vote with your participation or lack of

[Kieranrsup]

It was gnarly!! But I'm so glad I did it. The biggest drops and runs I've ever had!!
It didn't really sink in how big the conditions were until about 10mins in when I was well clear of the gulch. At one point I looked to my right and saw a 6 - 8ft swell coming at me and thought to myself damn you've gotten in over your head here(literally .
Then I decided to just go with it and catch some. Yeeeeeeeewwww!!! Exhilarating!!!
The hardest thing about the race was the poor visibility, not being 100% familiar with the shoreline landmarks I found it difficult to pick my line.
At one point about half way through it cleared ahead of me and I could see waves breaking and several paddlers heading back out at 90deg so I went wide then too.
Too wide as it turned out as the next thing I knew I was almost parallel with the harbour and about a mile out!!
Quick!! Cut left!! That's when I got cleaned up by the biggest wave I had seen. It broke on me from the side. I fell over the back of the wave my board went with it, dragging me in the process.
Damn I was praying that my leggie didn't snap!!!!
I recovered my board, got back on and Tried to go again but my steering wouldn't work!! Damn cables had popped off the pulley in the wipeout.
Thanks to Marks ingenious built in thumb screw I was able to lock my rudder and get safely into the harbour.
The smile on my face in the picture at the finish says it all.

[Southbay]

Nice work and great recap Kieranrsup!  Good thing your leash held.  That would be about the last place I would want to be swimming! 

[Kieranrsup]

For sure Southbay!!! Swimming in would not have been fun!!!!
I'm glad I bought a brand new leggie at the start of my holiday early in July.
It's something that I normally take for granted that it won't snap etc. I'm going to be much more careful with rinsing in clean water and inspecting my Leggies before
paddling from now on.

[JF808]

There is no question that this race should have been cancelled. I was telling some of the other guys about the big island, we have a orth shore Keokea run, and the conditions are always like this past sunday. Just nasty, all day, everyday... so the conditions didn't make me nervous at first, but off of the start I seen some of the leaders take spills getting through the random breakers at the mouth of the gulch... it wasn't untill you were out in the water you realized how crazy it REALLY was.

Experience from 2 Olukai's ago... the OC1 day we had nasty foggy conditions much worse then this past sunday, and I already knew not to surf early... I took my time getting outside, and the backwash actually made it easy to surf out rather then down.  While everyone was surfing down, the group that took the longer approach to a outiside line eventually surfed down later and seen everyone on the inside B-Lining straight out near sprecks. I'm glad I didn't surf down early, and waste all that energy to only paddle back outside.

Like I said though this race should have been cancelled!!! I'm sure there were some politics involved but for the sake of saftey. All the non experienced guys who made it are very lucky, everyone was lucky! consider the conditions, this could have ended way worse.  I spend some much $$$ to make these off island events, I'm committed no matter what!

Kieran, it's nice to see a face to the name. Seen you a lot this month. I helped you carry your board out of the water @ M4M.  Good job bro!

[Kieranrsup]

@JF808 yeah, I remember you giving me a hand to get my board up onto dry land. It was blowing pretty hard then!! Cheers for the assistance!!

[DavidJohn]

It was gnarly!! But I'm so glad I did it. The biggest drops and runs I've ever had!!
It didn't really sink in how big the conditions were until about 10mins in when I was well clear of the gulch. At one point I looked to my right and saw a 6 - 8ft swell coming at me and thought to myself damn you've gotten in over your head here(literally .
Then I decided to just go with it and catch some. Yeeeeeeeewwww!!! Exhilarating!!!
The hardest thing about the race was the poor visibility, not being 100% familiar with the shoreline landmarks I found it difficult to pick my line.
At one point about half way through it cleared ahead of me and I could see waves breaking and several paddlers heading back out at 90deg so I went wide then too.
Too wide as it turned out as the next thing I knew I was almost parallel with the harbour and about a mile out!!
Quick!! Cut left!! That's when I got cleaned up by the biggest wave I had seen. It broke on me from the side. I fell over the back of the wave my board went with it, dragging me in the process.
Damn I was praying that my leggie didn't snap!!!!
I recovered my board, got back on and Tried to go again but my steering wouldn't work!! Damn cables had popped off the pulley in the wipeout.
Thanks to Marks ingenious built in thumb screw I was able to lock my rudder and get safely into the harbour.
The smile on my face in the picture at the finish says it all.

Great pic and report Kieranr.. 

Looking forward to catching up with you again in Merimbula..

Looks like you're having way too much fun.. We'll have to get you down to Melb one day for a DWer with us.