The 2013 OluKai SUP Race is just three days away, with one of the biggest events on the SUP Racing calendar set to draw hundreds of paddlers to the world famous Maliko Gulch for a downwind run.

The OluKai Ho’olaule’a is an awesome event, in an awesome location. Saturday sees the 8-mile SUP race from Maliko Gulch to Kanaha Beach, while on Sunday the OC-1 paddlers will tackle the same course. There’s a total of $15,000 up for grabs, with prize money split evenly between men and women.

The 2012 OluKai Ho was an absolute classic, with Connor Baxter recovering from illness to claim victory ahead of a who’s who of the SUP racing world, including Travis Grant, Danny Ching, Dave Kalama and Jamie Mitchell. This year the field probably won’t be quite as stacked (the 2012 event had the benefit of the massive Waikiki Paddle Festival being held the week prior), but it should be just as large.

Connor Baxter will be hard to beat as always, though look for other locals such as Livio Menelau, Jeremy Riggs, Travis Baptiste and Kody Kerbox to push him. In the women’s race it’s going to take a huge effort to get past the Downwind Queen Andrea Moller.

As always, full race results will be up on SUPracer.com straight after the event, so check back on Saturday afternoon to see how OluKai 2013 went down.

Connor Baxter and Travis Grant: #1 and #2 at OluKai 2012