Author Topic: Olukai 2016  (Read 17242 times)

digger71

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Re: Olukai 2016
« Reply #15 on: May 01, 2016, 01:59:05 PM »
That was a great event once again!  The start was different than last year but it still pretty much sucked - at least for the Recreational Men.  All the other "waves" had less than 50 people but, as headmount showed above, ours had ~250.  Not a big deal by any means, but just a bit of a hassle.

I wore myself out a bit working my way outside too soon and too fast and wasn't catching many glides early.  Partly due to starting too hard and the body feeling fatigued after a few days of runs leading up to the race - probably should have taken Friday off, but PonoBill was willing to go it just looked like too much!  Ended up at 1:09 which was a few minutes faster than last year so I am happy.

And the good news is I'm on Maui for another week of vacation with the wife!  Plan to get in some more runs, hopefully a Kihei run as I've never done that, and then do Paddle Imua next Saturday.  Hard to complain!

PonoBill

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Re: Olukai 2016
« Reply #16 on: May 01, 2016, 02:04:19 PM »
I did 1:18, seemed like I had a pretty good run going, though I lost a bit of time rolling around on the reef. I've done a better time going to the harbor, so I have no idea what happened. Great race though, very fun. Here's proof that I did actually run at the finish:  (no idea why these are rotated--they aren't rotated on the web server.

And yes, of course we're going today.



Though most of the run probably looked like some kind of sad shuffle:



Boyum was jealous of my "Scary Smurf" look, but we got photobombed by the menehune:




« Last Edit: May 01, 2016, 02:19:13 PM by PonoBill »
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stoneaxe

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Re: Olukai 2016
« Reply #17 on: May 01, 2016, 06:15:59 PM »
So jealous....glad you all had a great day.
Bob

8-4 Vec, 9-0 SouthCounty, 9-8 Starboard, 10-4 Foote Triton, 10-6 C4, 12-6 Starboard, 14-0 Vec (babysitting the 18-0 Speedboard) Ke Nalu Molokai, Ke Nalu Maliko, Ke Nalu Wiki Ke Nalu Konihi

Kieranrsup

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Re: Olukai 2016
« Reply #18 on: May 02, 2016, 04:15:05 AM »
Wow, that was a fun race.
I've never experienced a start like that before!! Got totally boxed in, once we got going people were falling in left right and centre!!!
Agree with Pono; felt slow for some reason. 1:06ish, done faster runs to the harbour.
No matter, it was still great fun and the one part I was dreading, the run, was actually no bother. :)
Looking forward to Imua now. :)
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Bean

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Re: Olukai 2016
« Reply #19 on: May 02, 2016, 07:27:21 AM »
That's funny Bill, the pic's were in the correct orientation on my ipad but not on my office PC.

Looks like a great event!

headmount

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Re: Olukai 2016
« Reply #20 on: May 02, 2016, 09:51:43 AM »
Did the OC part of the race yesterday.  The OC crowd is much more serious and tuned up and as SUPers we were interlopers.  200 entries and they started staggered inside the gulch like the standup the day before but we had to stand on the bottom and jump into the boat.  Mens and women OC-2 started together, 20 of us.  My Canadian pal Steve Ross was in front seat. 

We got a good start and managed the side wind OK going out to turn buoy.  Windy day, spectacular glides.  About mid way we dropped into a macker.  At the bottom we got capped big time from the side with hefty whitewater.  The boat does a whip when that happens and I got thrown off the back.  Threw my paddle at boat and sprinted.  Remounted but we lost about three minutes doing so.  Was really breathing hard after the remount. Conditions were improving by the second and soon we were ripping past the people who had passed us.  Adrenalized from the fall, my stroke cadence increased.  We finished very strong rounded last buoy and headed straight into the 25 mph wind to the end line.

We were 6th in OC-2 and 99th overall.  The fall costs us at least 25 places.  But we were stoked.  Thinking about a seat belt of sorts for the back seat since the back guy is most vulnerable.  Most stoked about how high I got my HR and how good I felt at that rate.  Even feel good this morning.  A little sore but don't have a ton of OC in my training pocket.

covesurfer

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Re: Olukai 2016
« Reply #21 on: May 02, 2016, 12:07:52 PM »
Finally Monday morning and the 2016 Olukai is in the books. Outstanding event and we were blessed with amazing conditions.

