State Championships Recap

The long-awaited day has come, States are on and the top paddlers in their category have gathered at Ke`ehi Lagoon, just south of Honolulu International Airport. Approximately 3,500 athletes, representing 58 canoe clubs from 6 islands have shipped their club’s prized koa canoe to O`ahu, have booked flights and often hotel rooms, to be at the biggest event of regatta paddling, the Hawaiian Canoe Racing Association’s 2012 Championships, where gold, silver and bronze medals are awarded to individual crews in 41 races, ranging in distance from one-half mile to one and one-half miles. Additionally, clubs win top honors based on total points earned in each race, and since they range in size from very small (sometimes with only enough paddlers to compete in 4 or 5 races) to very large (having a qualified crew in each one of the 41 races), they are categorized into 4 categories (AAAA for very large to A for small), with each category crowning a winner.

I chose to join my club on Saturday morning, taking an early flight from Kona to Honolulu. As we all know, traveling nowadays is quite cumbersome, with security and all, so going to a sporting event with sports drinks and gels and a paddle requires some careful packing and labeling (just imagine picking your paddle out of 3,500 paddles showing up on the luggage carousel).

The next task is getting to Ke`ehi Lagoon, exactly 1.7 miles from the Interisland Terminal.  It obviously doesn’t pay to rent a car for the day, as you would only drive 3.4 miles total and would have to worry about tight parking at the beach park, and taxis really don’t like to give up their place in the line-up and miss an almost certain Waikiki fare for a whole lot less money going just down the road.  So the easiest is to either look out for other paddlers who have arranged a pick-up from someone and ask to join them (most often on the back of a pick-up truck), or to take a little walk along the international terminal, through an industrial area down to the beach park.

Upon arrival at Ke`ehi Lagoon, you are greeted by dozens and dozens of tents, which are either part of the retail and food village, or belong to each one of the clubs.

Since most paddlers and their families spend the entire day there, food booths are plentiful and at some point, everyone goes to get something to eat and drink. Beyond that, there are many exciting booths selling everything from clothing to paddling equipment, from Hawaiian jewelry to arts and crafts.  It is quite a display and one can wander for a long time browsing and taking it all in.

The club tents are lined up along the shoreline, with the larger clubs having tents right on the water and smaller ones relegated to the back row – which means they have to find a spot at the water’s edge to get in and out of their canoe, and to move their canoe carefully onto the beach while waiting for their next race.

Besides the retail village and actual racing, a big part of attending state championships is mingling with clubs from other islands and talking to paddlers that you may not have seen for quite a while. After I got settled in Kai`Opua’s tent and assisted with a few remaining tasks, I started to visit my friends from Maui (Kihei Canoe Club, Wailea Canoe Club, Hawaiian Canoe Club) as well as those from Kaua`i, many of whom I have raced with over the years, and also a few individuals who had been part of our historic voyage through the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (in particular my dear friend Kimokeo).  It is equally fun to see some of the true legends of the sport, individuals who have given up their private life for paddling and for their clubs and who love to share their passion with anyone.  One such individual is Uncle Nappy Napoleon, founder of Anuenue Canoe Club, an individual who has paddled all of his life and at age 72 is still as fit and comfortable on the water as paddlers half his age. He is an amazing person, (and my friend Kimokeo reminds me of him as a slightly younger, yet equally driven individual) and it is just an honor to be around him.

Besides attendees like Uncle Nappy or Kimokeo, there are also today’s superstar-paddlers one can admire. Some of them are Hawai`i born and raised who not only made it big in outrigger canoe paddling, but found also success in other sports - Lauren Bartlett-Spalding is such an individual, who represented the United States in the Athens Olympics in kayaking, or the Dolan brothers, two young men who spend a lot of time in the U.S. Olympic training center.

http://www.kaiwaa.com/media/videos (check out the Jibofo POV Maliko video – great shots of the Northshore of Maui)

But back to the canoe racing. As mentioned earlier, there are 41 races taking place, from 12- year old boys and girls to 65-year old men and women, with many races being mixed (three men and three women). Racing started after a traditional Hawaiian blessing at 8:30am, and the last race of the day took place just before 6pm. Each race has 14 canoes lined up, stretching all the way from the airport side of Ke`ehi Lagoon south across the lagoon towards Waikiki.

The day progressed nicely (and as you can see, it was a spectacularly blue sky, but also very hot) and Kai `Opua Canoe Club, as one of the biggest canoe clubs in the state, went head to head with Lanikai and Kailua (both located on windward `Oahu), as well as Hawaiian Canoe Club (from Maui) leading the day in the overall classification, with one club winning a race and pulling ahead in points until another one did the same. As a matter of fact, all clubs stayed together until 5 races before the end, when Lanikai pulled ahead and eventually won top honors with 330 overall points, followed by Kailua with 329 and Hawaiian with 325. Kai `Opua finished fourth with 301, safely ahead of the rest of the clubs in the division. From a club perspective, we finished at expectation and were quite happy, and given the close point totals, we could have easily been higher (as you can see, the first three clubs were separated by only 5 points, which is quite remarkable and highly unusual).

