Today I did a Kihei downwinder with Randy, Chan (standupzone), Bill, Jack, T , and Chris. After dropping the cars at Makena Landing it was evident that we were rolling the dice with the wind. It had only filled in to the half way point making the second half a bit of a grab bag. Maybe fun and smiles if it fills in, maybe a lot of work and sweating if it doesn’t. I guess I can’t make it sound too risky, we are still in warm Hawaiian waters.
As expected the first half was great but the second half was more like a sputtering car that won’t shut off after you turn the key. At least the wind wasn’t in our face. Chris was on a OC-1 and I was on my Naish 17′. After the first few minutes of warming up all of a sudden I felt a tap on my back bumper, sort of like the way one nascar driver lets the other one know “it’s on”. I had planned on doing some interval training this run but that went out the window and all I could do was rock out to GNR on my h2o audio and put as much distance between me and this tailgater as soon as possible. While I did get out front I could never completely shake him. In fact I got passed when I pitted for a quick drink.
Anyway there was no clear leader at the end but I think I benefited from the duel perhaps more than Chris, because he sure didn’t seem tired enough when we got to the beach.