Kamehameha

June 11^th is a holiday in Hawai`i – King Kamehameha Day, honoring the birthday of Kamehameha I, also called The Great, the monarch who first established the unified Kingdom of Hawai`i, to include the eight major islands of Ni`ihau, Kaua`i, O`ahu, Maui, Moloka`i Lana`i and Hawai`i. Kamehameha’s birthplace is located in Kohala, the northern tip of the island, and in celebration of the day, people make leis and wrap them around statues of Kamehameha wherever there is one. This day also marks the remembrance of many Hawaiian cultural traditions, some of them still practiced, some of them long forgotten or barely practiced.

One of those traditions is the greeting with honi. The ancient inhabitants of our islands greeted each other by walking straight up to each other, extending their right arm and placing their right hand on each other’s left shoulder, moving their heads forward and touching with their heads, forehead to forehead and nose to nose. They then took a deep breath and let the air out of their nose, sharing each other’s breath. This protocol could take up to 30 seconds or longer and concluded by giving each other a hug. The word aloha came out of this, as alo means front of head or front of face, and ha means breath, describing the process of putting the front of the heads together and sharing the breath.

Another result of this protocol is the word haole, which stands for without breath or refusing to share breath. When the first Westerners came to Hawai`i and the locals tried to greet them with a honi, they refused to do so as they were uncomfortable with it. The locals did not understand the reason for this refusal, and they gave it a term (haole) and from then on, white people were referred to by that name.

Nowadays, mostly kupuna and deeply cultural people greet each other that way, and when they do, bystanders at times observe this with a puzzled or strange look. I was introduced to honi by Kumu Keli`i Tau`a on Maui, and it made me quite uncomfortable in the beginning. As time went on, I got used to it, and today, I greet quite a few friends in that way as it would feel strange not to do so. Some of our beach boys, Kumu Kaniela Akaka, even Mayor Billy Kenoi greets me and gets greeted with honi (he was here on Kamehameha Day to assist us with a group of meeting planners, which is nice and very helpful for the entire island).

Training this week was very productive. Not only did we have two good club sessions, but I was also able to do quite a few workouts on the side (mostly around 4am in the morning, with a couple of late-night sessions – mainly weights and cardio on the bicycle). The initial plan for me was to not race with the 50’s this weekend, as I had raced during the first two races, and then the Mixed 40’s last week; this way, others in my age-group would have the chance to race as well (as mentioned in other blogs, when you have the luxury of having 12 or more strong paddlers in one age bracket, it is important that everyone gets to race every so often). Things changed a bit, however (I think some of the paddlers were ill or couldn’t make it in some other way), and I ended up being slotted in for the race.

On Thursday, the club was informed that our koa racing canoe, the Kamakahonu (“eye of the turtle”), had sustained some damage – a crack straight down the middle of the canoe, from seat two to seat five, just below the height of the seats. This meant that the canoe wasn’t available on Saturday, for most clubs a devastating blow (because they only own one koa canoe). In Kai `Opua’s case however, we own another koa canoe, the Hualalai, which is a very nice boat as well. She is just as fast as the Kamakahonu (and is about 40 pounds or so lighter), but due to the construction, she does not turn as quickly – an advantage on the straights, a disadvantage in the turns. The more serious issue is the fact that most of us will get to paddle that canoe for the first time during the race; ideally, you have had some water time in the canoe prior to racing it.

This weekend’s regatta took place in Kailua-Kona and was referred to as the Kamehameha Regatta, organized by my club. What this meant is that besides the regular duties of a regatta day, we also had to operate the official stand, time keeping, on-water officiating, etc.; quite a bit of additional work besides our regular club duties. It meant another day on the Kailua Pier, from 6:30am to almost dark. Set-up went well and the races started promptly at 8am. As usual, the keiki of Kai `Opua did a great job and won quite a few races.

Finally, it was once again time for the Battle of the 50’s. The water was quite flat and we were eager to get out there and race. After three races, the score was 2 for Kai `Opua, 1 for Puna. This time, we had a fairly different crew in the boat (and I was sitting in seat 5 after two races in seat 2), and Puna had one new crew member as well, which meant that both crews were trying to figure out their strongest combination. We lined up on the starting line, with us in lane two, Puna on our right and three more canoes down the line in lanes four to six. The flag came up very quickly and off we went. Even though we had a lighter boat, we didn’t get off the line all that well and very quickly found ourselves in third place, with Puna leading by half a boat length. We started to catch up towards the turn and turned in around the same time, but didn’t come out all that fast and by the time we were going straight again, Puna was a boat length ahead, and another canoe was even with us. One thing we learned over the last couple of weeks was not to panic. We kept our composure and just dug down the lane, one stroke at the time, with huge pulls and water movement, and slowly but surely, we dropped the other canoes and pulled even with Puna. The crowd was screaming, our blood was pumping, we all missed a few breaths in between, and we crossed the line almost too close to call. In the end, the time keepers clocked Puna at 3:45.33, with us at 3:46.54, a mere 1.21 seconds apart. What a disappointment, but really a great race for everyone.

The score is now even: two wins and two second places for each of us (Puna and Kai `Opua), which makes us even in points after four out of eight regular regatta races. We will change our strategy a bit this week (which I won’t divulge until the next blog) and will see what happens next Saturday in Hilo.

A hui hou.

Chris