The Maui Jim Molokai Challenge is a “challenge” no matter what the conditions – windy or calm, the heat and the distance make this a daunting race. So how do the paddlers prepare for the race? Here’s what you need to know about the race, with insights from some of this year’s competitors.
The Molokai Challenge is one of the oldest surfski races in the world, being run for the first time in 1977 across the Kaiwi Channel from Kaluakoi Beach on Molokai to the Manalua Beach Park on Oahu.
For the very latest NOAA forecast, click here.
The race is just over 53km long and paddlers face a number of obstacles:
The current NOAA forecast for the Kaiwi Channel (as at 24 May) says,
Sunday: East winds 15 knots. Wind waves 5 to 6 feet. Mixed swell northwest 4 feet and south 4 feet. Isolated showers.
The air temperature is forecast to be in the high 20sC/70sF. The water temperature is currently near 27C/80F… so it’s really, really hot. Those “isolated showers” might be extremely welcome.
The first challenge facing the paddlers will be to get through the surf before the start. The beach is fully exposed to the NW swell and shelves steeply so that there’s a fierce shore break. With swell that big, it can break further out as well.
The key to getting out safely is patience and to wait for a gap between the sets.
Assuming the forecast is correct, and the easterly wind blows at 15kt, there will be fast moving runs to catch. But the oncoming ocean swell will make the conditions bumpy, technical and tiring.
The current should be running with the paddlers for two thirds of the race and they should finish at the ebb without too fierce an opposing current (but the waters south of Oahu are notorious for behaving in an unexpected way...)
Defending champion (and current world champion) Cory "Chill" Hill said he doesn't change much for Molokai. "Just a longer race," he said, "Keep it simple".
He'll be paddling a full carbon Fenn Elite S.
he also shared some of his thoughts about racing, family life and the race itself with Tim Altman:
The highly experienced (and three-time winner) Clint Robinson isn’t expecting the records (set last year) to be broken.
Tim Altman spoke to him a few days ago about his expectations for the race, and Clint shared some insights about the race and some of the other competitors!
The 12-time winner of the race is notorious for using hardly any liquids during long distance races.
This year he’s paddling a Nelo 600 double with Seth Koppes.
His setup includes:
Oscar’s predictions for the race? Cory Hill, Pat Dolan, Hank McGregor, Clint Robinson, Mackenzie Hynard, Austin Keiffer, Michael Booth and Alastair Day.
Oscar's been staying on Big Island in the lead up to the race and posted some phenomenal footage of paddling in the channel between Big Island and Maui a few days ago:
The three-time Molokai champion is back to have another crack at the race - and is featured on this clip filmed by Aussie Jim Walker, catching a loooooong run back into the beach in Oahu.
South African, Durban-based Hayley Nixon is the current ICF Ocean Racing World Champion and won both the Double and Single Surfski Championships in South Africa in April in Cape Town.
Part of the Shaw and Partners Team, she paddles a Carbonology Sport Pulse surfski.
Arriving in Hawaii a week ago, she’s feeling at the top of her game for the race. Her preparations:
Tim Altman interviewed Hayley a few days ago on Oahu:
The New Zealander has plenty of experience in Hawaii:
She’s paddling an Epic V11 Elite, the black surfski weighs in at under 9.5kg/21lb.
In March this year, Rachel completely dominated the King and Queen of the Harbour race in demanding, technical downwind conditions in Auckland.
She said, “My training has been going well, I feel like I’m in the best shape I’ve been in so we shall see how it unfolds on Sunday!”
Her race preparation:
To prepare for the Hawaiian heat, Rachel spent sessions in a sauna at home in New Zealand. Having prepared inadequately for my own race back in 2008, I can attest to the importance of being acclimatized; the humidity adds to the stress of the high temperature.
Tasmanian Georgia Laird is tackling Molokai for the first time. She should be in contention, having won the 2018 Perth Doctor (beating Hayley Nixon). Tim Altman interviewed her and her coach, Naomi Flood.
No stranger to Molokai, Macca came 6th in the 2018 event. The 24-year-old is one of the younger paddlers who’ll be near the front of the race.
Macca is sponsored by Think Kayaks, the Think UNO his weapon of choice (and before I get a million queries, in this video clip of Macca riding a wave in Honolulu, he was trying out a Think Ion, but that's not his race boat!!)
Race prep:
“Cory, Hank and Clint; their experience is so great. Then Pat Dolan with his local experience.
