Stand Up Paddle Surfing Paddles, Boards and Accessories

Anxiety at the start of the 2009 Cline Mann Ko'olaupoko race was high... as high as the twelve-foot face surf at Diamond Head. Race Director Dolan Eversole stressed safety, "Keep an eye on fellow paddlers.... Remember this is only a race and that you may need to render aid."

 The wind was blowing 15-20 knots, perfect conditions for the downwind 9-mile short course. Stand Up racers in both unlimited and stock classes lined up at the start knowing full well the challenge ahead.

Stock class was 14' max length with no rudder while open class was for boards with moveable rudders. Off the beach and around the Hawaii Kai channel marker, the racers surfed downwind to the finish. 

In ideal Molokai like-conditions, open racers Guy Pere, Scott Gamble and Kamaki Worthington pulled ahead. Meanwhile a crew of C4 Vortice XP racers continued to gap the others and stayed just behind the open pack.  The stock pack was: Noland Martin, Dave Parmenter, Greg Pavao, Christian Bradley, Todd Bradley. And they stayed close to each other.  They were followed by the rest of the racers, spread out not too far behind.

Around Diamond Head, water safety patrol on jet skis kept racers aware of the rising surf which at this point was breaking on the final turning buoy 1/4 mile outside Kaimana Beach.

Chances of making it cleanly around the final buoy and to the beach without a wave breaking on you were slim. Just ask Todd Bradley. As Kaipo Guerrero says, "The deck got shuffled at the finish. Some guy timed it and got lucky, while others did not."

Heading in toward the final buoy, just 15 yards behind Greg Pavao, Todd Bradley decides, "Maybe I can make up a place or two" and stroke into a swell... only to have it jack up and break. Designed for racing, Todd surf his XP standing up, then lying down, then standing, then YARD SALE! Board gone, glasses gone, paddle gone...

Luckily, open class sup racer Jason Ignacio stopped and helped Todd get his board which was now drifting out the channel. Even with a 5 minute delay, Todd finished third in his age group behind Dave Parmenter and Greg Pavao. 

C4's Noland Martin was the winner of the stock division. And Vortice XPs took five of the top six places. (Nobody told  Manny Kulukulualani that his 15-foot "Stock" board was too long.)  All in all it was an excellent showing for the Vortice XP and a good precursor to the C4 Waterman/Rainbow Sandals Molokai Channel race coming up July 26th.

For the Long Course results click the Read More link below.