FIELD NOTES: PADDLING WITH PURPOSE

Words by Tony Wodarck & Kayla Coscino
Photos by Braden Archinuk & Tony Wodarck

BEN DID GO 9.0

Tony Wodarck, VP Brand at FLORENCE

Paddling 30+ miles in one day is no joke. I knew this channel crossing was going to be hard, but it still managed to surprise me.

As a surfer in California, we stare at Catalina every day we can see it. A lot of days the smog, fog and gloom distracts our view, but on nice days, the island is in plain sight. I’ve known for years that one day I’d like to paddle the channel. After getting into prone paddling at the end of last year, I put on my 2024 bucket list to do a channel crossing.

I spoke with my friend and coworker, Florence in-house sales and ops extraordinaire, Kayla and she wanted to do it too. We both saw the Ben Did Go crossing as our best option to train and make it across the channel. The community, the fact it was a group paddle, the doable 4.0mph pace, and the forced qualifiers made it seem like the best route. After going to the safety meeting in May we learned what the crossing was truly about. It wasn’t just Kayla and I crossing off a milestone, we were doing something much bigger. Raising awareness and funds for the Ben Carlson Foundation, benefitting lifeguards locally, nationally and internationally. Ben Carlson was a lifeguard ten years ago who gave his life rescuing a distressed swimmer in heavy swell in Newport.

We all raised $1500+ and collectively hit our fundraising goal of $250K! It could not have been done without all of our amazing support from Florence members and friends here in our community.

Leading up to the day, we trained all spring and summer, paddling over 500 miles. Several long 15+ mile expeditions, a local 15-mile race, the El Morro Classic and tons of Friday mornings with the Newport crew, Prones Brigade. We all felt trained up – but still nervous for the 30 mile crossing.

The day of the paddle was wild. We woke up to residual ocean morning sickness from the prior days’ wind. We started in the dark at Avalon at 6am and paddled through all the boats in the harbor. As we got to the open ocean we realized this wasn’t going to be easy. Facing a head current and rough seas, we were paddling hard to hit the 4.0mph pace. Which for paddling is typically pretty easy. Today it was not.

After about 10 miles the ocean eased up, and a few miles later the sun came out and it glassed off to dream conditions. At mile 15 we all took a break. Spencer Pirdy, Ben’s friend and the originator of the BDG paddle, said some words and honored Ben. We all jumped off our boards and dove deep into the middle of the beautiful blue sea. It was a great moment and a nice break from the grueling paddle.

At mile 23 I fell off going to my knees and lost my friends who kept paddling. I was by myself in the middle of the pack and hit some dark mental moments. More commonly referred to the pain cave, this was less about pain and more about battling some mental demons. “Why am I doing this? This is stupid. What happens if I just give up?” Those kinda things. Luckily I caught back up to my crew, had an Uncrustable thanks to local lifeguard Kyle Cenicola and crawled out of my sad hole. The last few miles were tough. Your arms are so done. They just don’t want to move anymore.

As we got close to the Newport pier, we regrouped. Spencer yelled out for the first-year channel crossers to get to the front of the pack. “Kayla, Tony, lead us in” yelled Spencer. I did everything I could to fight back the tears as we could hear the roar from the pier of friends and family. The beach was lined with our loved ones and it was an emotional finish. Crossing the channel is something I’d encourage any waterman or woman to do in their lifetime. I’ll never look at Catalina the same.

They say “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”

I would have never made it across the channel without my friends, the Ben Carlson community and our incredible support crew.

Equipment Used:

• Mile 0-20 I wore the Long Sleeve Hooded Windshield. It saved me because it was cold and windy out in the morning. Everyone was shivering.
• Mile 20 I switched out to the Hooded Rashguard as the sun came out because I was starting to bake in the Windshield.
• I wore the Test Pilot CORDURA AIRTEX Boardshorts and the Test Pilot Hydratights. Both were amazing.
• I wore the AIRTEX Unstructured Hat for extra sun protection on my face. I love paddling in that hat.
• No chafing, no rashes, no issues after 30+ miles of use. Also, I only had to put sunscreen on my face and didn’t get torched. The gear held up incredibly.

Kayla Coscino, In-House Sales & Operations at FLORENCE

A little over two years ago, I got my first prone paddle board (thanks to Mikey at Vesl) with the intention to paddle as a way to train for surfing and keep myself in and on the water more often, and with a goal to do the Ben Did Go channel crossing the next summer, in 2023. But, when I got my first board, I had just started working at Florence, was figuring out how to transition from college to a full-time job, and had no idea how to start training, so my plan for 2023 got a bit lost in the midst of things. Luckily, after Tony photographed the Catalina Classic in 2023, he wanted to do a channel crossing too, which meant I had someone to hold me accountable to do it in 2024.

It’s crazy to look back at just a little over 5 months again, to the end of March, when I started ‘training’ for this. I knew how to paddle, I grew up surfing, but I knew nothing about endurance paddling. Every day I paddled, each new person I met and paddled with, the first race I did in Coronado, the second race I did in El Morro, and the first 20+ mile paddle I did, taught me more than I could ever imagine. That is one of the things I have loved about paddling — you can learn and improve so fast, seeing tangible results. But at the same time, accepting that you are so new to the sport and have so much to learn and experience, makes you so excited to keep doing it.

Although the Ben Did Go channel crossing meant so much to me personally—it’s the first time I have pushed myself and dedicated myself to train for something since I stopped competitively surfing—the meaning behind doing this long, challenging paddle as a dedication to Ben Carlson is unexplainable. The only way I can say it (and I haven’t really told anyone this yet) is that when we left Catalina, in the dark, with the lights of Avalon behind us, all of our support boats started blowing their horns and I looked around to the 90+ people around me, all challenging ourselves for the same purpose, I got choked up and a little teary-eyed. Not knowing or even being able to see what is ahead of you, but feeling the energy and purpose behind paddling for Ben Carlson made this experience so significant to me.

Pushing yourself to do something new, and something inherently difficult, is hard. It’s hard to overcome that initial fear of failing, but I can’t express enough how amazing the prone paddling community is. From up and down the coast of California, Hawaii, and beyond, everyone who I have paddled with in the past 5 months has been so encouraging and pushed me to work harder than I probably ever have before. If you have the chance to try paddling, do it.

Equipment Used:

• I wore the Long Sleeve Utility Pocket Hooded Rashguard for all 30 miles. This is the only rashguard (including wetsuit jackets/vests) that doesn’t give me underarm rashes. Pocket on the back so I can stash my secret final 5 mile candy.

To learn more and help support the Ben Carlson Foundation, click here.