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There's no doubt that Hawaii is one of the most beautiful places on earth to paddle; and I can't wait to experience for myself the crossing from Molokai to Oahu across the Kaiwi Channel. Here are some personal impressions of the trip so far...
 The view from my hotel room...
Jetlag
One of the challenges specific to a South African is that we're 12 time zones away from Hawaii - as far around the other side of the world as it's possible to go.
I'd been warned about the jetlag, but the reality is pretty horrible. I planned my trip to minimise the effects, sleeping across the Atlantic and then staying awake until the evening I arrived in Honolulu. I took sleeping pills for the following two nights, which helped to get a good 8 hours sleep but left me feeling slightly dopey and nauseated.
But this is a biggy - if you're travelling through a significant number of time zones, be aware that you need to be here a week before the race in order to recover properly.
 Joe & Herman support a blind, staggering blob of jetlag
The sea water
The sea water is different to that of home - it's a lot warmer and is apparently more salty. I was warned that my hands would suffer and sure enough, I soon had a big, painful blister on one finger - some of the other guys are in a much worse shape.
More important and more worrying, by the end of our first paddle, my coccyx was rubbed totally raw. This surprised me because I did a 46km paddle at home in an identical ski without suffering the same problem. This is a serious issue - my bum is still very painful and after paddling the first two days, I haven't paddled again in an effort to let it heal. I've constructed a bum pad, which I'm going to try out later today.
Paddling
The morning after I arrived, I did the famous "Makapuu Run", just over 30km from Makapuu to Hawaii Kai and on to Waikiki. We went through the chaotic waters near the cliffs off Diamond Head and past China Walls.
 Contemplating the Makapuu Run! David, Daantjie, Alexa, Pete
My impressions? I was fascinated to see what it would be like:
- The first section from Makapuu to Diamond Head, we headed out to see towards the channel for a couple of km and then turned right, towards the race finish. The waves were, I guess about 3ft, and quite messy. I caught some nice runs and caught up to my buddy Joe Glickman who'd started a couple of hundred metres in front of me. (Joe lives and paddles in New York, and while he's a very strong flat water paddler, he seldom gets to train in rough seas.)
- The section along the cliffs was comparable to our "washing machine" outside Hout Bay, or the water around Cape Point back home - but more intimidating perhaps simply because of the noise - you're close to the rocks and there's a constant roaring as the swells smash into and rebound from the cliffs.
- The section ends at the famous China Walls - there's a wave that builds right there that you can catch - as demonstrated in the video clips posted earlier. But you have to know what you're doing when you approach the reefs that are dotted around straight afterwards. My strategy is easy - I'm not going to attempt to thread my way through the reefs - I'm going around!
- The paddle from China Walls across to Waikiki was interesting in a different way. Back home, we tend to paddle in higher winds of 30kt plus and I think this makes it easier to catch the runs; here you have to focus so much harder to work the smaller bumps. I had a great ten minutes or so with Oscar Chalupsky who coached me on catching the runs - working them left to right and back again. Even after that short "refresh", I feel more confident in my ability to conserve energy while making the most of the water movement - but I also feel intimidated by the thought of focussing so hard for such a long time!
Lost Divers
I had a slightly bizarre moment in the middle of the maelstrom off the cliffs when I spotted a huddle of scuba divers floating on the surface of the ocean... I went over to them and found that they'd lost their dive boat - clearly they'd done a drift dive and had gone further than expected.
I could see the boat in the distance and sure enough when we got up to it, it was going around in circles searching for the dive team - much vigorous gesturing and the captain got the idea...
Making like a Tourist
A bunch of us went out to the North Shore yesterday to have a barbeque at Charles Brand's house - located about 500m from the famous Pipeline... We drove across the centre of the island but found ourselves, unexpectedly, on the easternmost point of the island - a spectacular drive along the shore took us through beautiful green rural areas. The volcanic outcrops, brilliant white beaches, coves, sheer cliffs combine to make the scenery very different to anything I've experienced - and it was all refreshingly different to the bustle of the tourist centre of Waikiki.
 Sundowners on the North Shore - Alexa, Pete, Barry Lewin
Chilling out
There's a Starbucks Coffee shop just around the corner from the hotel, and every morning there's a group of paddlers sitting there discussing the race, who's going well, what the conditions mean for the favourites, whether Freya Hoffmeister really is going to paddle to Molokai from Oahu before Sunday...
 Epic v Fenn! Herman, Hank, Oscar and Dawid
It's highly entertaining to listen to some of the stories told some of the "characters" here... Tales of paddlers wandering out of their rooms by mistake in the middle of the night; locking themselves out and waking up next morning in the corridor, stark naked... (with the room maids stepping around them, going about their business... no less...) That wasn't me and I'm not mentioning names!
The Race
My flight booking to Molokai has been done; my ski is going across on Saturday; we're pretty much all set to go.
The main topic of conversation each morning is, of course, the weather forecast. It looks as though I'm going to have a relatively gentle introduction to the crossing - the forecasts seem to agree that a gentle easterly wind is going to start blowing on Saturday and will continue at between 10 and 15kt on Sunday.
Click here for another forecast - from the National Weather Service Forecast Office
So, in theory, we should have some wind waves to catch, but it's not going to be the massive, hectic conditions that feature in some of the war stories about the race.
I've scaled back on my expectations of my own performance - I'll be happy just to finish in less than five hours. I'm going to go out conservatively and try to make the most of the waves without killing myself. Most of all I'm focussing on enjoying the experience!
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cheers
Dean