M2O

[headmount]

Brutal no wind, high humid heat and a heavy south swell dominated today's race.  Many top flight paddlers pulled out with physical problems including the champ, Conner Baxter.  Travis Grant (Australia) won the solo SUP with a 4 hr 59 min time.  Pretty damn fast considering conditions. 

Saw Dave Kalama at the beach today ripping up the south swell.  He knows how to have fun.   

Here's Danny Ching who came in just ahead of Travis with his two man team... scrambling with a big set as he entered the bay to the finish line

[digger71]

That looked like absolutely no fun!  Was watching some of the live feed from the finish line and Travis Grant said he caught a big wave coming into the bay - has to be some video of that showing up soon.  Lots of paddlers said they got worked pretty good coming in, and one of the prone paddlers talked about bear hugging her board as a set wave took her out - no leash.

And with all the logistics of getting boards to Molokai it's not like guys could just switch to a board that was better for the light conditions.

[covesurfer]

Danny Ching was on a two man team for the race this year. According to reports, his team mate got caught and worked by a set wave and their board buckled.  He apparently paddled it in, damage and all, for a great finish. I don't know if that's true for sure, but it was posted in the news feed at one point.

The heat and humidity with no wind are absolutely horrid, surprisingly even when you're on the water where you'd think it would be somewhat cooler. One of the guys from Japan, who is a fantastic downwind paddler, posted a picture of his heavily blistered hands on Facebook. Brutal is definitely the word that comes to mind.

It is interesting how the finish order ended up. So many really amazing downwind paddlers got turned inside out by the conditions. Facing that huge swell on ginormous boards after you are absolutely spent and have no extra horsepower to maneuver would have been pretty intense.

[kayadogg]

Danny and his teammate took line honors, which is amazing given the fact they were paddling a stock board (14') and that they had switches to deal with throughout the channel. They were about 20 seconds faster than Travis. Some of the clips I saw made it look horrifically flat in the channel.  What a grind only to have to deal with double overhead sets coming in at China Walls. Pretty impressive performance by many yesterday.

[PonoBill]

China Walls is murder on a normal day, I can't imagine dealing with a DOH wave and it's reflected wave when you're dead tired

[blueplanetsurf]

It was a really tough race.  I paced myself and finished it solo without cramping for the fist time (this was my 4th solo crossing) and ended up winning my age group, so I was happy with that.  Here is my GPS data of the race:
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/845866149

I'll post some photos soon as well as a interview with Travis Grant the day before the race.

[digger71]

Congratulations Robert!  Impressive grind. 

Looking at that average heart rate (159) over almost 7 hours tells me all I need to know.  That was some serious work.

[headmount]

It was a really tough race.  I paced myself and finished it solo without cramping for the fist time (this was my 4th solo crossing) and ended up winning my age group, so I was happy with that.  Here is my GPS data of the race:
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/845866149

I'll post some photos soon as well as a interview with Travis Grant the day before the race.

Yeah Robert, finishing and keeping your body whole had to have been huge victory. Winning your age group was fantastic.

  There were many over 6.5 hrs-to 7.5 hrs and that's just a horrendous amount of time to be on your feet period, before you even start to talk about paddling in the heat.

[covesurfer]

Congrats Blueplanet! Finishing at all was a feat and your Garmin data shows how steady you were. It looks like you must have caught a few rides at Portlock too! With the heat and lack of a breeze and the water conditions, cramping and developing blisters had to have been a huge issue for many. Thanks for putting up the Garmin, pretty damn impressive!

[zacksc]

Impressive!  7 hours at 159? Wow!

[zacksc]

I have a dumb question. If you are caught by a big wave at the finish, are you allowed to finish without your paddle? Can you ditch it and prone in without a paddle?

[headmount]

I have a dumb question. If you are caught by a big wave at the finish, are you allowed to finish without your paddle? Can you ditch it and prone in without a paddle?

That's a good question.  With a race like this, all the normal rules might be thrown out in consideration.  But I'd bet if you were a contender, they's want you to have your swizzle stick in hand.

[XLR8]

Travis Grant said he caught a big wave coming into the bay

This one?

[yugi]

^^^ bad ass riding!

Looks like Alain Teurquetil shape works OK too.

[Off-Shore]

Congratulations Robert. That is freekin amazing... For those used to kph, you are averaging around 8kph (5mph) for 6hrs 37 mins of paddling at an average HR of 159bpm.. Now at that speed and HR, I could do an hour easily, 2 hours okay, 3 at a stretch and 4 hours with difficulty. But 6 hours and 27 mins? Jeez Louise...

I just can't imagine doing that and then surfing a 17'er at the end of 6-7 hours of paddling. That is bad ass indeed.

Awesome picture of Travis too.