We all know Jamie Mitchell has won 10 titles but Oscar Chalupsky has just won his 12th title in the surfski race. This is a huge effort to win ahead of the likes of clint Robinson and dean gardener. Makes you wonder who is the king of Molokai and the greatest ocean paddler of all time and will we be mentioning the likes of Connor Baxter in years to come?

kissa said...

Extraordinary. Oscar is 49. The top 10 read like a whos who of ocean paddling. To illustrate how close it was, Dean Gardiner was leading into China Walls and finished 4th behind Oscar, Clint and Pat Dolan (of Hawaii). Interesting that all these 3 are former/current Olympic kayakers. Deano doesn't blow-up so it must have been a sprint to the finish...into a 20 knot head wind ...

Is it possible to make the claim that the big o is the greatest ocean paddler of all time or is not possible to compare between different paddle craft?

Yep - that is Pat. He is a top all round athlete.
Funny thing is that Dean and Oscar were up at Ningaloo Reef a couple of months ago for a week of downwinding with some of their wheel heeled clients. Dean spent just as much time on his SUP - he loves it. Oscar doesn't have the same affection. Dean is thinking of doing a SUP surf/DW trip to Ningaloo - anyone interested? Here is a taste:

akhawk said...

Hey kissa, is it the same pat Dolan that is also a champion oc1 paddler? If its the same guy, he sounds like a machine, competing this year in the oc1, surfski, and prone paddle board Molokai races!! I wonder if he also competes in sup?

Pat Dolan of Hawaii came 3rd in both the Molokai OC1 solo and the Molokai Surf Ski solo over the last 5 weeks.

The OC1 course was probably only 1 min of paddling longer than the ski.

His time for the OC1 was 3hrs 33 mins 24 secs.
His time for the ski (first Molokai ski attempt) was 3hrs 25 mins 42 secs.

Aloha