Looking back at my Carolina Cup Experiences

April 29, 2022

Facebook recently reminded me that nine years ago, I paddled my first race at the Carolina Cup, in Wrightsville Beach, NC. It was the 5K Harbor Island Course, and I was on an 11’6” Naish Nalu all-around or surf shaped board. After that experience, I was hooked.

The friends I made, the community I became a part of, and the fitness sup racing afforded me made for a fast addiction. The need for a longer, displacement hull race board, and better paddle was evident. Soon, I was taking clinics to dial in technique. Then came Harbor Island, eventually the Graveyard course, and then Chattajack and the Olukai downwind race.

Longer races, bigger goals. Different challenges.

And the whole time, making important, deep, lifelong friends.

Much has changed since then. The industry and sponsorships. Races that were once destination events like the Olukai on Maui, or the Pacific Paddle Games in California, disappeared. Other marquee events struggled to stay on the water. With the Covid pandemic, there’s been a resurgence of sorts with the sport, as more people purchased boards to get outside as a way to deal with life in lockdown. And those folks are starting to discover sup racing, almost as if it was something completely and total new!

That is fantastic for the sport. It’s awesome to see the social media posts from friends who are in Wrightsville Beach this weekend, happy to be back together and enjoying what looks to be that same sense of family reunion we experienced in the “early days.” There are plenty of new faces, too.

That spirit of Ohana or family was evident here on Maui last weekend, when hundreds of outrigger and surfski paddlers took to the water for a Maliko Run race sponsored by Kai Wa’a Canoes. It was the first time since the pandemic that so many paddlers gathered, got on the water, and enjoyed the challenge of what might be the world’s best downwind run together. It wasn’t for prize money or medals, but to celebrate the ocean and our love for it together. Even though I did not race , just being at the canoe hale (house) afterward and talking story with those who did, I felt a part of the family. And it rekindled my determination to get my new knee strong enough to be out there in July for Paddle Imua, my all-time favorite ocean paddle event.

Still, a lot has changed – my personal goals among them. Last year, I moved back home to Hawaii, after a 30-plus year absence. Someone today asked me if I was missing being in Wrightsville Beach this weekend for the Carolina Cup. I miss my friends, most definitely, but I find my paddle goals are focused right now on learning new techniques, and dialing in my skills to be able to take on Maliko in a new way- in the canoe or the ski. And being strong enough to enjoy it on the 16-foot SIC F-16 I only had one chance to paddle before the knee gave out on me last year. That too is the wonderful thing about paddling – so many ways to enjoy it, to enjoy challenging ourselves and to learn new things.

Whether you race or just paddle for fitness or just for the pure fun of it, I hope we all continue to find the stoke in being on the water, especially together. Whether it’s downwinding, sup surfing, lake paddling, outrigger, surfski, foil, it truly does connect us.