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In brief: Australia’s James “Jimmy” Casey has made it a winning start to Downwind Month in Hawaii, taking out the Da Hui Independence Day Race on Oahu’s North Shore.

Jimmy led home a flotilla of Aussies, with Kelly Margetts finishing runner-up ahead of fellow Green & Gold Toby Cracknell. North Shore local Andrew Logreco was the top Hawaiian in 4th, followed by Bullet Obra who scored 5th overall on his 14 footer.

It was a clean sweep for the Aussies, with 2013 Molokai 2 Oahu champ Terrene Black taking out the women’s race in a time of 1 hour 21 minutes. Terrene was on her new 17′ ECS board, which is just one of many new unlimited designs that will make its debut in Hawaii this month.

(The Aussies will be giving the Hawaiians stiff competition over the next few weeks, with Jimmy, Terrene, Kelly and Toby joining the likes of Travis Grant, Matt Nottage and several more top contenders in the big channel crossing events later in the month.)

Conditions were moderate for the 38th annual edition of this classic 4th of July race, with a slight breeze providing enough bumps to make it a downwinder but without offering anything truly epic.

Downwind Month, which runs all through July across the Hawaiian islands, continues this weekend with the Cline Mann Memorial race Oahu’s South Shore (Hawaii Kai run), before island hopping to the Maui 2 Molokai showdown on July 16. The month wraps up with the uber-prestigious Molokai 2 Oahu channel crossing on July 31st.

Click here for the full results

1st: James Casey (1:03:07) Unlimited
2nd: Kelly Margetts (1:05:16) Unlimited
3rd: Toby Cracknell (1:05:46) Unlimited
4th: Andrew Logreco (1:06:32) Unlimited
5th: Bullet Obra (1:06:35) 14′
6th: Mo Freitas (1:07:01) Unlimited
7th: Noah Hoomaikelani (1:07:05) Unlimited
8th: Riggs Napoleon (1:09:42) 14′
9th: Kaihe Chong (1:09:47) 14′
10th: James Donovan (1:11:09) 14′