Jamie-mitchell-500

Paddleboard Racing: The Hardest Adventure Sport You’ve Never Heard Of?

ByMary Anne Potts
August 11, 2009
3 min read


Text by Tetsuhiko Endo; Photo Bernie Baker, www.surfersvillage.com
Paddleboard racing is the hardest
adventure sport you’ve never heard of, which makes Australian Jamie Mitchell
the best athlete you don’t know. On Sunday, July 26th, Mitchell won
the unofficial world championship of the sport
won
the unofficial world championship of the sport
won
the unofficial world championship of the sport
– the 32-mile Rainbow Sandals
Molokai to Oahu Paddleboard Race – for a record eighth consecutive year,
clocking in at four hours, 58 minutes and 25 seconds.
While such dominance is almost unheard of in any sport, it is especially
impressive in Mitchell’s case, due to the nature of paddleboard racing in and
the difficulty of the Molokai to Oahu race.

Paddleboard
racing is surfing without any of the fun parts. It is like rowing, but you do
it over longer distances, while kneeling or lying on your stomach, using your
arms instead of oars, and usually on the open ocean. That last point is
especially daunting in the Molokai where paddlers must brave the infamous
Molokai Channel, known for its rough waters and river-like currents. If the
weather cooperates, racers can ride open-ocean swells on their long, specially
designed boards for a hundred yards or more. If not, they spend 32 miles
battling currents, crossed up swells, and waves that refract off of cliff faces
and capsize unwary paddlers.

This
year, the winds were up and the currents were strong.  Mitchell called it “the toughest (race) of the last three or
four years for me.”  As if the
difficulty of the paddling weren’t enough, racers must also endure rashes and
chafing from long hours rubbing wet stomachs and knees against their boards. At
the finish of the race, the tops of Mitchell’s feet looked like someone had
taken a baseball bat and a cheese grater to them.

Perhaps the only difficulty that
does not have to do with the Molokai Channel is the almost complete lack of
prize money and sponsorship in this grueling endeavor. This year, Mitchell was
awarded his first ever prize purse for the race, taking home a humble $3,000.

The
low wages don’t discourage him, though. He trains two to three times a day, six
days a week, for four months prior to the race. Of course, in order to make
ends meet, he has had to find some day jobs.  Construction work? Bar tending?  Try professional big wave surfing and stand up paddling – in
both sports he is considered one of the world’s elite.

Regardless of his achievements in
other waterborn disciplines, Mitchell considers himself first, and foremost, a
paddleboard racer. He will never get the recognition or the money he deserves
for his accomplishments, but judging by his interviews, those things have very
little to do with his motivation. 
“There are very few people who are capable of investing as much of their
life in something or sacrificing as much as it takes to win the Molokai,” he said in a 2008 press release. “And because of that, they can’t understand why
it’s such an accomplishment.” 

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