QuiksilverEdition Paddleboard World Championships

Six-time champion, Australian Jamie Mitchell took the 11th Annual QuiksilverEdition Molokai to Oahu Paddleboard Race for a ride Sunday, winning in record time--four hours, 48 minutes, and 23 seconds. With 15-to-20 knot easterlies and open ocean swells of four to six feet, it's no wonder Mitchell was stoked on the hundred-yard glides he kept having.

"I trained the hardest I've ever trained the past three or four months for this race," Mitchell said of the 32-mile race across the challenging Ka-iwi Channel, "It's really satisfying to know that the hard work paid off."

More appropriatly applauded for her stalwart performance is 22-year-old Australian Shakira Westdorp--a rookie who gave five-time and defending champion Kanesa Duncan a run for her money. Westdorp took first place only five minutes before Duncan landed on the Oahu shore with a time of five hours, 59 minutes, and 52 seconds, and she had to fix a broken rudder mid-crossing.

Westdorp wasn't the only first in the competition; Stand-up paddleboarding made a debut in this year's World Championships as its own major division. The winner? Kevin Horgan. By 13 seconds. Horgan overtook second place Victor Marcal in the last mile.

Horgan competed two years ago as the only solo stand-up paddler, finishing after 10 hours. Of his six hour win, he said "I just chopped off four hours! Waterman can, that's my motto."

How'd he do it?

"Earlier this summer I did a four-day, 175-mile paddle from New York City to Newport, Rhode Island," Horgan said, "That was the perfect training for today."