by Dean Gardiner

For me personally it was disheartening to see such a dismal turn up for this years Molokai Surf Ski Race. It has been a big part of my life for many years and for quite a few of those many years, my main paddling focus. The front end of this year’s race still had the best paddler in the world leading followed closely by another of the best, Pat Dolan and youngster Cole Jones rounding it out. After that there was virtually nothing. I don’t mean that rudely, but the total field was made up of about ten paddlers. Cory’s time was impressive given the conditions and it more than likely wouldn’t have mattered who else showed up given his current form.

For a very long time the Molokai event was deemed the World  Championships of Surf Ski Racing. For many it still is today. If not for the label but more for the challenge, this event has provided our sport with World Champions for almost fifty years.

The first event occurred in 1976 and not dissimilar to some other endurance sports, started out more of a challenge than a sport itself. 

Doc Adam’s completed the challenge in a grueling 7 hours and 30 minutes. The following year Dean Hayward joined Doc and took out the event with Kalai Handley the year after.

There were not many making the crossing in the early years and one could argue that these placings don’t warrant world champ status. One could also argue that the early days of just about every sport, even Olympic Sports, were not that hotly contested when first raced. We could say that surfing, triathlon all had similar starts to surf ski racing and their founding winners are recognized as the world champs for those sports.

If we look at Molokai it would easily qualify as the world champs of our sport well into the new millennium and some would say further. 

For me I would love to have the argument with someone disputing that Grant Kenny (5 time winner) and Oscar Chalupsky (12 time winner) who both dominated the early years were not worthy of being crowned world champs in the years they won. It would take a brave person to come forward and say they could have beaten both if they would have raced in one of those years.

From 1979 to 1991 and apart from the three very early years, the Koa Bowl only had two names on it. During that time the cream of Australian and South African Surf Ski paddling were on the line in Hawaii and Kenny and Chalupsky continued their reign.

My belief is that there was no one on earth during that period who could beat Oscar and Grant in a 50k downwind. Surely that makes them world champions.

Molokai is an event that definitely has its challenges. Forget the race itself but getting yourself and craft to Hawaii, escort boats, getting to Molokai and the cost of all this has made the event prohibitive to some over the years. 

This is evident by the decline in the numbers over recent years.

In 1990 the first ever 20 Beaches Ocean Classic was run on Sydney’s Northern Beaches. I was fortunate to take this event out which at the time was the biggest and most hotly contested ocean race that had been staged in Australia. 

Following close behind me was Ironman champ Guy Leech. Leech had become a superstar in Australia, was on breakfast cereal packets and along with Grant Kenny and few others were household names.

The following year, in Hawaii and in a very flat race in fact the flattest I have seen, Leech went on to add his name to the Koa Bowl along with Adam’s, Hayward, Handley, Kenny and Chalupsky. 

On the ladies side Eve Anderson, Kuumomi Ho, Leslie Connor, Julie Leach, Lordy Bodie and Jane Hall were the winners in the 80s and early 90s.

After serving my apprenticeship with a ¹couple of places in the channel my time came in the 90s and early 2000s. 1992 saw my first win and in a tight race with Clint Robinson in 94 I lowered Oscars long standing race record and three years later, in 1997 lowered it again in a very tight race with Herman Chalupsky. Jane Hall also lowered the ladies record that year.

My run came to an end  with my last win in 2002 although I still placed on numerous occasions up to 2012. My record however lingered for the next twenty years and was broken by Cory Hill in 2018 and then the year following by Hank McGregor . Kelly Fey dominated the ladies field through the nineties.

Early in the new millennium my focus shifted to the back end of the sport with the introduction of the Australian Ocean Racing Series. Which is a whole other story.

Molokai continued to roll along and the best of the best still turned up to make their mark on surf ski paddling.

A brief history of the Molokai event in the link below

https://www.kanakaikaika.com/molokai-challenge/race-history/

The next big thing to happen occurred in 2004 with the first ever Surf Ski World Championships in Cape Town.

I don’t know where the funding came from but we were given tickets to fly to Cape Town to compete in this event. Teams from France, Namibia, Tahiti, USA, New Zealand, UAE, Italy and various others attended this event.

The Australian team consisted of myself, Tim Jacob’s, Jono Chalmers, Dave Kissane, Holly Huessner and Rod Taylor (masters). The team was selected based on the races in the Australian Ocean Racing Series that I was organising at the time

The excitement of such an event pulled me back into racing mode and I was excited to go up against Tim Jacob’s, Herman Chalupsky and Tahitian Lewis Laughlin. For me at that time these were the three best ocean paddlers in the world.

The race started in the scenic Hout Bay and the conditions were pumping. A huge swell was running in the course direction to Cape Town with some moderate wind to match. 

Herman led the field out to the first buoy and headed out to sea. Myself, Chalmers and Jacob’s took a fine line close to the famous big wave spot “Dungeons”. We skimmed the other breaks on our way past Clifton Beach and Mouille Point. 

Our tight line paid off and in the closing stages of the race we had a solid lead over the rest of the field. I won the event from Herman and Tim. It was a great day for the Aussie contingent with Holly from a host of very talented “Saffas” taking out the ladies category. Here is the event below.