Ivan Lawler - A New Course

From the late 1980s to the late 1990s, Ivan won five gold and two silver medals at the marathon world championships. He also competed in sprint, and won two medals in the K-2 10,000 meter event at the ICF Sprint World Championships, with a gold (1990) and a silver (1989). He dominated marathon paddling for a decade, and remains the UK’s most accomplished marathoner.

Ivan retired from international competition in 2001, and turned to coaching as a way to stay involved with his life-long pursuit. Recently, like many flatwater racers around the world, Ivan has transitioned to paddling surfskis, and is getting up to speed on ocean racing – thanks in part to his work as a sales rep for Epic Kayaks in the UK.

Yes, surfski paddling has captured the imagination of more than a few blokes from the old country! They have spectacular coastline around Great Britain, and they actually have a storied tradition of surf lifesaving competition (a semi-professional sport in Australia, South African, and New Zealand). Ocean surfski racing is the hot new wave in paddle racing around the world. Ivan sells racing kayaks through his business in England, Ultimate kayaks.

As a champion flat-water kayaker you have spent the majority of your paddling career in an environment focused on outright precision, strength and fitness – race courses tend to be static and controlled in this discipline. As a surfski paddler, you now find yourself in more open water race venues, with much more dynamic courses and conditions. What has this transition been like for you? What drew you to start paddling a surfski?

I think the biggest transition for me was learning to concentrate on the water/waves and take my focus away from the other people in the race. Throughout my marathon racing career I have needed to watch the other competitors to make the most use of them, now the biggest gain to be found lies with reading the waves and that takes some getting used to. Reading race reports, choosing the right route seems to be a bit of a lottery even at the top end and I find the uncertainty involved with choosing my own route very stressful. Whichever way I go I always think it is the wrong one!

The transition has not been easy, it is hard to unlearn old stuff, learning new stuff is also not easy but that makes it more worthwhile. The draw of surfski was that it seemed to offer a new challenge that would put the fun back into my canoeing. I was right.

Your technique, balance and fitness must crossover from the flat-water K1 to the surfski, but did you ever feel like a “beginner” on those initial rough water paddles in your surfski?

I guess the balance from a K1 does help in the ski but the skis behave so differently and are raced in such varied conditions, sometimes I think I would be better off having never paddled a K1! In a K1 you know that if you come off centre just a fraction you need to correct or swim and it is hard to get out of this mindset. The skis have so much more secondary stability that an experienced ski paddler will allow the boat to roll a lot more than I would, as he knows it will not go over; for me the moment it starts to go my body goes into emergency mode! I therefore waste an awful lot of energy reacting to emergencies that don’t really exist! I think anyone feels like a beginner when they find themselves in conditions slightly above their ability level, once fear sets in everything tenses and you certainly don’t paddle like a pro!

In surfski paddling the ability to read the water and use it to your advantage is a vital skill. Another flat-water racer turned surfski paddler, Zsolt Szadovszki, has said he had to force himself to relax and slow down on the ocean, in order to get the most out of it. Has this been your experience as well?

I think this comes down to the same thing as question one, we are so tuned to the other guys in the races that we are stupid enough to try to keep up with them even if it means paddling uphill. Our standard answer to any problem situation is to pull harder. After all, it always worked for us before! Learning what is possible and what is not is the key to ski paddling. I certainly spent a lot of time and energy trying to catch impossible waves when I first started out, and trying to climb over waves that were traveling faster than me. I think with any sport there is a priority list of attributes, in ski racing the top one has to be reading and using the ocean, only when this is firmly in place is it even worth thinking about pulling hard. In my discipline it was reading and using the other paddlers first, followed closely by pulling hard. It is very tough to change your default settings.

(Ivan Lawler, Cloe Bunnett, Peter Molnar)

Do you feel that surfski paddling has helped you enter a whole new phase of your paddling career?

Without a doubt! Surfski has placed me in a discipline of my sport that allows me to be on the bottom rung of the ladder and still enjoy myself immensely. There is more to learn than I have time to take in and every paddle is a learning experience. It has allowed me to see improvement in my paddling that would not have been possible in my own discipline.

Do you think we can expect more and more flat-water racers making the transition into surfski paddling, particularly as they get older or satisfy their flat-water racing goals?

Certainly. The world of kayak racing has changed so much in recent years. In most countries Olympic disciplines are king and attract most, if not all, of the funding. However, very few people will ever succeed in this arena, or even get to compete at an Olympic Games. Secondary disciplines like marathon racing are suffering as a result and the new sterile 7 lap format is not helping. 99% of kayakers do their sport for fun and the two main disciplines are no longer providing that for them, so surfski is in a strong position to pick up the pieces. The other real beauty of ski paddling/racing is that for most of us our position in the races is not too crucial, it is actually just being out there having fun that holds the appeal.

You live in England, how is the sport of surfski developing in your area? Are the ski paddlers in your region committed to open water paddling and downwind courses? How do the opportunities for young and/or aspiring paddlers compare regarding flat-water K1 and surfski?

Surfski is certainly on the up in the UK, participation increases each year but the total numbers are still small compared to the traditional ski strongholds. There is a lot of desire to see the sport grow and to hold genuine downwind events on open water. It is not always easy though with a background environment of overprotective health and safety regulations.

As far as opportunities go for young and aspiring athletes, there is not a funding structure and as yet not enough awareness to attract sponsors to the sport, so it will be a self funded sport for a few years to come. That makes it quite tough for anyone trying to get started, equipment is not cheap and travel is extensive as most paddlers do not live by the coast. Weather is also an issue here. Paddling for fun may not be a year round option!

The K1 world has the lure of a bit more funding and the apparent Olympic dream; there is a reasonable club structure already in place so equipment is readily available for people to try the sport. I guess this is what surfski really needs.

What goals have you set for yourself as a surfski paddler?

From my first encounter with the top guys in surfski I realized that aiming for the top is not a realistic goal for someone who can only get to the ocean 3 or 4 times a year! I do have ambition to improve though and that will take me wherever it ends up. There are events I have on my to-do list and I hope to tick them off before I run out of steam. Molokai seems to be “the big one” in racing terms so that is up there along with the Cape Point and PE-EL. I don’t like to be a complete numpty, so I will give it a good shot to get good enough to justify the travel to these events. But perhaps even higher on my list would be to find the time to go to SA or Aus and spend time with someone good and learn from them. It seems the more you learn the more fun you can have, and that is the ultimate goal.

If you have, from your experience, one particular piece of advice for paddlers making the move to a surfski, what would it be?

It’s tough to limit it to one piece so……..

In order of my own learning curve: