C4 Waterman Field Report #34

• Where: Pailolo Channel, Hawaii
• When: April 26, 2008
• What: Kai Wa’a/Smith Builders, LLC Maui to Molokai Challenge

Mid April marks the beginning of the paddle sports racing season in Hawaii. As the winter surf season ebbs to a close, it’s time for the C4 crew to join all the canoe, surf ski and paddleboard enthusiasts in gearing up for a summer full of training, races, and plain ole holoholo larks.

After spending the past four paddle seasons shaping and designing open ocean stand-up race boards with Brian Keaulana, Todd Bradley, Archie Kalepa, and Karel Tresnak, I was keen to get the new C4 Vortice XP out in some ripping trade wind bumps and point that baby downhill.

So I was stoked when my Molokai Channel partner, Archie Kalepa, rang up to invite me to paddle with him in a race across the Pailolo Channel to Kaunakakai on Molokai. Arch is more or less the godfather of stand-up paddleboard racing, being the first guy, back in 2004, to take on the 32-nautical-mile Kaiwi Channel standing up.

Now that dozens of Vortice racers are springing from of Karel’s molds, this will be the first year Archie and I can train on identical boards; we are both keenly anticipating this year’s Molokai crossing, knowing that if the trades are smoking’ we have a design that gobbles up bumps like M&Ms.

On Maui, race day dawned in a voggy calm. The forecast insisted trades were on the way, but as we motored to the start point at D.T. Fleming Beach in the Kalepa Kai, Archie’s tricked-out Radon, it was soon apparent that the bulk of the stand-up contingent had been spooked away by the glassy, unruffled ocean. Well, maybe the 5-foot north swell had something to do with it, too…

But by the time the start horn blared the wind was visibly increasing, and already bursts of popcorn were sprouting out to sea. A nightmarish vision of a 6-hour death march over sticky calm water abated; we could begin to relish the thought of 4 hours of constant ’scoots’ and runs.

Heading due west from Fleming Beach, the first leg served up an hour’s battle with a more northerly wind component. Luckily the prevailing torque of the bumps continually squeezed us up to windward, thus allowing us to hold our westerly line toward the finish line at Kaunakakai Harbor, 23 nautical miles distant.

By mid channel the wind veered more easterly, seemingly funneled and refracted around the islands of Lanai and Molokai. I can’t tell you how much fun it is to settle into a pace miles out to sea, with the wind squarely abaft and no other contestants harrying your tail. By hour two Archie and I had settled into a regimen of trading 20-minute turns on the Vortice XP. Watching Archie from the Kalepa Kai, I was gratified to note that he was able to constantly keep the nose pointed downhill. That is what you want to see; in contrast, paddleboards that tend to go pitch-up usually wallow on the crest of a bump and often stall out before you can push it over and start scooting downhill.

By Kamalo Point the wind was churning up perfect surfing bumps—-tight, steep, and close together. The run of the chops settled into a ‘basket-weave’ pattern, the kind that overlap and let you hop right-to-left- and left-to-right from wavelet to wavelet in long railroading runs. At this point we were stoked to be routinely stitching together 5 waves per run.

Nearing the finish line at Kaunakakai Harbor, the wind died somewhat, but the chops still kept pushing us along. We hove alongside open class solo paddleboard hellman Keoni Watson, the lone paddleboard entrant, as he slurped his last bottle of protein sludge on the way to a splendid 4:10 race time.

Archie steamed past the finish buoy at the tip of the wharf to secure for us a time of 4:07, which we figured pointed to an average paddling speed of about 6 or 7 mph. An hour later the only other relay team, Tiare Friedman and Mele McPherson, scooted in on their new Vortice XP with a very respectable time of 5:06. Minutes later, solo stand-up paddlers Mike Madsoon (on an F-16) and Jack Gillen (on a Ku Nalu) came ashore with times of 5:11 and 5:18, respectively.

At 23 nautical miles, the Maui to Molokai race was an ideal warm-up for the Molokai Challenge on July 27th—–you could call it a Metric Molokai. It’s long enough to find out what you’re made of, yet short enough that it doesn’t lay you out for days afterward. ….And as any stand-up paddleboarder knows, having the wind on your back and the bumps puckering everywhere like grenade craters is manna from Heaven.

-Dave Parmenter, 29 April 2008

Ku Ikaika Challenge is ON

QUIKSILVEREDITION KU IKAIKA CHALLENGE
Presented by C4 Waterman & Red Bull
The world’s first big-wave stand up paddle (SUP) surfing event.
A benefit for the Junior Lifeguard Foundation on the West Side.

DATE:
January 15 to February 29, 2008.
To be held on the day when wave face heights reach 20 feet.

VENUE:
Makaha Point, West Side Oahu, Hawaii.

FORMAT:
32-man format featuring the world’s top stand-up paddle surfers (24 invitees and 8 trialists from a 16-man trials division to be held on the same day).

PRIZE MONEY:
$4,000 donation to the West Side’s Junior Lifeguard Foundation will carry the event winner’s name. Surfers will share equally in $11,200 prize money ($350 each).

STAGE SET FOR WORLD’S FIRST
BIG-WAVE STAND UP PADDLE SURFING EVENT

Holding Period Begins January 15 to February 29, 2008

HONOLULU – (January 14, 2008) – The official holding period of the QuiksilverEdition Ku Ikaika Challenge, presented by C4 Waterman and Red Bull, will get underway tomorrow, January 15, and will run through February 29, 2008. The QuiksilverEdition Ku Ikaika Challenge is the world’s first big-wave stand up paddle (SUP) surfing event and will be held at Makaha Point, on Oahu’s West Side.

The QuiksilverEdition Ku Ikaika Challenge will be held on one day when wave face heights reach 20 feet.

Above: Brian Keaulana, Makaha – photo: Allen Mozo

In the spirit of community, as opposed to competition, the event will be a benefit for the West Side’s Junior Lifeguard Foundation (JLF), with $4,000 of the $15,200 prize purse being donated to the JLF on behalf of the event winner. The remaining $11,200 will be equally split among the 32 surfers in the main event with each rider to receive $350. The main event will consist of 24 invited surfers plus eight surfers who advance from a 16-man trials.

The concept for this year’s event was developed by C4 Waterman co-founder Brian Keaulana, who wanted to showcase SUP surfing at the historic venue of Makaha while also giving back to the local community. It was embraced as a natural fit for QuiksilverEdition, a brand built upon adventure, commitment, endurance and style – key components of SUP surfing and the waterman’s lifestyle.

Stand up paddle surfing first surfaced on the shores of Waikiki back in the 1940s and ’50s. The original Waikiki Beachboys blended their favorite sports of outrigger canoe paddling and surfing, utilizing a canoe paddle to both paddle and surf while standing. It was an adaptation made for convenience as it afforded the Beachboys a better view of the Waikiki surf lineup where they assisted tourists in learning to surf and took their photos while doing so.

The sport has enjoyed a rebirth in recent years and has been given a high-energy, modern-day spin: big-wave riding. Utilizing a paddle that is today specifically designed for SUP, surfers maintain an upright position while paddling out to the lineup, paddling into the waves, and then surfing them to shore. The paddle is not only a tool for navigating the lineup, but is also critically employed throughout the surfer’s maneuvers on the wave.

“Stand up paddle surfing has brought the biggest injection of energy to the surf industry in at least 15 years,” says Glen Moncata, Vice President of Quiksilver for Hawaii and the Pacific Basin.

“It’s not just surfing with a paddle. It’s about embracing the sport’s origins and that authentic spirit of adventure that has long drawn man to the ocean, and that’s what makes it a great fit for QuiksilverEdition.”

“Makaha is where it all began,” says Brian Keaulana, of C4 Waterman. “From the Makaha International that opened surfing to the world 50 years ago, to the first ever stand up competition – here at my father’s (Buffalo Keaulana) contest four years ago. This is where all ocean activities exist, so it’s full circle back to Makaha.”

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Media Contact: Jodi Wilmott, Ocean Promotion, in Hawaii Cell: (808) 258-8533 Email: oceanpromotion@hawaii.rr.com

About QuiksilverEdition:
QuiksilverEdition’s commitment to stand-up paddle surfing is multi-layered involving event sponsorship, athlete development and design & innovation. Some of the planned events include SUP clinics in Florida and the Great lakes, open event fundraisers in Laguna Beach and Long Island, NY and The QuiksilverEdition Molokai to Oahu Paddleboard Race. QuiksilverEdition has assembled some of the top stand-up paddle surfers in the world including Bonga Perkins & Jamie Mitchell.

QuikSilverEdition, a division of Quiksilver Inc, is inspired by the waterman lifestyle. Whether surfing, paddling, canoeing or just spending quality time with family or friends talking story, QuikSilverEdition is a great looking, comfortable and stylish compliment to the best moment of our lives. QuikSilverEdition is a premium sportswear brand built for the man who is looking for a more refined alternative to today’s youth-driven surf companies. It is an authentic brand that embodies the rich heritage of Quiksilver’s legendary wave and mountain culture.

About C4 Waterman:
Founded by Hawaii’s Brian Keaulana, Todd Bradley, and Mike Fox, C4 Waterman brings together over 100 years of ocean experience to create the C4 Waterman brand of wave-riding tools and equipment. Sharing a passion for ocean sports, the drive to excel and a desire to share the waterman’s spirit, C4 Waterman’s state-of-the-art paddles, stand-up boards, paddleboards and accessories are the modern evolution of the ocean-based lifestyle that originated in Hawaii.

INVITEES:
Archie Kalepa
Bonga Perkins
Brian Keaulana
Bruce “Cito” DeSoto
Craig Davidson
Dave Kalama
Dave Parmenter
Duane DeSoto
Ikaika Kalama
Jamie Mitchell
Jamie Sterling
Kamaki Worthington
Kelly Slater
Lance Hookano
Leleo Kinimaka
Luke Egan
Mel Puu
Raimana Van Bastolaer
Rob Machado
Robby Naish
Rusty Keaulana
Titus Kinimaka
Tom Carroll
Vetea “Poto” David

16 TRIALISTS:
Buzzy Kerbox
Chris Mauro
Chuck Patterson
Derek Doerner
Ekolu Kalama
Garrett McNamara
Kainoa McGee
Kalani Vierra
Keone Downing
Keone Keaulana
Kyle Mocaizuki
Noah Johnson
Nolan Keaulana
Tiare Lawrence
Todd Bradley
Tony Moniz

The C4 Story by Catherine Lo

 

“When we were kids growing up, we didn’t care what we rode, we just wanted to be in the water,” says Todd Bradley, who grew up playing on the shores of 1960s Waikiki. As a small kid, he mimicked the beach boys who rode around on their big planks using canoe paddles, not realizing that one day he’d have a hand in the modern revival of what has become a wildly popular adrenaline sport. As a grom-grown-up, Bradley still has that innate desire to play in the sea. He and other pioneering watermen respond to an instinctive urge to push their boundaries, and they constantly invent tools to go bigger, faster, deeper, longer and stronger. Last year, Bradley teamed up with Brian Keaulana, Dave Parmenter and Mike Fox to produce stand-up boards and paddles, forming a company called C4 Waterman, one of the sport’s modern pioneers. A few years ago when the first stand-up boards hit the water, there were lots of photos of guys cruising around in flat bays, like a Sunday walk in the park.

Today, however, stand-up paddlers are racing across the Moloka‘i Channel, and guys are stand-up paddling into outer reefs once reserved for tow-in only. From crocodile-inhabited rivers in Australia to massive barrels in Tahiti, enthusiasts of the hybrid sport are going where they’ve never been before.

“The world gets so locked into ‘I’m going to practice my surfing and I’m going to surf great,’ when surfing is the easiest thing to do. Surviving is the hardest,” says former Makaha lifeguard and stuntman Brian Keaulana. After all, it’s not only your physical equipment, but your mental equipment, knowledge and attitude, that matters.

“I was brought up in a waterman’s world where my father is like the ultimate waterman, really. He’ll go out and he’ll dive and he’ll feed [everyone on] the beach. He’ll give without expecting to receive anything back—no payment, no reward, just the fullness of someone’s belly, the smile on a kid’s face,” Keaulana says, talking about his dad, Makaha’s legendary Buffalo Keaulana. “And then he’ll paddle out and surf one to two-feet waves and he’ll bodysurf a six-foot wave, and that’s the thing: No one piece of equipment makes us who we are.” When Bradley gave Keaulana a hat with the company logo on it, Keaulana said he took a marker and blacked out “Waterman.” “Todd said, ‘What did you do that for?’” Brian remembers. “I told him, ‘Well, because to me, it’s [about] the hidden waterman in each person.’” In other words, a true waterman doesn’t wear his skills on his boardshorts. He demonstrates by example.

