When I thought of paddling a surf ski in America’s 50th state a bunch of images came to mind: warm water – BIG surf – rough water – sunshine – hardcore watermen and women — so even though I have none of the above on my doorstep in Germany, I figured that it would be exciting to join the Epic Molokai World Championships Surfski 2008. After all I’d had a great time at my first surfski race in Puerto Rico!

I tried to log some water time on my ski at home, but given all my obligations with my ice cream shops, the frigid weather and non-stop flat water, I had precious little time to prepare for the big race. In short, I showed up in Hawaii still very much a beginner!

At least I got to practice in a bit of surf in Wales at the Anglesey Symposium right before heading to Hawaii. Better than nothing, of course, but when you compare a week in Puerto Rico and a week in Wales versus a lifetime of training in big water in Australia, South Africa, Tahiti, New Zealand or Hawaii, I was the sorely lacking in experience.

Anyway, new experiences make me feel wealthy so I was eager to be there with all these super fit world class paddlers! My three goals for the race were to finish (every year plenty of competitors are unable to complete the course), to stay upright, and not to come in last!

Loaded skis for the next training run, all set!

I arrived roughly two weeks before the race and the first week featured the best training conditions: the trade winds were blowing hard and each night it was hard to sleep as the wind whipped around our towering Waikiki Beach hotel and made quite a racket! The swell could have been bigger, but it was certainly enough for me as a new ski paddler to learn how to catch waves and deal with the rough water rebounding off the cliffs. It was a real treat paddling in one direction – all downwind — as our daily training sessions were organized by "Team Epic". I felt lucky to be part of it! Thanks a lot to the guys (and our gracious lady drivers) for the help! 

Ready to go, challenging downwind run from Makapu to the Outrigger Club, first section along "The Wall"

 Coming from a sea kayaking background, I was amazed by how little safety backup the guys use in such big water. The only safety backup was a leg leash from paddler to the ski.  Few carried PFD’s and fewer still had a cell phone, VHF, epirb, paddle leash, flares or any other standard gear a sea kayaker usually carries along, just in case…The air and water may warm but we were often quite far from shore in very rough conditions. In sea kayak you employ the buddy system. But in Hawaii these super-competitive guys are trying hard to create as much distance between him and the other guy – the further they leave someone behind the better! Such is life with competitive racers, not touring paddlers!

If you fall off the ski – just jump on again and make sure your paddle stays with you. If you can’t paddle or jump on any more for whatever reason, you get to enjoy a loooooooong swim…and hope the sharks do love you as much as you do love them…

Maybe in cold water they would think slightly differently. Although during the race an escort boat was mandatory for each paddler. Though conditions on race day were moderate by Molokai Channel standards, there were nine guys who did not finish (DNF) and made use of their escort boat.

Given that I found myself quite alone early on during each training session I decided to at least carry a cell phone. Not because I was scared but I’ve logged enough water time alone to know that it’s better to be safe than sorry.

 A row of six-man outrigger canoes at the Outrigger Canoe Club – a gorgeous spot illuminated by gas torches

ski storage in the garage of the Outrigger canoe Club – space is precious!

I might not have been as fast as the rest of the guys but I had a great time on the water. If you love downwind paddling, especially on a lightweight, sleek surfski, there are few places in the world better than Hawaii! What a difference to a loaded expedition sea kayak! I love paddling in BIG seas; it can’t be BIG enough! I love going *fast*! I love the warm waters and warm wind! I love "freedom paddling" with no dry suit, PFD and spray deck, barefoot in lycra shorts and shirt only.

I loved the feeling of getting more and more used to the surfski, managing to balance better, to put more of my power into the water rather than into bracing. I would have loved to continue practicing in those conditions. I feel I could do quite a bit of progress. But it was meant to be different…

On the sixth day I was in Hawaii the wind died, leaving us with calm water — nothing exciting anymore. Even along the infamous "Chinamen Wall" between Makapu and Hawaii Kwaii, the back chop died down from wildly waves exploding along sheer cliffs that made me seasick to a bit of chop.

But this bouncy, difficult (unpleasant in my book) water along the wall was the last part of the race course! Hitting "The Wall* with already 50 km under the keel, totally worn out, takes the last out of you on the race. Many a paddler has gone for an unplanned swim on that challenging last section…or they hit the shallow reef around the corner, trying to shortcut the very last km to the finish line. Some ski rudders found their wet grave on that reef – and going for a swim there does hurt!  Ask Glicker – seems as if they don’t have too many reefs to practice on in Brooklyn, NY… :-))

My Molokai racing horse: The epic 18x ultra             

Greg and Oscar preparing my epic 18x ultra for the race

The day the wind died down, my epic 18x ultra arrived. Epic shipped their sexy sleek fast sea kayak especially for me to Hawaii since we were eager to try out a new rudder system and to solve other minor issues prior to me paddling their kayak around Australia. The timing was perfect to sort out the x’s and o’s since all "epic" guys were gathered together: Greg Barton (epic president), Oscar Chalupsky (epic co-owner), Charles Brand (epic shareholder) and Tony King (epic Australia).

 "Team Epic" Tony, Charles, Freya, Greg, Oscar     

  "Fenn" paddler Hank McGregor entertaining the "Epic ladies" Jackie, Clare, Chelsy and Michaela                                                                         

For the race day I had to decide which craft I was going to use: The epic V10 sport surfski that I’d been training in the first five days or the epic 18x ultra. A big thanks to epic they provided me both crafts in Hawaii!

It was a tough decision. It would be more of a personal challenge to do the race on the ski since I was so new to the sport and the Molokai Channel is considered one of the roughest navigable channels in the world! At the Culebra Race in Puerto Rico I felt quite comfortable on the ski, but I knew conditions here in Hawaii could be *much* bigger! But it was moderate wind announced for the race day, and low seas, so making a decision was hard for me.