In our men’s division, we made some last-minute changes to our crew line-ups and instead of racing with the Men’s 50’s (my crew for most of the season), I ended up paddling with a Mixed 40’s crew (three women, three men), a race I did a couple of times during the season. Since regattas are all about kokua and doing what is right for the club, I set my personal preference aside and let Coach Eddie put me into the race he needed me most. We started out fairly good but ran into some trouble around the turn, and in the end did not get a medal but received a handful of points towards the club total.

I obviously watched the 50’s race with great interest as my heart really was with that crew, and some of the best paddlers in the state lined up for that race. Given our record on Hawai`i Island during the season, we thought we could get a medal, but it is always hard to predict as things can happen on the course and sometimes a split-second can make the difference between first and fifth. The race went off and Kai `Opua, in lane three, had a good start, pushing ahead down the lane towards the turn flag. Everyone was somewhat bunched together at the turn, and when the canoes came out of the turn, the canoes on the outside (lanes ten and above) came out first. Not much changed down the stretch and when the finish flag went up, Lanikai, Outrigger, Manu O Ke Kai and Puna (our fierce competitors throughout the season) all finished together, in that order, in the outside lanes, separated by only 61/100 of a second. Kai `Opua finished next, 1.79 seconds behind in fifth place, closing out the regatta season in a respectable, but not victorious manner.

My first Moku O Hawai`i regatta season has come to an end, with many new friends gained and experiences made, not to mention the weekly drives to Hilo over Saddle Road. It was a great way to spend the summer and it really connected me even deeper with this beautiful island and its people, something that is inherent to the canoe culture.

What’s next? Long-distance canoe season looms, but I have to evaluate my participation this year as training (and racing) are far more strenuous and I am faced with lots of work and travel related to my day-job. I will keep you informed as time goes on and let you know where I stand.

Until then, a hui hou, mālama pono, me ke aloha a me ka ha`aha`a.

Aloha!

Chris



Rising from the Ashes – of Sorts

Aloha nō kākou,

Yes indeed, it is me – I am back, of sorts. I know it has been a long time (the last post went up on June 27^th) and I felt guilty every week that I did not write, but life at times takes its own turns and you just have to go along for the ride.

It all started after race number 6 on June 23^rd, which we won against Puna. Training went well leading into week 7 with the upcoming race on June 30^th. Two days prior to race day, I received notice that I had to tend to some business on Saturday, June 30^th at the hotel, which could not be postponed. As hard as I tried to figure something out, I couldn’t and I had to tell the crew that I was not available to race that weekend. It really wasn’t all that bad, as the plan had always been to rotate paddlers in and out, but it did hurt a little bit as we had some good races and good wins.

June 30^th was a good race, and the crew did well and won in a time of 3 minutes 42.83, 2.69 seconds ahead of Puna. This was the third win in a row and certainly put the pressure on Puna to do well as there was still a first seed at States up for grabs.



With George Szigeti, President / CEO of Hawaii Lodging and Tourism Association

All of that forced me to be really creative in my training, with Tuesday and Thursday evening reserved for the canoe club, and almost every morning either in the weight room or running or bicycling. When Saturday came around, I once again was not paddling on the crew, leaving room for another paddler to experience Hilo. While I didn’t like to be off of the team for a second week, it actually felt ok as it afforded me some time to get my life organized and catch up on various tasks (business and personal), that fell to the side during the week. Race day, July 7^th, didn’t turn out all that great for my crew as Puna won the race in 3 minutes 41.61 seconds, 2.38 seconds ahead of us.

The week of July 9^th included a new training element for our 50’s crew. Our steersman and coach Spence decided that we should work out on Monday afternoon on a Concept 2 paddling Ergometer, basically a land-based training machine that would give all kinds of feedback on each individual’s performance, including wattage produced (wattage is a measure of how much power somebody can produce in a given period of time, which is important for the forward movement of the canoe). Power is also a function of weight, as somebody who is heavier will have to produce more power just to move the additional body weight along with the canoe.

Unfortunately I was on Maui that Monday afternoon and missed the first session, where a few of the crew put down some wattage numbers. I knew that this test would be used to determine future crews, so later that same week, I snuck into the clubs halau under the cover of darkness and did a test myself just so I had an idea what I could do. The actual impetus for doing so was my friend Jack, who paddled quite a few races with me this season, who supported my efforts to be back in the boat and really wanted me to do well. I was able to produce 145 watts over a period of 4 minutes (race length), which was short of some of the others performance (high was 157 watts), but adjusted for my body weight of 172 lbs, the wattage was actually at the top of the list.

The rest of the week, we had our normal paddling training, but at the end of the week, I was again excluded from the crew for the final race, the Moku Nui Big Island championship race. I took it in stride and was perfectly fine knowing that I paddled six out of nine race days, more than most on our crew.

When Saturday, July 14^th came around, Puna won the final race and therefore the title of 2012 Moku Champion with a time of 3 minutes 49.82 seconds, 1.65 seconds ahead of my crew. While the title of champion is a nice one to have, our crew retained the most wins over the entire season, which means that we will have first seed at the State Championships and will be able to race in lanes 1 through 6, where the water is calmer and probably faster.

