Where: Pailolo Channel, Hawaii
When: April 26, 2008
What: Kai Wa'a/Smith Builders, LLC Maui to Molokai Challenge
Mid April marks the beginning of the paddle sports racing season in Hawaii. As the winter surf season ebbs to a close, it's time for the C4 crew to join all the canoe, surf ski and paddleboard enthusiasts in gearing up for a summer full of training, races, and plain ole holoholo larks.
After spending the past four paddle seasons shaping and designing open ocean stand-up race boards with Brian Keaulana, Todd Bradley, Archie Kalepa, and Karel Tresnak, I was keen to get the new C4 Vortice XP out in some ripping trade wind bumps and point that baby downhill.
So I was stoked when my Molokai Channel partner, Archie Kalepa, rang up to invite me to paddle with him in a race across the Pailolo Channel to Kaunakakai on Molokai. Arch is more or less the godfather of stand-up paddleboard racing, being the first guy, back in 2004, to take on the 32-nautical-mile Kaiwi Channel standing up.
