Oscar's Molokai Blog 2008 (edited)

	Herman, Greg, Joe, Rene, Me, Tony King

The 2008 Molokai -- my 16th -- has come and gone. While the event continues to grow, attracting more quality participants from around the world, personally it was disappointing. When I arrived two weeks beforethe race the wind was howling, perfect conditions for what I hoped wouldbe my 12th win. Though the wind dropped to about 8 knots on race day,Marshall Rosa, my escort boat driver, came up to Herman and I roughly 2 hr and 40 min. into the race to say that not only we were on thecorrect line but that we also had a slight lead.

From there, however, it was downhill on a banana peel as I had no strength and felt so flat that all I was trying to do it to get to the finish. Looking back, I'm scratching my head to figure out what went wrong as typically I get stronger as the race goes on. Just goes to show you how hard this race is to win more than once. So congratulations to repeat champion Lewis Laughlin of Tahiti, who becomes just the fourth man to win this coveted title twice.

I did make some schoolboy errors before the race. I can't believe that at my age and experience I am still making these mistakes. Never too old to learn!!!!

First, shortly before the race, I discovered that I had something stuck in my drinking tube extension. As a result I had to change the extension minutes before the race on the start line, which made my juice tube too short and a nightmare to use during the race.

All my preparation went well and up till the race and I have to thank every one who helped out, especially my wife Clare and Herman's lovely girlfriend Micheala Pazdera. You have to have seconds in Hawaii otherwise a two hour paddle ends up being an all day affair.

It was fun having a strong Epic team in Hawaii. We had our Epic main men in Charles Brand, Greg Barton and myself; Epic Australia in full force with Tony King, Dave Kelynack, Jacqui Williams and Perth connection Richard Eadie. Epic Hong Kong with Rene Appel and Jon Dingle; Epic Dubai in Andrew Dunstan, Epic California Kenny Howell, Epic Hawaii. The team of Go Bananas and Mark Sandvold, Zsolt and Gib made the stay worth while from a logistical, social and information side.

Freya Hoffmeister from Epic Germany showed her grit in finishing the race, giving a hint of how she's going to paddle an Epic 18x sea kayak around Australia. And, oh yeah, Epic New York, represented by reef-wrecker Joe Glickman.

back to Molokai gallery >