The OluKai Hoʻolauleʻa (downwind race) is this coming Saturday and I am headed to Maui to feed my downwind addiction once again! Last year was my first time participating and I knew immediately that there would be many more in my future. While the Maliko run itself is special on any given day, there is also something pretty cool about sharing it with 400 other paddlers. I was blown away by the camaraderie and true aloha spirit displayed by all involved at last year's event, especially considering the level of talent present and the diversity of the field.
I did read that there will be a "staggered start" this year with the elite racers going off first. Not sure that is the best solution but at least it will be more fair to those competing for top honors than it was in past years.
From the posts here and on FB, it looks like our resident Maui paddlers have had a pretty good run of wind lately. Arriving on Wednesday and cannot wait to get in on it myself! There isn't a lot that gets me excited about leaving San Diego but this is certainly one of those things :)
Today was awesome. Slightly onshore gusting to probably 35. Small groundswell from the north, so it was easy money. Wednesday we have a bit of swell coming, but the trades will still be good. Hope it stays good for the race. We've had a bunch of good days in a row.
If anyone is still looking for a board I have an F16 reserved at SIC for the race that I'm likely not going to be using.
Planning on a 3pm run tomorrow - JR is running some sort of groups each day this week and I am jumping in for that one at least.
Let me start with....I cannot believe you guys get to do this everyday!!
Maliko in these conditions is an absolute blast! Tempted to do 2 a day but my body needs to get used to this type of workout - stand up surfing and flatwater don't hurt, but this is a whole different exertion pattern. Only fell 3 times which is a minor miracle for me! I've discovered you go a lot faster on top of your board ;)
And what a crowd already on Maui for the race! In the last 2 days I've paddled with people from Australia (many of them), Cayman Islands, San Fran, Seattle, Charleston, and more. Ho'olaule'a means celebration and it certainly has that feel already. Looking forward to the weekend.
Well, one thing for sure i have never seen so many Prius's with many downwind boards on top cruising thru Paia. Talk about an accident waiting to happen...
Doesn't hurt that the wind and swell have been so cooperative. Not the usual praying and crying that goes on in a winter Maliko, but very spicy. Today was a really fine pace except for the end--we elected to come in at the harbor, and it was a pretty horrid last mile. Boyum and I both looked like walking wounded.
More fun tomorrow. I think we'll scope the tide a bit and go for something higher. The current was pretty wanky after Kanaha today. I almost got mowed at Pier One--big breaking wave. I had my head down, watching the energy, trying to catch bumps and didn't watch where I was going. that could have gone really badly.
I thought it was good the whole way today. Was glad we didn't go across the reef. I'm up for a mid day, 11 or 12 o clock, self shuttle run to the harbor again. Whatevers though. I stay calling you in the morning.
I'm heading to Maui tomorrow evening, so stoked to be able to be part of this great event again and do another Maliko run, see you on Saturday!
I'm thinking we should just go to the harbor today. I don't like these short runs and coming over the reef. Cut my foot yesterday when I got tagged. I was flounder around in ten inches of water with swells breaking on me. My idea of big fun.
I would like a designated runner for the race today. 300 yards in the sand? I'm going to have to walk it, and take a few breaks to rest. We Golden Masters should get an exception, or a wheelchair. Not fond of that class name BTW. Golden Masters sponsored by Depends. Tagline: "Is that a Depends(TM) in your boardshorts or are you happy to see me."
The lass I know from the UK was 12th out of the 40 women in the 14 ft class. She was the only person out of 313 riders on an inflatable....and a 12 6 too! She is a relative beginner at DW...what a result.
Amazing to see Connor won this again with a 2 minute lead over the next contestant... We were talking about this today and so keen to hear how other zoners faired in the race. We're hoping to get a crew out from Hong Kong for 2017
I was somewhere down on the fourth page. I had a decent run going after a bad start, but floundered on the reef. Kept falling and falling. I think all the zoners did well. Nice day, fun race, excellent conditions,
Here's some pics of the men's rec division start which was around 250. Absolute gridlock before the horn inside the gulch. You couldn't fit a dime between boards and the amebic mass slowly drifted towards the rocks on the right side where I was. Guys on jet ski were trying to coral us backwards. We just ignored them as we were all incapable of doing anything except move forward into open water. I was on my knees along with everyone for way too long as there wasn't enough room to have your legs along side the board for good blood flow... a good thing at my age. So when the horn did blow, struggling to my feet was slow and wobbly while guys 30-40 yrs younger than me exploded into sprints churning the water into a maelstrom mess.
