Molokai

A couple weeks ago Pat Dolan broke the OC-1 record for the Ka'iwi (Molokai) Channel with a time of 3:31.06. This is only about 10 minutes off of Dean Gardiner's long standing record surfski time of 3:21.

Pat is absolutely on fire this year, and equally as adept in a surfski as he is in an OC-1, making him my choice to pull off the double and also win it in the surfski next week. Good luck Pat, and bring the victory home for Hawaii!

Pat Dolan fan here too.

10 days out, the forecast is less than ideal. I hope the wind behaves. I was hoping for big wind for Oscar. Fingers crossed.

Winds pretty darn calm on Kauai. Looks like the forecast might have been right.

Yep, bummer. It looks like a hot slog for all involved.

Agreed, the trades just are not cooperating. Here are the models I use to have a look at what's going on. The good news is that a fetch is setting up ok swells from the east. The big boys will have the power to get something from those.

earth.nullschool.net/#current/wind/isoba.../loc=-157.488,21.281

If you left click on a position, a window pops up with wind speed at the location, marked with the green circle. On the drop down menu, the 'Control' line provides forward and back in time.

This model is tougher to read, but it's something from UH.

www.soest.hawaii.edu/MET/Faculty/wrf/arw/arw_maui.html#

I'm a wind junkie, so I use this free stuff. The windsurfers have some great stuff, but I think it requires a membership.

That's what I love about skis. Any wind at all - big or small - one boat, good fun.

Here's a clip of our fastest ski paddler here on Maui, on a big wind day.

He and I were recently chatting about Austin Keifer. Austin was visiting recently and did some of our local races (Had some windy conditions and set new records BTW). We have Kai Bartlett as a local and his numbers are staggering too. Unreal what the big boys can do on the water.

Mike says Austin and Pat are another level above him. I've never paddled with guys at Mike's level, but it looks like another sport for those guys! Mad skills. K-1 veterans are something else... Just fearless at warp speeds across big swells. Must be very exciting!

vimeo.com/195241682

The probabilities of getting great conditions on the Molokai are decreasing every year.

The truth hurts, but all the facts are there:
Hawaii is experiencing less and less "traditional tradewinds". The winds have shiffted fron Northeastern to Eastern.

The most alarming thing is that this isn't based on 5 or 6 years of data... but derived from more than 30 years of Hawaiian tradewind data.

photofr wrote: The probabilities of getting great conditions on the Molokai are decreasing every year.

The truth hurts, but all the facts are there:
Hawaii is experiencing less and less "traditional tradewinds". The winds have shiffted fron Northeastern to Eastern.

The most alarming thing is that this isn't based on 5 or 6 years of data... but derived from more than 30 years of Hawaiian tradewind data.

Don't know the data, but anecdotally from Kauai, the trades have been howling this year for almost 2 months straight. Just bad luck this year that they finally dropped on the race weekend. (Remember that Pat Dolan set the OC1 record this year in those howling and pretty darn big conditions that I'm talking about). Seems the same as it ever was. Do you have a link to that data, I'd be interested in checking it out. Thanks.

I'd be interested in that data also.

Anyone have a link to any site that has updates on the Molokai Race?

I'm not a social media Facebook/twitter etc.

I"ve seen some twitter feeds in other races that were amazing. Anything like that around? Facebook usually lets me watch a thread for a few minutes before booting me. Greedy bastards. 2 billion subscribers isn't enough?

I heard a rumor years ago that Molokai competitors have real time GPS tagging.
I'd like to see what lines they take. They vary widely from what I hear and may have a big effect on the results. Maybe they could delay it so it doesn't affect strategy, who knows. But... nothing?

Seems odd to me that a world championship has so little coverage. I suppose the insiders have cellphone updates from their pals on escort boats. But what about everyone else? Seems odd to me.

Big race. Nothing online that I can find....

Don't get me wrong: we have seen some really good days in Hawaii since 1981 - and they are still present today - but the frequency is definitely at a decrease.

Here's the leader Hawaiian Tradewinds
www.hawaii.edu/news/article.php?aId=5358

LaPerouseBay wrote: I'd be interested in that data also.

Seems odd to me that a world championship has so little coverage. I suppose the insiders have cellphone updates from their pals on escort boats. But what about everyone else? Seems odd to me.

Big race. Nothing online that I can find....

2017 UPDATE
Here's what I think is odd - for our entire sport:
As far as I know, there was only one full-LIVE-coverage for the Molokai race. It was manned by (obviously) a non-professional cameraman/woman. The race commentator (a legend) didn't seem to know that much about surfskis. As usual, you are going to be hard-pressed to find numerous quality photographs of the race -

All in all, there were only 47 single skis entering this race.
All in all, there were a max of about 320 online viewers at a time.

