Stan has been thinking of renaming this race due to all the natural disasters that seem to occur on his race day from the false missile attack alert to Saturday’s early morning tsunami and the pandemic and floods in between.
Nevertheless Hilo was ready to open the season and race. Both events were near capacity and some standby paddlers were able to jump in.
Unfortunately, unlike the last weeks, the weather was calm and the ocean was flat. Even the tides were barely moving. That didn’t stop Jose from catching an epic “wave” all the way to the first turn. He somehow managed to get onto the escort boat wake at the start and ride it at a blistering pace with out being noticed by the escort crew who usually try to shake paddlers loose.
We had a good club turn out and there were several paddlers who wanted to race but either missed the entry due to the Covid capacity limits or couldn’t join in after the high school sprint regattas were cancelled in Kona at the last minute.
Congrats to the Long Course: Jose (1st Overall!), Tyler, Kama, Eric, Keola
And the short course hammahs: Jeff, Nate, Warren, Michael
Here’s the updated and corrected results for both short course and long course.
Hopefully no one was accidentally missed on the list of congratulations. Lets get out there and see some paddling for the Kaipalaoa Race this coming Saturday! Open to register now: https://hipa.clubexpress.com/content.aspx?page_id=22&club_id=39669&module_id=408119
