The OC6 Outrigger season starts in March and ends the first weekend of September – that’s six months! Half a year!
Practices at least two nights a week, extra time on the water/at the gym in the morning or at lunch, long weekend workouts, and what seems like Saturday after Saturday after Saturday of races that are an all-day affair. Now, if you are also dating or married to a paddler those workouts double and take time away from each other. If you have a child or pet with another paddler, you become a single parent multiple times a week, missing dinners, helping with homework, and bedtimes. If you’re married to an Outrigger Coach, Trailer/Escort Tow-er, Safety Boat Driver, Race Director or even the person who everyone goes to with Outrigger questions, the season is somehow… longer. A bad practice, a crew you thought you should make, a mistake in a race you can’t get over can all lead to questions like, “Why am I doing this?” or “Is this what’s best for my family?” or “Is the season almost over?”
But somehow, every single year, without fail you finish the Catalina Channel Crossing 9man race, get a drink in you and begin talking with your crew about “Next Year”.
“Next year, we can do better!” “Next year, we can improve on this!”“Next year, next year, next year…”
Now, I may have been a little more than tipsy in the Marlin Club after this past Catalina Crossing, but I distinctly remember having those “Next Year” talks left and right. And I laughed to myself over the inevitability of those conversations…because we all just love this sport.
We love the ocean, we love the workouts, we love the people, and we will keep coming back year after year – because just like when we’re in the canoes, we put our paddle in the water and take stroke after stroke, over and over. We push through the pain, the tough conditions, and the hard thoughts, to take the next stroke and keep coming back for more.
But before we got too far into “Next Year” I collected some of our team’s favorite moments from this year at our End of Season party in the video below…to celebrate, laugh, or even commiserate over the 2025 Outrigger season.
Here’s to another year down!
Bobbie Reichenstein