Kalama Kamp

One of the primary differences between starting a difficult sport when you’re young and crazy and when you’re an Xtreme Geezer is that geezers have more money. So we can do things like get the proper gear, get some training, and maybe go someplace great to do it. One of world’s truly great athletes is Dave Kalama, We have a short article about his amazing beach workouts here: Life’s a Beach…

Dave also does a few intensive training/teaching/having fun experiences at various places in the world–generally great resort locations that have surf and good facilities. These are moderately expensive multi-day learning experiences with relatively small groups. While I haven’t attended one of the “Kamps” as Dave calls them, I do know a bit about Dave’s remarkable ability to teach complex things. So when an acquaintance on the Stand Up Paddle forum I frequent asked me what I thought of the opportunity to go to a Kalama Kamp at Turks and Caicos islands I told it it would be hard to go wrong spending time with Dave. He was so thrilled with the experience he created a blog to talk about it (SUP Junkie), and gave me permission to post his articles here. A slightly edited version that combines the five articles begins here:

Club Med Beach Turks and Caicos

Ok, just a short intro, my name is Mike, I live and work in Coronado, California. I had the unique opportunity to attend Kalama Kamp in Turks and Caicos (British West Indies/Carribean) hosted by none other than Dave Kalama. The camp took place from November 13-21st of this year. I wanted to share my experiences so I decided to start my own blog, SUPjunkie.com where I plan on sharing my SUP experiences with anyone who may benefit and or enjoy my experiences. This was the second Kalama Kamp that Dave hosted, the first camp was in Florida. I originally heard about the camp after a couple months of following Dave’s blog.

Dave demonstrating paddle technique

I was intrigued by his blog postings on the Tahitian stroke technique that he adopted from the Tahitian outrigger paddlers. It seemed from what I had read/ heard that this particular technique might offer some much needed efficiency in my own stroke. I asked Dave during the trip why chose to develop this technique to others? His simple answer was that “when somebody using a different technique beats the Tahitians, I’ll consider something else”. In addition, Dave just believes that this particular stroke is the most efficient he’s found and since paddling requires so much repetition of movement, the smaller you can make each movement the faster and more efficient you will be!

Club Med Pool Scene, beautiful beach frontage.

So after talking to other paddlers that have had personal instruction from Dave, I pulled the trigger, booked my flight, paid for the camp, and counted the days until I would leave for T&C. I will admit, at first I was a little hesitant because of the cost but after factoring in that ALL the food, booze (yes all the booze you can drink), equipment and transportation was included, the camp seemed to provide good value. Besides, how often do us mere mortals get to learn from one of the best at what they do, and in paradise nonetheless?

As an avid SUP racer and surfer, my initial motivation was primarily to increase my speed for racing and improve my surfing technique, but little did I know the simple lessons about life that Dave would pass on to us.

I arrived on the island of Provo on Sunday around 2 pm, November 14th. After a quick ride to Club Med, I was greeted by a beach scene that can only be described as “spectacular”. I had never seen a beach and crystal blue/ green water anything like this my life!

This Iguana has his own little islanf

Cruising the Marngroves

So the camp is run by Dave Kalama, Brody Welte, and guest host John Denney. I don’t think you could ask for a more dynamic group of individuals to teach, entertain,and share good times with. Brody has a stand up fitness business called Standup Fitness, Inc. as well as a retail SUP store in St. Petersburg Florida.

He’s spent considerable time in San Diego, Kauai, and most recently Florida. Brody is one those guys that you can’t help but like, always spitting out his stream-of-consciousness, which ranges from funny, to odd, to just out and out weird. His love of stupid movie quotes, kept me on my toes the whole week.

John, on the other hand is this big, boisterous, teddy bear of a guy. John has been friends with Dave for a long time and is a well known big wave surfer/ waterman that resided in Maui for years before recently moving to Florida and opening up a SUP retail business called JuniperPaddleboarding.com. Brody and John, have a incredibly “unique relationship” in which they constantly try to one up each other. Keeps things interesting!

