Battle Of The Paddle Series: Day 2 of BOP

Another 5.30am wake up, It's the day of the long distance and the surf-relay. (lots of paddling). With a 9.00 o'clock start, we (Bart, Andrea and myself) hit the beach at 7.20 and start preparing boards.



Around 9.00 o'clock we start. I am able to use a 14" foot surf-race sup from Declan and start going for it. About 180 paddlers sprint away.

The guys are going ridiculously fast. This is inspiring! After rounding the 3 mile buoy, we all continue to the 5 mile buoy along the coast and head back. It was a fun and encouraging moment in the race with everyone cheering eachother on.

I did do some loops of thinking in my head about me not being 'up there' and making a mental note to do some serious training before attend ing an event like this. Not only endurance and more importantly faster shorter training. (Bart and Connor do a lot of training laps in the harbor on Maui and that do has proven to be good for them.



I round the last buoy and a big wave came along. I had one moment to pick this wave to ride it from all the way out with my 14 footer, to the beach. Awesome. The highlight of this race.

After talking to Bart, EJ and Annabel, I hear their feedback on the surf - race and they confirm this board likes bums for gliding and not so much flat water. So it wasn't "all me" which is a relief to me - and the race a good experience!

What's so great about this event is that there is always something happening!

As soon as the distance race finishes, the kids "keiki's" do their race. Super cute!! Girls and boys from 7 - 10 years old paddle 2 rounds around and outside buoy and surf back to the beach.



There's some stoked and talented going on there. Very awesome they get a chance to shine.

An hour later, my 2nd paddling race is starting; the Relay Surf race.

50 teams (3 men, 1 woman) line up on the beach. Each team member has to paddle a little circle, get back to the beach, run a round through the sand and touches the next person who will do the next round.

My team is probably the most international team of this event: A South African, a New Zealander, an American and a Dutchy (sounds like the start of a joke! ... haha).

I know 1 of the 3 guys and they're not all regular paddlers, but I am stoked to be part of this race.

Turns out: This race is the most exciting race of the whole weekend - in my personal opinion.

Everyone is going full speed: there's team spirit, there's surfing waves, there's getting clashed with people who loose their board (not so fun) and there's fast sprints going down in able to finish first. Wow! This total race of 8 rounds all together takes about 40 minutes and the spectators are loving it.

We end 14th of the 50 teams which is good.

I am glad to get a picture of Gerry Lopez and 'Sparky" (owner of Rainbow Sandals; main sponsor of the event) with their team. It's awesome to see they are paddling as well as making the event happen. I thank them both for this amazing event.

Then it's time to pack up, help carry boards back to the cars and then there's the prize giving.

For all the results, you can go to the following site.

Event Results Here

I now, have to stop typing as Andrea is waiting for me. We need to get a ride up to LA, so she can ship her board back to Maui tomorrow.

Aloha,

Anne-Marie