I received the telephone call from Eric Mitchell of Wailea Canoe Club of Maui on Friday 28 September 2001 and bought my flight for the next day. Luckily I met up with the Jericho boys on the flight and they kindly let me crash in their apartment in Honolulu Saturday night. Sunday was a training session along the shores of Maui with Wailea. What I hadn't realised was that Eric was a farmer, and that I had to cut 10 pounds of lettuce before training to get on the team!...Eric and his family kindly put me up in the spare room at their home.
I spent the week training with the crew of 5 from Wailea plus myself. The other three we were picking up on the beach at Moloka'i. Paddlers from Kauai, Oahu and an Aussie. No time to blend with those guys unfortunately. Wailea paddle exactly the same way as Rick has been coaching us. Easy to blend with. I learnt new paddling phrases like: "Imua!", meaning "Go!" and "Lava", meaning "Stop Paddling", ...because you don't drive when there's lava on the road...
Maui is a very picturesque island, and the days were spent seeing a friend who lives there, snorkeling, cycling, hanging on the beach, visiting the old cities, the aquarium, the volcano crater and the lush green valleys - and drinking lots of water.
We took the ferry from Maui to Molokai on the Saturday 6th October. Here I tested the ginger pills theory for sea-sickness. No problems. I also took some homeopathic pills for nausea and was fine.
At the pre-race meeting, the race director was threatening to cancel the race. The weather forecast was predicting some 15-20 foot waves in the channel. He asked us to pray for slightly smaller waves overnight. The last time there were 20 foot waves in the 60's, they lost a Koa canoe. Safety is a priority.
Race Day: Sunday 7 October 2001
The early morning truck ride down to the race site along the dusty road was very quiet, with thoughts going through paddlers minds about the size of waves predicted. The race would go ahead. At 7.00am there were 108 crews rigged, on the water and ready to race. An awesome sight. We met the BC Team and the Hong Kong boys on the water and wished them well.
We were told to move into the pre-line holding area, some way behind the line. Then suddenly, before everyone was lined up, and 5 minutes before time, the horn went off, and we were racing. Some two or three changes later we crossed the start line, a cord in the ocean. The start can be some time between 7.00am and 8.00am. Be ready for any eventuality.
Our escort boat was not the Catalina Crossing type of escort boat - the 30' Bayliner complete with padded seats and two gorgeous women ready to hand you your food and hydration. Rather it was a hard working 24' fishing vessel, with no seats, no ladder, and no women. It rocked and rolled in the ocean so much that it was hard work while you were in the escort boat, certainly not the comfy rest and recovery you get in Catalina.
The current was coming at us from Oahu, the waves would be at an angle to our direction of travel, which would result in large standing waves in the channel. We were apparently going to go a Northern route to Oahu. From where I was sitting it looked like a large expanse of ocean with no Island in sight....
First 20-30 mins:
A race along the coast of Moloka'i. What a blast. Fast and furious, waves about 0-2 ft at this stage, nice surfing. Plenty of power in the boat. We were amongst a lead pack of 20 or so canoes battling it out together.
30-60 mins:
Now into the ocean between the islands and the race begins again. A new section with your 'race within a race'. The escort boats come. A swirly boat chop on top of the waves making for a confused ocean. Harder to catch the waves. Battle through it.
1hr-2hr:
Our fears came to light. The spray skirt did not quite fit the canoe properly. The holes in the spray skirt for paddlers, did not line up with the seat below. As a result, there were large holes behind each paddler where water could come in. The inevitable happened. We took in water and then we hulied. Shit.
This killed the boat for a while. We were in a pack and now they had all gone. We lost 20 boats there and then. We were going to have to crawl our way back into the race. The canoes separated a little, resulting in less escort boat chop, with the ocean waves now rising to 2-4 feet. Our strongest paddlers, in the centre of the canoe, were going to have to bail twice for every sea-change to keep the boat dry. Not ideal. We were paddling now with no other boats in sight.
2hr-4hr:
The waves were starting to stack up a little. 4-6 feet, rising to 8 feet in places. Swirly, snarly and confused. Hard to get any run on them. Caught some waves, but most got away from us. The rest dumped on us.
4hr-5.5hr:
The waves were really stacking up now. 8-12 feet, some at 15/18 feet. A massive wall of water behind the canoe. Holy cow! I was paddling two strokes of air at the front, while the steerer was fully out of the water making it extremely difficult to steer! Seats 3 and 4 were simply swamped. A little like the escort boat chop in Catalina - only 12 feet high! You need a lot of strength to pull the canoe out of those waves.
Last hour:
The Hawaii Kai run along the coast of Oahu. Back to regular 2-4 feet waves - and in the direction of travel at last! Surfing was fun again. Although everyone has been beaten up by the ocean and the boat is tired. Many canoes converge at this point and the race begins anew. It's bizarre that after many hours of seeing only maybe one or two canoes, suddenly there is a swarm of them all around you. Where did they come from...?!!
We finished the 42 mile course in 6 hours and 24 minutes, in the middle of the pack. The winners, New Zealand, finished in 5 hours and 2 minutes, just 2 seconds ahead of Lanikai. The BC Team came in after 5 hours and 42 minutes, just 10 minutes off a top ten finish. The last boat came in after 8 hours.
Many paddlers were sea-sick during this race. I heard of another paddler who lost the plot and tried to steer from seat 4. One of our paddlers had "the patch" for sea-sickness, but this washed off in a sea-change and he was also very sea-sick and needed medical treatment after the race. One of the Outrigger Australia's paddlers was so sick that they completed the race with only 8 paddlers for the last 2 hours.
This is when "Plan B" becomes extremely important. You will need it. To get your head around any adversity and paddle positively through the race.
Apparently, Tahiti have a very interesting system where for each two seats they have three paddlers, continually interchanging. A crew within a crew. A crew of three for two seats within the crew of nine. So 3 paddlers for seats 1+2, 3 paddlers for seats 3+4, 3 paddlers for seats 5+6. This relieves the burden of stroking the entire race, calling the huts for the entire race, and also steering the entire race also. A more efficient use of paddlers energies. It also requires every paddler to be able to sit any seat of course. Paddling is their national sport, so in order to make the team, they have to be that able. Quite extraordinary.
Quite simply, this race is enormous.
This race puts the whole of your paddling into perspective. Any other race is simply a walk in the park. If you think the Ultrapaddle is a crazy idea, then this will blow your mind. You cannot train too much for this race.
But what a blast!
Thanks to Wailea CC of Maui for giving me the opportunity of paddling with them. The paddlers were: Eric Mitchell, Felipe Gomez, Jensen Cramer, Doug Brysst, Gordon Scruton, Ekola Kalama, Andrew Sbrizzi and Da Man Ramone.
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