Head Coach Eddie stirred things up the week of July 16^th when he announced that we would not paddle OC-6, but would all get together on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday for OC-1 (One Man) time trials. Many of us do not own one-man canoes, but with Jack and Dane’s assistance, I was able to borrow a few canoes (with a range of very old and heavy to state-of-the-art and feather-light). I wanted to make sure that I was there and able to show what I can do, as time trials are races of truth and depend entirely on someone’s own individual effort, without assistance, nor ability to place blame on someone. On Tuesday, it took me a while to get used to the old, bright-yellow Viper canoe (with a seat that moved around as the glue lost its traction). I hung in there, though, and finished “age-appropriate”, particularly since many of the 50’s crew didn’t show. On Thursday, we did a downwind run in very choppy waters off the coast of Kona, which gave me some trouble in the old Viper, but I finished once again (with again many of my peers missing in action). Finally, Saturday’s run went from Honokohau Harbor north to the airport and back, a total paddling time of over 2 hours, broken up into 30 minute segments. I did quite well there on a beautiful Kai Wa`a Scorpius canoe (mahalo braddah Dane for letting me borrow that – wow) and while very hot, it was actually a lot of fun. On Sunday, we went out with two OC-6 for a good 90 minute run, and again, I did quite well.

This week of July 23^rd, we are back to regular training, regatta style in the six-man canoe. On Monday, we went once again to the Ergometer, with the same routine taking place and each one of us putting a good effort in over twice 4 minutes. I performed once again quite well with 145 watts, which based on my weight should help move the canoe quite well. Tuesday we were back on the beach, and the rest of the week will decide on who is going to race on August 4^th in the State Championships.

A hui hou!

Chris

Anatomy of a Beach Chair

There are a few things that are really important in Hawaiian life, and acquisition of such items needs to be considered by looking at all angles. In an earlier blog, I was talking about slippahs (or slippers), as by far the most crucial of all items. A pretty close second is the Beach Chair.

As you can imagine, before I set foot on these islands, I was completely oblivious to the fine nuances of slippah selection, as well as the purchase of beach chairs, and frankly, I thought one-size-fits-all (in both cases). As I discovered, this is far from the truth and some of that I had to learn the hard way. Today, I consider myself a Beach Chair Aficionado as much as a Slippah Aficionado.

Today, I will let you in on the secrets of beach chair selection, and especially the Regatta-Saturday Chair, and will introduce to you my personal and faithful selection.

Beach chairs are similar to cars – they are highly personal, appeal to individual taste in shape and color, and you often like certain features, while others just add unnecessary weight or have features that you will never take advantage of. The main factors to consider are: on what surface you will use this chair (beach, football game, garage), how long you will sit in the chair (just brief moments interspersed with having to get up, or long periods of time), how far you have to carry the chair from your truck to the place where it will be enjoyed, and generally what add-ons are important to you.

So let’s analyze this various points for a while (by now, you have probably figured out that writing about yet another paddling week is not all that stimulating and frankly borders on the downright boring).

Generally speaking, one can park the car or truck fairly close to where the regatta takes place, and as a matter of fact, in Hilo, paddlers back their trucks very close to their beach and therefore have access to it within a few steps. In Kona, parking is a bit more difficult to find and you can easily find yourself faced with a ten minute walk down the hill. Therefore, the first essentials of a beach chair are that it is foldable and that it has straps to carry it wherever you need to go. My chair can easily be carried like a backpack and actually feels quite comfortable, even for longer walks.

The chair is made of waterproof canvas, so can easily hosed off outside the house and dries in minutes, so can be kept clean and neat after each use.

When you are at the regatta all day, you have quite a few things with you – spare clothes, hats, sunglasses, food, and much more. As the chair sits in the sand, you don’t really want all of this sitting on the ground, and having it in bags is not really practical as they might blow away or be misplaced in other ways. My chair has a very practical back pocket, where all the paddling essentials for a whole day comfortably fit in.

Being at the regatta from 7am to 5pm is exhausting, so you might want to take a little nap around mid-day. To accommodate that urge, my chair folds nicely down (guaranteed much further than any airplane seat in the United States), and even has a built in neck rest for a relaxing pre-race snooze.

The paddle is an essential piece of equipment, and not much racing would happen without it. In addition to that, a racing paddle costs upwards of $250, which means that we treat it with utmost care and diligence. Since there are literally thousands of paddles at a regatta, and as many people walking around, you want to make sure that your paddle is accounted for at all times and is also protected from the traffic around it. As you can see in the next picture, my 52 inch long paddle sticks nicely on one side of the chair without hindering the full movement of all elements of it, and for some added assurance that will still be there when I need it, I have a short piece of flexible rope that is tied around the frame of the chair and the paddle, just in case someone mistakes my paddle for theirs (that can happen, right?).

