[ PADDLEBOARDING ]
DENNIS ODA / DODA@STARBULLETIN.COM
Mick Dibetta and his pupil, Quiksilveredition defending champ Jamie Mitchell, will race against each other Sunday.
Coach and pupil
set to compete
in raceThe defending champ and
his mentor have been training
on Oahu the last month
World-class paddleboarders Jamie Mitchell and Mick Dibetta have always had a special relationship. The younger Mitchell plays the role of pupil to Dibetta's coach. And while the Burleigh Heads, Australia, natives are great friends, both want desperately to beat the other and everyone else come Sunday.
That's when the seventh annual Quiksilveredition Molokai to Oahu Paddleboard Race will be held, a 32-mile crossing of the Kaiwi Channel considered the world championship of long-distance paddleboard racing.
Mitchell is the defending champion, but Dibetta is also a former winner and the race record holder to boot.
"We're pretty much best mates -- it just happens that he's also the best (paddleboarding) coach in Australia," said the 26-year-old Mitchell, who's been under Dibetta's tutelage for the last eight years. "We're a great duo, we train real well together. (And) he's been paddling real well this year, and he'll be tough to beat."
Lately, however, it's Mitchell who has gained the recognition as the man to beat in the world of paddleboarding, a sport that basically involves arm paddling a streamlined surfboard designed to ride open-ocean swells. "He's definitely the one to beat," agrees Dibetta.
As proof, Mitchell is not only the defending world champion, he's undefeated in five races leading up to this year's Quiksilveredition. His victories include the Hennessey International title on Oahu's North Shore just last weekend, a win at the U.S. Championships in California a week before that and three earlier wins on Oahu.
Just as he did before winning his first Quiksilveredition title last year, Mitchell has already been living, training and competing -- along with Dibetta -- on Oahu for the last six weeks. Mitchell says this helps him "climatize ... and gear up for Molokai," and he believes that sticking to this previously successful formula will provide him the best opportunity to become only the second man to both win more than one title and score two wins in a row (Hawaii paddleboarder Sean Monahan won in 1999 and 2000).
"I think it's easier to fall from the top because when you win, you can become complacent," Mitchell said. "But I didn't really do anything different this year.
"I'd love to win back-to-back (titles), (but) it's pretty hard to come back and defend because everyone else is also going to be trying harder to win. There's added pressure ... but I think I'm a pretty laid-back guy, I laugh it off. I know there are other guys out there who can win the race; you only can prepare as best as you can."
While Australia's Aaron Bitmead, the 2001 champion and last year's runner-up, will not compete this year, Mitchell expects among his toughest competition: fellow countryman Jackson English, who placed third at the Quiksilveredition last year and second at the U.S. Championships two weeks ago; young upstart Hayden Smith, also from Australia; Hawaii paddleboarders Brian Rocheleau (first Hawaii finisher last year, fifth overall), Chris Owens and Matt Dubrule; and, of course, Dibetta.
Mitchell and Dibetta acknowledge the irony of their situation -- that the person helping prepare the defending champion is also the person who will then try to gun him down. And Mitchell saying that Dibetta has a good chance of hitting the bulls-eye is not lip service, either.
Dibetta, 40, finished fourth overall last year, about 20 minutes behind Mitchell's winning time of 5 hours, 44 minutes, 40 seconds. He established the race record of 5:22:48 in the inaugural event in 1997, and has competed in every Quiksilveredition save one.
Being both coach and competitor is "probably the hardest thing for me," Dibetta said. "I still give myself a good chance (to win), you never discount yourself. (We have) done a few more miles together this year, our times and pace have gone up -- as you would like.
"Myself, I feel I'm doing better, he's doing better. ... It's a matter of who can get over the mental experience of the pain that everyone has to deal with."
But as might be expected, if Dibetta is unable to win, he'd rather Mitchell win than anyone else. "That's for sure," he said.
Added Mitchell: "I guess it's a matter of him helping himself, while helping me at the same time. We're pretty much doing the same thing, the same training. ... It must be hard for him, but as a coach I think he gets satisfaction from seeing me do well."
Notes: According to Dibetta, "All of the top women (competitors) have (used) my training" program for this year's Quiksilveredition, including defending champion and race record holder (7:08:05) Kanesa Duncan -- formerly of San Luis Obispo, Calif., but currently living in Honolulu -- and current Australian paddleboarding champion Hayley Bateup. ... Honolulu's Dolan Eversole is the defending stockboard (shorter boards identically measuring 12 feet) champion, while California's Shaun Jappe, 18, is also back after finishing as the stockboard runner-up and becoming the youngest person to complete a solo crossing of the Kaiwi Channel in 2002. ... In team competition, Hawaii's Todd Bradley has a new partner this year in Jimmy Austin, but will be trying to capture his third straight team title. ... The first-, second- and third-place solo finishers receive $1,500, $1,000 and $500, respectively, while the first stockboard finisher receives $750.
Paddleboarding
What: Seventh annual Quiksilveredition Molokai to Oahu Paddleboard RaceWhen: Sunday at 7:30 a.m., with first finishers expected around 12:30 p.m.
Who: 80 international entrants, including competitors from Hawaii, Australia, the U.S. mainland, Japan and France.
Where: 32-mile race across the Kaiwi Channel starts at Papohaku Roadstead, Molokai, and finishes at Maunalua Bay, Oahu.
How: Men and women in five different divisions, including open (boards usually measuring around 16 feet in length), stockboard (12 feet) and team competitions.
