Video of the week?  More like video of the month!  Rambo did another great job of showcasing this race...  Man I'd love to have a go at this race!

“You’ve got 200m on Lewis (Laughlin)!” shouts race-organiser-extraordinaire Sebastien Mosole to Dean Gardiner, as the course doglegs north from the Turiroa lighthouse. The 20 knot tailwinds and 3m swell conditions that Dean revels in have served him well for the last 31km’s, but the race is his to lose as paddlers battle against this same wind for the final 8km’s entering the only ‘pass’ through Bora-Bora’s otherwise impassable reef.

Race 12 of the 2012 Ocean Paddler World Series kicks off in just under 2 weeks time. Named after the southeasterly trade-wind that blows persistently over July/Aug/Sept dry season, the Mara’amu is a downwind course, designed to maximize the open ocean swell of the Pacific. This Mara’amu is promised to blast (or at any rate, blow) paddlers from the sheltered reefs of Tahaa island 38.1 km’s to the finish on Bora-Bora, easily the most famous and supposedly the most photographed island in the world.

Australia’s largest outrigger event, Gatorade Battle of the Paddles, will take place on Hamilton Island from 14 – 18 June 2012, with an impressive prize pool worth $90,000... and surfski is included as a discipline for the first time.

Fresh from his win at the Hekili Great Barrier Reef Ocean Challenge on Sunday, I caught up with Dean on his recent fantastic effort in Hawaii:

Palm Cove, Cairns. Dean Gardener, fresh from his incredible 4th placing in this year’s Moloka’i Challenge took line honors in Sunday’s 40km downwind epic between Northern Queensland’s Palm Cove and Port Douglas, in sweet South Easterly downwind conditions.

“Oscar Chalupsky ... Without doubt the single most impressive human performance in a sporting arena, that I have witnessed,” said Matt Bouman.  “I salute you for it.” 

Warning: This article features no feats of paddling prowess, no storied rivalries or snippets of macho trash-talking. There's nothing here about shark attacks or boat-breaking surf, nor do I speculate about the return of double Olympic medalist Nathan Baggaley, the brilliant ski paddler released from prison last month.

When staying on an exotic Island in a first class resort it’s pretty hard to get your mind around racing a ski for 20 odd kilometres.

Imagine taking ten days out of your life to paddle with (and be coached by) two of the best surfski exponents ever…  In 2012, you have three opportunities to take a spectacular trip to some of the most remote and beautiful parts of the Western Australian coast with Dean Gardiner and Oscar Chalupsky.