KIAMA product Ali Day has added to his impressive list of career achievements by recently completing the Molokai to Oahu ski race.
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The 29-year-old, who has six Coolangatta Golds and two Ocean6 Series titles to his name, finished fourth across the event's 53km course.
In the lead-up to the 44th annual event, the now Surfers Paradise surf lifesaver had an ideal preparation.
"I thought my preparation for the event was perfect," Day said.
"I went into the race with a couple of good, hard paddles under my belt, as well as some tough training sessions with former winner Cory Hill.
"These allowed me to push myself and get a gauge of just what I should expect for the race itself."
After all this, race day arrived - which was unlike anything the former Kiama High School student had experienced.
"Never in my career had I had to fly over to a deserted island destination (Molakai), where there was no one telling us what to do" he said.
"Thankfully I got there 3.5 hours before the 10am start, which allowed me to find my support boat and get set up - to be honest, that time went so quickly, it felt like five minutes.
"Then when the race starts, it's a whirlwind, as you feel like your setting off on this crazy, big adventure."
Once the gun went, Day and the 41 other solo male competitors left Molokai and headed back to Oahu.
"At the start, it feels so strange because you're just paddling off into the distance and don't really know how hard to go and how much energy I should try and preserve," he said.
"Thankfully the downwind conditions were the best they've been in close to 30 years, meaning for large parts of the race, I had the wind at my back and had the assistance of the swell and tide - the conditions were the best I've ever paddled in"
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After a chaotic start, Day cemented his spot in the top four, before he had to overcome a number a mental battles - with the physical aspect of the race not concerning him.
"At about the 30km mark, when we could just start to see land, the other three guys I was paddling with started to take a different line and scooted away from me," he said.
"Then Cliff Robinson, who I was paddling for a bit, started to gap me before another two paddlers overtook me - leaving me in seventh.
"This left me mentally frustrated, with negative thoughts.
"But I then just dug deep and concentrated on what I was doing and got myself in a groove - which got me back into a positive mindset.
"Then at about the 45km mark, I had caught those guys in front of me before I set about dropping those guys, which I eventually did.
"The key for me was just concentrating on myself and producing the performance I knew I was capable of."
Day crossed the finish line in fourth in a time of 3:16:39, finishing behind winner Hank McGregor (3:11:17), Corey Hill (3:11:51) and Patrick Dolan (3:13:00) - with all four paddlers breaking the course record set in 2018.
"Going into the race, I would have loved to have won it but being a realist, I hadn't done enough long practice on these skis, which are quite different to the ones back in Australia - with different weight and ways they manoeuvre through the water," he said.
"But I'm stoked to have finished fourth and to have broken the course record - it's such a fun and bizarre race and I definitely want to return in the future."
Day will now shift his attentions to the 2019/20 ironman series, which was expected to kick-off with the Coolangatta Gold in October.
"Next week, I'll start to really rip into my training, which will give me a solid 17 weeks leading into the Gold," he said.
"Once I knuckle down, I might compete in the odd ski race in Sydney or the Gold Coast but pretty much, I'll just be doing as much work as I can to give myself the best chance I can to defend my title - it's a really exciting time to be involved in the sport."