Red Bull Heavy Water on for OB...Oct 17th - 28th

[headmount]

Conner won with a buckled board from when he had done the ins and outs before the 7 miler

Here he is at the finish, stoked, doing a Mercury thing.

[tautologies]

Wow. That was a smoking fun run to watch. Connor seemed to hold off his lead.


Obviously I am not exactly sure about the details..but along these lines...
I was watching the start. Connor got off to a great start, but Kai passed him on the outside down to the 3rd marker, and increased that lead into the beach as Connor fell a bit earlier. They were neck in neck around the 2nd marker, but a 2nd Naish rider came into the mix on a wave from the outside and passed both Kai and Connor....hmm this might have been Kai passing them...I dunno.

Connor came in way late on the 2nd beach...but he made a strategic decision that would give him a significant lead. While Kai and the other Naish rider went almost straight out Connor ran up the beach maybe another 50 yards and found a hole...kind of like a mini channel. That gave him a huge lead.
 
Both Kai and the other Naish rider struggled with the huge amount of current and much much bigger waves.

My take on things...
The number of variables that the riders had to deal with made this super fun to watch. Later riders could catch outside waves to catch up. Timing and strategies in terms of where you went out made a huge difference. Super fun.
Incredibly impressive athleticism and balance.

Horrible horrible marketing by the Waterman league. This could have been a huge event. It was literally that much fun to watch. But because of their lack of communication only people that were really interested was there.

This in and out of the beach runs could be a sport in itself. 

[mtnbkr]

Strange, our local news (Hawaii) just congratulated Kai on the win.

[tautologies]

Strange, our local news (Hawaii) just congratulated Kai on the win.

What is INSANE is that they have not updated the event webpage or any social media channels. I mean come on. How hard is it?

[southwesterly]

You would think it would be on the Waterman League's website.

Yeah? No.

[SaMoSUP]

The people in charge of social media and web were probably all out playing in the swell.

[TallDude]

They need to hire people who don't surf!

[ukgm]

Interesting that Kai looked to be on a 2016 Javelin, not the 2017 version. I wonder why ?

[Area 10]

Interesting that Kai looked to be on a 2016 Javelin, not the 2017 version. I wonder why ?

Are you sure that's a production board? These guys more usually have some type of prototype or custom.

You know Naish better than I do though.

The 2016 board has more rocker than the 2017 one though, so if he's not using a 2017 production shape, maybe that's why, given how rough the conditions were. Zane was talking about waist to chest bumps out there and it being hard to stay on the board. Rocker would be your friend in those conditions.

[yugi]

..
The 2016 board has more rocker than the 2017 one though, so if he's not using a 2017 production shape, maybe that's why, given how rough the conditions were. Zane was talking about waist to chest bumps out there and it being hard to stay on the board. Rocker would be your friend in those conditions.

Really? Haven't seen 2017 but 2016 board in water has the nose about 2" off the water!!! Pretty hard to go lower!

Any idea if they took 12'6 boards?

[ukgm]

Interesting that Kai looked to be on a 2016 Javelin, not the 2017 version. I wonder why ?

Are you sure that's a production board? These guys more usually have some type of prototype or custom.

The 2016 board has more rocker than the 2017 one though, so if he's not using a 2017 production shape, maybe that's why, given how rough the conditions were. Zane was talking about waist to chest bumps out there and it being hard to stay on the board. Rocker would be your friend in those conditions.

I honestly don't know. Being a black board with a dihedral nose, I just assumed it an old board of his. I'm not sure if the 2017 Javelin Maliko has more rocker than the 2016 standard Javelin. However, the other team riders there all seemed to be on new maliko's.

[Area 10]

..
The 2016 board has more rocker than the 2017 one though, so if he's not using a 2017 production shape, maybe that's why, given how rough the conditions were. Zane was talking about waist to chest bumps out there and it being hard to stay on the board. Rocker would be your friend in those conditions.

Really? Haven't seen 2017 but 2016 board in water has the nose about 2" off the water!!! Pretty hard to go lower!

Any idea if they took 12'6 boards?

I think they were on 12-6s, weren't they?

I saw a video review of the Maliko that said I think that the 2017 has a little less tail rocker than the 2016.

The deck pad of Kai's board didn't look like last years' model to me - but I'm not a Maliko expert. The OnItPro Instagram vids show it fairly clearly.

But we need a Naish expert to chime in. Where's DJ when you need him?

[PonoBill]

I'd expect Red Bull to handle the video and online stuff. Total silence. How weird. This was the only SUP race I've ever seen that was fun to watch. Oh, wait, salt creek BOP was fun.

[clay]

Hi,

Quick highlight from yesterday at Ocean Beach.
I will do a longer edit soon, and it will be available here:
https://clayisland.com/ocean-beach-heavy-water-sup-surfer-gathering

[Chilly]

Great job Clay. Reb Bull should hire you!