Molokai 2009

Written by Rob Mousley
Saturday, 30 May 2009

"It was the flattest conditions I've ever seen - glassy," said Hank McGregor. "But there were no escort boats out in front so the luck factor wasn't there - it was a fair race."

Hank McGregor wins Molokai 2009 (Pic: Annemary Eadie)

Start

"There was a big bunch at the start," he said. "Me and fifty flipping Aussies! There was plenty of tactical stuff going on, with surges and intervals," he added. Finding that he was being denied a slip, McGregor decided to try and break the bunch up.

'Me and 50 flipping Aussies!' (Pic: Peter Diamond)

"I thought if I could reduce it a couple of us, we could settle down and maybe work together to make the trip a little more pleasant," he said.

He accelerated and the group instantly split up. "We maintained 15-15.5km/h for twenty minutes and put a really big gap between ourselves and the rest of the bunch." McGregor found himself out front with the race favourite, Aussie kayaking superstar Clint Robinson.

25 minutes into the race - Clint Robinson pulls (Pic: Peter Diamond)

Meanwhile Tim Jacobs found himself in no-man's-land on his own behind the two leaders but ahead of fourth placed Dane Sloss who was himself some way ahead of the trailing pack.

"After about 1:40 the pace dropped off and the escorts started saying that Tim was trying to catch up," said McGregor, "so I increased the pace again - I thought it might cost me, but I didn't want to be in a pack with two Aussies!"

Taking turns to pull, the two leaders maintained their lead on Jacobs, denying him the chance to rest on their slip.

Hank McGregor pulling in the glassy conditions (Pic: Peter Diamond)

Robinson Cramps

Then came the crucial moment in the race.

"At about 2:15 I could see that Clint was in trouble. I looked back and he'd dropped a couple of boat lengths back. It looked as though he was going for juice or goo maybe so I thought ‘ok, let me make it hard for him to get back'."

The next time he looked, Clint was 100m back and wasn't paddling.

Clint Robinson - broken by cramps (Pic: Peter Diamond)

"It was a fantastic feeling," said McGregor. "This guy was my idol when I was a kid. It was a real honor just to be paddling with him, let alone beat him. For a while I felt a kind of numbness - but then the adrenalin wore off and I realized I still had another two hours to go!"

He was aware of Tim Jacobs still a couple of hundred metres back and was determined not to let him back in the game. "The gap just continued to grow," McGregor said, "and Tim was 500-600m back by the time we reached Portlock Point."

Tim Jacobs paddled the race on his own (Pic: Peter Diamond)

McGregor's escort advised him to take the inside line through the reef at China Walls but changed their minds when they realized that there wasn't any point in taking chances. McGregor went around the outside of the reef - but caught a spectacular wave anyway, adding another 500m to his lead.

"The feeling of putting my paddles down for the first time in three and half hours was indescribable," said McGregor.

He had practiced the section from China Wall to the finish time and time again during the week before the race and got to know the area intimately. "The wave keeps reforming," he said. "You need to hook into it and keep working it so that you get through the flat sections and stay on it when it reforms."

By the time he reached the flat water he was so far ahead he could relax and stroke his way gently to the finish. "After two years of missing out, it was an awesome feeling," he said. "I'm feeling pretty content for the first time for a long time!"

McGregor said that it was the perfect race. "I never hit the wall, never felt as though I was finished," he said. "We could have gone slower at the start, but it all worked out."

Escort Boat a "must-have"

McGregor praised his escort boat crew - and in particular the experienced skipper, Mark Sandvold, who himself has done several Molokais and is an outspoken advocate for the race.

"An escort boat is a must-have," said McGregor.

"It's important from the point of view of reassurance," he said. "Firstly they give you feedback on everyone else. Then at the back of your mind you know they've got more juice if you need it." (McGregor set off with 3l of Cytomax and still had .5l left when he reached the finish.)

With the tricky currents that sometimes sweep paddlers north of the plumb line across the channel, the escort boat can be vital for navigation advice too.

On the trip over to Molokai, Sandvold showed McGregor how far north he'd gone in 2008. "I was shocked," he said. "I kicked myself to think how narrowly I lost it last year."

"The escort boat is vital," he reiterated, "without it I'm genuinely uncertain if I'd have got the result. It's all about having guys on the boat whom you know and trust. You must have the truth about what's happening."

Lewis Laughlin (3rd), Hank McGregor (1st), Tim Jacobs (2nd) (Pic: Peter Diamond)

Choice of ski

In spite of not having paddled the Epic V12 Ultra since he'd tested it in Mauritius a couple of months before the race, McGregor said that he thought his choice was the right one. "It was great to know that Clint was in the same boat," he said.

He could have paddled an 8kg V10 Super Elite. "At the beginning of the race the weight wouldn't have made much difference," he said. "But by the end - that 4kg difference has to contribute."

Going Back

"I've done it now," McGregor said. "Unofficial or not, I'm the World Champion - and I've got the medal to prove it! There aren't too many people who can say that."

The logistics of the race took its toll, however.

"I'd like to go back and do a proper downwind Molokai," he said. "But I spent about five days sitting in a plane to get there and back. In that time I could have gone to Spain, raced, and come home. And I haven't slept properly in the week since I got home."

Women's Race - Katie Pocock

[Editor: Katie Pocock was one of a squad of New Zealanders who made the trip to Hawaii for this year's Molokai - the team included Paul Wilford, Tim Grammer, Travis Mitchell and Damien Munro.