And finally, the “Pièce de résistance”, the most American of all inventions, the cup- or bottle-holder. My chair has one attached to one of the armrests and whatever the most appropriate beverage for the occasion (or time of the day) may be, it will fit into the holder for easy access (yes, I know that there are no alcoholic beverages allowed on state beaches or parks, something that was pointed out to me painfully clear a few years back at the finish of an epic Moloka`i Hoe canoe race, but I will save that story for another day).

Anyway, now you know what the ingredients are for the perfect canoe regatta beach chair, for me anyway.

Back to paddling: at this point in the season, weeks start to run into each other – the pressure is on to perform on Saturdays, and the whole week centers on finding another, new angle to get the job done during the race. Last Saturday’s race was filmed by our club, and by Sunday, we had detailed analytics on stroke rates, number of changes (from side to side), where we gained on the competition and where we lost time. It also came with details about each individual paddler’s performance, which then prompted some changes in the boat during practice. The crew stayed the same (which meant that we now have been paddling together for two weeks, and makes a big difference in how we blend with each other), but the line-up changed. Seat 1 stayed the same, I moved from seat 2 to seat 5, last week’s seat 4 moved to seat 2, seat 3 stayed the same and seat 5 moved to 4. It all sounds like a game of musical chairs, but we keep trying to find the best combination based on body weight (I am the lightest at 175 pounds, with the top man probably weighing in at 225 or more), arm length, which dictates stroke length, and power-to-weight ratio. As the boat has to turn around the flag, you want the heaviest bodies in seat 3 and 4 as those seats simply pivot in place rather than swing like 1 and 2 or 5 and 6.

We felt pretty good on Thursday after practice and had a good game plan on how we would accelerate, settle in down the stretch, make the turn and then race back.

Hilo offered us a typical “Hilo-day”, minimal sun, lots of rainstorms and high winds coming through all day long, and while some races took place in decent conditions, others were conducted in heavy rains and howling winds.

When our race came up around 3:30pm or so, the water was choppy (which made the boat feel unstable on the way down the lane), but it also helped us a bit on the way back. As we have come to expect by now, it was a race between us and the men from Puna, and we did race the entire way seat-to-seat with them, but in the end, were able to etch them out by 64/100^th of a second for another win, the first back-to-back between us so far this year (due to the conditions, our times were not all that fast - 3 minutes 51.03 seconds for us vs. 3 minutes 51.67 seconds for Puna), but we did have to fastest half-mile time of the day.

Three more races to go here on Hawai`i Island, and we are now 4 points ahead of Puna for first seed at the States on August 4<sup>th</sup> on O`ahu. Now we really need to get into our heads and play a mental game so that we can win one more next week and have a comfortable lead (without getting disqualified at any of the races and giving up valuable points).

A hui hou.

Chris

The Oli

Perpetuation of Hawaiian culture is the kuleana (responsibility) of everyone who has the privilege of living in this great state. While some believe that only full-blooded Hawaiians should do so, the fact is that everyone should help, based on the principal that more individuals can do a better job than fewer, as long as it is done in an appropriate way. Another argument to be made is that quite simply due to the fact that there are more and more interracial marriages, there will be fewer and fewer Hawaiians around to perpetuate.

In today’s Hawai`i, there are a number of activities that make the culture come to life in a real and everyday fashion – through hula, through canoe paddling, through music and song, and through chants, amongst others. All of these activities are part of daily life and are completely common and accepted as such. All of them are taught to young keiki (children) and continue to be practiced through adulthood.

One of the more unique activities is the art of chanting. A chant consist of words or verses with deep meanings which are performed in various intonations, not quite as songs, but very melodic. Some of the chants are quiet, while others are performed in a strong voice and full of mana. All chants have deep meanings, some of them hidden, and they are here to educate, to perpetuate, and to hand knowledge from generation to generation. Chants also have specific purposes – there are chants to open a meeting or gathering, there are chants for blessings, and there are chants for all different kinds of activities. Invariably they ask for the universe to be kind and supportive of a particular cause.

I learned my very first chant from Kumu Keli`i Tau`a quite coincidentally (because I was fascinated by chants and wanted to learn a simple one), but since have learned many, for all different occasions. Whenever I undertook a particular adventure (paddling in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, walking around Maui – all 183 miles of it, going into the uplands to look for koa trees) I tried to learn one or two chants so that their meaning was tied to a specific achievement and therefore became relevant to my life.

Giving an oli at the North Hawaii Hospice Floating Lantern Ceremony

The chant Ia Wa`a Nui talks about a large canoe that flies through the ocean, and would be very appropriate to be used during a canoe blessing or before entering a canoe. (if you'd like to hear what it sounds like, click here for the link, the oli occurs at the very beginning of the segment).

Ia wa’a nui                             That large canoe
Ia wa’a kioloa                       That long canoe
Ia wa ‘a peleleu                    That broad canoe
A lele māmala                       Let chips fly
A manu a uka                       The bird of the upland
A manu a kai                         The bird of the lowland
'I'iwi pōlena                           The red Hawaiian honeycreeper
A kau ka hōku                       The stars hang above
A kau i ka malama                The daylight arrives
A pae i kula                            Bring the canoe ashore
‘Āmama, ua noa                    ‘Āmama, the kapu is lifted

Every regatta starts with a blessing, and every blessing includes a chant. Often, people bow their heads during chants, and even though chants often make reference to religious symbols, they really can be …..

Training this week was again quite good and very varied.

On Sunday, I did hill runs in Kona. I warmed up from my house and then started at the bottom of Nani Kailua Road, elevation 200 feet. This particular road climbs steadily and very straight up the side of Hualalai mountain to about 2,000 feet altitude – a distance that I am able to cover in about 15 minutes. The key is to start out fast enough to get my heart rate to the anaerobic threshold (the point just below where my body starts to produce too much lactic acid so that it cannot be absorbed anymore, which means you have to stop) and then go for 15 minutes very steady. The last 300 yards or so become really steep, at which point I go into oxygen deficit and just barely get to the end. I then turn around and slowly run back down, to do it all over again. The goal is to do this session once a week, and increase the frequency to three or maybe even for ascents. The purpose is to expand the AT (anaerobic threshold) so that I can perform for a longer period of time at peak performance.

On Monday I did weight training early in the morning, and went out on the one-man canoe in the afternoon. Afternoon runs at Mauna Lani are really fun, particularly when the wind and waves come straight towards shore. I can paddle straight into the sunset and against the waves for 45 minutes (without danger of drifting off), then turn around and surf the waves back, which doesn’t take longer than 15 minutes or so.

Tuesday morning 30 minutes on the stationary bicycle, followed by 30 minutes of weight training for the muscle groups I won’t use in the evening club practice, and then the Kai `Opua practice at night. This Tuesday, we mixed it up again and I ended up in seat one as the stroker. There were a total of 9 canoes (equaling 54 male paddlers), and we went hard for 5 minutes at the time, with 2 minutes rest in between. The purpose of this was simulation of races, with a fast start and then settling into a rhythm for 4 minutes. As we did these drills, we went from the Kailua Pier along Ali`i Drive, past all the hotels there, and then into Keauhou, where we turned west and headed straight out into the ocean, and then eventually turned again and raced back to the pier and Kamakahonu Beach. During the first few session, we didn’t do all the well during the start phase, but improved as the training went on. During the last segment back to the pier, we kept up with the fastest boat and battled it out all the way to the end. When I reviewed my heart rate on my computer at the end of the day, I saw that during the entire training, I was well below the AT, a very good sign considering the effort put forth and the fact that I was in seat one and had to set the pace, which is additional pressure. Subjectively, it did feel as if I could have gone for a whole lot longer.

Wednesday I was again on the indoor bicycle for 45 minutes, with 30 minutes at a comfortable pace and the remaining 15 minutes at 2 minutes hard and 1 minute recovery, going well past the AT and feeling the leg muscles burn. After that, some core exercises, and that concluded that days training.

Thursday morning back in the weight room, but I only worked on a few muscle groups and did quite a bit of stretching to try to get limber for the evening club session. The evening training session promised to be interesting, as coach Eddie was trying to make some final decisions on how to stack certain crews and get some much needed additional points for the club and improve the ranking within those certain races. The top three in every category get to go to the state championships, but you really want to have top seed, which means you get to paddle in the first 6 lanes; the further out you are, the slower your race will be due to currents and winds. Anyway, practice started with a tough prep talk (I think they call that “tough love”), and off we went. I was in seat 1, just like Tuesday, a seat I do not necessarily like – too much pressure. The guys behind me in my crew made fun of me (such as “what, you can deal with 700 employees, but not with 5 of us?”), which didn’t really help. After a few practice turns, we switched around a bit, and eventually I ended up in seat 5. At the end of the practice, coach Spencer took Dane, Jack, Col, Dave and I to the side and explained that from now on, we would be the 50’s crew, saying that for the first four races, we switched around a lot to see who can paddle with whom, but now it was time to create the core crew that would get us through the season. It was obviously great to know that out of 14 strong paddlers, the 6 of us (5 and Spencer steering) would be paddling for the team (and hopefully at the State Championships), but I also knew that if I wouldn’t paddle for the 50’s, I would paddle in another crew. In any case, now it was definitely exciting to go to Hilo on Saturday and see what the Puna crew would do this weekend.

I spent all day Friday on O`ahu on business, so did not train (this is called “active recuperation”), but was eagerly awaiting Saturday.

On Saturday, the trip to Hilo was uneventful, yet beautiful as always, and the weather in Hilo was very cloudy, with intermittent rains all day long. Early in the day, I was on boat holder duty: you put on fins, go as the 7^th and 8^th person on the canoe to the starting line, jump into the water and hold the canoe on the starting line until the flag goes up and the race is on. Then you hover in the water, cheer the crew on while they are turning for the second half-mile of the race, then pull yourself back into the canoe when the race is finished and go back to the beach. We knew we would have to really do something to win the race this time around – Puna is training like madmen and they really don’t like us to be ahead of them. As we went through the afternoon, the weather went from sunny, with flat water, to dark and rainy, with wind and choppy waves. As we climbed into the canoe, a rain cloud was coming over from the Hamakua Coast, but it didn’t reach us until after the race, so the water was fairly flat and promised to allow a fast time. Just a few moments before we climbed into the canoe, our steersperson and coach Spencer made a change and moved me from seat 5 to seat 2, which would require me to pull the canoe around at the turn. A bit of a mental change from my preparations for the race, but I was ready.