Paddling the epic 18x ultra in the race wouldn’t be too much of a BIG water challenge, as I don’t have any trouble paddling a sea kayak in big conditions, and just in case I’m able to simply roll up again…

After thinking about it for a few days I decided to go with the epic 18x ultra since it’s a *very* fast sleek craft, especially with the new far more efficient rudder we were testing for the first time! On the ski I probably would have braced too much in rough conditions rather than putting all my power into efficient forward paddling. I might have swum a couple of times as well…which means I could have taken the faster boat but logged a slower time.

But at the end it was a *race*, and all what counts is how *fast* you are – nothing else. I could have paddled a bathtub, as long I would be *fast*…As Oscar likes to say: stability before speed. This also means that without stability you’re slower. The bottom line is that I’m not a kayak racer at all – I’ve never even sat in a K1 – rather I’m an adventurous sea kayaker with great endurance and decent speed. Using the epic 18x ultra I figured I might even be able to impress the tough guys a bit :-))

And for sure I wanted to test the epic 18x ultra as much as possible for my Australian trip! At the end I was glad I decided not to take the ski as I felt just relaxed and comfi. My time was 6 hr and 15 min and I was able to reach my goals of finishing, not being last and not capsizing. Of course I still have no idea how I would have done and felt on the ski but I think I made the right decision!

The race on Sunday morning featured a chaotic start. We all flew into Molokai from Oahu on Saturday and enjoyed the quiet peaceful island – a lovely contrast after the bustling tourist-filled Waikiki Beach. Accommodations were a golf beach resort, right on the starting shore.

 a bunch of paddles, just unloaded from the plane on Molokai           

Oscar Chalupsky, Greg Barton, Herman Chalupsky and René Appel paddled a high-tech epic V10 elite carbon ski, about 9 kg each

The skis came over with each paddler’s escort boat, and had first to find their way to the escorted paddler! If you were lucky you found your craft on Saturday night, but some guys had to chase down their ski in the last hour before the race start! The first exercise was to land the retrieved ski safely through the shore break.

The next big challenge was how to get the gear you won’t take on the ski out to your escort boat? You had not only to find the right craft in the fleet of over 100 boats, but the violent shore dumper was the 3-headed monster you had to overcome!

Some guys just tried to swim out or with the pack pushed out on a surf board, and they might feel lucky to get a ride after breaking through the dumper with one of the service jet skis out to the right escort boat. Some guys tried to jump on their ski with a heavy backpack and were either lucky to make it in this way through the dumper, or had to try again after getting more or less trashed…floating backpacks, skis and people at some times all over…luckily no one got seriously injured, and no fibreglass broke on that morning! It wouldn’t have taken much…

getting the bags out to the escort boat fleet   

 the pack on the race start

As eventually everybody seemed to be done with loading gear on the escort boats, the big launching started – sometimes 8 or 10 guys waited for the same lull in the break to paddle out successfully. Just don’t fall off in those precious seconds…or you won’t make it through!

As the field of 132 crafts (surfskis and OC-1s) gathered between the starting buoys, some nervous race horses seemed not able to wait and the field just started spontaneously five minutes before the pre-arranged 9 am! But the courageous referee Tom McTigue was able to stop the early start, just to blow off the starting horn 2 min too early as well…but anyway, we were on the way!

An amazing sound of splashing paddles and clapping waves created by the 132 starting crafts was mixed minutes later by the whining noise and oily stinky of 100+ escort boats searching madly for their paddler. I was kind of glad that after about 1/2 hr the big field had passed me as a slower paddler anyway. I was at some point on my own little spot on the wide ocean, just as I love it and am used to!

I dared not to order an escort boat, as in a sea kayak which I was paddled solo around New Zealand SI and next around Australia I felt kind of stupid with someone all the time besides me!

After about 1/2 hr the jetski drivers discovered me alone on the water and asked if I was ok? They were obviously not sure about me and my "strange" craft…but for me it was enough that I was sure for myself with my own personal safety backups. They told me there were three or four paddlers still behind me!

I felt like the "stealth paddler", as I could easily spot the escort boats with assumingly a paddler beside each, but a solo kayak was hard to make out from the distance in some waves! So I had fun leaving eventually two other boats behind which were ahead of me for the first hour, and after two hrs I eventually spotted another boat far off in the distance! I worked my way up to him in the 3rd hr, paddled alongside and a bit ahead in the 4th and 5th hr. However in the 6th hr the guy in an OC-1 came in 1 1/2 min earlier than I did :-(( – at least I had my own personal challenge that day!

It was a HOT day and the usual cooling spray from the big downwind conditions failed to materialize given the moderate wind. Instead I cooled myself down with a small towel I dipped in the ocean and draped on my head! (I was not like the guys able to just take off my hat and shovel water over me with it, as my hat holds my hair back.) Later I learned the value of a good escort boat since the boat I was chasing gave me a much welcome shower with a hose!

Anyway, I worked really hard to stay under 6 hrs of total time, but I was not quite able to achieve my (silent) final goal that I settled on after asking the guys what would have been a great finish time for me – under 6 hrs would have been "really, really good"! So I finished only "good" without "really, really…" – well, maybe with one "really…" –

Outrigger Canoe Club President Tom McTigue presenting my wooden Hawaiian trophy for my 2nd place women 40-49 years    

Back row, BIG guys: Tony’s, Herman’s and Freya’s…front row, small guy: Oscar’s… :-)))

Links: Greg’s blog, Oscar’s blog, surfski.info, Molokai website