C4 represents the four core values of a waterman—balance, endurance, strength, and
tradition. “You don’t have to paint it or write it,” Keaulana explains. “The thing about the ocean—you can have the most certifications in the world, but the ocean can’t read that piece of paper. It doesn’t understand that plastic card. The ocean demands the utmost respect from every individual.”

C4 represents the four core values of a waterman—balance, endurance, strength, and tradition. “You don’t have to paint it or write it,” Keaulana explains. “The thing about the ocean—you can have the most certifications in the world, but the ocean can’t read that piece of paper. It doesn’t understand that plastic card. The ocean demands the utmost respect from every individual.”

The paddle doesn’t just help get surfers into the waves. It’s indispensable for driving the big board and pulling off maneuvers. “On a board that size, you could never get it on a rail and hold it long enough to crank a super-hard turn, but with the paddle, you can,” Bradley says. Putting the equipment to extreme tests, Keaulana validates the designs, claiming that he’s getting in quicker, tighter and deeper on his stand-up board than on his paddling gun. Indeed, standing up offers surfers advantages over lay-down surfers—you can see the sets coming, you can sit further out, and you can take off earlier—but with those opportunities comes the potential to abuse them.

Keaulana and Bradley emphasize that surfers need to be responsible and respectful in the water. “The guys who have been involved in this sport from the beginning—people like Laird [Hamilton] and me and Dave Kalama and Todd and Titus [Kinimaka] and the few individuals who kind of started it off—we try and educate people that no matter what kind of equipment you’re on, have respect. Because if you’re one idiot, you can be one idiot on a stand-up board, you can be one idiot on a shortboard, you can be one idiot bodysurfing—the bottom line is you’re still one idiot,” Keaulana points out. “It’s not the equipment. The equipment doesn’t have a brain.”

It’s been a few years since the Tahitians presented Keaulana with his first stand-up paddle, modeled after a blade that Tahitian surfer Poto copied from Laird Hamilton, who had begun beta-testing long paddles on his tandem board. Keaulana started paddling the lagoons in Tahiti and realized what a tremendous workout it is.

“For all the different things I’m involved in, because I’m limited in my time whether it’s work or family or whatever, this [gives me] opportunity to jump in the water and work at the level I want and just pound,” says the tireless waterman, who says he tries to put in at least half an hour a day. “I can expend all my energy and feel like Isurfed all day.”

The exercise factor gives stand-up paddling mass appeal as a fun and rigorous training tool, especially for people who live far from the ocean but can still take it into lakes and rivers. Beyond the workout, though, stand-up paddling provides access to the wonder of the ocean to which watermen will eternally be drawn.

Now, each year he goes to Tahiti, Keaulana brings his stand-up equipment. He paddles along the barrier reef and rides the little waves created when the water folds over the shelf. “I see black-tip shark and ulua and the color of the coral, the sun penetrating—it’s amazing and enjoyable,” he describes. And then with the same equipment, he’ll turnaround and drop into heaving Teahupo‘o.

“Stand-up paddling, it’s a tradition for us. All we’re doing is practicing what our culture has already given us, because it is people we looked up to like Duke Kahanamoku who did that in the past. It’s not one new sport, really. It’s nothing we reinvented,” Keaulana says. “We practice the same lifestyle as our forefathers. We just get better equipment nowadays.”
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More info:
C4 Waterman (www.c4waterman.com) paddles from $224.9910′ ($1,469.99), 10′6″
($1,549.99), 11′6″ ($1,649.99), inflatable ULI($1,349.99)

Brooke Burns uses C4 Waterman

Photographer Allan Mozo catches actress Brooke Burns stand up paddling at Makaha.

Brendan Bradley!

Welcome to c4waterman.wordpress.com. We’re blogging now…Check out Brendan Bradley