.jpg "2012 Jimmy Lewis Maestro 10'3 Stand Up Paddleboard")
Pack your bags for this unbelievable opportunity to spend your vacation with Dave Kalama right here in our own back yard. Kalama Kamp and Stand Up Fitness will host the next Kalama Kamp. Brody Welte from Stand Up Fitness as well as John Denney from Jupiter Paddleboarding are going to help facilitate the world-class SUP adventure. This camp is limited to 12 people to assure the most personalized, intimate SUP experience possible.
As usual the camps are all inclusive including transportation to and from the airport. You just need to arrange air transportation.
John and Dave are featured in various parts of the New York Times Best Selling book "The Wave" by Susan Casey.
If you have any questions or would like to sign up, please contact Brody at brody@standupfitnessinc.com.
Ok, just a short intro, my name is Mike, I live and work in Coronado. 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 that PaddleSurf.net was the idea place as John is the most enthusiastic promoter of stand up paddling that I know! 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.
I was intrigued by his blog's on the Tahitian stroke technique that he's 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 could beat the Tahitians, he would 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!
So after talking to other paddlers that have 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!
After a quick bite at our hotel, Club Med, I hopped a ride with a few others to Big Blue Unlimited's headquarters. Big Blue is the adventure company that is providing us equipment (all Naish and the good stuff) and local knowledge, transportation (boat and auto) etc. Myself and a few other hit the incredible turquoise water and paddled for a few hours checking out some of the mangroves, beaches and small islands. We were also introduced to a small island inhabited by thousands of iguana's. Pretty cool!
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 Denney 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 pushups/ pull ups/ dips/ crunches/ lunges, etc. Dave's simplicity surfaces 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.
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 and one of the co-owners of 12 + years, Phillip was in accommodating 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!
More coming soon...
Mike
Photos from Kalama Kamp 2010 - St. Petersburg, Florida
Photos by Chad Jarae & Clark Griffiths - Courtesy of standupfitness.com
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