Interview: Danny Ching

Kids: When did you start paddling? I started when I was ten years old. That means I started racing when I was ten years old. I was already paddling before that. My father formed an outrigger team back then. When I was fifteen, I competed in the Olympic kayak sprint disciplines. With the whole programme around it, I almost made it into the "World Team". I'm now 31 and have been racing for 21 years and paddling for 26 years. I also grew up surfing. So it was really, really easy to say "Yeah!" when someone asked "Can you stand up paddle?"

Kids: When did you start stand-up paddling? That was in 2009, 5 years ago. With all my previous paddling experience, I was world champion in the outrigger, world champion in the dragon boat and national champion in the kayak sprint. sup-mag.de: Do you remember your first contact with a SUP? Of course. A very good friend, Russel from Ohana Boards, convinced me to do a race. It was a race weekend with a short course and a long course. So I started the short course on the SUP and the long course on the outrigger. At first I thought I was behind because I was only fifth. But I was the first on 12'6'', everyone else was on unlimited boards (editor's note: unlimited boards are longer than 12'6'' and therefore naturally much faster and a board class of their own). These guys on the Unlimited matched up with the outriggers and I thought "these people are beating me here, I hate this board, it's the worst I've ever paddled". Then the others said "Hey, they're in a completely different class. Their boards are twice as long as yours and you've almost beaten them." I still didn't get it then "Yeah, but he beat me, he's right there, ten yards ahead of me." The others thought that was really good, I hadn't really got it yet (laughs).

sup-mag.de: There are no different classes for the Outrigger? There is the single, when two paddlers are on it it is a double, then there are surf skis. sup-mag.de: Is there a board class that you favour? Of course (laughs)! Unlimited - they are simply faster. The longer the boards get, the more important the paddling technique becomes, "distance per stroke" for example - which I'm very good at - becomes an advantage. At 12'6'' it's not an advantage, you just take one more stroke. The shorter the boards get, the bigger the advantage in return, the fitter and stronger you are. And now that I'm getting older and have to race against the youngsters, I don't necessarily like that (laughs)! sup-mag.de: At the moment, your lead seems to be enough for a few more years? I've learnt that I can't win every race. I have to pick and choose. Also because I'm getting older, I need longer to recover. And I also need more preparation to be "ready". When I was Connor's or Zane's age, I could race again next week after an event like that and say "Let's go"! Now I say "see you in a month".

sup-mag.de: What do you do for recovery? I take a lot of rest and do most of my training on the outrigger. I can't do so much stand-up paddling because it's too strenuous for the body. If I only train SUP, I have to take too long breaks. Every time you train, you make your body tired, but you only get faster if you also rest. I can train faster on the outrigger and also recover better. When it gets closer to SUP races, I also train more on the SUP board. My advantages are therefore my technique and the fact that I train a lot on the outrigger. I can train a lot, recover quickly and then I'm back again. If you don't have this option, you're missing something. I can also do extra training that way. I can do cross-training, train harder, more often and recover.

sup-mag.de: Can you tell us the secrets of your technical advantages? Definitely. I tell everyone, but nobody listens (laughs). I've spent years and years in different paddle sports. The technique changes: from when I was ten, then when I turned 15, then again when I was 20. It goes back and forth. What never changes: You have to put your whole paddle in the water - before you pull. Most of us - especially when we get tired - don't do that. We swing forwards, really fast, then down and back and only when we come down do we grab the paddle. But even if you've got this far forward (ed.: Danny gestures a very wide "reach") and the paddle is still in the air, it's no good. When the paddle goes into the water, this is where it starts to work. Most people waste the most important part of the stroke at the very beginning. They turn the paddle, which is the best part of the stroke, they waste that at the beginning. The trick is: you stab the paddle, build up speed - and then turn it. Most people have heard it, most people know it - but most people don't do it. In the sprint at the end of the long course you can see that I have a lower stroke rate, but I get the maximum out of every stroke. If I can paddle half the stroke rate as Connor, I can keep up. The problem is that Connor can do a lot more strokes than me (laughs). He's young and fit. Even if he swings back and just grazes the water, he can triple my stroke rate. It's scary for me to see that in someone younger. I hope he doesn't notice.

sup-mag.de: If you watch 10 riders today, you'll see 10 different techniques. How should a newcomer to racing find "his" style? Everyone has their own style. If you paddle harder and stronger now, your technique will eventually get lost. You have to find the balance between your technique and your fitness. If you go too hard, your technique will be poor and you won't get fast. If you take it easy, your technique is perfect, but you won't get fast either. Somewhere in the middle is the right point. But that changes over the course of a race. It's different at the start than in the middle and again different at the end.

