Right, so now, everyone is asking and wants to know all about Hawaii and the Molokai, so I guess I'll have to digress a little. I'll start with the pudding and tell you about my race. For those who want finer details, I'll tell you some more on the trip itself.

THE RACE....
Distance: 50kms from the East side of Molokai Island to the West side of Oahu Island
Conditions: Trade winds during summer and typical big windswept open ocean. In between windy cycles are calm, hot beautiful summer days. Glassy ocean conditions.
Competitors: Just over 100 surfski paddlers, a record for this race. Many Australians, lots of South Africans, a bunch of Tahitians, Kiwis, Americans and Hawains
Logistics: Flight to and accommodation on Molokai Island; estcourt boat (optional for those with gps tracking system); transporting your ski over there (container or on your estcourt boat); odds, ends and sundries for Molokai Island; getting your kit onto your boat before the race.

MOLOKAI RACE DAY...
As race day always starts with a cup of coffee, I carefully prepared some while pondering the lack of rustling branches. There was very little wind....again. Brekkie was had in between packing up the overnight belongings into a manageable watertight package which could easily be floated through the gnarly shore break to Tucker's boat, one of the many estcourt boats beyond the back line. The estcourt's had a great day's fishing across the channel from Oahu as there was no wind on Saturday either; a fact confirmed during the previous day's 45min flight in a 8 seater propeller plane across to the rural Molokai island. After packing up my makeshift bed we said goodbye to our overnight abode, dropped off our bags with Tuck and then went about setting up our ski's with frozen juice, FastFuel rocket gels and generally getting ready for the start. I switched on my Garmin and it told me 48km to go to my waypoint at the start of China Wall. Time to get on the water.

After 15mins of some warm up paddling and a bogus start we finally got under way. I had a great start and immediately started focusing on my line which would take me slightly North of my waypoint. I purposely did not cover the other guys choosing instead to trust the line I was on. In hindsight this is was what cost me. For the first hour of the race I steadily solidified my second position to the right of the pack. Had the wind continued to pick up I would've been in a very good position, but after 2 hours, just as I got into a joint first place with Hank (who was now 500m to my left) it just went dead and the sea became sloppy. Slowly but surely I got pushed further North by the 2knot current which is always there. Finally, about 10kms off land I saw a steady stream of estcourt boats coming through 1.5km to my left, dead on course, while I was floundering 2kms higher than where I wanted to be. As I accepted my fate, it took a fair amount of determination to consolidate my efforts and focus on minimizing my loss. Had I just given up at this point I could very easily have been outside of the top 10. But my nature won't allow me such comforts so I went extra hard on my last 10kms. I paddled over the line bruised, but certainly not battered. Lewis, Hank, Tim and Dean (positions 1 to 4) all had raced brilliantly and deserved every accolade bestowed on them. Me, however...I now know of 2 lines that DON'T work. The Molokai truly is a great race. To win this race is certainly not straightforward and I look forward to many more encounters on this piece of ocean.

THE TRIP TO HAWAII
I got to Oahu, Hawaii 10 days before the race after flying to LA via London. I had a day in LA to break the trip up a little. My travel buddy/manager for the trip was my good friend from LA Mike Murphy. Mike is a brother from another mother, an absolute ocean enthusiast on the brink of fanaticism, also happens to be a very well connected dude in Hawaii. He was our "tour" manager and did a sterling job of making sure I always had a pillow to lay my weary head. He's also a walking, talking GPS system so we never got lost, but I have a hunch his phone had something to do with that.

ESSENTIAL DETOUR REQUIRED: Mike's connections have deep roots on the Isles Hawaii and they came up trumps the entire time we were there. We even had the biggest crowd clapping us in at the finish. This crew never wavered in helping us out with food, shelter, advice, equipment, assistance and companionship. They are some of the most giving people I have met and the trip is that much more complete because of them. A huge "Mahalo" to Aaron & Jess Ackermann, Tuck & Tiffany Siegfried, Dean & Monica Salter, Milli Hodges, Robyn Singh. Then another most grateful nod needs to go to the Sandman, Mark Sandvold. Mark generously opened up his place to be home base for our surfskis (and his tools and garage for repairs) and rendevouz point for all training paddles. A final thank you to Patrick Hemmens who came over even though he wasn't paddling; the only reason he came was to help other people! What a legend!
SHOT OUS!!!

Pre Race: Training, North Shore braai's and the Brady Bunch.
The 10days before the race typically revolved around doing 1 paddle a day somewhere along the last part of the race, somewhere between and area called Makapu and the finish at Hawaii Kai. I did one Makapu Run with all the boys (it was HUGE) and then, the rest of the week and a bit, paddled out and back from the finish always catching some waves of China Wall. There was one other paddle where we did an amazing downwind on the North Shore from Turtle Bay to Haleiwa. Hawaii is an ocean lover's paradise and it's impossible to stay out of the water. Many hours are spent swimming and diving at different reefs and coves around the Island.

To make up the time between physical endevours we would typically get together with some of the other traveling paddlers for a Coffee Bean coffee or some lunch or dinner at one of the numerous eateries on the Island. I have to mention 2 wonderful braai's we had at Charles Brand's house on the North Shore. Charles was the main supporter of the race and was hospitable beyond expectation inviting a good number of traveling paddlers around to his place to eat and sleep. These evenings will surely conjure up wonderful memories for me for years to come.

It's worth noting the arduous adventures of South Africa's very own "Brady Bunch" under the leadership of Ian Gray. The bunch, made up of Ian, Steve Woods, Barry Lewin, Hank McGregor and Carter Jonson (an import from San Francisco), had set up camp in an empty apartment belonging to Mark Sandvold (note again to the Sandman's generosity) right on the water at the finish. They proceeded to furnish the apartment with items they picked up along the side of the road like mattresses to sleep on and couches for sitting on. They would typically get up to all sorts of shenanigans such as cliff jumping, cave swimming, under-water rock carrying and very random competition to see who could crawl the fastest on a treadmill. No training paddle was without a race of some sort and no outing was without antics. Of course I cannot plead innocence and definitely pulled a prank or two of my own, but these guys definitely pushed their Hawaii experience to the max.

So there you have it, the complete Hawaii story.