My first goal was the buoy outside the gulch and kept my head down and hammered the best I could. Boards were banging all around and then a few guys went down. Like a highway accident in the fog, many more piled into the mayhem. Boards got crossed up and a young frustrated boy, smaller than my grandson, gave me a shove. Off I went, remounted and cleared the buoy tight.
Fortunately the majority of the pack felt it necessary to continue on a line out to sea. I knew that the finish didn't require that and bore off immediately downwind with a field clear of paddlers around me where all I needed to do was concentrate on glides. It was good. Real good. Best race conditions ever. The pic of me running in on an almost empty beach would usually mean I came in first or last but actually was right in the middle of the pack where I usually end up. I just happened to come in on an empty gap which suits me fine. Racing with those kind of numbers is a severe challenge for a geezer like me but got second as usual in the 60 and over.
Another challenge is having hovering helicopters over you with heavy rotor wash and jetskis crossing your path just in front of you at ninety degrees. In order to stay on my feet I had to short stroke and essentially stop when I encountered these.
J808 from the Big Island did very well. It's a big hassle just to come inter island. He did it and did well just over an hour. Covesurfer and Southbay broke an hour. All our paddling crew did well. Our favorite gal, Kathy Shipman was in the lead with the elite women until the end when the water turned sloppy. 30 year old Sonni is a big strong gal and turned on her power and slid by her. But second and in her 50s... pretty damn wild.
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!
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.
(http://www.ponostyle.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/olarun2.JPG)
Though most of the run probably looked like some kind of sad shuffle:
(http://www.ponostyle.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/olarun.JPG)
Boyum was jealous of my "Scary Smurf" look, but we got photobombed by the menehune:
(http://www.ponostyle.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Bombed.JPG)
(http://www.ponostyle.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/smurf.JPG)
So jealous....glad you all had a great day.
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. :)
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!
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.
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
Dave Kalama beats Kai Lenny ;)
Living large ladies and gentlemen...living large.
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.
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.
(http://stwww.supthemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/black-schmidt_olukai_2016-14.jpg)
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.
I passed two hats on the run, both orange. One was camo orange, one was solid. Thought about grabbing them.
Quote from: covesurfer 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.
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
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!
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.
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.
Cove is a dick....not Kalama.
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Quote from: Southbay on May 03, 2016, 07:38:22 PM
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.
Quote from: Southbay on May 03, 2016, 07:38:22 PM
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
Damn. You really get me Bill....have a great summer! Hoping to see you in July.
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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. ;D
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.
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 :)
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.
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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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.
https://youtu.be/hkTr8s0houg
Great vid OS!
I finally edited the footage I got with my gopro at the Olukai race, that was a great downwinder, check it out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6-E6863NsI
Nice.
Nice Blueplanet!
Takes me right back. What a fun day that was!
Good job on the video. That crazy start looked challenging just to stay upright . I was unable to make the race again but this video made me feel like I did. Amazing how long you had to go before you had some clear water ahead of you. The organizers need to change that start to make it fair to all. Paddling through so many others costs valuable time that you just can't make up. Fun to watch though. 😏
I was on my knees for at least the first 100 yards. Couldn't get up without someone banging into my board, so I just stayed there. Takes me about 30 seconds to wobble to my feet (knee needs a booster shot) so there just wasn't any way in that crowd.
I hope they change it back to the open water start for next year. That bay start was a shit show for sure. Somehow, even though I was boxed in, I managed to get decent water but I also went off to the right as everyone else bolted for the buoy. I don't think it hurt me much as I got a good line by just ignoring the temptation to turn down early. No matter how they do it, getting it to be fair is difficult but not impossible. Do a couple of waves, let the elites go first, and don't dilly-dally getting the waves off - the wind is going to be pushing everyone over early. A few jetskis and a couple of boats can manage holding the line I'd think.
Great vid Robert. Cool seeing you blitz by me at the start.
The start looked great on video and pictures for the sponsors. With all those paddlers, en masse, it was quite dramatic. But for us it was not so great being in that heavy congestion. If they don't change the format next year I'll probably pass. Getting banged around before the start was simply a drag. You get much more intolerant of that kind of stuff as you age. Boards are expensive. I don't play contact sports any more.
A year from now you won't remember that the start sucked. You may not remember that you did the race. And quit with the old guy stuff.
Quote from: headmount on May 15, 2016, 01:00:48 PM
Great vid Robert. Cool seeing you blitz by me at the start.
The start looked great on video and pictures for the sponsors. With all those paddlers, en masse, it was quite dramatic. But for us it was not so great being in that heavy congestion. If they don't change the format next year I'll probably pass. Getting banged around before the start was simply a drag. You get much more intolerant of that kind of stuff as you age. Boards are expensive. I don't play contact sports any more.
