The conditions ran the gamut, from funky to brutal, with a variety of marine life creating a welcome diversion from the task at hand. That being the choice between paddling hard and paddling harder.

In the end, mental toughness and experience were as valuable as the random bumps to ride to the finish line off Magic Island. As he had done during the Kanaka Ikaika Racing Association, Zsolt Szadobszki dominated KIRA’s Scott Hawaii State Championship on Saturday.

The 38-year-old Szadobszki finished the 20-mile course from Makai Pier, in between Rabbit Island and Kaohikaipu to Magic Island in 2 hours, 24 minutes and 56 seconds. He more than avenged his lone loss in the surf ski discipline to Pat Dolan 13 days ago by finishing some 12 minutes ahead of Dolan, his training partner.

Dolan won the OC-1 division, leading the field of 57 and beating the rain that caught later finishers. Dolan pulled away from his see-saw battle with Billy Lawson off Waikiki to finish in 2:36:57, 25 seconds ahead of Lawson.

"I liked the conditions today. It is interesting how it always changes and you have to be smart," said Szadobszki, who finished some eight minutes ahead of surf ski runner-up Brady Percy. "It was beautiful, although I had some close experiences with whales today. Two of them jumped in front of me and you start feeling really small. I went around them."

It was the same when the Hungarian national began to catch — and go around — some of the short-course field, which had begun its 12-mile race at Maunalua Bay 45 minutes after the long course started. The new head coach for the Hawaii Canoe/Kayak Team, however, did not catch two of his HCKT paddlers, brothers Kalei and Kanoa Kaleoaloha, who were competing in the two-man surf ski division.

The two, also using Saturday as a test for the Molokai race, were the first to finish the short course in 1:39:18. Nearly seven minutes back were the OC-2 tandem of Pauahi Ioane and Shien-Lu Stokesbary.

"This was good practice for Molokai — that will be our first time," said Kalei, a freshman at the University of Hawaii. "We wanted to try something new together."

New to the KIRA racing season were cash prizes and the Waterman and Waterwoman titles.

Dolan earned $250 as the Waterman, courtesy of his top finishes in prone paddleboard, surf ski and OC-1 over the season. He also picked up $100 for Saturday’s victory and the $100 given to the first OC-1 to reach the designated "hot spot" (Saturday was off Makapu‘u).

"It was a hard battle today with Billy from the start all the way to Waikiki," Dolan said. "We traded leads and then I got a couple of bumps to stay ahead.

"It was funky out there, very confused water. It was good training (for Molokai), I like getting a hard race. You need to get used to that pain for harder races because, no matter what, you’re going to be hurting when it gets to around three hours."

The Waterwoman and $150 went to Rachel Bruntsch, who did not finish Saturday’s race after an incident minutes into the race. She had all but clinched the title with earlier wins in SUP and surf ski.

Also winning their long-course division were Denise Darval-Chang and Kehau Lau, women’s OC-2 (2:53:35).

Other short-course winners were: Kulani Ryan, men’s OC-1 (1:47:23); Ray Connelly, men’s surf ski (1:51:00); Andrew Ching, men’s SUP (2:40:30); Govi Tillotson, men’s prone paddleboard (2:40:50); Halie Harrison, women’s SUP (2:24:53); and Kathryn Taylor, women’s prone paddleboard (2:31:49).

Saturday’s event was dedicated to legendary waterman Tommy Conner, who died Thursday at the age of 68.