Guy Pere 1st Mens Stand Up Paddle Division Photo Credit: bigwaveshawaii.com

HONOLULU - (Saturday, July 19, 2008) -- World paddleboard champion Jamie Mitchell, from Queensland, Australia, remains undefeated after posting his fourth conclusive win of the season today in the $15,000 Hennessey's International Paddleboard Championship, on Oahu's North Shore. The 7-mile course from Turtle Bay to Waimea Bay offered no records due to inconsistent tradewinds, however the flatwater pace set by Mitchell was blistering, finishing in a time of one hour, three minutes and 57 seconds.

Honolulu's Kanesa Duncan took honors in the women's division (1:16:49), and Brian Rocheleau (Honolulu, 1:08:08) was the top Hawaii men's finisher, placing fifth overall. A total field of 186 paddlers took to the water today, including 44 standup paddleboarders (SUP). Guy Pere (Haleiwa) won the men's SUP division, Candice Appleby (Honolulu) won the women's SUP, and Christian Bradley claimed the C4 Waterman 17-and-under SUP division.

Rocheleau remains the top Hawaii paddleboarder heading into Molokai, working hard to adopt the Australian style of knee-paddling that has made them unbeatable for the past six years. The majority of Hawaii paddleboarders still paddle the full distance prone.

"I'm feeling a lot more comfortable paddling on my knees now. I'm a 100 per cent better at it than I was a year ago - I'm paddling 70 per cent of the distance on my knees, and mixing it up 30 per cent of the time laying down."

Rocheleau has proven to be even more of a threat over long distances, so is optimistic about next week's 32-mile marathon across the Ka'iwi Channel.

"There's a lot more waves out there in the channel - more of that surfing feeling. You can catch more waves, rest more, relax more, and stay on your knees for longer. But we're still trying to catch the Aussies."

Kanesa Duncan was ecstatic with her victory over Australia's Shakira Westdorp today, particularly given that she has been out of the water for much of the past year with a knee reconstruction after a skateboard injury. For two years the pair have dominated the top two positions in all major races and Duncan leveled the score today. Westdorp is the defending champion of the Molokai race, so next week will be the decider.

"It's so good to have Shakira racing," said Duncan. "She's everything our sport is about. She's a total water athlete, she's a super good surfer, she's happy, she trains hard, so it's way better to race against somebody like that who can motivate you.

"I'm having a really good season and I'm really happy with my equipment. My knee is feeling good, even though I'm working it really hard with the knee paddling."

Guy Pere, a former stock paddleboard champion took the standup paddleboard (SUP) division this year that was presented by C4 Waterman. Paddleboarders and standup paddleboarders started at the same time today and Pere came in sixth over the line behind the top five paddlers who were all on unlimited class, traditional paddleboards.

"It just goes to show that Jamie and those guys can still beat the stand-up paddleboarders even though you get so much reach and leverage with the paddle," said Pere. "There's no comparison - they're two totally different sports, really. I don't go out there to race the paddleboarders, I go out there to race the other standups. To me, that's the fairness of the sport."

The undefeated Jamie Mitchell. Photo Credit: hennesseypaddleboarding.com

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