The flags went up, we got off the line and almost immediately were side by side with Puna, with the third boat (Keaukaha) falling behind. We continued down the lane, side by side with Puna and I believe had a slight advantage going into the turn. I hesitated for one stroke to lean outside the canoe to allow us to pivot around my paddle, as the last time on this turn, we touched the flag; I wanted to make sure we would not be disqualified and give up valuable points. We continued down the stretch and it was a drag race. I had to concentrate on my paddling, so really did not pay attention to Puna, but knew they were right next to us as I could hear their changes very clearly. I heard Spence yell something like “up, up”, meaning for us to increase our paddling turnover rate, and we pulled ourselves down to the flag. The beach was yelling, both clubs were on their feet, and when we crossed the finish line, nobody knew who had won.

Later that day, it was announced that our time was 3:40.82, with Puna over the line in 3:41.10, which meant that we had beat them by a mere 28/100^th of one second. This was by far the best race so far this season, and once again the fastest half-mile race of the weekend, not only on Hawai`i Island, but in the other associations as well. After 5 of 9 races, we are ahead of Puna by 2 points (18 to 16), so the pressure is on them again to catch up with us or else fall back further. At this point, it is almost guaranteed that both teams will go to State Championships on August 4<sup>th</sup> on O`ahu, but the team with the most points at the end of our regatta season will have first seed, which means that that team will get one of the top 6 lanes at Ke`ehi Lagoon, which typically are faster than the ones further out.

Now back to an intense week of training in anticipation of next Saturday in Hilo.

A hui hou!

Chris

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

Lancemania

While Kai `Opua as a club won the second Hawai`i Island regatta, the margin of victory over the second club (Keauhou) was not as large as the week prior. While no club ever wants to make excuses for their performance, sometimes explanations help shed some light on what is going on. In this case, quite a few paddlers had flu-like symptoms and fever and didn’t feel up to the task, but drove to Hilo anyway and paddled their race, albeit not in full strength.

As soon as I headed home after that race , I also started to feel a bit tired and worn, and it didn’t help that on Sunday night of the Memorial Day weekend, I attended the screening of the Family of the Wa`a movie at the Big Island Film Festival which lasted until midnight. I then spent most of Memorial Day at work getting organized, so by Tuesday I was in pretty rough shape, with a deep cough and hot head. I nevertheless went to practice on Tuesday night, only to get engulfed in quite a bit of drama and bad blood.

Let me explain: the Sunday edition of the West Hawai`i Today daily newspaper had a nice story about the regatta, applauding the various crews that did well in the race – all very factual and innocent. The online edition of the same article allowed for comments below the article, and someone, under an assumed name, wrote a somewhat derogatory comment about our club program. This didn’t sit well with some of our paddlers, and pretty quickly e-mails started to fly around, accusations started to surface, and people started to guess who did what, etc. By Tuesday night, tempers were flaring within Kai `Opua. For an outsider looking in, this might seem quite turbulent and chaotic, but after 12 years involved in paddling, I have learned to look past these things, not take anything that is said or done personally, and remind myself why I am paddling in the first place (for the enjoyment and balance of life). By Thursday, things had settled down and the world was once again a better place.

Exciting things were happening at The Fairmont Orchid this past weekend. For the past four years, our hotel has been the host hotel for one of the major half-ironman distance triathlons, called the Ironman 70.3 Hawai’i. The number 70.3 refers to the distance the athletes are covering during the race (1.2 mile swim; 56 mile bike ride; 13.1 mile run), which happens to be exactly half the distance that the full ironman covers. There are 70.3 races all over the world, with the top finishers in the professional and age-group fields qualifying for either the 70.3 World Championship, or if desired, the full ironman race taking place each October right here on Hawai`i Island.

The race begins with the swim portion at Hapuna Beach, a few miles north of us, followed by the bike transition in the parking lot, the riders then head south towards Mauna Lani Resort before they turn around and head north to Hawi, in the northernmost part of our island. From there, they come back and transition from the bicycle to the run on our hotel property, on the north side of the North Tower. Most of the run takes place on the golf course, before the athletes cross the finish line at Turtle Pointe at The Fairmont Orchid.

Many athletes bring their families and make a vacation out of this race (why wouldn’t they, this is paradise). By far the most prominent of them all was Lance Armstrong, 7-time Tour de France winning cyclist turned triathlete (which is what he started out as before he became the world’s most successful cyclist).

Lance is racing triathlons this year and actually won his first 70.3 a couple of weeks ago in Florida. His goal for the year is the qualification to race in the Ironman World Championship, and everyone knows that someone like Lance does not participate just for fun – winning is on the radar screen. Having Lance around property was great – he has great charisma and creates a great buzz, and everyone wanted to see if he could win this race as well (which is probably slightly more demanding than Florida, with a tough bicycle course and run on the grass of the golf course). On Friday afternoon, there was a mandatory athletes meeting, preceded by a pro-athlete panel, not only with Lance Armstrong, but also Chris Lieto (an outstanding professional triathlete making his part-time home in Kona) and Greg Bennett, an Australian Olympian in the discipline. The buzz was all around and we had to guide Lance through the back hallways of the hotel to the various destinations, always surrounded by Security, as people mob him wherever he goes.

