Hawaii downwind season: the Koa Kai roundup

The Hawaiian downwind race season has come and gone, and rarely has a season delivered such a variety of conditions in the space of a few short weeks.

The M2M was contested in fierce conditions that taxed the speed and control of every participant, while the M2O, the unofficial world championships, presented such tricky light-wind racing that 37 of the 123 entrants did not finish. Staggering, when you consider that this is the who's who of world-class downwind racers; one starter said it took him two hours after the start to even get on foil. The overall standard has again sky-rocketed, with Kai Lenny declaring that any result in the top 20 this year was outstanding, and that a top 10 needed at least six months of dedicated training and preparation.

Once again AXIS was prevalent throughout the fleet, taking an unsurpassed set of results with no other brand coming close. Ten of the top 20 riders in the Koa Kai overall rankings were riding AXIS, with notable highlights:

• Trent Gordon, 1st, M2M Over 40s
• Kaiwi Loui, 2nd, M2M Under 18s
• Dave Kissane, 1st, M2M Over 50s
• Raiarii Fadier, 2nd overall, M2O
• Kai Thompson, 2nd overall, Triple Crown

The Tempo, and what trickles down

The Tempo, the Ti Link and the Kaiwi mast have reshaped the market, and though you might not think top-end downwind racing affects your riding and gear, the trickle-down technology and lessons learnt most definitely do influence what we will all be riding in the coming six to eighteen months. Adrian has so many projects underway, inspired by the racing and the racers, that the next year is going to be exciting.

While Hawaii was battered by tropical storms, Kai has been setting records on the stock 890 Tempo with the Skinny Link 22.5: equal first on the prestigious Maliko run rankings, a best kilometre of 1 min 25 s and an average 10 km speed of 37.2 km/h. World-beating performance on freely available production gear.

Think foiling is not an athletic sport?

On his way to fourth place at the M2O, Kai Thompson averaged a heart rate of 163 beats per minute over 2 hours 15 minutes, with a peak of 183. During his recent one-hour distance record of 20.13 km, Nicolas Iten averaged 173 with a peak of 182. For comparison, Sebastian Sawe, who holds the marathon world record of 1:59:30, is estimated to have averaged 174 with a peak of 184. No wonder our athletes train like pros: they perform like pros from any athletic sport.