Molokai World Championships 2010

Oceanpaddler Karl Treacher is in Hawaii preparing for the Molokai Surf Ski World Championships. He shares with us his stories pre race and a bit of history about the Molokai event.

written by Karl Treacher – Monday May 10

We have been in Hawaii now for about 50 hours after arriving at 7am Saturday morning (3am Sunday morning Australian time). We raced yesterday in a warm up event – Makapu to Waikiki – 27kms. Conditions were reasonable with 16 knot trailing winds on a 1.9m swell. Not enough to be exciting, but enough to surf as much as paddle.

Top 10 (from 20 starters) were:

• Ando 1:38
• Daley 1:39:38
• Carter 1:41
• Debrule 1:43
• Dorries 1:43:30
• Szadovski 1:45:30
• Treacher 1: 48:27
• Graf 1:51
• O’Regan 1:52:53

Most of us were still suffering jet lag as we have only been on the island for 24 hours and still catching up on a sleepless night on the flight over. How any airline thinks we can sleep in a sitting position is beyond me. Money grabbing at the expense of logic and humanity.

Today we are heading up to practice the the last 5 kms around the cliffs and reefs at Portlock Point and Hawaii. Kai. I will be taking the head cam and waterproof camera so I can share what we see.

Here is some background on the race for anyone interested.

The Molokai Challenge, recognized as the World Surf Ski and OC1 Championship, is the title watermen covet most. The solo race begins near the west end of the island of Molokai, crosses the volatile Ka’iwi Channel — considered one of the roughest ocean channels in the world – and finishes on Waikiki’s Queens Beach which is on Oahu for the first time in 2007. The new distance is 32.3 nautical miles.

Win the greatest ocean race in the world and you’re in select company. Over the past 25 years, only six men have won the surf ski division: Grant Kenny, the famed Aussie Ocean Ironman and Olympic Bronze medalist, won his first of five titles in 1979. In 1983, a 20-year-old South African named Oscar Chalupsky defeated Kenny to win the first of his seven consecutive titles. When Chalupsky was barred from international competition for five years due to apartheid, Australia’s Dean Gardiner stepped in as the Molo man to beat, winning his first title in 1993. A former commercial fisherman from Perth, Gardiner holds the course record of 3:21:26 set in 1997. Herman Chalupsky, Oscar’s younger brother, is the only other ski paddler to win the race more than once.

In 2003, Oscar and Dean, tied at nine titles each, staged a classic duel to become the first man to 10. With a world class field that included Grant and Martin Kenny, Olympian Clint Robinson, Tahitian Lewis Laughlin, Herman Chalupsky, and Gold medalist Greg Barton, Oscar only caught Gardiner along Oahu’s Chinaman’s Wall for the record win. He added his record 11th title in 2004.

Oahu native Pat Erwin won the first solo canoe race across the channel in 1993. After finishing 10th in his first solo Molokai in 1998, 18-year-old high school senior Karel Tresnak Jr. gave himself a nearly unimaginable graduation present, beating three-time defending champion Mark Rigg, a former All-America volleyball player and a legend in the sport. In 2000, Tresnak became the first OC1 paddler to crack four hours. His time of 3:49:19 was eight minutes better than John Foti. In 2006, a year after breaking the nose off his boat, Tresnak won his record sixth solo title in a record time of 3:42:37.

The 2007 race is the 31st annual crossing, counting the 1976 solo effort by Kailua physician Dale Adams. Adams called his crossing “the challenge of the day,” but it has since developed into the premier long-distance, open ocean, solo crossing in the world. In 2007 Tahitian Lewis Lachlan won, again in 2008 before South African Hank McGreggor took the title after being the bridesmaid twice prior.

Now in 2010 and the 34th annual crossing, the Australian contingent is stronger than ever with names like Gardiner, Cotter, Robinson, Jacobs, Clues, Anderson and Daley all fronting up.

Watch Karls video pre race training for Molokai. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9wAH6nqy6o