Races and Roadtrips

The end of September and the beginning of October are a busy time for the Standup racing community. The end of racing season starts next Saturday the 26th with the Hennessey International race up in San Fransisco.

The race starts from Aquatic Park, goes around Angel and Alcatraz Islands, and back for the prone paddlers, and features a shorter, 6 mile race for the Standups. For more information and entry forms for this race, visit the Hennessey Paddleboarding site at http://www.hennesseyspaddleboarding.com/events/hipc.aspx

I am planning on road tripping it up to San Fransisco from Southern California with a friend of mine, and in preparation for the trip, I picked up some Docks Locks from the shop here to keep our boards safe on the journey...I have been looking for an inexpensive way to secure my board to the car for awhile now, and the Docks Locks seem to be the way...

The following weekend is the highly anticipated Rainbow Sandals Battle of the Paddle...This event will include an age group race, an elite race, a distance race, and a SUP relay, all spread out over the weekend of October 3 and 4. Wet Feet will be represented in all the disciplines as well as will have a tent at the SUP expo that accompanies the races.

For more information and entry forms for the Battle of the Paddle, visit the Rainbow Sandals website at http://www.rainbowsandals.com

The Skinny on Barks!

More on the latest Bark boards . . . the Oahu boys Aaron Napolean, Guy Pere, Scott Gamble, Rob Stehlik, Pete Johnson, Reid Inouye and myself have been training and racing on Bark 18s. At Wet Feet we have had the pleasure to closely examine all of them. To the casual observer the 18′ Barks appear to be the same, sleek with a beautiful carbon bottom, colorful top and canoe like displacement hull. But after checking out all the boards that have come to Oahu there are obvious and subtle differences Joe has been putting into the boards to customize it for each rider. The first batch had a clean rolled bottom, much like a one-man canoe but wider. Although heavier, these boards are some of the fastest in flat water and the North Shore races. Rob took second to Aaron, who was on a much lighter double concave bottom, at the recent Haleiwa Joe’s race and I won the Solstice race on one – mostly because a lot of the fastest guys weren’t there! You would think the heavy board would be slower, but in the right conditions with the clean simple bottom it maintains the glide further once you get it going. It does however take a lot of muscle to make work. From this model Joe evolved into the double concave bottom and made the boards much lighter. This has served well in the bump, especially conditions like in the Hawaii Kai run. Some of the boards have very subtle concaves while others are more pronounced. Some have more rolled noses and tails while others are more knifey, some have more rocker while others are straighter. The concaves allow the board to be more stable when narrower and help the board to drive forward on the glide instead of yaw. This makes for a more positive surf down the bump vs. a washy feel. Joe does an expert job at blending all the variables to make magic boards. He is truly a master shaper and has made a LOT of standup race boards so he knows what works and what doesn’t. The result on a downwind run is an easy entry into the bump and an ease of maintaining speed to stay with it as it splits and reforms. The boards have proven themselves in local racing as they are most often in 1st and 2nd place with a hefty sprinkling in the top 7. While a Bark may not be as fast as a planing hull like the Raaphorst and Naish in the big bump it comes pretty close. The kicker is the start and end of most races are flat till you get to the good wind. So the Bark typically will get a lead then the planing hull might catch up but once you near the finish line the Bark will catch up or pull away. As always the motor is way more important than the boat, but if you get a Bark you won’t be able to blame the equipment if you don’t do well in a race!

The Standup Project

If you have followed our blog for any length of time, you have seen the videos that have been posted and you keep hearing about this guy Chris Aguilar who is a friend of mine. Anyway, Chris has been working on an online video journal with all things Standup. The site is www.theStandupProject.com and will be launching in October of this year.

Below is a video that highlights some of the content that will be showcased on his site...

Beach Shorts Trailer- The Stand Up Project from Soul Surf Media on Vimeo.

Costa Del Mar Sunglasses on Sale!

Costa del Mar sunglasses are on sale! All glasses are 30% off.

All Costa del Mar lenses deliver amazing color, contrast and clarity and are backed for life. If something happens to your sunglasses, Costa del Mar will fix them, and if it it is their fault, they will fix them for free!

For more info on these sunglasses, please see the Costa del Mar website at
http://www.costadelmar.com

Demo Board Sale!!!

We have a demo board sale going on right now for those of you who are looking to purchase a used board. The boards all come with rail guards as well as the items listed next to the photo...In addition to the boards pictured, we also have a 9'0 Surftech Blacktip on sale for $795, and a C4 Vortice Downwind Board on sale for $1295.

11'3 Aquaglide on sale for $795



11'0 Surftech Takayama on sale for $995



10'4 Angulo on sale for $895



10'3 Paddle Surf Hawaii on sale for $895



10'0 Surftech Infinity on sale for $995


9'9 C4 on sale for $995

Pre-Race and Race Day Photos

I just recieved photos from Sanja Du Plessis, who was nice enough to come along on my escort boat from Molokai to Oahu. Here are some of the images that she came away with from the day of the race...

Kevin Seid from Everpaddle and I preparing an offering to the ocean for a safe crossing

Pre-race stretching session

Jeff Chang and his escort boat near the start of the race

Morgan catching a small bump near the start

Team Wet Feet

The Channel gets a bit rougher as you approach Oahu

Jeff battling the wind into the finish line

Almost There...

Yay Jeff!

Morgan almost done...

It's over!!!

My other training partner Nicole and her Partner Ron finish the race!

The trusty Wet Feet Support Crew...Cory, Drew, and of course, THE one and only Chris Chang on the front

Nicole called race day the best day of her life. Ha ha, she is like a crazy person...But she had a big smile when it was all over

On a personal note for me, I wanted to say a special thanks to Go Kandoo Oahu (http://www.gokandoo.com) for providing me with what was probably the nicest escort boat in the whole race. Kyle Kim and his crew over there were so awesome and their help was very much appreciated.
I would also like to thank Joe Bark and his crew in LA (http://www.barkocean.com) for helping us out with our boards for the race. Not only were they the best looking boards out there, but they were fast as well.

We made it!!

Without becoming too emotional about this whole thing, I want to take a minute and write about Jeff Chang who, this past Sunday crossed the Molokai channel for the second time in the SUP solo division. Jeff and I managed to shave 2 hours off our times from last year and finish the 32 miles in just under 7 hours. Throughout this season, Jeff arranged training runs, put up with my mental problems, helped me get my board around, and just made it possible for me to get across the channel for a second time. Jeff is such a humble guy that I know he won't talk about what he did, but I think that he is awesome, and I attribute any success that I have had in the channel to him.

During the race, we both took a northerly line in hopes of avoiding the brutal head winds that were waiting around portlock point. Although we had become separated for much of the race, in the final hours, our lines met up and I was able to follow Jeff in to the finish line.

Special thanks are in order as well to Jeff's son Chris Chang for letting me be his friend. I get to tell people that I know Chris Chang, and consequently people think that I am cool by association, so his friendship is very much appreciated.