Connor Baxter Wins the 8th Annual Maui-2-Molokai Event

July 17, 2017 cbadmin

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Connor Wins the 8th Annual Maui-2-Molokai Event, Making it 8 Straight and the Longest Winning Streak in SUP

This years 8th Annual Maui-2-Molokai was another Epic Battle and Channel Crossing.

Coming straight from Europe after two months of flatwater racing, I was ready to race downwind. I got back to Maui on Wednesday night, so I only had two days to recoup before the race. Luckily I was able to get in a few Maliko warm up runs in before the race on Saturday.

The forecast looked great with northeast winds from 15-20mph. The morning of the race we got to the harbor with our boat at 6:30am. We loaded up the boards and headed up to Honolua Bay from Lahaina. The race was an early start at 9:30am. My dad blasted us up to Honolua for the start of the 27 mile paddle.

The wind started up early, so I knew that there was going to be some bumps out there. I unloaded my 18′ Starboard unlimited and got warmed up for a bit before the start. On the start line I saw Travis Grant, James Casey and Kody Kerbox. I knew I was going to have to paddle hard and catch a lot of bumps in order to win my 8th straight channel crossing.

I jumped into the water and got cooled off right before the horn blew. I took off hard, but I knew it was going to be a long race and I had to conserve energy until the bumps. The wind was up and we got into some small chop. James, Travis and I started to pull away from the rest of the group. The bumps got better and better the more into the race we got.

After the first hour, the three of us were still catching bumps next to each other and then Travis caught a massive bump and just ran with it. Once he got this gap I didn’t stop chasing him until the last 6 miles. That next hour and half I was getting some insane bumps, but Travis just stayed the same distance in front of me. It wasn’t until I got to the Kamalo Buoy when I just put my head down and started having fun. I started getting some long glides and slowly catching up to Travis.

Travis went more north on an inside line closer to Molokai. Instead, I stayed outside where the bumps were going off! I got even with him with about 6 miles to go and I knew what I had to do. I got into my typical rhythm and kept on having fun but working hard. I was getting some insane steep glides and surfing left to right.

I noticed the warehouse building at the harbor and saw that I was a safe distance in front of Travis, which gave me chicken skin knowing that I just won my 8th straight Maui to Molokai! I finished with a time of 3:09, but I didn’t beat my previous record of 2:55.

I want to thank my sponsors for all their support – Starboard, Dakine, Salt Life, Maui Jim Sunglasses, Futures Fins, GoPro, Waterman’s Sunscreen, and Harmless Harvest.