Watercycling devotees choose pedals over paddles
By INGRID LOBET
After Stephanie Beres's daughter was born, what had been food cravings became a desire,
equally strong, to get back into shape.
Just outside the window lay Lake Sammamish, Wash. But the kayaker in the family was Jeff, her husband. Stephanie was more of a cyclist. "Wouldn't it be great," Jeff mused one day, "if you could
pedal a kayak?" Turned out she'd married the right guy. In just a few weeks, Jeff, an industrial designer, built a fiberglass
proto type - a kayak with a bicycle crank and a propeller. Stephanie had her
workout.
That was seven years ago. Now Jeff Beres runs Open
Water Cycling in Redmond, Wash. His is just one of more than a dozen companies
creating pedal water- craft in an amazing array of designs, from full bicycles
mounted on surfboards or pontoons to canoes with pedals. Watercycles have
traveled 1,100 miles up the Mississippi, through the Inside Passage to Alaska,
and down from San Diego to Baja California. They're showing up at resorts as
rentals, and hunters and fishermen appreciate their stealth. But for most people
the draw is the chance to get a workout while enjoying a favorite body of
water.
A rider's-eye view from a watercycle on Lake
Sammamish, Wash. Some come as tandems. |
The International Water Cycling Association
( www. watercycling.org) estimates that 4,000 watercycles will sell in
the next year, at $750 to $3,000 each. "They're flying out of
here," says Dan Carpenter, part- owner of Hobie Cat Northwest in
Kirkland, Wash., who has sold 100 kayak-like Mirages, by Hobie Cat, in the last two months. Make that 101. Stephen Codling, a 50-year-old writer who is moving to a house on the water, steps off a $1,300 Mirage after his first five-minute spin. "Betcha I buy one of these," he whispers. "If you're on a bicycle, the cars just freak you out. Then you look out at the water, and it's empty." Use a lake or river as your cycle route, and you1l get a respectable workout, says Frank Katch, a professor of exercise science at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. He had a group of testers pedal all out for 40 yards on the Quebec- built Surfbike, a propeller-driven surfboard. "It's an excellent calorie burner, 10.4 calories per minute," he found. |
Steering varies from handlebars to
small levers. Most watercycles are faster than casual paddle kayaks-although
paddlers don't always concede this. "They come up alongside and want to
race you. Then you watch them disappear in your rearview mirror ," says
Mike Zimrner, a pilot in Portland, Ore. Elaine Nieman of Olympia, Wash., says
the Seacycle she pedaled to watch sea turtles in Hawaii was stable too.
"There were kind of big waves, but it was still very maneuverable and
steady."
For most people, watercycling will never offer as
convenient a workout as land- based sports. But it's got one clear advantage
over conventional cycling, dealer Rusty Lane of Olympia, Wash., likes to tell
prospective customers. "I remind them that on the water, there are no
hills."
Sports that mix media
Watercycling isn't the only unlikely sports hybrid. If you're looking for a bigger rush, check out these sports and Web sites:
 |
Sky skiing, or hydrofoiling. Bounce,
flip, and skip off the water while tethered to a speedboat in this version
of water-skiing on steroids |
|
Grass skiing. Racing down meadows, trails, or asphalt on skis with rollers is great for off-season work on ski technique. It's hottest in Europe, but you can also grass- ski in the United States, Turkey, and Taiwan (www.grasski.de). |
|
Street luge. This speed demon's game, descended from skateboarding, lets sledders trade snow for asphalt (www.streetluge.com ; www.streetluge.org). |
|
Sky surfing. Strap on a board, jump
out of a plane, and surf the slipstream while in free fall. Oh, and remember
your parachute |
Source: U.S. News & World Report, September 4, 2000, pg. 64
Copyright 2001
Northern Arizona University, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED