats cost around $10,000 new.  An avid paddler, he sent an e-mail blast to kayak and dragon boat enthusiasts.

"I just love paddling," he says.  "There is something very unique about paddling in a six person canoe.  You definitely have to work together to move it.  Fully rigged they are 400 pounds, and you add nearly 1,000 pounds of people into it.  It takes a lot to get it moving, but you can go very fast.  It feels really nice when you're working together."

Brock and her husband Ray Craib joined a few weeks later.  Brock is a native of Maui, and had started paddling outrigger canoes when she was nine or ten years old.  She was on a tem throughout high school, but it wasn't available when she left for college.  When she saw Rusello and his crew paddling in the Ithaca inlet she chased it along the shore to try to figure out whose it was.

"It becomes a meditative sport," she says.  "You can feel the energy of the boat change as people start falling in and almost getting that same heartbeat.  The pleasure that comes from that and the exhilaration of being in somewhat of an isolated meditative space, but also feeling and working with that energy around you -- it's really quite special.  I don't know of any other sport where I've had that experience."

Today the club has 20 paid members, all active paddlers.  Some members recently competed in the Liberty World Outrigger Competition on the Hudson River, as well as the Toronto Harbor Outrigger International Challenge on July 4th/5th.

"A lot of people that are involved in this club are very competitive," says paddler Paul Kloss.  "When they hear that there are races out there everybody gets excited about that.  It puts all that hard work in practice that they spend three times a week out here paddling toward some kind of goal."

They plan to send a team to participate in the Wounded Warrior sprint in September, and hope to develop programs not only for area youth, but also for disabled paddlers.  The club is in the process of forming an alliance with the Ithaca youth Bureau, and wants to expand its involvement with the Wounded Warrior Project.


But the main attraction is the rush of the paddling, the teamwork, and pure exhilaration.

"I've come to learn that it's much more technical than it appears, the paddling itself," Craib says.  "The paddles are specific to outrigger canoeing.  There are techniques involved that affect how much energy expenditure goes into moving a canoe.  Keeping in balance, and there is a person who steers."

"Instead of being inside you can be outside in the wonderful lake and environment that I care about," says Marion Boratynski.  "You can be as competitive as you want.  You can push yourself to your limit and that's what I like to do."

"I like the workout," Kloss agrees.  "It's a really good workout.  Instead of being in some stuffy gym you can be out on a beautiful lake."

Craib notes that the Lu'au is intended as an annual event, and the club hopes to expand it to invite other clubs to participate.  The club also hopes to sponsor an outrigger canoe race at some time in the future, and hopes to attract more members.

"It's very addicting," Brock says.  "That's not something I appreciated when I was younger.  I'm quite addicted to it.  I'm very sad when the season goes away and I have to wait until the spring to get back out on the boat."

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