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 A recent press release by Gameplan Media came close to
saying that Lewis Laughlin cheated at Molokai by riding the wakes of the escort
vessels that accompanied the paddlers across the Kaiwi Channel.
We spoke to some of the competitors who took part in the race to find out what they thought.
The Race
We covered the race live by talking to some of the escort
boats - none of them mentioned the issue at the time and we reported that Lewis
was fairly close to the front bunch for most of the first half of the
race. Subsequently the group of Dawid,
Lewis and Hank McGregor broke away and were "somewhere out in front".
Paddling near Lewis during the first half of the race were
Clint Pretorius and Oscar Chalupsky.
Clint Pretorius
 Clint said he didn't see anything untoward in Lewis'
paddling. In any case, "everyone gets a
wash," he said, "it's up to the escort boats to get out of the way."
"And at the end," he added, "Lewis took a better line. That's a fact."
Oscar Chalupsky
 Oscar said that at times the groups behind the leading
paddlers were riding wakes. "Of course
there were patches of waves," he said, "and we knew that that would make it
easier for the guys paddling behind."
"At one stage I dropped back to tell my escort boat to move
further away because they were setting up a wave for the guys behind us," he
said, "But it wasn't illegal for them to be doing so and if I'd been paddling
slower, I'd have done it too."
Oscar said that the problem was compounded by the flat conditions
this year - and if they ever have similar conditions in the future they'll
alter the rules so that the escort boats are delayed by an hour after the
start, say, instead of the usual twenty minutes.
Dawid Mocke
 Dawid said he didn't see or hear of anything untoward.
"But you must understand," he said, "with 120 escort boats
on flat water, it's impossible not to
catch a wave."
"Here's the thing," he went on, "there were two referee
boats going up and down checking the fleet - and we specifically asked them to
check up on the guys behind us. If there
was funny business going on, especially near the front of the race, it would have
been seen."
Mark Sandvold
Mark took part in the race, retiring after some three hours
due to the conditions. He was also part
of the organizing committee.
He said there was no mention of complaints or protests at
the time. "With my contacts, and the
number of people that I paddle with, I'd have heard something," he said.
He confirmed that there were waves from escort boats. "That was my strategy in fact," he said. "I
dropped off the lead pack and tried to ride as many wakes as I could. But I was only able to catch waves for a
maximum of a couple of seconds before they'd roll under me."
After he retired, he boarded his escort boat and they chased
Hank MacGregor whom they knew had no escort boat. "When we got to him," Mark said, "he just
said one word: ‘water'. We did two water
drops for him and were with him from Portlock to the end and I know there was
no funny stuff from then on in."
"There were too many boats around," he said. "It
would have been obvious."
Hank McGregor
 Hank McGregor was open with his displeasure at the conditions created by the escort boats. "We broke away about 15 minutes into the race and there's no doubt that the guys sitting 200m further back were sitting on waves," he said. "There were our escort boats, plus the race organisers, plus the camera boats - all big power boats, pumping out big wakes."
He said that Oscar went back a couple of times to tell boats to move away.
The conditions were extraordinary and Hank said he thought the organisers perhaps hadn't really prepared for them. He said he hoped that in future races the organisers would find a way to avoid the same situation, by reducing or eliminating the requirement for escort boats.
"But it's hard to complain about it," he said, "the race is done and dusted and there's no evidence."
Last Word
Perhaps the last word should go to Mark Sandvold. "At the end of the day," he said, "the flat conditions were ideal for Lewis and he paddled a brilliant race."
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You post slanderous remarks about a champion cheating in this years race. Where are the hard facts to back this up? Not what someone may have seen.... cold hard facts that he sat on a boat wash to win the race?
The problem is, this kind of reporting isn't specific to this race, it concerns a lot of topics which have been raised of late on this site, from the ethics of different ski manufacturers to the quality of skis being manufactured. Now you are questioning the reputation of a champion paddler. Where is it going to end?
Rather than trying to build the fantastic sport of ocean racing, I am of the opinion that you are only creating divides. Other paddling disciplines don't have sites like this, but they also don't have to put up with the kind of articles that are posted on here.
May I also suggest that you look up internet slander laws. It's only a matter of time until you hit trouble with someone you slander.
Rather than try to pull a champion down, or cut down manufacturers who are trying to make an honest living, focus on the good of the sport. If you're not happy with a guy winning a race, get off your ass and train hard and beat him yourself. Don't like a new ski or how it was made, make a better one. All to easy to hide behind a keyboard and attack everyone...... start backing your words up with actions. If you really do care about this sport, then you will realise what you are doing and change your ways.