Maui To Molokai: September 2026
This was my first travel race with NAC and my first race in Hawaii so coming into this trip, I had no idea what to expect. We landed at Kahului on Thursday, and as we stepped outside the terminal, I felt the wind gust and the palm trees blowing horizontally. Olaf picked Matt and me up and drove us to some food trucks to meet Tyson and Claudio, who had landed 30 minutes earlier. I got a shoyu chicken plate lunch, and the other guys got pork plates and poke.
Our first stop was [canoe club around Kahului] to hang out and kill time before race registration opened. The venue was pretty, and the wind was BLOWING. I thought it would’ve been so cool to get out on the water; too bad we didn’t have canoes. Plot twist: there were canoes.
Matt Earls had some contacts and procured 2 OC1s and 1 OC2 for the Shibi’s to paddle around on while they waited for Papa Tuna (Coach Will) to show up. After asking REALLY nicely, they let us on the canoes, and I went out on a 1-man with Olaf, and Claudio and Tyson on the 2-man. We made it to the harbor mouth and woah! There was so much action! We went up for ~25ish minutes and turned around and let it fly. There was so much to catch I couldn’t choose a line to take; I felt like a kid in a candy store! We came back in, washed the canoes down, put them in the slips, and headed over to race registration. 3 hours in Hawaii and we were already surfing!
On Friday, we went to the race site to do a gear check on our canoe. After rigging, we had to “test the weight,” so of course we went out for another paddle. This time, we paddled up again for 15-20 min in a 6-man, spun it, and ran down. It was the day before the race, so we weren’t supposed to work hard, but man, it was so hard to hold back. The troughs were perfectly sized for a clean drop, and we flew back to the beach. Day 2 in Hawaii and 2 days of paddling!
Saturday was race day! We got to the race site bright and early, dialed in our nutrition and hydration, took our cute team pictures, then got on the water. The start was clean, and we started off strong. We kept it long and low, saving the heat for the channel. About 40 minutes in, the bump really started to build, and we got fired up. About an hour and fifteen minutes in, it started getting BIG. I looked back twice while in the trough; that was a mistake. We started really surfing now and caught a couple screamers. On one change, I went for my goo-gel. As I was looking down, grabbing my pouch, I heard the guys start whooping and cheering. I looked up to see us dropping in to the steepest wave I’ve ever caught. I thought for sure I was gonna get stuffed, but amazingly it opened up and we stayed on it, blazing across the channel. My watch said we were 14-16mph. The rest of the channel was more big water bumps and some nice squall that helped cool us off. Once we hit the island that’s where the fun began. Two pushes then one minute of rocking in the trough. I’ve never been able to stop paddling so much during a race (not that I’m complaining).
The last 4 miles really put us to the test.
For me, I had taken my last goo with 45 minutes left, so I was cutting it close. We were losing steam, and we could feel it, but we dialed in and used every opportunity to move faster. We got to the red turn buoy right before the finish. Another crew took an outside line and cut in on us toward the turn. Tyson swung us around on a dime, nose clearing their tail by an inch. With open water and on their ama side, we pushed for a sprint finish. Pushing neck and neck, we just managed to edge our opponents out for a 9th-place overall finish.
We paddled in, got the canoe out and loaded, then dug in to the race lunch and drinks. While the end hurt, that was one of my favorite races of my paddling career. I’m proud of my fellow Knuckledraggers and grateful to them for making this such an amazing race experience. I also want to thank our Knuckledragger MVP, Sue, who shuttled us to the race launch AND picked us up from the boat ride back with beer, chips, and towels.
We really would not have survived without you, Sue!