“Austin Keiffer. Young and new blood of Josh Fenn and Nick Gale.
“Boothy, even though on the SUP program no doubt will be up front.
“Ali Day, coming off successful Australian Ironman season and have won the most Coolangatta golds ever will be there, especially if it’s flat or small, as he will grind for days.”
Kieffer lives in Sausalito, California and has been competing around the world in surfskis since 2016. Most notably he scored a podium place at the Perth Doctor in 2017. In 2018, he scored a 5th at the Irish Coast Paddling Championships, but injured his shoulder, scuppering his chances of another podium position at the 2018 Doctor.
He paddles the Fenn Elite S in full carbon lay-up. When I contacted him, he was scrambling to get a footplate problem repaired in time for the race. “Drawbacks of being the last Fenn athlete to arrive, I guess,” he laughed.
Austin Kieffer paddled the Maui to Molokai race earlier this year
His race day prep includes:
Austin said candidly that his money is on Cory Hill to win the race. “But,” he said, “I’m going to set myself up with the best possible chance, and for sure I’m gonna be on that podium!”
"Molokai" You just have to utter that name, and everyone in the surfski community knows what you're talking about: the 53km open ocean crossing from Molokai to Oahu across the Kaiwi Channel. One of the oldest surfski races in the world, it was long regarded as the surfski world championships; and in the 2017 race only three of the past 43 year's winners weren't back to tackle the challenge once more.
The Kaiwi Channel has a reputation for massive downwind conditions; with a fetch of several thousand km, the NE trades can produce ferocious swell. In 2017, however, the winds didn't arrive on the day and the paddlers faced a challenge of a different kind: heat, a head-on current, a slow heaving, seasickness inducing swell...! (Those were the conditions I faced in 2008 - and it was one of the toughest days of my life.)
This video was released 6 months ago - but is well worth taking the time to review. And with the Maui Jim Molokai Challenge coming up on Sunday, May 27, 2018, it's a great reminder to make your bookings and to keep on training hard... And train for flat water, just in case.
If you've never done the Molokai Challenge... C'mon, you've got to get your backside over to Hawaii - it's still the holy grail of Surfski paddling. AND this year, the following weekend sees US$50K on offer at the Maui Jim Ocean Shootout... Here are the details - Register now for the Maui Jim Molokai Challenge 2017!
Thirty minutes into the Maui Jim Molokai Challenge, first-time participant Jasper Mocke led a five-man conga line of Clint Robinson, Hank McGregor, Cory Hill and Jeremy Cotter. When Mocke sprinted for a wave that shot him across Robinson's path, the five-time Olympian admonished him like a state trooper confronting an unlicensed driver. Mocke thought nothing of his move. "That's how we race in South Africa," he said. "It was just aggressive."
A few hours ago Hank McGregor won his second Molokai title in similar conditions to the first...
Molokai is home to the world surf ski championships and rightly so – it’s one of the most testing events on the International Ocean Ski calendar. But can it lay claim to being the only open water crossing in the world? The Celtic Crossing is the brainchild of event founder and organiser Glenn Eldridge of Ocean Sports UK – “completing the Molokai in early 2000, seeing the Hawaiians cultural link with the ocean and the heritage of the crossing I thought that there must be something similar I could do here in the UK”.
After two weeks of howling trade winds and mountainous seas in the Kaiwi Channel, the 2014 Molokai Challenge is faced with baking temperatures, glassy seas and “winds light and variable”. And that means 52km of an intense challenge of a different kind…
As we all know, Molokai is the Big Kahuna of surfski races; the 32mile/51km crossing of the Kaiwi Channel between Molokai and Oahu Islands in Hawaii is a daunting challenge (whatever the weather!). The race is back for 2014, but it's now back under the management of the Kanaka Ikaika Racing Association (KIRA). Here's the preliminary announcement from KIRA's Jim Foti.
Oahu, Hawaii - Debate is raging in Hawaii ahead of the Molokai Challenge surfski ultra-marathon this weekend at which Oscar Chalupsky is aiming to win a 13th title, as weather forecasts point to the winds and swell drying up just before the scheduled start at 11am local time on Sunday 19 May.
Durban – Surfski icon Oscar Chalupsky is planning to extend his own record in the tough Molokai Challenge in Hawaii on 19 May by winning his 13th title in the 52km crossing, and in the process explode the myth that athletes cannot remain competitive as they get older.