She takes up the story on the Friday morning before the race...]

'porno looking black V10L' (Pic: Peter Diamond)

As per usual the guys at Epic organised me a super fast, super light, very porno looking black V10L.

While there are more and more paddlers choosing the fly across to this little island early race morning and avoid the cost and logistical challenges of staying on this very barren and sparsely populated Island I always look forward to my time on Molokai with much enthusiasm, this year was no exception. It was quite a treat to have home cooked meals, chill out with a book in the shade, meet many of the other paddlers and of course discuss the race day weather - which was still looking long, flat and long.

I felt very relaxed about the race by the time race morning rocked around and found my escort boat at the start with relative ease. My escort boat driver Neil was truly a top bloke, I got a good vibe from him when I meet him at the pre race registration on Oahu on Thursday night.

Race Tactics

I spoke to Jase (brother/coach) the night before and we agreed that the race could potentially be over 5 hours so I had to race conservatively off the line. However I also needed to cover last year's champion and local favorite, outrigger paddling guru and good friend Lauren Bartlett. Last year Lauren had an amazing race and made the rest of us chicks look pretty bloody ordinary winning by almost 10 minutes.

Lauren knows that channel like the back of her hand, so while the goal was to paddle the first half of the race within myself I did NOT want to let her out of my sight. Lauren went out hard off the gun - faster than I had expected but I managed to sneak onto her wash with a couple of other punters, thankfully the pace dropped after about 5 minutes.

Lauren Bartlett 'knows the channel like the back of her hand' (Pic: Peter Diamond)

Working in this small group of paddlers I was aware that the escort boats would be released shortly (90 or so escort boats are released 10 minutes after the start and when they move through the field it makes a massive amount of turbulence) I knew that when they came through that Lauren would utilize her very good surf skills and get a break so I decided to put my nose in front and give myself a bit of a chance - as it turns out I never saw her again.

However people back at home following the race online would tell me after that I was in 3rd place for the first third of the race - ignorance is bliss! Having taken some confidence from (in my mind) getting in front of the defending champion my next hurdle was the strong Australian iron women Naomi Flood who was taking a more southern course but was slightly ahead.

Working with Aussies

Up ahead of me I could see a group of about 3 paddlers working hard, heading the advice given to me by Jase I took a punt and pushed hard to catch them, as it turns out it was a pretty hard case crew of Aussie guys and we worked with each other the bulk of the way across the channel. Throughout this long, hot, slow, long period of the race I was spurred on by Neil and his friends on my escort boat and the escort boat driver of Australian Mark Nathan (a clubby from the sunny coast) who promised me a beer if I could beat him across the line - all the incentive I needed. The punt worked, like with Lauren, I never saw Naomi again.

22 year old Aussie Naomi Flood came 2nd (Pic: Peter Diamond)

Struggling through the Last Stretch

15km out from the finish line I was struggling, even with the cheers and hooting from Neil and the guys on my boat I felt like I was falling behind. I asked them if they knew where I was in the field and they didn't. All they could tell me was that "there are heaps of boats behind you and you are doing really well" hmmm - I was really after a bit more detail!

I decided to take my secret weapon, a dose of flat coke early and pushed hard to Portlock Point which I could now clearly see in the distance.

POCOCK!

About 5kms later Neil asked me from the boat what my last name was, I must confess I was a little perplexed as to why we were covering "last names" (I certainly didn't/and still don't know his) but welcomed the change in focus - "POCOCK" I yelled back, and to my great pleasure he informed me that they were calling me in front! - YIPEEE I thought, and lifted my stroke rate. It was a long slog through the bumpy water at the finish and the headwind coming into Hawaii Kai marina.

I still wasn't confident that I was in front, the channel really is a large expansive stretch of water, I could see loads of paddlers escort boats taking quite different lines to me throughout the race, and there was no way to know if one of those wasn't Naomi or Lauren finishing strong. But about 50m from the finish I could hear the announcer calling me as the "first women" and I guess that is when it finally sunk in, as I crossed the line I had a massive smile on my face - I had won the holy grail in ocean paddling - I had won Molokai!!!

In the end I won comfortably by over eight minutes from Naomi Flood and another ten back to Lauren who came home third, cursing the lack of wind. I was 23rd across the line (81 paddlers finished) and my percentage behind the men was also good - while there's no doubt that these were my conditions - I definitely put together one of my best races, which is perhaps one of the most satisfying things about the result.

Celebrations

There was of course a few celebrations on Sunday night, there was loads to celebrate - the Kiwis had thrived on the less technical conditions and performed brilliantly - Tim "Rooster" Grammer snuck in, in 17th place ahead of the pre race men's favorite Clint Robinson, Paul Wilford a credible 12th and Travis Mitchell had shocked many (but not us) to cross the line in 5th, not a bad day at the office all things considered.

Good friend Tim Jacobs did one better than last year to cross the line in second despite the graffitied Australian flag sticker on his ski which now looked suspiciously like the New Zealand flag (I must confess that that little prank even gave me a giggle in my lowest times across that channel!) but it was South African Hank McGregor, a fellow member of team Epic who took the men's title.

The plan from here is to have a good break over winter and spend some time out of the boat. My next big paddle races will be the Hong Kong and Dubai World Cup races in late November.