Olukai 2015

[digger71]

Thanks for the tour and the help with the rudder Bill!  It really is another world out there and I appreciated the guidance. It's hard enough to concentrate on the task at hand, staying upright and catching bumps, without worrying that I may be on a suicidal line across an outer reef

I hear the number of participants is up over 500 this year!

Doug

[covesurfer]

Time to start praying for wind. Forecast is looking a little light.

[Southbay]

It looked horrible today, but the forecast is for sun and wind.  Today's rain killed it. If the rain goes, it'll work.

SATURDAY
Sunny and breezy. Highs 78 to 84. Northeast winds 15 to 20 mph with gusts to 35 mph.

[covesurfer]

That's a forecast we can hope comes true SB!

I looked at Maui 2km a while ago and got visions of last year's super light conditions. Hoping we get a decent day!

[PonoBill]

Looks like 15-20 at the noon start. If they moved it up to 9:00 it would be smokin'. Today sucked--drove all over chasing wind. Nada.

[covesurfer]

Yeah, that's according to Maui 2km. Let's hope they're wrong. The rain killed everything today. It's supposed to be outta here tomorrow. See you in da gulch.

[Off-Shore]

Congratulations to all those Zoners who competed. Results are here.

http://www.supracer.com/2015-olukai-stand-up-paddle-race-results/

Looks like it was fast and fun.

Looking forward to reading about the day.

[covesurfer]

Conditions were smokin! Fantastic day on the water and a first-class event.

Some great results by zoners and Maui peeps. One of the most fun, fast Maliko's that I can recall.

[headmount]

Best race conditions I've ever seen.    Tons of great paddlers from far and wide with a solid showing from many of the world's best.  Zoners,  JF808 from the BI and Robert (Blueplanet) from Oahu did very well. 

  After a long grind and holding into the 20-25 mph wind on our knees for the start line, it took awhile for the blood to fully charge into my legs and deal with the drastic elevation changes and multiple step drops.  I was conservative and didn't charge until I felt that connection in my legs as I saw guys going down around me.  Many were flying but I decided to wait until I was in the groove to hammer.  Finally did and had what felt like a fairly good run.  There were still some sidewinders left over from the last several days but for the most part not as threatening as it has been. 

Olukai set a buoy on the outside reef and sufficiently upwind so that the remaining leg towards the finish was still enough downwind to be glidable.  I was excited to have a huge glide before the buoy and a great connection after when I made my turn towards shore.  But everyone else was flying as well and times were the best ever.  There was also a 100meter run on the beach which was especially diabolical for old guys like PBill and I.  Made me feel very proud to see PBill actually trot down the beach in good form.  He'd never be mistaken for Carl Lewis but he was going.  Never felt so stoked.

My age group, the coffin division, had two coming in under an hour.  I didn't but got a third place after them so that was good enough for me.

 Everyone was stoked except some of the top guys with lofty expectations who missed the start because organizers said 12 noon and start went off 10 mins early.  But it's mayhem out there with an open ocean start and impossible to get everyone lined up equally with those kind of conditions. 

[PonoBill]

fun race. I had a great downwind section, three falls. My knee behave pretty well, and I was in a bump pretty much the entire run. Passed a lot of people. Then we went around the buoy and it all came apart. I fell at least ten times from the buoy to the beach, but I didn't want to pocahontas, so I kept getting up. Shoulda just stayed down and popped up for the last hundred yards. People were streaming past me. the run sucked, but only two people passed me. Pat McCarty actually took a step back to let me finish in front of him, He didn't want to beat me in the last ten yards. Very nice of him. I did 1:19:04. finished 144 -- about mid pack. I think I lost at least five minutes in the run to the beach from the buoy. All in my head. Should have been a piece of cake.

Fun day, great conditions, great people.

I think we need to do a maliko tomorrow. Maybe go about noon?

[DavidJohn]

Any results..

[PonoBill]

offshore posted results above

[digger71]

What a great event!  I will certainly be back to do it again.  Conditions seemed just about perfect and there were some big fast bumps out there.  After settling down a bit after a rough first 1/2 mile I got my legs under me and caught some amazingly long glides.  Finished in 1:12 which made me happy!

The paddle out to the start and trying to stay in place was pretty crazy with big wind and big swells, and although it made no difference to me I'm not sure why they started 11 or so minutes early.  My suggestion as a humble first timer would be to start all the recreational paddlers at 12:00pm - a perfect start really doesn't matter to them/us, and then start the Elite field at 2:00pm.  That way it's easier to keep the elite field lined up at the start, or even start them in the gulch, and all 300 recreational participants would be able to see the elite finish.

Regardless it was a fantastic time for me and I met some terrific people!  Thanks in particular to headmount for the local knowledge and introductions - aloha spirit is alive and well on Maui!

[headmount]

Those are great ideas Digger.  They would work well.  Just too difficult to keep paddlers of vastly different abilities lined up together in those winds. 

Three years ago I had a 1:02 but I improved my time from the last two years straight of 1:13 to 1:09 this year.  But the times are directly contingent to the conditions.  Landed right on 100th place overall yesterday and stoked with the field that was out there.  Everyone is good now and every little mistake exacts a heavy penalty.

[covesurfer]

Wow, what an event and what a weekend. Lots of fun! Two days of great conditions. Tons of familiar and not so familiar faces and lots of great energy from the paddlers!

Today was the outrigger race. As a relative newbie to the canoe, I did not have the self confidence to charge to the line. I was trying to stay out of other people's' way and hung back. For too long. I got a pretty bad start but unlike with SUP, I was not able to make up the ground in the boat nearly as well. Still, once I was going, I got some very nice rides and a handful of long, extended connections. But, I never felt like I was in the groove today. Lucky that I did hit that groove on the standup. I think if you want to connect more in the boat, you have to paddle the downwinders in it, regularly.

There was still a little swell today, but it was mostly windswell from the ENE and the wind was still very good. The crossed up stuff was not so noticeable in the outrigger. Getting into the shallow waters crossing the reef turned out to be a blast and I caught some of my best bumps in that section. Must've gotten a little overconfident though....As I approached the outside buoy near the finish, I could see a lot of stuff breaking on the reef just to the right so I was angling left. But the waves got quite steep in that section and jacked up as well. I ended up going too far to the left, and lost steering on the steep face, the next move was a huli. That probably cost one to two minutes. But I got the boat situated in the wind and waves and jumped back on, hammering to the finish.

Learned some good lessons today, had an outstanding time and was very happy to be able to participate in an incredible event and have some of the best conditions I've yet seen out there. When I first got into downwind paddling, when I was still living in Oregon, I dreamed of doing the Olukai race one day. At that time, the cost and complexity made it pretty much just a dream so this weekend was and will always be extra special.