Sorry about bumping into you at the start Bill, I was totally boxed in and had to stop and go around instead. That start was more like a demolition derby than a downwind race but it's all good.
Quote from: PonoBill on May 15, 2016, 01:21:12 PM
A year from now you won't remember that the start sucked. You may not remember that you did the race. And quit with the old guy stuff.
You're probably right about forgetting. But thinking about it, even now a few weeks later, I still remember and I'm not stoked. The conditions were epic tho on the rest of the course but it took me awhile to get into my groove after that initial mayhem. Maybe I shoulda stayed on my knees till the buoy but that would have been too weird.
Putting our gripes about the start into the cyber sphere is hopefully a legitimate avenue. The organizers told us at the pre-race meeting this year that they had listened to our concerns about the inequality of the open ocean starts last year and that's why they changed to the inside. So I can dig that as a step in the right direction, just stagger a few more groups into the equation to thin out the demo derby aspect. You obviously didn't like it either. I'm dead center in first pick. Weirdly up before many other better paddlers. The second pic I'm digging away at the mayhem as Robert charges up the middle.
Quote from: blueplanetsurf on May 15, 2016, 03:13:22 PM
Quote from: headmount on May 15, 2016, 01:00:48 PM
Great vid Robert. Cool seeing you blitz by me at the start.
The start looked great on video and pictures for the sponsors. With all those paddlers, en masse, it was quite dramatic. But for us it was not so great being in that heavy congestion. If they don't change the format next year I'll probably pass. Getting banged around before the start was simply a drag. You get much more intolerant of that kind of stuff as you age. Boards are expensive. I don't play contact sports any more.
Sorry about bumping into you at the start Bill, I was totally boxed in and had to stop and go around instead. That start was more like a demolition derby than a downwind race but it's all good.
No worries. It was kill or be killed. If I'm going to do these kinds of starts I need to train.
Train? There's a scary thought. No, I didn't like the start, I thought it was silly to do staggered starts and not have any good effect from it. Easy to fix if they pay a little attention to how many people will be in each start group.
Hey Robert...great vid. Do you have the start at normal speed that you could show ...that would be interesting to watch.
Quote from: coldsup on May 16, 2016, 12:02:55 AM
Hey Robert...great vid. Do you have the start at normal speed that you could show ...that would be interesting to watch.
That thought went through my mind as well. The fast speed worked to convey the feeling very well but it would be interesting to dissect how paddlers approach a crowded start like that. I know I had my head down to a foot in front. Lots of yelling, banging and guys falling in dramatic fashion. If you paid attention to any of these distractions you would fall in as well. The buoy didn't seem too far away and I knew what I was going to do as soon as I reached it... which worked.
Sure, headmount, I'll post the start in regular time later tonight. You had me boxed in pretty good.
I just changed the speed of the start to regular speed, the rest of the video is the same as the original version:
https://youtu.be/6SPn0dsEhoY
Thanks for doing that....not a start you want to fall in on!
Great presentation Robert!
Thanks for doing this version. I was finally able to pick myself out (I'm the guy in the yellow shirt, hahaha) and analyze my start on video compared to memory. Surprised that the video and my memory actually synced. I stayed out to the right and had clean water. Apparently, my adrenaline must have been going too, I was going like someone was chasing me.
I think at least 60% of the initial start was luck. After that, you actually could influence the outcome a bit. I wonder what next year's will be....
Great footage! You got really boxed in right at the start by two boards. I hear you guys that were in it Re: the demolition derby. If only boards were;t so damn expensive and fragile thread be more laughing about it.
Nice to see what the exit from the Glutch is like. Looks like you get into the real swell right around the 5 min mark in the video. Is that right?
How shallow is it when you come in over the reef near the finish?
Very cool video! Thanks for posting it.
My plan was to stay wider like Cove mentioned but I got boxed in pretty good over there as well and couldn't work my way left nearly as much as I wanted.
Wild to see the mess at the buoy on video. Several guys got pushed too far left and had to work upwind to get around the mark - at which point they took out a few other paddlers.
There was at least one guy I know of (Art from Seattle) that got a hole punched in his board at the beginning. Nose of his board got over the tail of another board and a wave brought them together rather quickly. Guess he was lucky to be on a foam core board at that point.
Quote from: covesurfer on May 17, 2016, 10:39:14 AM
I'm the guy in the yellow shirt
Ok, that helps a lot, haha
Robert, I was off to your left. Can see the gap you were going for but the guy on your right was the culprit on the squeeze into me. Of course I had no idea you were there. When I see the other's stroke, I realize what demo derby shock I was in.
Funny. Thanks for the slower redo on the vid. Your position in the back made that video since the viewer could mark your progress. After you passed everyone it wasn't as exciting.