Update

How is it everyone?

Training for Molokai kicked on at the end of April with Trevor Hendy hosting the Salt Water Festival at Salt just south of Kingscliffe. The festival included two days music, markets and ocean craft racing- paddle boards, SUP, outrigger and ski. I competed in the 30km SUP race from Brunswick Heads to Salt. The conditions were pretty good, strong winds straight on our backs. I won the Open Men's Unlimited Category.

The last few months have been full of training and racing with the odd surf thrown into the mix. After a string of SUP surfing events, Paul Jackson held the Roar Industries SUP Expo Event at Currumbin Alley. This event includes a surfing contest and paddle race with an overall point score winner. The surf was really small, bumpy conditions with an off-cross shore wind blowing 20knots. It was pretty hard on an 8'6" stand up. Jackson Close won the surfing component and I finished second and Keahi Deaboitz third. I was able to win the paddle component on a 14' Lahui Kai Moulded Board, beating Trevor Hendy who finished second. With a win and second place finish I won the overall point score for the event.

At the start of June, Xcel held the annual Open Ocean Paddle Race from Snapper to Currumbin Alley, approximately 8km. The conditions were tough with a light south westerly wind blowing, even though I had a rudder on my board it was still hard work paddling a lot on one side. I finished just behind Dean Hamner who took out the paddle board section, while I won the unlimited SUP section on a 16' Lahui Kai SUP.

As cross training this year I have been outrigger paddling with Outrigger Australia in the 6 man crew. As part of the B Team I competed at the Hamilton Island Outrigger Cup held on the 24-27th of June. It was a 42km paddle around the Whitsundays. Our A Team won the event and we finished 7th from approximately 50 boats. It was a really fun event and a beautiful place.

All this training and racing was leading to one main event, the Molokai to Oahu Paddle Race on the 25th of July. Molokai is a 32 mile race across the channel between the islands. This is the toughest race I have ever done. We headed over the Hawaii a week before the race to aclimatise and tie up last minute preparations. There is a lot of homework that has to be done before a race like this, organising a support boat, registering, accommodation, flights etc. You think you have everything locked in 6 months before, but your still dicking around when you get there. It can be frustrating.

The Race: The trade winds were blowing north-east, which hits side on and not straight on your back. The channel was rough with cross chops and different swell directions running. It was a bit of a shock to the system being the first time doing this race. No training at home can prepare you for this race, you need to spend time in these waters and feel the ocean rhythm. I managed to keep a consistent pace for most of the race, falling a dozen times off my board.

I finished 5th overall in the unlimited SUP. Congratulations to Jamie Mitchell winning his 9th title on a unlimited paddle board!! Also, congratulations to Dave Kalama who won the unlimited SUP!!

Jamie claiming his 9th Molokai title

In the next few months I will be looking at possibly going to California for the Gerry Lopez Battle of the Paddle, and maybe another trip to Hawaii for the OC6 Molokai crossing in October. Other than that I will just be hunting waves.

Nice little drainer late June at Burleigh

This is my shaper Chris Garrett threading a nice sucky tube on the same day

Chris stoked after that wave

Billy

March/April Update

Hey guys,

Once again I've been a bit slack and not kept you updated frequently enough, but this is what I have been up to for the last few months after I got back from Hawaii. First up when I got home, I was straight on the tools at the Quiksilver Pro working the water patrol for the contest. At the end most days after the contest I was able to get a few good sessions in at Burleigh. Which is the best point break in the world!!!

This is a perfect moment to shampoo Kelly Slater, so I took the opportunity.

Straight after the Quiksilver Pro I was up to Noosa to compete in the SUP section of the Noosa Festival of Surf. Noosa this year was pretty exceptional with all five points breaking right through, with some nice little hollow tubes. Noosa for me has been a hard contest to win and I was stoked to finally get a win this year. Keahi De Aboitiz is a 17 year old young gun from Noosa, he surfs really radical and busted an aerial on his stand up in the final. Pretty impressive. I only beat him on the final wave in the last 30 seconds of the contest.

A week later the Malfunction kicked off back down here at Kingscliffe. There were also good conditions for the event, 2-3 foot, clean, peeling, fluffy waves, but fun. Keahi and I met again in the final and this time he came away with the win.

My partner Bianca and I spent some time with my mate Woogie Marsh and his family and the Currumbin Alley. Woogie helped Jamie and I re-rig our four man surfing canoe and we took his kids out for a run and barbequed for the afternoon.

Nice snap of Woogie warming up before the contest.

Jamie steering, me on the armour, Woogie, Taj and Keahi in the front seat.

The last week I have been back surfing burleigh on the short board and getting back into training for the Molokai to Oahu Paddle Board Race.