From an athletic perspective, Armstrong is just incredible. He has recorded an aerobic capacity of 83.8 mL/kg/min (which is his body’s ability to absorb oxygen into the blood and therefore perform at a higher level for a longer period of time), more than double the average person’s (40–50). It is said that at his peak, he had a resting heart rate of 32–34 beats per minute, with a maximum heart rate of 201.

To make a long story short, Lance crushed the field and finished with a 23 minute 22 second swim, an unbelievable 2 hour 1 minute 46 second bike ride (under extremely difficult, windy conditions), and a 1 hour 22 minute 30 second run on a soft and rolling golf course. His finish time of 3 hours 50 minutes 55 seconds set a new course record.

But back to paddling. After a couple of good training sessions, Saturday’s line-up for the Men’s 50 race (“my” race) was published, and three of the original crew, including myself, were not on the roster. This was absolutely fair as we have the great luxury of having 14 very strong paddlers in the 50 year and over age group, and everyone should get the chance to paddle. If only the six strongest paddlers would race every weekend (and who decides who the strongest paddlers are, anyway?), the others would get discouraged and there wouldn’t be an incentive for them to be around all season and into the long-distance races. Anyway, I knew that I would not be racing “my” race this week, but coach Eddie had slated me into the mixed-40’s, which is a race for crews with 3 women and 3 men in the 40-49 year age group. Association rules state that it is possible to “trade down” in age group (meaning that older paddlers can race in younger categories), as was the case for me here. The crew who paddled this race last week came in 2^nd by only 1 second, so the goal was to win this week and bring home the gold.

On Saturday, I went to The Fairmont Orchid early in the morning to be around the triathlon. I went to the swim start at Hapuna, then spent some time on the bike course, and then returned to property to be around the transition from bike to run, and the finish line. As mentioned above, the caliber of racers attracted many more spectators and you could definitely feel the buzz on race day. I stayed around to watch the first few professional racers finish, under spectacularly blue skies and 40 mph wind gusts. By 11:30am, I was on the road to Hilo to support and race with Kai `Opua. As I was driving over Saddle Road, the clouds became very thick and by the time I got to Hilo Bay, it was pouring,( which it had done all morning long, judging by the huge puddles of water and the churning water in the bay). The entire afternoon became an on-again, off-again rainy event, and at some point, our entire club tent was lifted up by a huge gust of wind and blown across the beach – luckily nobody got seriously hurt, only a few minor cuts.

The races themselves were quite difficult due to the wind, rain and wavy conditions, and lucky for us, “my” fifties crew won the race against Puna once again by over 3 seconds, and the mixed masters crew I raced with came in second behind Keauhou Canoe Club, a good showing for us. As a club, we dominated the regatta and won the event with a record 258 points.

It was 6pm by the time everything was cleaned up and I was able to leave Hilo, and didn’t get back to Kona until very late in the evening. It was a great day of outstanding athletic achievement on both sides of the island. It will be interesting to see what Lance Armstrong can do on June 24^th in Nice, France, where he will race his first full-distance ironman. Here in West Hawai`i, it will be interesting to see what our coach will do for the 50’s crew for next Saturday – the regatta will be in Kona, on our home waters.

A hui hou.

Chris

 

Glamour and Heartbreak

Week 2 of regatta season, and things are already stirring. After last Saturday’s win, we all felt pretty good but also knew that one out of nine races does not make a season. Throughout the week, there was talk that the Puna crew was missing two strong paddlers last week and that they would be available to race for their club this weekend in Hilo (apparently they have an unlimited supply of paddling legends over there!).

Our crew on the other hand lost the stroker (seat 1) for a couple of weeks, so our coach tried frantically to find a new line-up. In Tuesday’s practice, Jack was put in seat one, and halfway through the session, I was put in there. Being a stroker is a high-stress job – setting the rhythm for the crew, finding that glide that makes a canoe fast, speeding up towards the turn-flag, it is indeed a lonely place up front. I didn’t do all that well in that seat, so coach settled for Jack in seat 1 and left me in 2. Behind us, there were two new paddlers who didn’t get to paddle last week, so the boat felt a bit different. In Thursday’s practice, we had some trouble while practicing turns, and the crew was a bit unsettled. Nevertheless, at the end of Thursday’s practice we felt we could have a good race once again.

This week was generally a very busy week at work, with some projects to be done, but The Fairmont Orchid was also the host hotel for the Big Island Film Festival, a fledging festival supported by the County of Hawai`i, the film office, and many other entities, as it focuses on local as well as international film makers and blends movie showings with seminars, meet-the-star gatherings, award ceremonies and great food and drinks over the Memorial Day Weekend. On Friday night, I had the pleasure of meeting two of the stars, Eloise Mumford,star of the new Dreamworks/ABC series “The River”on the right, and Jenifer Grisanti, protégé to the great television executive Aaron Spelling and well-known story consultant, on the left. Both of them, as were all the other attendees, were extremely happy and pleased to be on Hawai`i Island, and the entire festival was once again a great success (by the way, this is the glamour part of the title).

