Our Molokai Diary –
Myself and Jasleigh headed over to do our first Molokai crossing. After the Naish race on Maui we had 5 days to paddle the Maliko run and get used to the heat and conditions that we could expect on the Molokai crossing.

Both myself and Jasleigh had no idea on what the crossing would be like with many top paddlers giving us all sorts of advice and help with what line to take etc. Some guys telling us that it would be crazy Rough Ocean and others saying it would be an all time down winder. We got over to Molokai 2 days before the crossing to relax and get ready. All we need now is our boat driver and crew.

4.45 – wake up race morning to have a good feed and get everything packed and ready for the boat.
6.00 – at the beach looking for our boat and crew, but it was a crazy sight with over 100 boats looking for their paddlers!!!
6.30 – all the paddlers formed a big circle for the pray and blessing before our crossing
6.45 – found our boat and start paddling and swimming our supplies out to them. Our crew was wicked (and will remain un-named so you can’t steal them) and we are now fighting for who will have them for our solo race next year.
7.15 – Cath (Jasleighs mum) swims out to the boat and she is our safety and laughter on board for the crossing. She also took a heap of video (soon to come)
7.30 – I Angie, paddle over to the start line with John Buttler,” close to you” blaring in my ears. This kept my nerves down. So now all the boats are off to one side and the prone paddlers are way in the distance.
7.45 – only 15mins to go OMG i suddenly look up ahead and think holy crap which line should i take? I cant even see Oahu!! Wind is side on about 25knots even holding still at the start line was a mission
8.00 – Start! I paddle my arse off for 6miles 100% on one side! God damn it it better not be like this the whole way. I see 12yr old Rigs just in front and slowly pass him by (which made me feel better :P)

We then lost track of time so it’s in miles from now on

6 mile mark – change with jas and we inform her she is holding the line perfectly. Our driver and crew assuring us that we are going straight to where we should be 6mile out from Oahu. Our crew yelling and encouraging us the whole time.
Next change (about 1hr later) – i’m back in the dark blue ocean bobbing waiting for jas to paddle up to me at the change we encourage each other and are super stoked with our time so far. I jump on and start to paddle looking around there are boats way behind, way in front, way left and way right!!
Once again our crew inform me that some people have gone too far left and will be in serious pain heading in to port lock.

Jasleigh did a pretty long stint this change about 1.5hrs and i cant remember where we were. We change again and again pushing each other whilst the other refuels on the boat but always eager to get back on the board!

Our crew then informs me that we only have 12 miles left!!! Holy crap we are actually going to get there under 6hrs and 30mins so that pushes us to paddle even harder.
Still now even 90% one side with side chop hardly any runners and 32 degrees heat.

The crew then told us we had gone far enough and it was time to turn with the wind (sort of) and enjoy going with the swell....at least for a little while
I Angie did a pretty long stint about 1hr 45min at this stage, as i wanted to get jasleigh close to portlock as possible before the last change over as i knew the last 4 mile was going to be super hard for her. I also knew the tide had changed and i could even feel it!!

That was the deal, Angie to start and Jas to finish. Little did Jas know that once turning around port Lock with 2km left she would be hit with 30knot head winds & a runout tide!!!!

We hit 6hr 20mins and we can see the end, the only problem was the 30knot headwind & runout tide, i’m yelling we are all screaming at Jas “Paddle its ok we have trained for this!” almost going backwards it was one stroke at a time for about 25mins/2kms.

You really cant describe what its like until you see it in person. After 50km of crazy ocean, no runners, cross swell, side wind, no rudder and on a 14ft board, you get hit by this 30knot headwind which really challenges the true athlete within you.
Watching good paddlers going backwards!! It was crazy, you body is buggered but yet your asking it to push past a point, that you haven’t or cant train for.
6hrs 49mins later Jasleigh crosses the finish line

We are both so excited but so sad at the same time, we looked at each other and said “That was bloody hard!!....So solo next year?” we laughed at each other and said, “its on!!”

Molokai crossing is INSANE, its a bad, crazy, hard arse drug and your left wanting more! Don’t ask us why but its just something you have to experience for yourself.