As the pic's show and others have mentioned, the starts were not great. I think the organizing committee does listen to feedback and especially constructive feedback. So, maybe elites going first, and splitting the rec class into a couple of waves, unlimiteds first, then 14's, split men's and women's divisions. USE BIGGER MORE VISIBLE BUOYS. Those buoys pissed me off. Were they trying to save money? You could hardly see them until you were almost on top of them. Big, orange or yellow buoys are often used and I think they even had one of the giant ones for last year's race. Anyway, it was really hard to see the line.

Everybody that I knew who paddled SUP and/or OC races was stoked. Hard to have anything but BULK fun (as our friend Iron Phil would say) on Maliko when it's cranking with just enough surf to make the reef crossing interesting but not life threatening. I think I'm most proud of Kathy Shipman, who I am honored to call one of my regular paddling partners, taking 2nd place in the women's elite and giving Sonni a real race.

Sonni packs the power and surfs well. Kathy surfs better. They traded leads back and forth and Kathy lead the run where the gliding conditions were best. Sonni was able to out power her at the end in the mixed up inside water where the current was running strong and glides were once in a while, if you were in the right spot at the right time. Anyway, it was a great race for those two and both of them are classy competitors.

Lots of people medaled in their divisions. Nearly everybody I know had a division medal on. Pretty cool. No medal for me this race, but I felt like I really upped my game this year. I was fourth in the 50-59 mens unlimited, which was stacked, and, I managed to break the hour so I was super stoked. Scott Trudon took first, Ralf second, and Art Aquino got 3rd. I knew Art would be crushing it and he's just turned 50. One more year for me and I move on to the 60's so I'm actually looking forward to that, haha! I just remembered, Ralf and I are the very same age, maybe a month or two apart (I'm sure he's younger), so we'll both be hitting the 60's at the same time. Oh well, guess it won't get too easy anytime soon!

The OC race was another chaos start but again, conditions were just epic. The reef crossing was hit or miss and I was fortunate to hit a spot between sets, catch a relatively small wave and ride it all the way in across the reef. Southbay was not so fortunate. I watched him get rolled, ama down, by a big swell that decided to break on him. I don't know if it's because he's young and springy or what, but he was back on his boat in a flash and never missed a beat. I literally could not make an inch on him even with the fall, although I managed to finish just a little behind him. He's doing great and I was very excited to lose to him, both days, hahaha!

Results are posted at pseresults.com  Looking forward to a windy week this week, capped off by Paddle Imua Saturday. Imua runs the regular line and finishes on the beach in the harbor. Looking forward to not running the reef gauntlet this time!  ;D
« Last Edit: May 02, 2016, 12:12:41 PM by covesurfer »

Area 10

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Re: Olukai 2016
« Reply #22 on: May 02, 2016, 01:15:00 PM »
Dave Kalama beats Kai Lenny ;)

stoneaxe

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Re: Olukai 2016
« Reply #23 on: May 02, 2016, 01:28:53 PM »
Living large ladies and gentlemen...living large.
Bob

8-4 Vec, 9-0 SouthCounty, 9-8 Starboard, 10-4 Foote Triton, 10-6 C4, 12-6 Starboard, 14-0 Vec (babysitting the 18-0 Speedboard) Ke Nalu Molokai, Ke Nalu Maliko, Ke Nalu Wiki Ke Nalu Konihi

PonoBill

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Re: Olukai 2016
« Reply #24 on: May 02, 2016, 11:15:14 PM »
Next year I hit 70. My breakout year. Stand by.

The Olukai is a superbly run race, but yeah, the organizers need to pay attention to some basic math. Not much point in staggered starts if three of the starts have 50 people or less and one has 250. A little attention would have worked wonders there.

