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Kayak Polo at Lake Padden ©2001 Bellingham Herald Polo players paddle to successJAY DROWNS HERALD PHOTO MAKING A SPLASH: Playing polo using kayaks helps strengthen critical paddling skills. Fiona Cohen, Take Five It's Tuesday night at Lake Padden, and the air echoes with splashes, shrieks, hollers, and the deep "thoonk" of boats colliding, as 14 people in whitewater kayaks tussle over a small basketball. This is kayak polo, a game resembling a cross between basketball, polo and a waterfight. The kayakers are divided in to teams, each trying to get the ball into a basket suspended six feet above a buoy. There's no better workout for a kayaker, says Gary Southstone, 46, a former kayak racer who introduced the sport of kayak polo to Bellingham. "They just sprint back and forth, back and forth, back and forth," Southstone says. Though their minds are on the game, they're also learning to paddle, says longtime player Kristi Hug, 31. "You accidentally learn a lot of boathandling skills," she says. With the game as a motivator, kayakers perfect their braces, rolls and other maneuvers that will help them on a river. The same can not be said for strategic skills. Players tend to mill around following the ball like 6-year-olds playing soccer. On nights when there are fewer people, people make an effort to mark up against each other, Hug says. "With this many people it's just basic mayhem." This suits Southstone. who is still fine tuning the local version, changing the designs of the baskets (just last month, he raised them by a foot) and modifying the rules to enhance safety and make sure the ball changes hands many times before someone scores. "The idea is turnovers," he says. The rules are simple. No paddling with the ball; if you need to move you have to dribble, by throwing the ball in front of you and catching up to it. You can hold the ball still but you have to throw it three seconds after getting tagged. No jabbing with paddles or pulling on boats.
If you reach out with your paddle for the ball, you can't move both hands beyond the midpoint of the paddle. And you're not allowed to ram another boat by pounding straight into its side, though making a glancing blow against the bow or stern is OK. Southstone's game is based on a sport called canoe polo, which is popular in Europe. Canoe polo is played in special kayaks (in British terminology kayaks are called canoes) and usually takes place on swimming pools. Southstone has poured hours into promoting the game, devising the basket buoys, a special trailer to carry the gear, and coming to play even when injuries mean he can only paddle with one arm. "It's such a blast," he says. Reach Fiona Cohen at fcohen@ bellingh.gannett.com or 715-2276. |
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