Olukai 2016

[PonoBill]

Sonni counts as a Maui girl.  We should probably start counting Art as one of our downwinding crew. He makes as many shuttles as some folks. Only problem is he does the same thing in Hood River. Dual citizenship I guess. I have NO idea why he lives in Seattle. Can't be there more than ten days a year.

[Southbay]

Yeah, but I'm not counting Connor as part of our crew either....I mean people we regularly call to downwind.  Of course Cove regularly yells at Kalama for asking about the shuttle, but he is a dick.

[Southbay]

Cove is a dick....not Kalama.


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[covesurfer]

Cove is a dick....not Kalama.


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Wow, you hound a legend on a group text so that you can have lots of room in the shuttle van and suddenly you're a dick. Actually, I'm a fahkah.

Nice write up SB. I swear, I watched you go over in your boat and remount. It was quick. I think Kane just got some better glides on the inside. It was hit or miss in there, nothing made much sense. I would catch stuff I didn't expect while the sure bets would roll right away from me. Crazy.

I ran Maliko to the harbor today on the 1:30 in the OC; people were saying it wasn't good. Masao and I paddled together and without even pushing, I had a 1:03. It was really good in the OC. Ralf went standup and he wasn't able to get the stuff we were getting in the boats. Outer Sprecks and outer Kanaha were breaking and Pier 1 was going too. One guy went too far inside (in an OC1) and got tagged, ama down. No damage and he made it in right behind us. Kind of a wild day.

[PonoBill]

Cove is a dick....not Kalama.
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Yeah, I know, like "who is this? Why are you calling us. Are you qualified to talk to me?"

Seriously though, even though Diane and I went to Mama's for our last night and I had two Hedricks Martinis with three olives (as God intended), I gotta say. I love you guys. What a crew.

Even though you all split at the end of every Maliko run, and leave me hanging in an empty parking lot, me and the homeless guy that wants to kill me, taking showers together with his obvious staph infections on his leg, I love you guys.

Ralf for always having a kind word while he brutally crushes my time to the harbor, Randy for being the king of comedy, Devin for refusing to show her butt to traffic to fix a buzzing stap (Devin--that would have been facebook GOLD!), Art for flying a million f&^%king miles to hang with us,  Kathy for casually kicking our collective asses, Greg for tolerating all those short jokes while he steadily moves up the rankings as we all knew he would (DON'T help gregg. don't tell him anything), Larry for his wisdom about tides, currents, the southside and being the ultimate bullshit detector, Shep for the general odor of babyshit, being married to the cool girl, and being the sneakiest nasty SOB I've ever met. Steven and his spectacular wife (you lucky bastard) All the folks that came and went and will probably come again. Suzy Cooney for that great smile, Dave for everything, Chris P with his permanent smile and stoke, Junya who is actually louder and funnier in a lineup than I am, Coach, Harbormaster, Gary, All the folks at Kanaha, All the nuts on the shuttle, Kelly for putting up with us, and especially Bill Boyum, the best buddy a rapidly aging geezer can have.

See you all next November. Hana Hou--until we can't. And of course, if you come to the Gorge, Mi casa, su casa

[Southbay]

Damn. You really get me Bill....have a great summer!  Hoping to see you in July.


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[covesurfer]

I for one, am going to miss you too. Ya big lug.

On the other hand, I'm not too pleased that you're gonna leave me here to fend for myself with Southbay. You're not even on the plane and he's calling me out as a dick on a public forum. Now when people google me, they will find me associated with being what? A DICK. Nice.

Save travels buddy, we'll hold down the fort, do as many downwind runs as possible and make nuisances of ourselves when the waves come. Hope to see you in the Gorge. Save up a little of that priceless brandy. By the time I visit, you'll forget what a dick I can be and you'll be wanting to drink it with me.

[digger71]

Good timing on your departure Pono - looks like the trades are going to shut down a bit after tomorrow.  Enjoyed paddling with you this week.

Paddle Imua could be a grind if the current forecast holds.

[digger71]

Well morning of Paddle Imua and the forecast looks even worse.  Maui 2k and others predicting a light breeze out of the north at 5-10.  Not sure I have that in me today...don't want the mental scar after such a good trip so far

[covesurfer]

It does look really poor. Yuck. Meanwhile, the south shore has surf this morning and will probably fill in for a good afternoon run. I could saddle up and head over for a surf session and then hit Imua but that would really be pushing it.

I still have the races (both Imua and Olukai) from two years ago in my brain, hot and windless, sufferfests. I traveled all the way to the Gorge last August to race the Paddle Challenge and on the double downwinder race day, it was hot and windless. They cancelled the 'double' and we did a single, hateful, upstream paddle from Viento to Hood River. Last year's M2M, a race you really count on for conditions, was on the light side before dying completely at around mile 20 with 7 miles left to go. My first open ocean downwind race on the Oregon Coast was a 'no winder' also. The temptation, for me, is to shine it and forget about it. But, I nearly always go and race anyway. The few races I have skipped, due to terrible conditions, I always end up regretting. I have hated racing some of the bad ones but always was glad I did them afterwards.

With the conditions looking pretty terrible, I am going to switch from SUP to OC1. I need a training paddle anyway and I took the last couple of days off. Paddle Imua is such a great event and for a cause I really support, so I'm going to keep that in mind as I schlogg down the coast today. At least Olukai was great both days. The raffle and the schwaag from this race are also great and they have a great beer garden, right on the beach at the finish. I'll probably make an exception to my usual avoidance of beer and have a couple at the finish today. I have a feeling I'm going to be earning them.

[Southbay]

Good call Cove. I wish I could go. Imua is a race that is more about the cause than the conditions. Think about what those kids and families go through everyday. Makes a 10 mile paddle seem pretty effortless.


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[covesurfer]

So true SB. We are all so lucky to be out there! Imua was great as always. Devin managed to sell me raffle tickets that I was sure were winners. But, I walked away without any raffle schwaag. Who cares, those kids deserve all of the great stuff that comes out of this day. There were a bunch of the Camp Imua kids helping with the finish, they were having as much fun as any of us.

Conditions today were a challenge. We all got up to Maliko and stood around in the pouring rain for a couple of hours. There was a good sized north swell coming in, not super long period, thank god, but some size. I'd say 6 to 9 feet. A good day to stay on the outside. You couldn't see didley until about Ho'okipa when the sky gradually lifted. Even though everything was coming from the north, the wind was mercifully light and there were bumps running parallel and even out from the coast. It was tough to link anything but it wasn't a total schlogg fest either. At times, you could go pretty good in an OC1. I was damn glad to finish. I did my typical mid pack, I think I was 20th in OC1 out of 42 total but, even though they didn't have age groups, I think I had a decent finish amongst the almost to social security set. I survived and didn't crack my boat either so I'll count today as one all-round success.

[Off-Shore]

[Bean]

Great vid OS!

[blueplanetsurf]

I finally edited the footage I got with my gopro at the Olukai race, that was a great downwinder, check it out: