Well where has the last few months gone hey?.. I'm not sure about you guys but this year has gone by way to fast for my liking. It may have to do with all the travelling i have been doing but gee it just seemed like Christmas was yesterday. So just to get back to what has been happening lately i was luck enough to do a trip to Indonesia a few weeks back. Quiksilver booked out the whole G-Land Camp for 10 days for a bunch of its team riders,staff, and photographers and videographers. It was awesome to be on the list and get to hang out and surf with all the guys and get some epic sessions in.. I surfed my SUP alot and got plenty of poundings. It is not a very forgiving wave on a SUP. The guys from Brain Farm who made Travis Rice's(Pro Snowboarder) new Movie were there filming and some other crazy film camera's and angles were shot so stay tuned for something special from Quiksilver and the whole trip..
I had to leave early from G-Land which sucked cause it was 6-8 ft and pumping and make my way to Hawaii for the Battle of the Paddle. I had a horrendous flight schedule there with a 12 hr stop over in South Korea before landing in Hawaii on the Friday. The Race itself on Saturday was brutal. It was a in and out course through the surf zone in Waikiki with minimal swell and strong offshore winds which made it a super tough race and with the strongest line up off competitors yet for a Battle race it was always going to be hard to back up my win from Dana Point last year.. I ended up finishing 4th which i was pretty stoked with considering i have been focusing on my preparations for the Molokai Paddleboard Race. I should say Congratulations to Danny Ching, Travis Grant, and Aaron Napolean for finishing in the Top 3 and for everyone else who competed and finished. Great effort.
I had to hang around for a few days after the event for some work with Quiksilver then i was on my way home which was awesome. So the last 2 weeks has been spent training and fine tuning before i leave for Hawaii again on the 8 th of July for a few warm up races before the big one on the 25 th July(MOLOKAI). It's exciting times for paddler's coming up with all the races over the next month and paddling being about as popular as it ever has been right now... I hope all of you have been training hard and having fun. I look forward to some warm weather and strong trade winds in Hawaii... Take care JM
