Olukai 2011

[Admin]

Kai Bartlett, Livio Menelau, Ekolu Kalama, Mark Raarphorst, Jeremy Riggs, Zane Schweitzer.

Andrea Moeller, Talia Gangini, Devin Blish, T Felgate, Becca Jakeway, Dane Ward.

Between this and the BOP, all of the the top spots are dominated by OC1 paddlers.  Food for thought.

[Judochop]

The top 25 overall finishers of yesterday's race:

1 49:01.3
 Kai Bartlett Elite Men
2 49:18.1
 Livio Menelau Elite Men
3 51:38.8
 Ekolu Kalama Elite Men
4 52:30.6
 Mark Raaphorst Elite Men
5 53:11.2
 Jeremy Riggs Elite Men
6 55:07.3
 Campbel Farrell REC Men 30 - 39
7 55:24.5
 Zane Schweitzer Elite Men
8 55:34.5
 Amir Arbel REC Men 30 - 39
9 55:41.5
 Andrea Moller Elite Women
10 56:06.2
 Michi Schweiger SUP14 Men 40 - 49
11 56:30.4
 Junya McGurn REC Men 40 - 49
12 58:07.4
 Greg Pavao SUP14 Men 40 - 49
13 58:19.8
 Masao Fukayama Elite Men
14 58:32.2
 Ron St.John REC Men 50 & Over
15 58:44.1
 Brian Stockdale Elite Men
16 58:54.5
 Jack Dyson REC Men 50 & Over
17 59:12.8
 Travis Baptiste SUP14 Men 17 & Under
18 59:16.1
 Eddie Ogata SUP14 Men 40 - 49
19 59:24.9
 Talia Gangini Elite Women
20 59:40.0
 Devin Blish Elite Women
21 59:59.2
 Ralf Sifford Elite Men
22 00:02.9
 Yves Bowens REC Men 40 - 49
23 01:03.6
 Bernd Roediger SUP14 Men 17 & Under
24 01:09.1
 Randy Royse REC Men 40 - 49
25 01:18.0
 Dean Christener SUP14 Men 18 - 29

[headmount]

Friday the weather was junk, upper grey cirrus, not much wind on the deck.  Saturday woke up to blue skies and great wind.  Event lifted off right as the wind peaked, perfect conditions, in the afternoontwo hours after the race,  the wind cut out again and today it was half the wind for the OC1 but those guys don't need any anyway.  I shoot the race from a jet ski and it was very exciting.  Best conditions I've ever seen for a race and I was lucky enough to have a ring side seat.  The organizers probably didn't have a budget to put together a proper open ocean start but that was to be expected since they were spending the big $ on heli time, over a grand an hour... before you start paying the phothogs.  So while most were still paddling out the main heavies in contention for the prize $ were in place in front of the boat.  I saw eyes from each of those contenders on each other not the race boat, someone made a move and it was a gunfight.  Then the boat noted the obvious and put up the flag.  Off they went, most of the top 10 gliding out of the gate.  Livio was at the lead with Zane right behind him Kai and Ekolu.  Zane caught a monster and did a full stretch five dropping in.  Hoots and screams everywhere.  Towards the inside were Jeremy and Mark away from the incredible mayhem.  The heli was ten feet off the deck, jetskis darting around the field... water was totally white and frothing.  The heli energy was too intense (almost blew Ekolu off his board) for us by the center leaders and after the initial breakout, we cut over towards shore and got great footage of Jeremy dancing his Bullet into any glide he could.  Then we cut over and caught Mark powering in his renegade black SIC shirt.  The heli followed us and so we left them to shoot the lead which was now Kai, Livio and Ekolu.  Kai fell and Livio caught up... three times... Livio caught a wave across the camp one reef but Kai (the OC1 paddler Admin alluded to) powered on the flat water inside the reef part.... to the finish.  We jammed out and shoot the huge sailing canoe from ten feet away from a flying ama.  That was pretty much energy to see for two 60 year olds on a jetski and we headed for the barn... very stoked.

Today Zane flew over to Oahu and joined Conner to come in first in the relay at the BOP.  Conner came in third on the first day with the ins and outs and also third today on the low wind downwinder.  So two thirds and a first for Conner!  The only one to go to the podium three times.