DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE PROPELS RICHARDS TO MOLOKAI RECORD

Danielle Richards had crossed the Kaiwi Channel once before.

The experience was less than ideal.

“I did Molokai in 2017 on the board and over-trained,” she reflects.

“Afterwards I said, I’m never doing that again on the board. And we got good conditions for that race, too.

“But it was always one thing I really wanted to do on the ski.”

It took Richard eight years to fulfil that desire, but her performance in the 2025 Molokai Challenge could remain in the spotlight for much longer.

The New Zealand powerhouse crossed the Channel in a time of 3 hours, 33 minutes and 54 seconds, smashing the women’s record by close to 14 minutes.

On her way to winning the women’s title, she also finished fifth overall, some 24 minutes behind men’s champion and now record-holder, Pat Dolan.

“I loved it,” Richards said of her first Molokai surfski experience.

“I thoroughly enjoyed every single moment of the race. Time just went so fast.”

Richards was one of two women’s solo surfski paddlers to line up for the event. Shivani Goberdhan also completed the iconic 52 kilometre race in a time of 6 hours, 13 minutes and 10 seconds.

Richards was prepared for the lean field. She even did her best to fill it out.

“I messaged a few people and said, ‘Come on, it’ll be cool. Come and race.’”

Aware that she wouldn’t be challenged on her road to victory, Richards set a new challenge.

The women’s race record, that was set in 2019 by Jordan Mercer.

“Absolutely, 100%,” she laughs. “That was something I set out to do.

“I’d say 2019 was when we were all paddling our best. We were all super fast that year.

“I remember watching, after I’d gone to Bali for a few weeks, thinking how much I wanted to be there and race those girls, but I couldn’t afford to go.”

Richards admits her training for the race was unusual.

After first first season coaching at Omanu Beach Surf Club, on the east coast of New Zealand’s north island, and also racing herself at the Australian Surf Life Saving titles, Richards had just six weeks to prepare.

The lessons of her 2017 board campaign were front of mind.

“It is quite short, a six-week turnaround.” she said.

“But you’re super motivated in a shorter time and it was enjoyable to do all of the training.

“I also chose to split my longer sessions. I didn’t want to just train for Molokai – I wanted to do everything else that I normally do.

“If you do a four-hour paddle, you smash yourself. But if you do two 20 kilometre sessions, I found I wasn’t overloaded as much.

“I’d do multiple downwinders on the same day, with a break in between. One at 10am and one at 2pm, for example.”

She even broke-up her paddling on her way to winning the King and Queen of the Harbour at the start of May, clocking 20 kilometres in the morning before the start.

Richards flew to Hawaii a week before the race and spent plenty of time out on the water.

Although she was aware of the gruelling challenge that laid ahead, she soaked up every opportunity in paddling paradise. Enjoying the experience was at the core of her Molokai campaign.

The videos captured by Epic made waves online. One clip posted to Instagram amassed more than a million views in just days.

However race-day was never too far from her thoughts. 

As well as that race record.

“The five days leading into the race, we had wind.” She said. “So there was talk of the course records being broken.

“I got pretty excited, to be honest.”

With only two female paddlers in the field, Richards pushed to start with the men.

She says that did provide some benefits – namely navigation and the pace off the start – but for the most part, she spent the 52 kilometres in her own open water.

“For the first 30 minutes I chased the guys, followed their lines.” She recalled. “But ultimately, I wasn’t strong enough like they were to keep cutting back as much as them. So I just set off on my own.

“After 40 minutes or an hour, I couldn’t see their boats anymore. I could see the lead race boat a long way in front of me, but I couldn’t see much else.

“I had two things I wanted to focus on. One was enjoying every moment, not being negative if I missed a run or was slow for a little period.

“The other was redirecting any pain I was feeling. Whether it was cramping or blisters, I wanted to change that from a negative to a positive. I just tried to tell myself how strong the rest of my body was feeling.”

Richards GPS data shows that she sat around 4:00 per kilometre pace for the first 35 kilometres of the race.

From there, she opened up. Her splits dropped to 3:50 – her quickest, a 3:41 in the 46th kilometre of the race.

“I felt really good and was in a really good place, so I started to push.”

“I’m sure there are people who are pissed or upset that I got such good conditions for my first Molokai, and I’ve got to own that. I was in the right place or the right time.”

Last year, Richards told The Paddler that was she reflecting on her racing future. 

Experiences like these have helped her to rediscover her passion for downwind paddling.

She’ll miss the Gorge Downwind Championships in July as she’ll be coaching New Zealand’s Under 18 sprint kayaking team at the World Championships.

But a return to the ICF Ocean Racing World Championships in Durban in October is locked in, as well as the Shaw and Partners WA Race Week.

Beyond that, she has no doubt Molokai will again come calling. Participation numbers have dropped from the race’s peak, but after experiencing it for the first time, Richards declares she will return.

Especially now after etching her name into history, and joining one of surfski paddling’s most illustrious clubs.

“I spoke to Cory [Hill] at Aussies and when he was talking about how much he loves the race, he mentioned that he didn’t want to let anyone win it easily. 

“I thought that was a really cool way to think about it. If the sport’s elite paddlers don’t go, the race will lose a bit of that prestige. But I still think it’s there now.”

“It’s not just about being the best paddler across the channel, it’s about the challenge of it. There are so many challenges just to get to the start line. And obviously the history of the race is what it is.

“I believe [numbers] will come back. It’s not a race where you want 500 paddlers. It’s a race where that 75-100 paddlers is probably the perfect amount.

“It was such a cool vibe, everyone hung around after the race and we all had a big feed. It was more about the community and being involved.

“Obviously we want to have more than 20 paddlers. And a stronger women’s field would be lovely. But I think the race will always be there, and it should be.”