Pacific Paddler June 2017 - 12

OluKai's 9th Annual Ho'olaule'a
Casey and Anderson win SUP,
Nolan and Spalding win OC1

Kahului, Maui (April 30, 2017): The 9th Annual OluKai Ho'olaule'a made event
history as Kanaha Beach Park was the start and finish of this prestigious paddling
race. Australia's James Casey and New Zealand's Annabel Anderson took home
victories in the Elite SUP Divisions. While Hawai'i Island's Kekoa Nolan
and Maui's own Lauren Spalding won the Elite OC1 Divisions. The OluKai
Ho'olaule'a is typically an 8-mile downwind run from Maliko Gulch to Kanaha
Beach Park, but because of extreme weather conditions the downwind run was
revised to a course format for the competitors' safety.
The international field of competition was excited to compete on the new race
course, creating a new element for veteran competitors like Lauren Spalding who
claimed her fourth Women's Elite OC1 victory with a time of 1:10:32.

"It was a little more adventurous because of the weather, but I was excited to
try a different course because it's hard when conditions are like this for a race
organizer. I mean you're really at the mercy of the weather and they made a
really good call," said Spalding. "It was a fun course and it's kind of cool because
after you do your first lap, you know exactly where you're going and you can
see people in the field of competition, and two laps wasn't too bad. Even if it's
bad weather it's still so cool to come down, and not a lot of races do equal prize
money [for the men and women], and I have to take my hat off to OluKai. We are
so grateful."

Kekoa Nolan won the Men's Elite OC1 Division with a time of 58:23. Right
after Nolan crossed the finish line he paddled to Kahului Harbor with his Red
Bull Wa'a teammates so they could paddle to Moloka'i from Maui to train for an
upcoming race.
In the Elite SUP Divisons the new course produced a pair of new champions
in James Casey and Annabel Anderson. Originally, Casey planned to fly out
of Maui today, but because the SUP race was rescheduled from Saturday, the
25-year-old Australian changed his flight.
"I came from Australia to get here and I actually changed my flight. I was
supposed to fly out this morning. I was like, 'I've been here for a week already
so I might as well change my flight for one more day.' So I changed my international flight and managed to get down to the start line, and I'm stoked that I
did," said Casey."This is my third year. First year, I came in 16th and last year I
came in 5th and this year first. It keeps getting better and I'm stoked on that. This
year was completely different from the last two years. The last two years was full
party wave all the way down, everybody was hooting and hollering. This one was

Annabel Anderson

James Casey

just head down, tail up and paddle your guts out into the wind and get any little
bump you can get. I enjoyed it and a few of the boys stuck in there and everyone
put a really good effort in. The organizers did a great job to get us out in the
water."
Annabel Anderson echoed Casey's sentiments on the new course. She won
the Women's Elite SUP Division with a time of 44:15, and found the race conditions to be similar to home.

"This a standard day of summer's racing in New Zealand this year. We had
so many tropical storms and cyclones come down and it was victory at sea. So

Lauren Spalding

James Casey

Top Finishers, more results at http://live.pseresults.com/e/27#/leaderboard/A/50
Men's SUP Elite: 1) James Casey, 37:13; 2) Danny Ching, 37:49;
3) Travis Grant, 38:33; 4) Mo Freitas, 39:42; 5) Connor Baxter, 40:34;
6) Ryan Funk, 41:03
Women's SUP Elite: 1) Annabel Anderson, 44:15; 2) Sonni Hönscheid, 45:13;
3) Jade Howson, 51:21; 4) Kali'a Alexiou, 52:32; 5) Andrea Moller, 53:41;
6)Erika Benitez, 54:24

PACiFiC PADDLER JUNE 2017

Men's OC1 Elite: 1) Kekoa Nolan, 58:20; 2) Patrick Dolan, 58:45;
3) Daniel Chung, 58:46; 4) Danny Ching, 59:59; 5) Kaino Tahoai, 1:01:06;
6) Hititua Taerea, 1:02:49
Women's OC1 Elite: 1) Lauren Spalding, 1:10:32; 2) Leah Ching, 1:13:16;
3) Andrea Moller, 1:13:29; 4) Jane McKee, 1:15:10;
5) Fiona Van Ammers, 1:17:17; 6) Marjorie Kahookele, 1:21:58

http://live.pseresults.com/e/27#/leaderboard/A/50

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Pacific Paddler June 2017