sup-mag.de: You said that you choose the races more. What was your motivation to come here? For years, the event has had the reputation of being the biggest and best event in Europe. With the best participants and the best organisation. I also want to build up my 404 brand here. sup-mag.de: If you had to tell someone "This is the event you have to be at once in your life", what would it be? Battle of the Paddle! You do such a great job in all aspects of the race. It's not just a race, it's an "event". People come from all over the world to Southern California. It's so visitor-friendly. It's the only race I've seen in the world that is supported by all the board manufacturers, by all the racers. No race is perfect, but this is as close as it gets. Even if other races, like the Lost Mills, also come closer. I would love to see ten of these events a year. sup-mag.de: That was a nice advert for California, where you're from. Even if some people think you're from Hawaii. I have never lived in Hawaii. I just travelled there. I grew up in the outrigger scene and the best outrigger paddlers I knew were from Hawaii. Then I raced there and learnt that the best paddlers came from Tahiti. When I was a teenager, George Cronstaedt was simply the greatest, the best paddler in the world. Now to race with him here and know that he knows me, to be friends with him, it's pretty cool. The funny thing is that in my paddling career I was always from California, until I got better, faster, then suddenly I was seen as a Hawaiian (laughs). Even though I never lived there. But I spent a lot of time there, I have a lot of friends there. And it's a compliment to be seen as Hawaiian, because the level of paddling there is so high. sup-mag.de: Do you have a training group? Yes, I have an outrigger team with us. I coach the men's team, which is about 150 paddlers. The women, about another 100 paddlers, have their own coach. Until about two years ago, I also coached the children's programme. For kids aged 10 to 18, that's 150 to 200 paddlers. sup-mag.de: What does a typical training week look like for you? There is no "typical" training week. I do 140 miles round trip three days a week for 404 and Hippo Stick. I'm in the office or making sure the business is running. Before that, I train early in the morning with my wife in the Outrigger with a large group of paddlers. Then we go for a run or to the gym, then breakfast and she drives to work at 9.30am. Then I drive too. She's gone for 12 hours, I drive 70 miles, do my work, come back and then coach the first kids at half past three. That takes two hours. Then two or three hours with the adults. That's a typical day maybe, but sometimes I do that seven days a week, sometimes just once. When you have your own company, it gives you a certain flexibility. But every time I don't go, I know there's something I absolutely have to go to next week.

sup-mag.de: Your own board brand is 404. What does the name stand for? I started the company with my partner Creg Jensen, he has half and I have half. He is an ex-professional surfer. But we couldn't agree on a name. He's old and had terrible names. I was young and also had terrible names. We couldn't agree on anything. So we typed a few names into the Internet and kept getting a "404: error; cannot be found". So we thought, if we can't find a name, we'll just use a number. He said "maybe" and his son, Luke Jensen, said "we'll take 404, look at the logo" and he immediately developed a logo. We wanted to ask our friends "let's see if they like it". The feedback was: it's a half-Hawaiian company - because the area code for Hawaii is 808, which is a notorious thing here: "Ah, 808 - you're calling from Hawaii". Greg was born and raised in Hawaii, but he's not Hawaiian, I was born and raised in California, but I'm almost half Hawaiian. So it became a half-Hawaiian company. That seems to fit. The feedback from Europe was that when you say someone is "404", it sometimes means they're "lost", they don't know what they're doing. We laughed and said. "We have no idea what we're doing, that's perfect. We're half Hawaiian and clueless." sup-mag.de: What are your plans for the German market? So far, people here know the brand, especially the racers, but the brand has not yet been visible on the market. We have a German importer and a Swiss importer. They are now helping to bring boards to these countries. We have our own production facility since this year and we now have these insane 14-foot and 12'6'' boards with 10 kilos in carbon. The only problem is that as a company owner, when you buy the boards, you have to invest all your money at the beginning of the year. So we can only buy a certain amount of boards. The most important thing we have to learn now is not to promise too much and then not deliver. If I look at Germany or Europe - we only promised a certain amount of boards (ed.: 2014) - not many, so grab them quickly. But next year (2015) we will have more boards at the start. We want to expand in Europe, that's one of the main reasons I'm here and I hope to have a lot of 404 boards here next year.

sup-mag.de: Where are your boards produced? We have a custom line. The board I was riding today is a custom board, "made in USA". We have our own laminator, our own shaper and so on. Our high-end boards are produced there. We have moved the rest of our series production from China to Vietnam. It's a bit more expensive now, but the quality is better, the work is better - the product is much better in the end. The quality is so good that my goal is to race a production board at the end of the year. We are making one in "Danny Ching width". The plan is to have a board that is stiffer, lighter and more stable than the board I'm riding today. sup-mag.de: If you compare the sport in Germany with the USA now - how far behind are we, what can we expect in the near future? In Germany, you're behind in terms of numbers, but not in terms of paddling culture. You also have a bit of a surfing background - I don't know where that comes from - but a lot of flat water background. You can see that there are a lot of good paddlers here. Maybe not so good on the standup yet, but they've grown up paddling. It's quite obvious when you see someone paddling on the SUP who has paddled a lot before. The racing scene is a few years behind, but is catching up - and very quickly. It was similar in Canada, with a broad paddling background, as in Germany. I've raced sprint kayaks and I know how fast these guys are. It's not such a big change to get up from a sprint canoe - I think that will happen in maybe two years for some, but I wouldn't be surprised if it goes faster. sup-mag.de: In Germany, SUP racing is still a small niche compared to Hawaii or California. We have more active people, you have the better athletes (laughs). All our good athletes go to football or basketball or even ice hockey - Germany has a lot of really good paddlers. When the change comes - I've seen the kids races here and all the kids paddling around - and I've seen Connor from 13, 14 until now - it's not a long process because you already have the cultural background of paddling. If you didn't have a good paddler now - you can produce a top paddler in four years.

Interview: Stephan Gölnitz