Day 2: To the Mokes, then Jim Foti's place on the canal...and back out again for more fast paddling

To make the most of the day, I was up early for a run along the beach, a few photos of the sunrise and an dip in the ocean. But that's where the slow pace ended. Today was about downwind ocean paddling and surfing fast!

The Mokes off Lanikai beach at sunrise

The plan was to start out from Lanikai Canoe Club and head into the wind to the Mokes, the islands offshore, then head back down to Jim Foti's place at Kailua. I started off the day in the OC6 in seat 1, with Mandy behind and Linda steering. We were on the water early, and Linda took the opportunity to do a sneaky loop whilst waiting for the other OC1's to catch up, and catch our first Hawaiian wave. Yay! It was a sign of good things to come.

Linda looking pretty happy after her first Hawaiian wave this trip

We started paddling into the wind, towards the Mokes. It was pretty choppy around the back of the island, with some big peaking waves to hurl ourselves over, but we continued to head further out to give us a good run back. Out at sea, we swapped canoes and started the fun ride back in. Mandy gleefully surfed on the Pueo, and Lisa joined Jim Foti on the OC2 for some crazy runs back to shore.

14km down and ready for lunch, before time to head out again.

For the afternoon session, we were heading straight out from the shore. First obstacle was a shore break. Oh no! Images of Nationals and 20 Beaches crossed my mind, but this wasn't as powerful as those, and we just pointed our noses in the right direction and paddled hard. At one point, with a wave starting to break in front of us, I heard Lisa call out, "What do I do now?", there wasn't much option, so I just replied, "Keep paddling!". It appeared to work!

We continued out for almost an hour before turning and running with the swell. Wow. Mandy ended up in an OC2 with Jimmy Austin, one of Hawaii's top paddlers, and both Linda and Nicola had some runs in the other OC2 with Jim Foti. There were squeals of delight (well, at least internal ones - it's not cool to squeal, right?) all around as the girls absolutely blitz the waves. You've never been fast until you've sat on a canoe with one of these guys!

Mandy and her speed buddy, Jimmy Austin

Key learnings of the day were that you don't need to go for every wave, pick the best ones. By "best" start with a small bump that brings up your speed, then link into a bigger wave. Put all your effort into getting onto the wave, big strokes then tap, tap, tap...tap, tap, tap...and once you get that "whoosh", then reeelaaaax. It also helps having one of the strongest paddlers in the world on the back of your canoe to push you into a trough, seemingly meters ahead and out of reach! But it's worth it if you can get over that bump and into the next trough!

Another 15km down this afternoon. Phew! At least the food servings on the island are big!