101 Year Old Historical Tour
Helen Tume will be setting off on a great adventure towards the end of August to visit her culture in Holland.
The Beach Boys of Hawaii were the first to catch waves and stand up surf in the 1960's. It was originally called beach boy surfing. Watermen Laird Hamilton & Dave Kalama introduced SUP around the year 2000 on Maui, Hawaii. They conquered the most insane waves and ocean crossing between the Hawaiian Island by SUP. The sport has grown rapidly ever since. From the smallest waves to the coolest waterways. everyone is discovering this new surfing and flat-water sport and learning how fun it is to Stand Up Paddle.
Athletes will experience the ultimate challenge as they paddle 220km (136 miles) in 5 days with weather conditions varying from windless, beautiful and sunny to cold, rainy and stormy. Besides the ultimate challenge the SUP 11 City Tour is also an unique experience. OVer 100 National and international paddlers get to know Friesland from the water. Open fields with windmills, cows, and sheep will present itself along the water ways exchanged by eleven historical cities built from 1700 onward. Participants paddle the original waterways, where the ice skaters started conquering this Historical tour 101 years ago on frozen waters. SUP 11-City Supporters come from all over the country and from all over the world to Friesland to encourage participants from bridge to bridge and from town to town.
We wish Helen all the best with her training and big adventure.
Molokai 2 Oahu
Woogie Marsh is setting off to Hawaii at the end of this month to compete in the Molokai to Oahu SUP Relay Race.
Considered by many to be the World Championship of Paddleboard Racing, the Molokai to Oahu Paddleboard has become the single most iconic event in the paddling community. Both Stand Up Paddling and Paddleboarding champions from around the world will be gathering in the Hawaiian Islands this July to test their athletic ability against the 32-mile crossing of the Ka'iwi Channel. At its deepest point the channel is over 2300 feet deep and creates a funnel effect that shoots billions of gallons of seawater between the islands each hour. Combine this with trade winds and the channel creates seas that can range anywhere from 8 feet to 15 feet on a average day and upwards of 20 feet on an extreme day. Because of the danger the Ka'iwi presents, each athlete is required to have an escort boat and support crew to accompany them across the channel. The first stand up paddleboard and prone paddleboard athletes across the channel will be crowned a World Champion.
The Channel
The Channel: True Name: Ka'iwi' (kah-ee-vee)
Ka'iwi Channel - Translation : the channel of bones, aka Molokai Channel. The Ka'iwi, or Molokai, Channel has a centuries old reputation for being a treacherous body of water that has claimed the lives of many, form ancient canoe fleets, to fisherman and watermen.
The tragic loss of Hawaiian big wave rider and renaissance man Eddie Aikau in the Molokai Channel during the 1978 Polynesian voyage of the Hokule'a Sailing canoe, only added to the mystique and revered power of the channel. After gail-force winds and 30 - foot swells disabled the Hokule'a, Aikau headed off on his rescue paddle-board for land to seek help for his stranded crew mates. His body and his board were never found.
Paddling has been a part of Hawaiian heritage since early Polynesians traversed over 2,500 miles of open ocean, navigating by way of waves, wind and stars. Double - hulled sailing canoes covered the long distances, single hull outrigger canoes covered shorter distanced (such as inter-island paddles), and with the introduction of surfing in the late 18th century, paddle-boarding also became a means of local ocean transport.
Today there are official races for outrigger canoe, surf skis, and paddle-boards. Each take place across the Molokai Channel and each of these races are regarded world-wide as the crowning challenge for each sport.
The Challenge: 32 Miles of Open Ocean
Regarded as the World Championship of Paddle Board racing
Traverses 32 miles of rough water form the North Shore of Molokai to the South Shore of Oahu.
Covers a depth of 2,300 feet and is subject to open-ocean swells of up to 30 feet.
Considered one of the roughest ocean channels in the world.
Ultimate test of endurance - no engines or sails, just a paddler and the propulsion power of his arms.
Wildy varying open ocean conditions challenge a paddler's surfing skills.
Capricious currents and tidal effects test a paddler's ocean navigation skills.
Record crossing time: 4:45:03, set by Jamie Mitchell in 2004 on a prone Paddle Board.