Easter Sunday

An extra shot from the Solomon Islands trip in Decemeber '09

Cheers,
Billy

Red Nose Stand-Up Sunset Pro

Hey guys,

I am still over in Hawaii and am coming home this week. It has been a great trip, but obviously I will be happy to be home. The Red Nose Stand-Up Sunset Beach Pro event ran last week. The first day was massive Sunset with 15 feet close out sets. I managed to win my heat, but snapped by board in the process. The event was cancelled after my heat because the waves were closing out and becoming unrideable. When the event ran again I had a pretty tough quarter final, I was able to get one good ride, but just couldn't get a second good wave and was out of the competition. Kai Lenny won the event with Kekoa Uemura second and Kamaki Worthington third. Here are some photos from the event.

Also, here are some shots from a Makaha session.

Cheers,

Billy

Busy Times

Hey Guys,

Sorry again for another late post. It has been a while but I have been busy and have been waiting on photos to update you guys with a decent story of my adventures with Jamie Mitchell. So, it started on the Honolua Single Fin Contest weekend the 9th and 10th of January. Two days earlier Jamie called me and said there was looking like a big swell was going to hit Hawaii, there had been two giant swells prior to that for the El Nino season. I didn't want to miss a third chance at surfing Jaws (Pe'ahi)!! It has always been a spot I have wanted to surf since I was 13 years old watching Endless Summer 2 with Laird Hamilton and Dave Kalama. 

So when the Single Fin Contest came around I was frantically preparing, double checking and organising all my equipment for the trip to Hawaii. In between this madness I was competing in the contest as well as shooting photos for the new Honolua catalogue!! I made the final of the Single Fin Contest, however I had to give my spot up in order to make the flight to Sydney on the Sunday afternoon. 

So we arrived on the North Shore dropped some of our gear off, took the essentials and headed to Maui with videographer Tim Bonython. The next morning the 11th January we were up at the crack of dawn, rigged all the skis and headed out. As we approached the line up there were some really thick swells pulsing through. We pulled up in the channel and within 5 mins there was a three wave 25ft  set coming in!! My jaw just dropped and I looked at Jamie and said 'This is the heaviest wave in the world!' You don't really know until you see it first hand. Within minutes we saw two guys get pounded, one took a two wave hold down and came up close to the rocks, and the other straightened out and got crunched blowing his knee out. So we sat in the line up for an hour and just watched the wave break to get an idea of where to sit. Finally Jamie said 'You're up, because if you watch it for too long you won't want to do it!' 

Jamie whipped me into 6 medium rights and he got me 4 lefts, one left being my biggest wave of the session. 

We swapped after 2 hours and I drove Jamie, it was really hard work, a lot of jet skis going for the same wave and we got burnt 8 times in a row before I was able to get him a wave. I ended up getting him 3 rights- 2 solid bombs, 1 of which was a wipe out and the other a nice medium wave. 

After the Jaws session we chased the same swell to California. We booked a red eye flight from Maui to Utah then Utah to San Jose. Utah was freezing, it was 0 degrees with snow on the runway at Salt Lake City, I only had a jumper, jeans and a pair of thongs!! 

Once we arrived in San Jose we got picked up by Jamie's sponsor Surf Tech who lent us a van, from there we drove to Santa Cruz where Jamie keeps his ski and guns at Peter Mel's place. Pete hooked us up and gave us a room to stay in. The next day the 13th of January we drove to Mavericks. The forecast looked really good but when we arrived mother nature had the last say and this particular session was lumpy in the morning 12-15ft; by lunch time it cleaned up a little with a few 18-20ft sets. It was still a great day, the conditions weren't optimum, but we got to tow for 8 hours with only 3 skis in the line up. The next day  we ran errands in Santa Cruz, Jamie got his tow board fixed after going on the rocks the previous day and I went to the Stretch factory and bought a second hand 9'8 gun. 3:30pm that afternoon we paddled out at Mav's, it was still 12-15ft. The first wave I got, the 9'8 felt unreal, it was pretty fun. Jamie and I got about 6 waves each for the evening. 

On the 15th we headed back to Oahu and set up camp on the North Shore. On the Sunday the 17th we walked straight into another solid swell. We surfed Waimea Bay all day at 15-18ft. Clean, pristine conditions. 

The past couple of weeks we have been hanging out, getting our stuff organised for the rest of the season. We got both of our tow boards weighted up with an extra 4kg of weight per board and we made an extravagant purchase with two new additions to the family, one's named honda and the other named kawasaki, both four stroke ski's coming with a special carriage double trailer.  We are both pretty stoked with the little bad boys!!! 

This afternoon the swell came up and we got another session at the Bay. It was 15-18ft and I copped a few floggings, but sometimes you have to pay your dues. 

I am hanging on the North Shore for the next few weeks and I have some stand up contests coming up. I will keep you guys posted.

Cheers,

Billy