A couple of weeks after the excitement of the Molokai to Oahu race subsided, the plot thickens in the Naish R&D department... Reports are emerging about a long-secret plan by Kai Lenny to win the race, involving our very own Travis Grant from Australia. Kai has placed fourth in the previous two Molokai crossings, and in 2015 there was no mistaking the fact that he wanted it. He wanted that title bad. So in his pursuit to arrive in Oahu first, Kai not only endured countless hours of gruelling endurance training paddles, but set his sights on the winning board from 2013. The very same board that Travis Grant paddled. Not just a board 'like' the Billy Robello design Travis borrowed in 2013. He wanted that actual board. So in what could be the most expensive stand up paddle board purchase in history, Naish (or Lenny himself, nobody is letting that secret out) bought the rights to the shape itself from Robello. Rumoured to be in the $15-20,000 ballpark, the 18ft masterpiece was purchased and shipped to Naish HQ where it was wrapped in 'Naish yellow' and stickered to look like a Naish production board. Lenny paddled it in the race, and it did well for him because he placed second after what has been called the most challenging M2O ever. Who did he lose to? Travis Grant. In fact Lenny was always going to cross the line after Travis, because the one section of his new/old board that couldn't be covered by Naish yellow, was a section just in front of the deckpad. On that section, was the signature of Travis Grant.

Whether Naish chooses to sell the design under their own brand is yet to be released. They'll either keep it for Lenny to paddle forever-more, or likely shelve it and borrow ideas from the shape to incorporate into their own ones. It's been said for several years that downwind racing boards are just about as fast as they can get, so there is a good chance it will remain in Lennys quiver until next year. He'll probably be taking a can of spray paint to the signature however. So despite buying the winning board, training harder than anyone and bringing the worlds best support crew along for the trip, Lenny was no match for the Aussie legend that is Travis Grant. Who was paddling his own design of board with a brand new support crew in the same old race.

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