We were sent this great clip this morning by Buzzy Kerbox, who had an insider’s view of last weekend’s OluKai Ho’oluale’a and used it to produce a really cool race video.

Buzzy was on his jetski during the entire race, filming from inside the pack of 300+ paddlers as they made their way along the world famous Maliko downwind run, in what is one of the biggest SUP races of the year.

The video gives not only some really good close-up shots of the action but also some very interesting commentary and insights. Buzzy Kerbox is a Maui local and, apart from being a big wave surfing legend, has a deep knowledge of the Maui paddling scene.

Quite fittingly, Buzzy’s son Kody was one of the stand out performers of OluKai 2014, coming home 4th across the line to finish in front of Danny Ching (and about 320 other paddlers).

Check out the full video above. It’s a good one.

…also note the mention of the botched start at the 45 second mark. From all reports I got, the race started nearly 10 minutes early when a helicopter buzzed the lineup and caused confusion, setting off a stack of dominoes as a few paddlers mistakenly thought it was the starting signal and everyone else followed them. This caused several paddlers to miss the start, including one Dave Kalama.

But anyway despite this one (albeit significant) issue, I’d say OluKai is still one of the best-run events on the planet. It’s also one of the funnest. Conditions on the weekend were hardly A+ by Maui standards, however this still looks like a whole lotta fun…

---

The OluKai race is part of our Downwind Month special feature.

“Mini Downwind Month” runs through the first half of May, while the real Downwind Month is the entire month of July, when the wind starts firing and the paddling world descends on Hawaii…

To follow the latest from Downwind Month just click on the imposing image below: