2026 KIRA Race #1: Nico’s Kailua (Hopena Legacy Race) Long Course

Today was a hectic race, with a lot of people at the start! The wind had dropped down and the swell got smaller but I managed to get some nice pushes towards bird crap, but when I headed down towards the canal is when things got real, I started losing some placements so I had to lock in and realized that I can slip through some people at castles so I caught a very nice bump through the crowd and got back up to where I originally was, the flat water wasn’t too bad for me, but on the way back into Kailua is where I felt my shoulder hurting, I drank some water and managed to lock in for that last little bit of the course! (This course was roughly 8 miles) Mahalo to uncle Jim for letting me borrow the Volare and huge thanks to my new sponsor “Ampn Hawaii” !!!