POMONA’S Lachie Lansdown has returned home this week after two months extensive paddle board racing in the USA.
Lansdown’s campaign started in Hawaii racing the well known 52km long Molokai race, bringing home silver for the second time in the stock division.
Lansdown had a strong second half of the race, closing to within striking distance of the leader, but GPS problems on the escort boat saw him hit China Walls, the cliff face leading to the finish, in the wrong place allowing the leader to cross the line a few minutes in front.
Next on the list of competitions for Lansdown was the US National Lifeguard Championships where he crossed the line second in the open male board race, followed by the Quicksilver Survivor race, where he won the distance race, finishing his campaign with the Survivor Race – a new format with a number of races counting to an overall point score.
The final race for Lansdown was the Catalina Classic, the original long distance paddle board race that Molokai is based on with a history dating back to 1955, and Lansdown became the youngest winner in the history last year.
The race is a gruelling flat water paddle across the busiest shipping channel in the world; it is not uncommon that paddlers have to wait to allow the massive container ships entering and exiting LA harbour to pass by.
Lansdown pushed to the finish taking over seven minutes off the previous record and walking (or should we say paddling!) away with the win.
This was Lansdown’s second consecutive stock win at Catalina giving him a second spot on the Classics Perpetual trophy and the youngster is still shocked with such a successful campaign.
“I don’t think it has sunk in yet, but it is pretty amazing,” Lansdown said. “I had guys right on me the whole way – Jack Bark, Nic Fox – it was a fast stock year.”
