Hey all, I'm writing to tell everyone about my first Na Wahine O Ke Kai (Women's Molokai Race) experience. My Mom kept reminding me to, "Soak everything in so I could write about it later." ...supposedly you forget things when you're older. I'm sure most of you received my brother Tyson's Molokai Solo story from last year. I agree with my Mother and Tyson, that I should recap my Na Wahine O Ke Kai story. So, I'll start from the very beginning. It was the Fourth of July, Will Reichenstein and I were eating dinner in "Super Kitchen" when Tyson called. I answered "Tyson, what's up?!" and the first thing he said was, "Want to race THE Channel?" ...My response..."WHAT? NOO. Wait...do I? Should I?" Ty's response...."Yes, yes you do." And that was the beginning simply put... I moved out to Oahu on August 11th and the next day I started practicing with the Kailua 18 Girls. I immediately felt welcomed and could tell it was going to be a great season. The girls on my team are awesome. If you know my best friends from back home Taylor Kingsmill and Pam Riggs, just imagine them, but bigger, stronger ( no offense guys, but you're small) louder and more of them. If you don't know Taylor and Pam, then just imagine a whole bunch of 18 year old girls that are way too crazy for their own good.
Before Molokai we competed in three distance races, two on Oahu (26 miles and 32 miles) and one on the Big Island (18miles). We did pretty well in all three, but knew we had our work cut out for us in the Na Wahine O Ke Kai. Throughout the season we were trying to get sponsors, donations, anything really, but we weren't very successful. As it turns out everything fell into place about a week before the Channel. We received a $500 sponsorship from Haleiwa Joes, a team set of Kialoa paddles, jerseys, shirts, even hats and of course you can't forget our 15 minutes of fame in the Honolulu Advertiser! The girl's and I were stoked how everything was turning out.
I learned it's hard to remember all your stuff, paddling gear, extra clothes, bathing suit, sunscreen, etc. when you're on one side of the island and need to be on the other. So, as you can imagine I had a hectic Friday night before our flight the next morning. I finally got to the Singlehurst's ( Dar, my coach and her two Daughters, Courtney and Honu, on my team), stayed up late using my fancy strategy of, "If I get tired tonight, then I will fall asleep early tomorrow night!" We woke up in the morning, got together our last minute things, picked up some girls on the way, and took the H3 across the island to the HonoluluAirport.
Our Kailua's Molokai 18 Womens Team. Left Tyson Poppler, Cortney Singlehurst, Sara Hamel, Chelsea Kahalepauole-Bizik, Kehau Makaena-Gillim, Ryann Hurahara, Roclynn Nosaka, Honu Singlehurst, Bobbie Poppler, Britty Leandro, Alanna Bender, Coach Dar Singlehurst.
Half of our team was split up on two different planes, my flight was heading out to Molokai first with four of the other girls and Coach Dar. As soon as we saw the plane we knew why our team was on two different flights. It was the smallest plane I've ever seen up close, and it only had 10 seats! The airline sits you according to your weight so the plane isn't heavy on one side. My best buddy on the team, Roclynn and I were lucky enough to sit literally right behind the co-pilot seat. I mean we could see all the buttons and the steering wheel, everything! Honu, on the other hand gets motion sickness very easily and wasn't as stoked as Roclynn and I. She was sitting right behind the pilot and was clutching for dear life while trying not to throw up at the same time. She handled it very well and didn't puke, but was very glad that we were paddling back to Oahu instead of flying back. Anyways, the pilot was great, and we had a safe mellow flight. We finally landed on Molokai, unloaded and waited for our rental car.
We got a Dodge Charger as out rental car, and all five of us quickly realized it was going to be a very comfortable, spacious ride to our rental house...NOT. Guess who was the smallest and got to sit in the middle with only one leg on the seat? Yes, it was me. Not a very comfortable, spacious ride to the house at all! As it turns out it wasn't a quick ride to the house either, but we got to the house, looked at the beautiful view and forgot all about the rough ride over. From the porch you could see the whole island of Lanai and part of Maui off to the left. The house was awesome too, it was so fancy, I wasn't expecting anything like it on Molokai! We had some time to kill before we headed down to the boat-rigging area and met the other girls. So what did we do? We took pictures of course! (I'll send them as soon as I get them!) Finally it was time to drive down to Hale O Lono, the rigging site. So back to the car for a far worse car ride across a way too long, bumpy dirt road...I don't even want to give details, because my legs start to go numb just remembering it.
If you've been to Hale O Lono then you know what I mean when I say how hot and dirty it is down there! So with only half the team at the site, we started cleaning, and putting our sponsorship stickers on the boat. (You wouldn't think this is a difficult job, but believe me, it is). About an hour later the rest of the girls and Tyson showed up and we then spent the next hour and a half doing the actual rigging. Yes, I said an hour and a half...for some reason they don't use quick- rigs out here, and then we had to put on the boat canvas covers. Then taped and glued all the ripped holes in the canvas, apparently we weren't high on the priority list for the good canvases. Next, we spend forever taking pictures for out sponsors with the blades, shirts and all. This is after we got all sweaty, muddy, and in my case glued (Gorilla Glue is NOT fun to get off skin by the way), but being the beautiful young women we are, I'm sure the pictures turned out fine. Finally, back to the stupid car for one last rough ride (I almost considered jumping in the trunk, but then reconsidered when I remembered how bumpy the dirt road was).
