Hi Guys,
Sorry for the low profile! Just too much to do here to spend time on the computer...
The Maui Molokai race was once again a fantastic experience, conditions for me were slower and a bit harder than last year, took me 5 minutes longer this year - bummer
Had the F16 compared to last year on the F14, I think the wind was more consistent over the whole course last year. Certainly would have been the year for a flatter rocker board, the guys in the first 4 places were on the SIC Bullet boards. I believe Connor Baxter and Livio who came in 1 2 were on customs.
Did a Maliko run yesterday with Livio and his board was super super light, felt like a bit of an also run - that happens when you do light wind Maliko with Thomas Maximus, Jeremy Riggs and Livio Menelau.
in the channel to Molokai we had 7 foot waves, so there were certainly some nice swell, there was a really epic section of about 40 minutes with super clean swells and strong wind that had me ye-haaing out loud and that was after more than 3 hours of paddling. When it comes together it's just unlike anything else I've ever done.
So the wind has been in, but not epic, you can see from the video that its pretty light, had some great south side waves at Thousand Peaks last week, three days of 2 to 4' waves. Thats well over head height for me. One morning I was there with Rick from Melbourne, he paddled out and the leg rope cord came undone, lost his board and Dave Kalama caught it for him - when everything was sorted out I asked him if he knew who had saved him a swim, you can imagine his reaction..
Dave had just been to to the Mentawai's with Connor, Jamie Mitchell, Chuck Patterson, he had just seen the movie Chopper on the boat and was blown away by it. Must admit it's pretty cool sitting out the back with DK shooting the breeze, he is coming to Oz soon for Jamie's wedding.
And talking of name dropping, sat on a cooler after the race with Danny Ching having a chat, super nice guy, he was helping me sort out an international dialling code on my crappy old Nokia with a local sim card. Couldn't quite work out why he wasn't getting up, then found out that he had found the last two beers and put them into the cooler to chill and was determined that no one else was going to get them! He did the race on an OC1.
Basically done a Maliko run every day, even the afternoon I arrived. Don't think I've missed a day except of course the race day, so that and the surfing in the mornings, well I've done quite a bit of paddling...old body is actually feeling pretty tired right now, the Maliko yesterday was tough, virtually no wind at the end and I think the constant paddling with the race in the middle is starting to take its toll, guess I just need to harden the f... up!
Took a video with the camera on the tail of the board yesterday, that was the super light day, wasn't that great with the GoPro but I'll edit up a short one today...or tomorrow...or
Took this video the day before the race, took it very easy to save some energy, tried to just pick up the easy runners and enjoy it.
That is the lovely Kelly Moore at the start of the video, she runs the shuttle service - it's paradise here..
nice videos and a really cool story.
