With only few days to go before the worlds biggest race in Stand Up Paddling, the team from NSP are all on the islands training hard, because they want a board painted in blue, white and green to be crossing the line first this year.

Some of them have been there training for months, like Titouan Puyo and Travis Grant. They say there's nothing like training in the real conditions, the crazy groundswell that goes in a different direction to the wind; the backwash when you paddle close to Oahu; and the incredibly strong winds that have been blowing all week long. Other competitors who are showing up today might have never paddled in those conditions before; because after all, there's no other place on earth like the Molokai Channel! They won't perform to their best on race day, and you can be sure the locals, or those who have been training like the NSP crew will be out in front.

This year the team are paddling the NSP Unlimited boards, with such standout performance in the last couple of years, including Travis' win in 2015 and second place in 2016, theres a long line of paddlers who will all be holding an NSP under their arm on the start line.

"I hope this year we can potentially could do a one-two result" Shared Travis this week in the leadup to the event. "But anything can happen in the race. You can cramp, you can get unlucky, you can have equipment and board failures. There's so much that can go wrong. It's about making the least mistakes, so look out for team NSP!"

With only a day to go before paddlers find themselves in the middle of the Molokai Channel, excitement levels are high in the paddling world. Check back next week for the rundown of who won, and if the NSP team managed that one-two result they're hoping for!

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