Back at the house, I started to realize that my brilliant strategy of staying up late the night before really was brilliant. I was dead on my feet! We were sharing the house with the Novice women from our club and I decided to hop in the shower before they got back. Another brilliant idea on my part. There was a line going around the hall way to get their turn for the shower! I was so relaxed after my shower, I could have fallen asleep then, but I had to make a few phone calls. Mom was first on my list, I promised I would call her before the day ended. Will was next, I also promised I would call before the the end of the day. Right when I hung up with Will dinner was out and ready, talk about timing! I stuffed myself full of spaghetti, salad and bread, took a sleeping pill, which really wasn't needed, but I wanted to make sure I would get a lot of sleep. Somehow I snagged a small couch, "See, it's a good thing to be small Taylor and Pam!". I was almost asleep when Tyson and Dar decided to have our team meeting (NO, Danny and Josh there were no Tecates!). I barely stayed awake for the whole thing. Well, I didn't. I snuck back to my couch and PASSED out.
The next thing I knew it was 3:30am and Tyson was shaking me awake. Again, my strategy was amazing, all the girls were grumbling and complaining how they didn't sleep at all, and were shooting me dirty looks because I got so much sleep! I think I ended up getting about 45 minutes more sleep than anyone else because I fell asleep so quick! So, I scrambled off the couch, threw on my bathing suit, paddling clothes, and started eating my bagel, OH, I can't forget to mention how kind it was of Tyson to make me a cup of coffee! We all finished eating, packed up our clothes, and walked out on to the long dirt driveway. All the girls and I kept bumping into each other because 1, we couldn't see a thing, and 2, there were so many stars to look up at ( It was just like being in the mountains back home). The girls were even more mesmerized than I because most of them haven't been to the mountains to see all the stars!
We weren't taking the Charger to the race site. All 12 of us definitely could not fit inside. Luckily there was a bus that went around and picked up paddlers than needed to get to Hale O Lono. Our bus was only picking up one other team. We eventually get to their house and one of the girls on my team Alanna looks out and shouts, "MOMMY". So, here's the story. Alanna's mom paddles with a team from the Big Island. They thought they weren't going to see each other before the race or after, because her mom needed to catch a flight back. So her mom runs onto the bus, Alanna gets upand hugs her mom. Her mom starts bawling because she was so emotional that perhaps she wasn't going to see her daughter before the race. Immediately all of the girls start crying, including me. We all wanted to hug our moms! Even Tyson said he was choking back tears (SHHH I probably wasn't supposed to say that)! I guess it's easier to understand if you're an 18 year old, paddling the Molokai Channel for the first time and you didn't think you were going to see her before or after. Which is why it hit me really hard, because I didn't have my Mom to be there (I love you Momma Bear!). Well the point of that little tangent is, how serious we were and how we realized after all we went through, after all that time, it was finally here.
We arrived at Hale O Lono when the sun was just starting to rise. It's a beautiful thing to see, the 80 or so canoes all rigged and shining in the morning sun. Looking around I thought to myself, "There's no time to be nervous. You're here, and it's finally happening. Your first Molokai Crossing." We started our last minute preparations, putting on sunscreen, our blue and yellow Zinka, making sure the boat was all ready and drinking some more water. After that I started looking around for all my California Aunties! Tyson and I found Molly, Mindy, the NAC, Lanakila Dana and Oceanside women. After all their steering suggestions, tips, and confidence boosters, I felt ready to race!
Tyson and I duct- taped water bottles and GOO gels under my seat because I was steering. My first PLANNED break was going to be an hour and a half into the race. Ty wanted to make sure I stayed hydrated. The next part seemed to happen so quick! We carried our boat to the water and paddled to the start and all of a sudden the race started! I think I should mention right now that we ran with a Beach Boys Team for about 6 changes! The Beach Boys are an amazing womens team. I should also mention that it was probably their 4th crew, but still it's an accomplishment. The first half hour was AMAZING. It felt like I was steering a canoe back home, with small catcheable pushes Our starting team was catching everything! The next part wasn't so fun. After the first 30 minutes all the escort boats came flying up to make the first change. It was some of the most wish-washy water I've ever been in. Our escort boat found us and we made our first change just as we were about to pass the last point on Molokai. (Forgive me if I don't know the name). Again, I thought to myself, "Well here we go, there's no turning back now," as we started to head into the channel.
