Today was July 4th and Sue had a morning shift at Ala Moana. We dropped Sue at the mall and then the kids and I went to go watch Greg Adams compete in "The 31st Annual Hu`i O Hele Nalu Independence Day Paddle Board and Standup Paddle Race" at Waimea Bay. I brainfarted on the drive from the mall to Waimea and ended up heading North on H3 instead of H2. For those that don't know, there is no Stuckey's or Flying J to peel off on half way up the Ko`olau, nope. Making that turn is a half hour boo-boo. You are in Aiea and then next stop, you've bored through two mountains and are coming down a 3000' concrete rainbow into Kaneohe.
Making the best of it and deciding not to double back, we took the "scenic route" and went counter-clockwise round the island from K-Bay all the way to Waimea. It takes about an hour, which is about the longest you can drive on this island and not end up pretty much in the same place.
We saw lots of ocean, I had time to put in a much-needed call to my parents, Nate barfed, and still we somehow miraculously managed to get there in time for Greg's big finish. As we came around Three Tables into Waimea, we saw a flotilla of surfboard paddlers, seated paddleboarders, and standup boarders. There was a racing division for each.
We stayed around after the Race, and entered Ben along with Ilikea in some of the children's division games they had afterwards. Ben elected not to do paddleboarding but participated in the beach run and did very well in the ocean swim.
Having been to several North Shore open water swim events I can say with authority that paddleboard events are WAY cooler than swim events. The event was heavily sponsored by Red Bull, some brand of vodka, food was free (free for like a thousand people!) hot dogs, teri-burgers, sliced oranges, ono grindz. I think I'm going to give up swimming and maybe start paddleboarding. Those guys are rock stars.
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