But next year I think anyone 70 or older should get a fifteen minute head start.
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digger71

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Re: Olukai 2016
« Reply #25 on: May 03, 2016, 01:19:43 PM »
Some good photos starting to come out at
http://www.supthemag.com/photos/2016-olukai-holaulea-full-recap-and-gallery/?sf25463526=1#9f0X2zHXGdHqIXlr.97
and
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.799112500222598.1073741941.154574388009749&type=3

This one shows just a bit of the crowd at the start.  That's me in the orange hat and pack with nowhere to go :)  Think that is Headmount  in a pretty good spot just under the front of the chopper in the reddish trunks - about to paddle into some serious rotor wash.  PonoBill is just out of the frame to the right.


covesurfer

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Re: Olukai 2016
« Reply #26 on: May 03, 2016, 01:52:37 PM »
My almost brand new Palafamala Paddles hat (green), that stayed on my head all the way from Maui to Molokai two weeks ago, blew off my head and ended up somewhere in the middle of that mess. I thought about trying to retrieve it for about 0.75 seconds. Someone got a new hat with good mana on it.

PonoBill

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Re: Olukai 2016
« Reply #27 on: May 03, 2016, 02:28:18 PM »
I passed two hats on the run,  both orange. One was camo orange, one was solid. Thought about grabbing them.
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Southbay

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Re: Olukai 2016
« Reply #28 on: May 03, 2016, 05:55:59 PM »
My almost brand new Palafamala Paddles hat (green), that stayed on my head all the way from Maui to Molokai two weeks ago, blew off my head and ended up somewhere in the middle of that mess. I thought about trying to retrieve it for about 0.75 seconds. Someone got a new hat with good mana on it.

You're kidding!  I lost my green Makana Ali'i hat....damn, two sweet green hats gone to the Kanaha reef.  Yes, as reported earlier, I went over big time on the OC-1 day.  It was a hard day for me.  I was actually almost 2 minutes slower on my OC-1 than on my SUP! 

The SUP race was super fun and I felt really good for most of it.  Despite falling twice and encountering some fairly major current heading into the beach, it was a total glide fest.  I got 2nd in my division (men 30-39), having lost to Jimmy Fit, from Oahu.  He is a damn good paddler, and I got 4th last year, so this improvement felt pretty damn good.  The start was tough, but I stayed was on the inside on the hoard and prayed that I could beat most of them to the buoy, which is what happened.  Ended up 34 out of 300+ paddlers.  Kathy beat me, and I beat her all week on training runs, but as always she is a total animal on race day.  Cove was right behind me, pushing me the whole way!  At one point I scared him off the board which really helped my ego  ;D.

The OC-1 start was worse for me than the SUP race start.  They had us do a standing start....never done that before.  The Rec Men had 75+ boats in it.  The gulch was too narrow to fit 75 OC-1's across, so the dumb asses (like me) that listened to the announcer and didn't go out early; we didn't get in the front row.  Then I started messing with my leash.  I couldn't decide whether I should have my leash on or not, so I ended up starting with it just hanging in the water and had to put it on mid-race.  Olukai is short, so it is a sprint the whole time, and there is no time to put on your leash mid race.  I was pushing too hard, because of my shitty start and was not concentrating on gliding.  I also kept going in a out...I could not stick to a game plan.  So annoyed!  The wind was more north, so the big (fast) runners were going inside, so it was a game of trying to stay outside.  I was pushing hard to make up time, when I realized I was going to get nailed by a head high breaking wave.  I was thinking about my boat, and hoping that it would not break it, when the wave suddenly reformed and stopped breaking!  Sweet!  I turned right to keep on my line and then it instantly jacked up again and broke right on me.  I went over the ama (another first for me) and my leash stretched to the max.  Thank god it didn't break, but the boat does not pull back to you like a board, so as I tried to get to my boat, I cut myself pretty good on the reef.  I was able to finally flip my boat back over and get back in it.  I don't know what Cove is saying about getting right back in, because I was next to Kane when I flipped, and he finished 3 minutes ahead of me at the finish....anyway, I was back in and Cove was breathing down my neck.  I beat him thank god, but I was hatless, ego bruised and bleeding from my foot.
Luckily my whole family was there to greet me! Of course, no one was there the day I got 2nd!  Haha!  I still finished with a big old smile right in the middle of the pack. 

Our Downwind Addicts crew is the shit.  Looking forward to Imua.  Here are some OC-1 shots

Southbay

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Re: Olukai 2016
« Reply #29 on: May 03, 2016, 06:00:32 PM »
Our ladies are really the shit...Kathy got 2nd and Devin 4th (both in blue). 

Getting consistent beatdowns from the girls keeps you humble and motivated!

 


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