Positive Strokes Paddle Racers’ Canoes

DANA POINT — Weekday mornings from 6 to 8, you’ll find Rich Long in Dana Point Harbor, paddling his kayak. After work, he drives back to the harbor, jumps in an outrigger canoe and paddles for a few hours more. Come Saturday and Sunday, he’s out on the water, paddling again.

But Rich’s wife, Lori, doesn’t mind. She’s out there, too, paddling her own canoe.

“It helps if your wife’s in the sport because she knows what dedication it takes,” says Long, who is head coach of the Dana Outrigger Canoe Club, current state champs in outrigger canoe racing.

Every year from April through September, Rich and Lori (she coaches the club’s women’s team) devote several hours a day, seven days a week to the sport. Right now the Longs are busier than usual because both are preparing for Hawaii’s Molokai Race, the world’s most prestigious--and grueling--outrigger race.

“It’s the Super Bowl or the Olympics of outriggers,” Rich says. “And our training is geared for that race. We train hard right up to a couple of weeks before. It attracts the best paddlers in the world.”

The women’s race will be later this month, and the men’s event will be in October. Rich and Lori will travel to Hawaii, along with other team members, to compete. This will be Rich’s fourth Molokai Race and Lori’s first.

“Our (club’s) first time out we took 16th,” Rich says, “and being in the Top 20 is pretty good.”

Last year Dana Outrigger Canoe Club came in 17th, and this year Rich says he expects the team to make the Top 10.

As for the women’s team, Lori says: “This is the first time in our club’s history we’ve ever had a women’s team in the race, but this is the best women’s team we’ve ever had.”

Racing outriggers is a popular sport in Hawaii, and the sport is gaining in popularity throughout the United States, according to Lorrin Harrison, founder of the Dana Point-based group, which has about 80 active members.

“This year we’ve had the most members we’ve ever had in our club,” says Harrison, who at 79 still paddles occasionally with the group.

Harrison, a well-known Orange County surfer who still surfs regularly, says he began paddling outriggers during a visit to Hawaii in 1932. He founded the Dana Outrigger Canoe Club in 1972 and says that before that he raced with clubs in Newport Beach and Balboa.

“Lorrin is the spirit of our club,” says Rich Long. “He’s a local legend in Dana Point and is kind of what I guess our club is all about. We still go out and surf our canoes at Doheny when the waves are up.

“We have a good, fun attitude, and we are open to everyone. We aren’t real regimented, and we don’t have high club dues. We expect our members to come together and have fund-raisers--pancake breakfasts and luaus. And Lorrin is the catalyst of all that,” he says.

Rich, 28, has seen the membership double in his nine years as a member. “We had two outriggers then and could only fill one of them,” he says. “Now we have four boats out there, and usually at the beginning of the year we can fill seven canoes.”

Outrigger canoes are about 40 feet long and hold six persons who paddle as a team. In Southern California, there are approximately 18 outrigger clubs, including two in Dana Point, three in Newport Beach and one in Seal Beach. During the outrigger season, races are held up and down the coast. There is also a yearly crossing to Santa Catalina Island.

Paddlers such as Lori and Rich Long and Lorrin Harrison are devoted to the sport.

“I knew from the time I paddled in a canoe that anybody who got started going through the water in something like this would love it,” Harrison says. “It is just natural, even though it takes about a week for a person to get onto how to paddle.”

It takes far longer than a week, however, for participants to become as good a paddler as is Rich Long, who qualified this year for the Olympic trials. Even though he did not make the Olympic team, he finished 19th and later went to Washington, D.C., where he tried out for the Canoe and Kayak Marathon Team and finished second.

What’s the appeal of paddling?

“It’s just a real unique sport,” Rich says. “A team sport that combines with a laid-back beach attitude. We go out and bust our butts five or six days a week in the outriggers. But you go out in the ocean, and when you come in the sun’s setting, and it’s so beautiful you forget about how hard you’re working.”

Another appeal, Lori says, is the club itself. “Our club focuses on a friendly family-type atmosphere. We are really competitive, but we try to draw people into our club to try the sport. It is a lot of fun.

“We do not have presidents or other officers--just Rich and me as coaches and Lorrin as the founder. So, we don’t have a lot of bickering. Everyone seems to stay where they are because they are happy.”

Club members range in age from about 14 to 79, and club dues are $50 a year. In November, the group will hold an introductory outrigger class at the Dana Point Harbor Youth and Group Facility. The class will be open to anyone 10 and older. For information on the class or on club membership call (714) 364-3002.

Dusk Cruise. The popular Floating Laboratory program, offered each summer, will conclude this month at the Orange County Marine Institute, 24200 Dana Point Harbor Drive, Dan Point.

The program includes a 2 1/2-hour cruise aboard the 65-foot vessel Sum Fun and is a hands-on, on-board examination of marine life collected during the cruise. The final two Floating Laboratory cruises will be 6 to 8:30 p.m. Friday and Sept. 18. Cost is $22 per adult and $11 per child. For information, call (714) 496-2274 or (714) 831-3850.

Design on Sailing. The art and science of designing sailboats will be covered in “Yacht Design for Sailors,” a 12-week class being offered this fall at the Orange Coast College Sailing Center, 1801 W. Pacific Coast Highway, Newport Beach.

In addition to classroom lectures, the course will be enhanced by guest speakers, field trips and boat inspections. The course gets under way at 7 p.m. Thursday and will meet each week through Nov. 19. Cost is $79. For information call (714) 645-9412.