The lack of professional coverage could be affecting the entire sport - but very few people want to invest in this great sport.

I poked my nose into the Facebook feed. Not being a member - it works for a little while. FB blocks most of the screen with a big box encouraging you to join - then they freeze it totally after about 10 min. Nice.

I managed to eke out the results of the top 5 guys and a post by Oscar this morning, but that was about it. Not much interest in checking in to FB when it's so tough to navigate.

Looked for results this morning - nothing. I'd like to see who paddled. Oh well, the organizers are undoubtedly working very hard. I'll bet they put in some long, long days. The results will be up eventually.

I tried to post results but it was considered spam. Go to pseresults dot com. Results are posted there under Kanaka Ikaika Race # 10.

Photofr you are indeed correct about the lack of interest in our great sport, it's a shame indeed.

However I think we should take a minute and appreciate that we got any coverage of the race at all.

I for one thought it was great. Amazing to see the best paddlers in the world, at the most prestigious surfski race, battle it out live.

Appreciate the logistics (even though it is 2017) that we can be watching a live race for our sport half way across the world in Europe.

The commentator I thought did a great job, much better than the uhmmm uhhhh uhmmm that we got from Andres on the World Champs live feed 2015. Admittidaly English isn't his first language.

But I'd listen to the Aussie guy a million times over.

Our sport seriously lacks the appeal of other water sports such a SUP. Surfski paddlers on average, mid packers are middle aged and above, who have the time and money to invest in the best equipment.

Suddenly that doesn't look as appealing to sponsors, compared to thousands of young 20-30 Uber fit SUP paddlers...

The gulf between the two paddlesports is only going to get bigger as SUP becomes more accessible to the masses

In essence, what I'm trying to say is to enjoy what we have.

Yeh the commentary and filming could have been better. Linked with a live tracking screen etc

But they could have easily not have bothered with a live feed at all. Was it worth the 300 ish people watching, in revenue for the sponsors of the race?

I very much doubt it

Well, I would wish to have more attention from the media for surfski. But do not forget that this would be followed by a commercialisation boost. Maybe surfski would even be punished by becoming Olympic. Then at the latest you have all the bureaucrats, money and substances in that keep ruining other endurance sports.

Perhaps I come from an old school, where... if you gonna do something, do it right (or at the very least, try to do it right).

Here's an example (unfortunately, a real life example)
I have just had a window installed: I guess I should be thankful that I have a window, but then why in the World am I bummed out that the window is leaking?

I am bummed out that surfski coverage (for most races) is lacking. That's just the sad truth - but that doesn't mean that I fear over-commercialisation. Anyway, that's just how I see it.

Im with you Ludvic. Besides this website, there is very little information out there.

I wonder why the big brands dont join together and co-sponsor some coverage of the big events. Its in all of their interest to expand knowledge of the sport and promote it.

It seems surfskiing in general (all brands) need a brand manager / marketing manager. I know they all do their individual promotiion, but lets be honest, surfski companies are all relatively small in the grand scheme.

Why dont they join together, pool a few bucks and promote the sport in general. It would be good for everyone it would seem to me.

The same thing happened with cycling coverage here in the US. They do cover the Tour DeFrance, but nothing for the Giro or the Tour of Spain or the Spring Classics. When Lance Armstrong was racing there was a lot of coverage, but that is long gone. Other than live streaming or subscribing to a Eurosport site, cycling coverage is in the same "boat"...

There are a lot of good cycling forums out there, but not a lot of surfski forums as well as this one and surfskiracing.

The problem was and somewhat is, that its a really, really difficult sport to begin if you didn't start as a kid. Money has nothing to do with it; there are lots of extremely popular more expensive sports. Maybe now with the V7 and Bluefin type boats that will change.

I think a lot of people, especially the ones that started young, take for granted what a challenge it is at first. Only very determined adults continue with it.

It is growing a lot though regardless. Its just a matter of time before it really takes off.

At least what I can tell from Germany and the Netherlands, downwind racing is swiftly becoming more popular, and the distribution across age groups is fairly even. For events like the Dutch Coast race or the Ostseecup in Rostock, videos featuring the event use to be out almost within hours after the finish. And I have the same impression from the races in the Mediterranean or Portugal. From that perspective it is really funny that the informal World Championship doesn't get its act together. It has been a special Molokai problem for years, at least for the interested but occasional observer.

Is the video from the race saved/published anywhere? I missed the live broadcast and would love to have a look.