Crossing the Kaiwi channel - Molokai Challenge and World Surfski Championships
What a couple of weeks I've had, preparing for
my second Molokai to Oahu channel crossing. This year I arrived a little over a
week before the race giving myself some time to recover and get over jet lag. For
those who don't know what the Molokai Challenge and World Surfski Championships
is, it is a 53km (32 mile) channel crossing from the island of Molokai to the
island of Oahu. The race starts on the western side of the island
on Kaluakoi Beach and the finish line was at the Maunalua Beach Park,
Hawaii Kai.
Race morning came; I woke up with nerves and excitement in my body, the feeling of what I had worked for finally arrived. Both my roommate Steve Dalton and myself woke up around the same time, getting ready for our start time, which was at 10:30 with the Elite men. At the time of applying sunscreen I thought I was going to be wearing the race t-shirt, but 20 minutes before the start I decided that I wanted to cut the sleeves and wear a singlet. Little did I know I forgot about the sunscreen and now as you can see in the picture of Koko Head I got absolutely burnt.
This year I used an Epic V14 in the ultra layup
as I made the step up from Epic's V10L late last year. For the past 20 weeks I
have been training hard with Clint Robinson back home on the Sunshine Coast
(which is just 1 hour North of Brisbane, Queensland). This year I finished 2nd in my age group of 19-29's and 22nd in Open men Solo surf ski, with a time of 4 hours 17 mins. Which was 12 mins quicker than last years time and 1 position better!
When doing this race you have 3 main options
on when/how to get to the island of Molokai, some fly the day before the race,
some fly race morning of and others catch their escort boat over the morning of
or the night before. Flying into Molokai on the Friday posed a serious mishap,
firstly I had my sunscreen taken off me by airport security, then when I
arrived on Molokai at midday my Esky (cooler) bag didn’t follow me. I was left
on Molokai without my breakfast and dinner food, but most importantly my fluids
for the race. For those who haven’t been on Molokai, there is a tiny
convenience store that has a few supplies. I was lucky to arrive there early
enough to purchase the last dozen eggs a bit of bacon and a ton of water. The
only thing I was missing now was my Thorzt and Vitrago(race nutrition) and my
water bottles. Knowing that there was another flight coming in at 6:15pm it put
my mind at ease, in the meantime I was just staying relaxed and hoping my
cooler bag would arrive. 7:00pm came and my cooler bag arrived, thankful to
everyone who had aided in the return of my bag.
Race morning came; I woke up with nerves and excitement in my body, the feeling of what I had worked for finally arrived. Both my roommate Steve Dalton and myself woke up around the same time, getting ready for our start time, which was at 10:30 with the Elite men. At the time of applying sunscreen I thought I was going to be wearing the race t-shirt, but 20 minutes before the start I decided that I wanted to cut the sleeves and wear a singlet. Little did I know I forgot about the sunscreen and now as you can see in the picture of Koko Head I got absolutely burnt.
The channel this year had good conditions, a
large amount of wind coming from the NE at about 15-20 knots and 1.5m swell
coming from the North. The start wasn’t as hard and fast as last year, last
year there were two main groups one with the top South African’s and one with the
top Australians. This year all the top paddlers went in one main group towards
the north and after a while all I could see were the big Epic Kayak Feathers on
the escort boat bobbing up and down.
During the first few stages of the race I
felt really comfortable, setting a nice pace, drinking regularly. I kept
getting calls out from my escort boat saying how high I was from our set
position and how far away from Portlock Point (China Wall). The first 2 hours
went by quickly, having the goal of going under 4 hours I was sitting on track
at half way. As the race progressed fatigue started to settle in more and more.
With about 10-15km to finish one of the USS destroyer’s decided to take a
strong left turn. Separating Oahu and me as they passed on the landside of my
boat. This Navy vessel was huge, to see one up close when you are sitting water
level is just incredible. Not long after that it came time to try my luck at
the ‘dangerous’ section of the race, negotiating China wall and the reefs that
surround it. Remembering the knowledge from last years race I decided to stick
with my gut and paddle close to the wall to gain any advantage of speed that I
could by catching waves. Slowly but surely I was gaining distance on fellow
paddler Mike Murphy, then Mike caught a nice wave that just doubled the gap I
had tried to close. Coming from a surf life saving background it helped me
giving the mindset that its never over. I then linked up a small runner that
turned into a wave, and another. A tough paddle became even tougher with
another surge for a wave and a cramp in my left hand, trying to shake it off I
pushed for another wave this time the cramp spread up my forearm and into my bicep,
with less than 500m to go I just kept pushing and pushing toward the finish
line. To be completely honest I was so incredibly happy to jump off my ski and
into the water after I crossed the finish line, just to soak and let what I
have just completed for a second time sink in. Then to talk to my friends and
family who had cheered me across the finish line, thank you to those who came
to the finish line, I appreciate it.
Below is the video of Ian Wright, Mike
Murphy and myself crossing the finish line
For me the Molokai is a challenge, it’s an
event that can either be cranking downwind or it can be an absolute slog
pushing into side chop or a head wind. Because of this you have to train for
it, and I’m the type of person that has to commit 110% its either all or
nothing, so it had taken a lot out of me. But I have thoroughly enjoyed
training for this event, to my friends and family that have supported me I say
thank you. Firstly I would like to make mention to a gentleman of the sport, I
met him last year at the Molokai event, and unfortunately I heard of his
passing on the way to the airport, to Joe Glickman and his Family and the
paddling community we have truly lost a great character #OMMFG, Thank you for
the chats last year I truly enjoyed them, thank you Mate. Epic Kayaks
International and Epic Kayaks Australia Thank you for supply myself with such
EPIC gear to paddle, Scotty from Performance Paddles I can be a challenging
costumer but thank you for helping me out with fantastic paddles. CK and
Sharlene from Mass Nutrition Noosa for pushing me in the right direction with
supplements and race nutrition a Massive thank you, it helped me through the
race majorly. To the active, social and the life members of Mooloolaba Surf
Club, I have been incredibly blessed with an amazing club with awesome training
facilities it definitely makes going early to train or leaving late at night a
whole lot easier. Karel Tresnak Junior and Senior for escorting me across the
channel, without your help the channel crossing would have been a lot harder
than it was thank you. To everyone I met
in Hawaii, you all made the stay a lot easier (easier than it already was). Last
but not least I owe a lot to this man, Clint Robinson (and Sarah Robinson),
since the very first day you have always pushed me. Thank you for being such a
great training partner, day in day out, we rocked up to ‘Neil’s’ and ventured
up stream. I really appreciate what everyone has done to help me, and hopefully
I inspire some of you to start paddling, maybe not the Molokai itself but in
any paddling discipline or event.
Steve Dalton and I
Now its time to relax and prepare to cross
the ditch (Pacific Ocean) again to Compete in the Canadian Surfski
Championships and North America’s new event the Gorge Paddling Festival on July
18th / 19th and July 24th / 25th.
Below I have attached the websites/facebook
pages of what I use, check it out.
Epic Kayak- http://www.epickayaks.com
Performance Paddles- http://performancepaddles.com
Mass Nutrition Noosa- https://www.facebook.com/massnutrition.noosa?fref=ts
Mocke Paddling- http://mockepaddling.com
Mahalo, Enjoy your week on or off the water!
#OMMFG
Ryan Paroz
Comments
Post a Comment