Right after the last point the wind hit us. It was sweeping left, and so were the swells. As we got deeper in the channel the swells got larger and the wind picked up. Tyson said it was around 3 to 4 ft with 6 or 7 foot sets, but every time I looked back I got scared! Those swells looked about 10 or 12 ft high when you're in the trough looking up at the peak! I kept looking back even though Danny Ching told me specifically, "DON"T LOOK BACK". Anyways, the wind and the swells were sweeping west while I was being told to head Northwest and find channels to surf through. Again, I thought to myself, (I did this a lot during this race), "How the heck am I supposed to surf when I'm not heading even remotely in the correct direction?" So I started guessing a few lines and one of them was right because Tyson told me to stay on it. But I still didn't understand how I was supposed to surf! Tyson ended up calling some of the bumps from the escort boat. After a while I realized that it was a whole different type of surfing than I as used too! I started taking over calling some of the bumps and finally got the hang of it! I also realized that it was already past the hour and a half mark when I was supposed to get my break. Turns out I wasn't messing up, so Coach Dar told Tyson to leave me in. So at three and a half hours into the race I finally got my break...I really had to pee!!
I had some water and food on the escort boat and found that half the team was getting sea sick, not in the canoe, but on the motor boat. I was surprised because they weren't paddling like they were sick. It was the hardest I've ever seen the girls paddle. It was AWESOME! I got a 15 minute break and then got thrown into seat five to paddle for a change. Paddling was nice, my back and lower left abs hurt from poking so hard on the left so the nose didn't spin out to the right, I was glad for the change in movement. But, my fingers weren't so glad, I had the worst blisters from the new blades. I got one more 15 minute break on the escort boat, taped up my hands and fingers and got back in the canoe to finish the rest of the race. Throughout the whole race the wind and swell direction was pretty much the same, but later the swells started flowing more in the direction we were headed. Well it was either that or I started turning. At that point I had no idea, I was kind of loopy around five hours.
We started coming up on the continental shelf around five and a half, six hours and this was where it got bumpy again. I believe it was a lower tide, so all the swells were hitting the shelf and jacking them up, making it harder to steer. We were much more ama cautious (making sure the boat didn't flip over). Again, this was about the time where I got pretty loopy. I could have just been imagining all of this and I could have just been steering badly! We eventually got through the shelf and hit Hawaii Kai (9 miles out or so from the finish). I was so excited to be in water that I knew, that I THINK I snapped out of my loopyness! All the swells started lining up perfectly for six man canoes to catch. The girls pulled together strength from no where and we caught almost every wave that came up behind us. I think this is where I steered my best. I was more confident in those conditions, and having the escort boat finally close enough where we could here the music definitely helped. When we hit the middle of Hawaii Kai we were at six hours and 30 minutes. Our goal was to get under seven hours, so we kicked it up another gear.
The rest of Hawaii Kai went by in a flash because we were catching everything, but when we rounded Diamond Head the swells dropped along with the wind and it was flat for the last few miles. After Diamond Head a lot of boats started converging in Waikiki and we realized that the closest boat in front of us was the Novice from our club. All season we were battling them and trying to beat them! Some how the girls kicked it up ANOTHER notch and we started closing the gap on the Novice. We wanted to beat them SO bad! We made the buoy turn and headed in towards the Hawaiian Hilton Pier for the finish. We didn't catch the Novice, but we cut their large gap and finished our first Na Wahine O Ke Kai hauling buns across the finish line.
When a canoe crosses the finish, the announcer says everyone's name from the team. They read our names as if we were just another open class, but I guess someone told the announcer that we were the 18 girls team, so they announced us one more time and said, "Oh the team that just crossed was the 18 girls! All of them are either 18 or 19 and doing the channel for the first time. Give them a round of applause, while we read their names again!" They read our names again. We got a huge applause.
We pulled up onto the sand slowly, got out of the boat and received hugs, kisses, leis ,water and beverages. Morgan was there to greet me and give me my first lei. She also gave me a phone right away so I could call mom and Will again. I gave them short descriptions and promised to call later. The Kailua men/boys were nice enough to unrig our boat and load it onto the trailer (we have to do the same thing for them after their Molokai, that was the deal!) I ran off to the shower to get out of my paddling clothes, it was the best shower ever, nice and cold! I got back to our tents and we had to do one last photo shoot. After that it was time to collapse, eat and hang out!
I always thought I would cry or at least get teary when I crossed that finish line for the first time, but you know what? I was just too tired. That's how your first Molokai should be, shouldn't it? We finished in 6 hours 59 minutes and 55 seconds and got 69th place. We met our goal of getting under 7 hours, even if it was only by seconds. We were still very proud of ourselves.
Well, thanks for reading, I'm sorry for all my grammatical errors or if you didn't like my story. But I'm glad I wrote it and Mom, good thing I wrote this now while it was still fresh, because I was already losing details. I guess you don't need to be old to forget stuff!!
Thanks Again for reading!
Bobbie Poppler
Here's a video that Tyson put together of the race of the 18 girls Molokai crossing. As Tyson said, "It's a little rough, but you get the idea of the race."
Http://www.vimeo.com/7088103
See our new email address as of January 2012 below
