Hope’s Dispatch: Cote’s Stock Molokai win

Mikey Cote, 22, had the “ride of his life” said father Mike Sr. who was on his escort

boat as his son paddled a record setting race in 5:32:25 this past weekend in the 2009 Molokai to Oahu event. Cote beat out Guy Pere’s long standing stock-class record. “Mikey only paddled

half the race, surfing and resting the other half” said his elated dad.

Mikey finished first in the stock class and 3rd overall beating all but 2 unlimited class boards, a accomplishment that went unnoticed in the local press. The unlimited boards are

significantly longer, have moving steering systems and generally are

regarded as being much faster craft. Mikey found a way to fit into the bumps and ride more

efficiently and significantly faster than nearly an entire fleet of larger and

considerably more expensive boards.

Mikey’s training partners, Mitch Degeus and Eric Abbott finished 2nd and

3rd respectively in the stock division.

The weather service has predicted another new swell to show up late Thursday

with waves expected to reach heights of 8 feet on Friday and Saturday,

giving Mikey and his crew a few days to recover from a memorable race and

training season.

With Aloha and Admiration for this new guard of paddleboarding talent!

Dale

Escort captain Austin Kino and Mikey’s personal cheerleader Rachel duct tape a good luck yellow archer mascot. That little guy has pointed Mikey on many successful races and crossings.

Mikey sun screens up with Vertra for the anticipated inter-island crossing.

Mikey gets a warm embrace of Aloha on departure.

BARK teammates Eric Abbott, Mikey Cote and Kanesa Duncan.

Kanesa’s 7th Molokai win

Molokai to Oahu Paddleboard 2009 - 9th crossing in a row. 7th win… going for a full decade in 2010!

Aloha and mahalo for all of your support!…. I especially appreciated in this years race! My work schedule and travel to conferences limited my training, which was okay as I’d planned around it and got some early miles in, but then I got pretty sick 3 weeks ago… so after resting for the past 3 weeks, I went into this year’s channel a bit behind where I would have liked fitness-wise. However, I think my experience and my supporters came through for me in the end and I still managed to pull out a good race… conditions were definitely challenging, and it sounds like pretty much everyone wished for a bit more muscle power in the last hour!! My main man Norm, the ultimate boat driver escort, kept me in good shape, and his wife Mikala and my boyfriend Thor all backed me up in water drops and cheers.

Overall, my training partners did great - Brian Rocheleau got second overall, Mikey Cote killed the stock division and my coach Eric Abbott took 3rd stock. My friends over the years from California, France and Australia also paddled well…. so that was fun to see! And, It was pretty awesome to be able to give Jerry Lopez a lei after he finished the team Stand Up race with Sparky (from Rainbow sandals)! All in all a heck of a day.

Now that I have the channel down (which is one heck of a training run), I’m looking to be in good shape for the remainder of the season. We have a couple of more Hawaii-based races and then, who knows, I might take on the Catalina channel at the end of August!

Thanks for all of your support and love. I received so many comments from people who are excited that we’re bringing awareness to WWW.RACETOHEAL.COM and cancer screening / treatment options, especially for those folks without health insurance.

Keep up the good work!

Kanesa

Photo courtesy of Jaimie Kinard - Race To Heal coordinator (thanks for your support Jaimie!)