Like the athletes in this year’s Molokai-2-Oahu Paddleboard World Championships, the ocean drives and inspires the work this year’s race artist. For that reason, renowned artist Wade Koniakowsky was asked to create the official artwork for the 2013 event.

Koniakowsky is thought by many to be on the cutting edge of the new-school of ocean lifestyle art. Surfer magazine describes his artistic mastery as being inspired by “dreamlike point breaks in Polynesian paradise.” For Koniakowsky, his passion is to visually express his thoughts and images onto canvas, evoking the emotions of the ocean – tranquility, power, beauty, light and color.

“The ocean is my inspiration and my art is a reflection of this great force that has shaped my life,” said Koniakowsky. “I was honored to create the art for this year’s race. The event is a beautiful thing. It’s not just a race against time, it’s a race against nature and I felt it needed a painting that portrayed the battle over moving water and going against the elements.”

Wade Koniakowsky lives on the Southern California Coast with his wife and daughters and shares his time between his galleries in Hawaii and California.

About the Molokai-2-Oahu Paddleboard World Championships

Founded in 1997, the Molokai-2-Oahu Paddleboard World Championships, presented by Kona Longboard Island Lager, is set to celebrate its 17th anniversary on Sunday, July 28, 2013. M2O is the premiere event for the sport of paddleboarding, annually crowning world champions in the two disciplines of traditional (prone) and stand-up (SUP) paddleboarding. Each year, more than 250 courageous men and women from more than 15 countries face powerful currents and surf for hundreds of yards atop swells that can reach heights of more than 12 feet in an attempt to cross 32 miles of treacherous open ocean known as the Ka’iwi (kah-EE-vee) Channel, or The Channel of Bones. The fastest athletes complete the crossing in less than five hours, which begins on Kaluakoi Beach on the north shore of Molokai and finishes in Maunalua Bay on the south shore of Oahu.