After missing the Molokai event the past few years, I once again traveled to Hawaii for the Championships. I arrived into Honolulu Tuesday afternoon before the race. Having put in less training time than normal for an event of this distance, I hoped to get some good downwind sessions in Hawaii leading up to the race. As luck would have it, the winds died in Hawaii just before I arrived, picking up just a little in time for the race.

 

I took along 2.5 liters of drink. That included 1 liter of Go Grape Cytomax on my rear deck and 1.5 liters of Tropical Fruit Cytomax under my calves in the footwell. I also took along 2 gel packs and an energy bar (broken into 3 bite-sized pieces and placed in a ziplock bag with a duct tape for easy access.

 

At the start of the race I took off hard, but controlled, then settled down to a manageable pace. Since I knew I was not in condition to stay with the leaders, my goal was to keep a steady pace and come on strong at the finish. After 30 minutes, we had nice 3-4 foot wind waves to surf. While smaller than typical Hawaii standards, they provided a nice push nonetheless. With 7-8 knot tailwind (nearly the same speed we were traveling) and a predicted high in the upper 80’s (30C), I knew it would be a hot one. As I’d surf down a wave, I’d splash myself or dip my hat into the water. I tried to keep my heart rate down near 150 on the Garmin 305 so I wouldn’t burn out.

 

With nearly 100 skis, this was by far the biggest and most competitive Molokai ever. It was exciting because there were always other paddlers nearby. It’s easier to gauge performance when you can see yourself pull ahead by linking together a few good runs, or fall behind by slacking off.

 

I steadily drank and after 2 hours started eating some of my food. With the race half over, I was feeling good and thought I could start picking up the pace a little. After 3 hours, I realized that was a mistake, as I started overheating and became tired. I had to drop the pace back down and bounced around in the confused seas as we approached Oahu. The approach to Oahu is the most difficult part due to rebounding waves from the cliffs. I found I could surf very well by paddling hard to catch the runs, but was only able to maintain the needed pace for a minute or less at a time before I’d need to slow back down.

 

As we approached Chinaman’s wall, I saw several boats just ahead, including Sean Monihan who cramped up, and Danny Ching, the first OC-1. Knowing the finish was close, I picked up the pace and began passing some boats. Turning the corner at Portlock, I cut inside some reefs and surfed a few waves before heading to the finish. It actually felt good going into the light headwind as I was much cooler!

I finished in 29^th place overall, by far my worst finish. However, I was not surprised due to the high level of competition and my relative lack of fitness.

 

Congratulations to Lewis Laughlin. He paddled a great race and proved that last year was no fluke by making it two in a row. Hank McGregor and Tim Jacobs were close in 2^nd and 3^rd positions. I was most impressed with Dean Gardiner who finished a close 4^th in moderate seas – nothing near his preferred heavy downwind conditions.

 

Lauren Bartlett had an incredible race in winning the women’s division, finishing only 5 minutes behind me. This was after only 2 weeks this year on a surf ski after winning the women’s OC-1 crossing a few weeks ago. Also of note was German paddler Freya Hoffmeister, who crossed the channel with a sit inside touring kayak – paddling the Epic 18X.

 

I’m now on the plane to our factory in China. I’ll spend a couple weeks there fine-tuning our production and working on new R&D projects.