I definitely wouldn’t recommend doing it solo for your first time, not because its hard, but because you are really putting your body and your mind to the extreme and you will be biting off more than you can chew. Take the advice from the video the DJ posted from Dave Kalama!! It's so true.

So we help our boat and the crew out of the water, walked back up to the finish line, just in time to see little 12yr old Riggs cross the line, what a little ripper this kid is! We sat at the finish line, watching a heap of paddlers finish the race.
7hrs 55mins (8hrs they pull you out of the water) the last solo girl Nicole crosses the line and she was ecstatic to finish, just behind Nicole, was Mark (paraplegic) crossed the line and everyone was there to witness this amazing feat! What a legend!

We see Jacko walk over to us and i could already see what he was about to say to us, so we answered it for him, “Yep we are doing it solo next yr” We all laughed and headed over for food and cold drinks.

So to sum it all up for you, Molokai means – Train your body to limits you can’t make and then ask some more, you can’t ever give up or even think of it, so you need to train your mental state aswell. Next year, yep we are doing it solo, we will be more physically and mentally trained for the challenge!!

Don’t ask as why but we just are!

After talking with everyone at the finish line you can only walk away from the race with such a good vibe. Everyone congratulates each other as we all know what was just accomplished by every paddler, even those that didn’t cross the line. Every paddler has be proud of what they achieved and how far they got. Some of the boys, seriously thought that not even we were going to finish LOL!

I’m working on the pics and video for you all, so hang in there.
XX Angie

Hey Angie,

Fantastic result from both your teams.

You and Jas and Jacko and Woogie must be on cloud 9

Cant wait for the pics and video.

Pass our best wishes onto Ali too from what your saying what a gutsy effort to hit it solo first time. She will smash it next year.

Outstanding effort from all the Aussies.

Phill

Great report thanks , makes me want to get off my bum and start training.

Wow Ang, great story. Thanks so much for the time to write it, will have to pop into the shop and take a ticket to hear it from your mouths. What about a BBQ with time to share the experience and the prep involved to get there?. Would surely inspire so many of us to train and race even locally.

I was honestly surprised to hear that you guy were doing such long stints. I know nothing but I imagined shorter terms with more changeovers etc. Was it hard to get warmed up again after 1 hour in the boat?

Thanks again for the story. I think you guys making this effort will be the start of renewed effort for Aussie events.

CMC said...

Wow Ang, great story. Thanks so much for the time to write it, will have to pop into the shop and take a ticket to hear it from your mouths. What about a BBQ with time to share the experience and the prep involved to get there?. Would surely inspire so many of us to train and race even locally.

I was honestly surprised to hear that you guy were doing such long stints. I know nothing but I imagined shorter terms with more changeovers etc. Was it hard to get warmed up again after 1 hour in the boat?

Hi CMC, Would love to do a local bbq or something and answer any questions anyone might have about the training we did (ALOT) etc..
Alot of the teams we spoke to swapped paddlers every 20 or 30 min but we just felt strong and really didn't feel the need to swap that much, plus it was a good test for ourselves for next yr solo.
It's funny even sitting on the boat for 1.5 hours you didn't get cold in the 34c heat and sun, if anything you wanted to jump into the water again.
Back in the grind at the shop now, so anyone can come in and ask questions about it.
All Aussie paddlers ROCK, we are def up there. Next year we will be spending atleast 2 weeks on maui before the molokai crossing. Everyone is different but it took jacko about 3 days to get himself sorted, i actually felt fine.
I am surprised that i'm not sore at all today so i'm happy.

May i add that Jamie Mitchell is a machine!! What a champ, 9 times in a row.

XX angie

Fantastic Angie great story iust one question how come you did such long stints on the boards over an hour ect ? is that how you trained for it . I know in outrigger racing change overs are around the 25 to 25min mark.

Rob

my arms hurt just reading that...great story Ang really helped to encapsulate everything that happened on the day. Epic stuff...

Here's a great pic of Connor during the race.



Another pic showing the nasty off-shore wind at the end.

Notice how low his top hand is down the shaft of the paddle so he can bend right over to reduce his sail area paddling into the wind.

DJ