So I figured I’d give everyone a preview what the days were like for us during the camp. Each morning the group gathered on the beach for a Kalama beach workout. For most of us, working out requires going to the gym, using specialized weights/ equipment, and so on. For Dave who is a very fit individual takes a very simple approach. His beach workouts consists of deep sand runs on the beach, a variety of push ups/ pull ups/ dips/ crunches/lunges, etc. Dave’s passion for simplicity surfaced in his use of his use of $4 worth of rope that he utilizes to do a variety of upper body exercises using whatever he can find to serve as a post. I’m guessing Dave has access to state of the art exercise facilities, personal trainers and the like but I think for Dave, he favors the simplicity of being on the beach with like minded individuals using what our creator has provided. I assure you, the beach workouts were no easy endeavor for any of us. For those not accustom to beach runs and lunges, it’s a wake up call to what we should be able to do before stepping foot in the water. It seems that Dave has been able to accomplish extraordinary things by keeping very fit, both mentality and physically.

Phillip from Big Blue, the man with a plan!

Big Blue Marina

After workouts and group breakfast each morning, we would head to the Big Blue Unlimited headquarters. Big Blue, is a adventure company that provides visitors the opportunity to paddle, kite board, windsurf, scuba, snorkel, kayak, etc. It’s difficult to convey how awesome Big Blue is. One of the co-owners of 12 + years, Phillip, provided phenomenal personal service for our group, taking us by car and boat anywhere and everywhere that we wanted to explore. Phillip is quite a character.

Raised primarily in Turks and Caicos, Phillip spent much of his life on the island in between his boarding school education in England. Phillip is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to the islands. He has a thorough knowledge of the workings of the ocean, sea life, the archeology/ history of the area, etc. In addition to being a great host, he’s quite a character and kept us entertained with his conspiracy theories!

So here’s the typical day at Kalama Kamp Turks and Caicos:

8am- Beach Workout

9:30 am- Group Breakfast

10am- Morning Session- Dave would typically start with a little discussion about technique for either surfing and or paddling. He typically did some short discussions, demonstrations, and even some videotaping. Teaching us the fundamentals of his stroke was of primary importance.

1pm- Group Lunch

3pm- Afternoon Session- We typically took out one or two of Big Blue’s boats to an outer reef where we would catch some waves, do some exploration from island to island by board, snorkel, or catch some downwind action.

Group photo post beach workout.

8pm- Group Dinner

10pm- Night Activities- Each night we did a variety of activities including the Club Med shows, ping pong, pool, juggling, and drinking.

12pm- I would try to get to bed by 12pm though, Ben from DC, Wes from Big Blue and I would typically try and find some trouble!

Great Surf

This photo is me dropping in on one of the smaller waves of the day.

On Monday we had some nice overhead surf.  Only about 5 of us surfed and we had an absolutely incredible afternoon.

Not much to say, Dave getting after it!

Dave proceeded to absolutely “rip and tear” it up. His ability to read the waves, get in quick pivot turns, pull off huge/ powerful bottom turns absolutely amazed.me .

Here’s Dave Kalama doing a text book cutback.

Funny thing, not once did Dave come out and take the best set waves but instead allowed the rest of us to get the best waves. He made a lot of effort to always make sure we got the best experience possible!

Unfortunately for us, we only got one day of overhead surf but we made the most of it!

Me dropping in again.

Here some of the guys with the Big Blue Quiver of Naish Boards

Although Monday’s surf session was definitely a highlight of the week for some of us, there were a lot of other equally fun activities including a group downwinder. We loaded up the big boat on Thursday and headed up wind to see if we could find a little wind and a good route back to Big Blue Headquarters. Exploring the islands was a great experience. As I’m from San Diego, I’m amazed at the beauty of the water, the reefs, and all that nature has to offer. Our little downwinder provided an ample opportunity to try out some brand new 14′ Naish Glides. The were definitely a new experience for me. I’m use to my 12’6 which has a displacement hull, as opposed to the Glides planing hull. The glides, including the 12′ were nice all around boards.

Tags: pictures