"One thing that really helped was having my family on the boat cheering for me to keep me going. Hearing them cheer was like drinking some energy drink – it just gave a huge boast to paddle harder. " Says Connor Baxter, after his outstanding win in the Molokai to Oahu stand up paddle race. If you've never heard of it, it's the world championship for SUP racing, and it was an absolutely massive race this year - with several of the frontrunners smashing the race record, and Aussie guy Jamie Mitchell winning his 10th world title in the paddle board class. 

Connor Baxter grew up in the spotlight for his windsurfing talent, and was quickly snapped up by Starboard; a few years, and a range of pro model boards later - he turned his attention to stand up paddling. Nowadays, nobody can beat the guy. He's incredibly fast and versatile in his paddling, plus an all round nice guy to boot. 

On Starboards blog this week he posted a great rundown of the M20 Stand up paddle race. His sister flew in to surprise him before the race, they got all the event stuff sorted out and then it was down to business with the racing. Connor was unusually the first person to his the beach on the other side - normally it's Jamie Mitchell who makes it first; but Connor tells the story best...

You can read the entire article here. 

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