Ho’omaika’i!

KAIROU Waterman extends our heartfelt aloha and congratulations to Robert Stehlik, of Blue Planet Surf, for his first place win at the Moloka’i 2 O’ahu (M2O) paddle race, in the 14’ Stand-up Paddleboard division.

Rob Stehlik in the home stretch, rounding the cliff-side community of Port Lock in East Honolulu. Photos by Mike Ito, from the M2O facebook group.

The Ka’iwi Channel (also known as the Moloka’i Channel) separates the Hawaiian islands of Oʻahu and Molokaʻi. Open ocean swell and massive systems of wind from the north Pacific funnel themselves through a divide only 26 miles (42 km) wide and up to 2,300 feet (700 m) deep. This makes for potentially treacherous conditions, to say nothing of the prevalence or possibility of ocean predators, rogue waves, or inclement rain. Ka’iwi means "the bone”, and serves as a premiere venue for annual paddleboarding and outrigger canoe paddling, as well as swimming competitions fit for only the bravest and most daring swimmers. Swimming the Ka’iwi is, in fact, one of the seven challenges in the prestigious Oceans Seven open water swimming series.

Robert is no stranger to the Ka’iwi. He’s participated in many races, across many years. This year, Robert crossed the bone channel on an updated “Bump Rider”: a missile-like paddleboard, specially designed to capture, harness, and surf the driving energy of an open ocean swell train. Its dimensions are an intimidating 14' long x 28" wide x 6.2" thick. But despite its ample 278L of volume, the board weighs in at an athletic 24lbs. The Bump Rider is the latest and most refined version of Blue Planet Surf’s most proven downwind rocket - the bleeding technological edge of high performance downwind paddling. Its rocker, bottom contours, and rails work together to catch long glides at high speed with minimum effort, and no loss of control.

The 2024 Blue Planet “Bump Rider” - in proprietary SMART Carbon construction - designed, tested and raced in Hawai’i

The latest iteration of this winning design - featuring graphics by KAIROU Waterman’s Mauikanehoalani Lovell - is available now at Blue Planet Surf’s website, and at their flagship store located at 1221 Kona St in Honolulu.

Congrats Rob. :)