Pailolo Race Training

Does any body know what sort of training the entrants to the Pailolo challenge would do leading up to the race?

G'day Kourgen
Just jump in at Brunswick Heads NSW and Paddle back to Currumbin Alley Rock = 50km do that say 10 times in 4 months and the Pai'lolo Channel = 42km will a walk in da park. With minute + runners GUARENTEED you'll just be surfing da hole way NICE
Here is a quote from my Maui Story

Its Sunday 11th July the Mormaii 27 Mile = 43 kilometre Pai'lolo Express Race, otherwise known as the Maui to Molokai Crossing. This is a new race for the Hawaiian race series with big prize money.

In 2008 I heard stories of how good this Pai'lolo Channel is, they reckon its 10 times better than Maliko Gulch, so I'm at the SIC factory 5 days out from the 2008 Quiksilver Molokai Race & Ekolu Kalama turns up to pick up his new custom f16 - I'm just in awe of the bloke, he's a weapon. Anyway we have a pretty in-depth conversation, and then Ekolu invites me to come with them for a Pai'lolo paddle on Thursday, 3 days out from the Molokai race. To my disappointment I declined, I was so keen to go - but it was too close to the Molokai race.

So it's now 2010 and a heap of us meet at the SIC factory & get a lift up to Honolua Bay with the Maliko shuttle bus. Honolua Bay is one of the best right hander's in the world that I'm yet to surf, they say its like Angourie (a right hander on the east coast of Australia) on steroids & I've had Angourie pumping as good as you can get it. So I could just imagine how good Honolua Bay must be. It was just gold cruising in the shuttle bus, listening to the elite paddlers talking about their tactics. What line to take, land markings, currents - very interesting & entertaining topic. The forecast was looking like it could be a fast race with a lot of wind. The event started at Honolua Bay at 10 am. At the start line, some of the big guns were Dave Kalama, Ekolu Kalama, Livio Menelau, Mark Raaphorst, Scott Trudon, Jeremy Riggs, and Andrea Moller. There were only 25 of us at the starting line with 3 being Australian, Courtney Grey, Fernando Grey & myself. At the start we all had to sit on our boards in a line which was super fair. When the green flag went up it was GO. The first 10 miles = 16 kilometres conditions were very ordinary, with a light side wind & small cross/side swell. All the big guns were so far infront you couldn't see them, but myself & the other Australian Courtney Grey were having the biggest paddle battle. Courtney would be in front then I'd be in front & so on, by the time I hit the 20 kilometre mark conditions started looking really good. The wind was on your back - 25 knots, good 3 feet of ocean swell. You could see the corduroy lines of chop up ahead then all of a sudden you're in this big trough & the trough turns into a nice glassy bit of ocean. I guess you're so far down in the trough you're out of the wind & you're just surfing this ocean swell for BULK. At this stage I'm just lovin it, this Pai'lolo channel is everything I expected. Tell ya what didn't I have a smile from ear to ear. Like you're in the trough & I'm standing as far back as I could get on my SIC 17'6'' Bullet. (The Bullet is the latest Downwind SUP board from SIC & is built for speed), like I say I'm in the trough standing as far back as I could stand on the Bullet just surfing the board from rail to rail, maybe giving a stroke of my Quick Blade paddle with the big 10'' inch head every 10 or so seconds just to stay down in the trough. The Pai'lolo channel runners are just all time I was catching runners for like one minute, I've never experienced runners for this long ever. I'm thinking - man if I tell the guys back home in Australia I was catching runners for like one minute they'd think I was lying. At the finish of the race I asked Conner Baxter, I said to Conner “how good where those runners mate I was in them for bulk”, Connor says “yeah Phil, I was in them for like a minute”, I was so stoked to hear Connor say that. I had to ask Dave Kalama “what would you rate that run Dave?” he said “Phil 5/10”, I said to Dave “imagine 9/10“. Congratulations to Connor Baxter for taking out 1st place in 3 hours 29 minutes & 4 thousand dollars. I came in 13th Place in 4 hours 1 minute I was more than happy with my time as Australians average 10 kilometres an hour & the Hawaiian average 12 kilometres an hour. At the finish line I was talking with Andrea Moller. This woman is a weapon, one of the best SUP & OC1 paddlers in Hawaii. Even gets towed into Jaws when it's maxing - smashed me in the Pai'lolo race by 8 minutes Andrea came in 9th overall. Anyway Scot Trudon joins in the conversation & says “Phil this women has smashed a lot of guys egos”, I thought that was just gold & the three of us just started laughing. This was a fantastic event put on by Handsome Bugga Productions. www.handsomebuggaproductions.com - thank you Rodney. You Handsome bugga you! The Hawaiians want to make the Pai'lolo channel the new Kaiwi channel (Molokai to Oahu crossing) as the new Molokai race as its just way more convenient for competitors to compete as you don't need to pay for expensive support boats, no 30 knot head wind near the finish line & the Molokai ferry is right there at the finish line (stoked). Competitors could save themselves around $2,000 dollars easy. I didn't go to the presentation I just wanted to get on the Molokai ferry and get back to Kahului so I could do a couple of Maliko runs the next day. I ran into Mike Perry on Namotu Island, Fiji after the Hawaiian SUP legs. He was filming the Pai'lolo express race from the sponsor's boat & showed me footage of competitors catching runners for one + minutes. Mike said “so you're the bloke on the Orange-Yellow-White camouflage board“.

Love reading that story Phil. Will do a couple of the short races this year and maybe have a crack at the Pailolo next year. 43 kms is a long way.