Now that we are racing on the other side of the island, in Hilo, Saturdays look quite a bit different. From Kona, one has to drive north towards the town of Waimea, then veer off right and take Saddle Road, which is a short-cut that leads in-between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa into Hilo, a round-trip of 190 miles. Saddle Road is a pretty good road, particularly on the Hilo side, but the speed limits vary between 40 miles and 55 miles per hour (and police are plentiful on the road), so each trip takes about 1 hour and 45 minutes. I wasn’t in a big rush to get there, so left Kona around 8:45am and took my time driving through the spectacular scenery in this high-elevation valley. The weather was perfect on the way over, with only a little bit of rain coming down into Hilo. Below is perfectly shaped Mauna Loa as looking East from Saddle Road.

Once in Hilo, it turned out to be an unusually nice day – fast-moving scattered clouds with lots of sun, so a beautiful day at the beach for racing.

As I only got to the club tent by 11am, the racing action was in full swing. Race after race, the canoes went out, and Kai `Opua did quite well, winning 11 out of the first 20 races. I unloaded my snacks (every week, men and women are supposed to bring either snacks or drinks for everyone to consume-this week my contribution was Gatorade and Clif Bars) and stayed around the club tent, assisting where needed and talking to various club members. As this is my first year with the club, there are still lots of people I don’t know and I try to make it a point to talk and befriend everyone, young and old, novices and experienced paddlers. What I have always enjoyed on Maui is going from club tent to club tent and talking story with all kinds of paddlers. After a while, you really get to know a large group of individuals and it is fun to go places and run into like-minded souls.

Around 3pm, our crew took one of the two koa canoes and we went out for a warm-up / course inspection paddle. The water in Hilo Bay is different, in particular around the turn-flag on the south-side of the bay. A small river flows into the bay, and depending on how fast the water moves, the canoe drifts into the flag. Just like in skiing, you have to go around the flag in order to not get disqualified. The outrigger (ama) can touch the flagpole and move it to the side, but the flag cannot touch the water. Below is a very short quotation from the 2012 Rule Book – as you can see it gets very, very technical.

All turns shall be left turns around assigned lane flags. If the flag bends over and touches the water, the crew will be disqualified. Where canoes assigned to adjoining lanes occupying the same lane during a turning maneuver, each canoe shall maneuver in such a way as to occupy as nearly as possible the one-half (½) width of the lane nearest its own line of flags so that the canoes will pass each other hull to hull.

For more in-depth studies of the race rules, you are free to go to below link: http://www.hcrapaddler.com/homeinfo/2012%20Race%20Rules.pdf,, but be warned, it may put you to sleep.

Quite a few canoes had already gotten disqualified throughout the day, so we knew that the turn would be tricky.

The time for our race came, and when we lined up on the starting line we saw that Puna indeed had stacked their team and were ready for battle. The flags went up and we went for it. Compared to last week’s race, where we had a fairly good lead going into the turn on the far end of the race course, this time we had both Puna and Keaukaha on both sides of us going into the turn about the same time. As I leaned over and outside on the left side of the canoe, putting my paddle into the water to anchor the turn, I was about a foot or so from the ama and the flag, and to my horror I see the flagpole precariously close to the inside of the ama, which meant that we would run over the flag and get disqualified. Everyone in the canoe is yelling, I lift my paddle a bit and try to rock the canoe back away from the flag, and watch how the pole slips on the outside of the ama (a good sign), but starts to tilt towards the water. We were lucky, it didn’t touch the water, and we were able to continue. Our turn was actually very fast and we came out ahead of the two canoes. As we headed back to the finish, it was a battle for one and two between us and Puna, with Keaukaha falling slightly back. We all got a bit excited, we heard the spectators scream on the beach and as we went into the last couple of changes (switching paddles from side to side), someone in our canoe yelled something which made some of us think that they had to switch sides. For a couple of seconds the canoe lost momentum, and in the end, we finished 1.26 seconds behind our nemesis (which constitutes the heartbreak part of the title). So here is how it ended:

Senior Men Masters (50)1 Puna Canoe Club 3:55.34 (Steve Blyth, Paul Malama, Michael O’Shaughnessy, Afa Tuaolo, Bubba Baldado, Brian Peterson)
2 Kai Opua Canoe Club 3:56.60
3 Keaukaha Canoe Club 4:02.11
4 Kamehameha Canoe Club 4:16.95

After two races, both Puna and Kai `Opua Senior Masters have 7 points, and while the season is long, it looks like we have a race on our hands and will have to battle every weekend for first or second.

After a long day of racing, I made it back over the Saddle Road, in the dark and with fog and rain, and arrived in Kona around 8pm. I am sure there will be plenty of discussion on Monday about our race and then we will do it again next Saturday.

A hui hou.

Chris